Top 5 - Barcode Label Mistakes
By: POSGuys - 10/27/2014

When printing your own labels avoid these common mistakes made by both new and older businesses.

1. Avoid using UPC codes when you don't have a UPC Code. While <a href = "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Product_Code" target = "blank">UPC Codes</a> are the most commonly used barcodes they are not the barcode you should be using unless you actually have the registered UPC code for that product. UPC barcodes have a very specific formatting that identifies information on the product and while just picking random numbers that pencil out to the correct number of digits will create a readable barcode the information relayed may be inaccurate and you run the chance of using a registered barcode.

2. Don't use direct thermal labels when the labels will be exposed to the sun or heat. Direct thermal labels are cheap and easy to use since they don't require any ribbon and just about every <a href = "/barcode-printer_1/">label printer</a> out there can print to them, however they are cheap and easy for a reason, they are temporary. Direct thermal labels respond to heat, even low levels of heat for a prolonged period of time (think product sitting in the window) will cause the label to either turn yellow and the font to fade, or the entire label to turn black if the heat is intense enough.

3. Don't print your labels sideways. This is common with 2" width printers, where someone wants a wider label then 2" so they buy a tall label with the intentions of printing in landscape instead of portrait. This will work fine for a big enough barcode, but because of the way that the print heads work, printing small barcodes will cause the lines to be jagged instead of crisp solid lines. The reason is the print heats up dots going across the label as the label feeds through (like water running down the stream), as it crosses a little dot heats up. When you print with the flow of the label then it's easy to stack up the dots into a solid line, however when you print against the grain it's much harder to stack up the dots into a nice line.

<a href="https://az417327.vo.msecnd.net/content/images/proper-barcode-alignment.png"><img src="https://az417327.vo.msecnd.net/content/images/proper-barcode-alignment.png" border = "0" width = "300"></a>

4. Shiny isn't always better. A nice shiny label looks great and very professional, but in a situation with a very bright light or scanning outdoors with a non-imager, the highly reflective labels may reflect the light too much making reading too difficult for the scan engine. Think of it like sun reflecting on the water and you're trying to see something sitting on the surface of the water.

5. Spell Check your label. <a href="/barcode-label-software_52/">Label Software</a> is great and has really come a long way from it's Microsoft Paint looking roots, but one thing that it still fails to do is check your spelling. One of the worst time consuming mistakes is failing to double check your work and then printing out hundreds or thousands of labels that have a spelling error or the wrong barcode on them. If you are connecting to your database to print the label then this problem can be even worse as the person putting the items into the database may be in a rush and didn't think to type out a description or name accurately. 

Those are five basic tips that we hear about all the time from customers that have printing or scanning issues. With many business related issues you get what you pay for, so while going with a cheaper solution may save money in the short term, your long term needs may really require you to spend a little more money and get a superior product. Remember efficiency is a cost, if your business is taking extra time to scan or print barcodes that's extra time that they could have been putting into serving your customers better or making your business works better.

Top 5 - Barcode Label Mistakes By: POSGuys - 10/27/2014

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Top 5 - Barcode Label Mistakes
By: POSGuys - 10/27/2014