Zebra TLP-2844-Z Thermal Transfer Printer - Desktop Wonder

Several months ago I was assigned a project by my boss and this project involved new product labels for a couple of our production departments. For many years we have been using impact printers to print our shipping labels and that meant we had to order all of our shipping labels with the company information preprinted on each label.

The goal of my project was to find a way to eliminate the preprinted labels and save the company some money. What I needed to do was first was to decide on what type of printer I could use to print the labels and decide on which model would work with our IBM AS400 programs. The fact that all of our production software is running on our IBM AS400 the printer has to be able to work with our label writing software. This limited my choices of what models I could chose from.

We already three large production label printers ( model 140xII and 140xiIII) from Zebra Technologies and the software maker recommended Zebra printers. That pretty much made my mind up on which brand I would chose. So I needed to figure out which model would suit my project. Because of the locations of these printer I wasn't going to be able use large production label printers. That left me with the desktop models to chose from. I decided on the Zebra TLP-2844-Z.

Thermal label printers are special application printers that are designed to print shipping and product labels. They use a printing technology that is specifically designed to the printing of labels. The technology is actually split into two subcategories, thermal transfer and direct transfer. I will get more into those two items later in the review. I want to get to the specifics of the printer I am reviewing. I am going to be talking about a printer that is made by one of the top manufacturers of thermal label printers. Zebra has been making this type of printers for over 20 years and they are used by many of the Fortune 500 companies for their product and shipping labels.

The Zebra TLP-2844-Z Thermal Bar Code Printer is part of Zebra's Desktop class of printers. The TLP-2844-Z is a very ruggedly built printer and it is fully enclosed and it will withstand harsh warehouse environments.

The Zebra TLP-2844-Z

The TLP-2844-Z is a small desktop size printer and it doesn't take up a whole lot of space. Because of its compact design it will fit in small spaces that the large production class label printers from Zebra won't fit. Even though it is made of plastic it will stand up to the hostile environment of a commercial warehouse. The printing mechanism is completely enclosed within the cover and it has a smoked gray colored window so you can check on the amount of labels that are still left. Because it is made almost entirely of plastic the printer doesn't weigh very much. The Zebra TLP-2844-Z Thermal Label printer is small as I explained earlier and the dimensions of the printer are 7.9"/198mm W x 9.4"/238mm D x 6.8"/173mm H and it weighs a mere 3.7lbs/1.7kg.

Speed and Print Quality

Speed in a thermal label printer is measured in how many inches per second that is printed. Since its speed is measured in inches per second, the actual number of labels that it prints per second depends on size of the label being printed. The maximum print speed is 4"/102mm per second.

The print quality of the TLP-2844-Z is decent, but not great. Because of the printhead that is included in the printer is only capable of 201 dots per inch you will not have high quality character or barcode print as you would with the more expensive models. Since we didn't need a high quality print this printer worked perfect for my usage. The shipping labels we use have simple logos that turned out really nice even with a 201 dpi printhead.

Printing Technology

Thermal label printers use heat to transfer or create the image on a media or label stock. You can chose which of the two different types of printing processes. The process you chose will determine which model of the Zebra 2844 series printer you will need to buy.

Thermal Transfer or Direct Thermal

Thermal transfer: uses the heat from the print head to transfer the ink from the ribbon onto the label material. This is the most preferred method of label printing. With the wide variety of label materials and environmental factors involved you want to be able to control the image. The TLP-2844 and TLP-2844-Z are examples of printers that use this process.

Direct Thermal: uses heat that reacts with the specially treated label material to create the image on the paper. With this type of printing you don't use a ribbon to create the image. More than likely you have seen this type of direct thermal printer in your local Walmart or Burger King. Some of the small receipt printers use direct thermal technology to print. The LP-2844 and LP-2844-Z are examples of printers that use this process.

Media and Ribbons

The Zebra TLP-2844-Z uses a rolled media and a film ribbon. The labels are wrapped onto a 1" core and film ribbon is wrapped onto a smaller diameter core. The printer is shipped with an empty core for the ribbon take up spool and you must retain the empty spool after you use up each of the new rolls of ribbons use for the next roll of ribbon. You are limited on how wide of label stock you can use with this printer. That is because the TLP-2844-Z has a maximum label width of 4.09" (104mm). Zebra manufactures label stock design especially for this printer in preset sizes and if you require a special size label or a special label made out of different material they will accommodate you. Another reason why Zebra designs label stock that is specially made for this printer is because it uses the 1" core which is smaller than the full size production line of thermal label printers.

Zebra also has specially made ribbons for this line of label printers. The ribbons that this printer uses are a clear film with either a wax or resin material attached to it. The ribbons are sized to closely match the label widths and that is to avoid damage to print head. The type of ribbon you will use will depend label material you are using. If you are using plain white labels you would go with the wax ribbon and if you are using a coated label you would want to use a resin ribbon. This film ribbon can be a single color and they do come a range of colors to fit your needs.

I am not an expert on the label stock and that is why I rely on our vendor to make the recommendation of what type of stock to use for a certain application and I would recommend you do the same.

Setup and Operation

The setup was really easy since I didn't have to load any drivers for the printer. This is because for this installation I was installing it on an IBM dumb terminal. It uses a parallel cable to attach to back of the terminal. We are able to do this because of a special printer language that Zebra has built in to the firmware of the printer. This is proprietary language called ZPL and it is used in conjunction with software that is loaded on our IBM AS400. This software package is made by a company called TL Ashford and it interprets the ZPL language and the printer is able to work. If you are running a similar system like we are you want to make sure you purchase the TLP-2844-Z model; the Z denotes the ZPL compatible printer. Once I got the printer setup it was time to load the labels and ribbons. Loading the roll of labels is pretty easy, but the ribbon is another story and fortunately Zebra put a little sticker on the inside of the top cover and it shows how to load the ribbon.

After loading the ribbon and labels I had to adjust the print to fit the label and this is done by using a special utility that is built into the printers firmware (internal software program). You activate this utility by turning the printer off and holding in the only button on the front of the printer; the button has a LED that changes between red and green to indicate different conditions. This LED will blink a certain number of times to indicate which of the utilities you need. When you reach the desire number of blinks the labels will start to dispense and a box will be printed at a preset size and they will continue to get larger as they are dispensed. When you reach your desired label size you simply release the button and it will retain that print size until you need to change it again.

If you are connecting this printer to a PC you can use the CD that is included with the printer to load the Windows drivers. As you noticed I said Windows drivers and that means it will not work with non Windows OS. Zebra also included a nice little software program call Bar-One label formatting and with this program you can design and store your labels for all your different uses.

Uses for this printer

When I first started working on this project I was looking for a label printer that was going to be sturdy enough to handle a warehouse and production environment. What I ended up with an extremely versatile and durable little desktop printer. What I mean by that is I can use this printer for a wide range of different uses within our plant. I started out looking for a printer to print custom design 4"x3" shipping labels directly from our existing software program. After completing the initial setup I started receiving calls from other Unit Leaders in different parts of the plant wanting their own labels printed.

This is where the versatility of this little desktop label printer really showed its true colors. In the next area I was presented with a need for a 1.5"x1.0" plain white product label. Fortunately the Zebra TLP-2844-Z has an adjustable media dispenser and it will adjust to label sizes 1.0" to 4.09." Zebra also sells ribbons that are sized to fit the smaller labels so you don't have to pay for ribbon that you wont be using with the smaller size labels. After you have loaded the media into the dispenser you adjust the printer so it knows what width of label you are printing on.

The biggest benefit of switching to these barcode printers became apparent as soon as the user printed her first label; she was waiting for the noise she was used to with her old Lexmark 2390 dot matrix printer. Instead she got a barely audible sound coming from the little desktop printer. That quiet sound was the wax being transferred from the ribbon film and stuck to the plain white label.

So I now saw three definite benefits in choosing this label printer:

1) Compact size
2) Very quiet operation
3) Adjustable media options

My final thoughts

I have been servicing label printer for many years and most of them have been made by Zebra. I feel they make wonderful printers and their technical support has always been very helpful when I had problems. But when I was looking for a smaller desktop size label printer I wasn't sure if it would hold up to volume of our busiest department; product packing/shipping. I was pleasantly surprised that they turned out to be a perfect fit and because they are so easy to operate I didn't have to worry about doing much training for the operators.

I really like the fact that I can use this printer in a wide range of applications and that is because I can adjust the size of labels that it will print just by a simple turn of a wheel and a push of a button. The media (label stock) and ribbons can be purchased directly from Zebra or you can find companies that custom design labels and ribbons for your every need.

Even though the Zebra TLP-2844-Z is a bit expensive for home label printer, it would be a great choice for a small business that has a need to print multiple labels of varying designs. In case you think this printer will only print on plain white label you would wrong, you can have labels preprinted with fancy designs and then use the label printer to print your company or product information where you want it.