can anyone recommend a decent reasonably-priced small label printer that works well with linux and standard text-processing tools. powered from the USB interface would be nice but not essential. multiple suppliers of consumables would also be nice but, i guess, unlikey. i want to print some labels to put on stuff. like disk identifiers to stick on the handles of my hot-swap bays. nothing fancy, just needs to do a simple job, do it well, and not cost too much per label. if anyone has any tricks for controlling them from the command line (rather than openoffice or some gui label-printing app), i'd love to hear about it. e.g. in the first instance, I want to print sticky lables based on the output of: $ /bin/ls /dev/disk/by-id/| sed -rne '/ata-(ST|WDC)/s/ata-.*_//p' | grep -v -- -part 6VP3FWAG 9VP16X03 9VP18CCV 9VP4P4LN 9VP4RPXK 9VP509T5 WD-WCASJ2114122 WD-WCASJ2195141 WD-WMAV50817803 WD-WMAV50933036 i also want to be able to print once-off labels with something as simple as 'echo text | lpr -Plabelprinter' craig -- craig sanders <cas@taz.net.au> BOFH excuse #256: You need to install an RTFM interface.
Craig Sanders <cas@taz.net.au> wrote:
if anyone has any tricks for controlling them from the command line (rather than openoffice or some gui label-printing app), i'd love to hear about it.
A Web search identified http://www.red-bean.com/labelnation/ as promising. (There's no debian package, apparently.)
On Sat, Apr 07, 2012 at 03:27:01PM +1000, Jason White wrote:
Craig Sanders <cas@taz.net.au> wrote:
if anyone has any tricks for controlling them from the command line (rather than openoffice or some gui label-printing app), i'd love to hear about it.
A Web search identified http://www.red-bean.com/labelnation/ as promising. (There's no debian package, apparently.)
thanks. it looks like it's intended for full-page (A4, US Letter, etc) sheets of labels that you feed into a laser or inkjet printer. useful if you want to print lots of labels at a time, but painful if you want to print one or two at a time (you have to tell the software to skip the first X labels on the sheet and hope it all lines up properly). i'm thinking of one of those little dymo or brother or whatever USB label-printers that print on a thermal-sensitive roll, and you cut off the label once it's printed. craig -- craig sanders <cas@taz.net.au> BOFH excuse #112: The monitor is plugged into the serial port
Quoting Craig Sanders (cas@taz.net.au):
i also want to be able to print once-off labels with something as simple as 'echo text | lpr -Plabelprinter'
Maybe with LabelNation. http://www.red-bean.com/labelnation/ Or CPAN's PostScript::MailLabel module.
On Sat, Apr 7, 2012, at 03:12 PM, Craig Sanders wrote:
can anyone recommend a decent reasonably-priced small label printer that works well with linux and standard text-processing tools.
Craig, Dymo do a range called the LabelWriter: http://global.dymo.com/enAU/Categories/LabelWriter_Printers.html with CUPS support: http://sites.dymo.com/DeveloperProgram/Pages/LW_SDK_Linux.aspx The LabelWriter 450 is available locally for around $120. I did some research a while ago with a view to buy one but haven't got around to it yet. I would be interested in knowing how it goes. Regards Graeme
On Sat, Apr 07, 2012 at 06:08:11PM +1000, Graeme Cross wrote:
Dymo do a range called the LabelWriter:
http://global.dymo.com/enAU/Categories/LabelWriter_Printers.html
yep, that's the kind of label printer i was thinking of.
I did some research a while ago with a view to buy one but haven't got around to it yet. I would be interested in knowing how it goes.
me too. i was hoping someone else had already figured out which ones worked well with linux. i guess i'll have to be the sucker. ...or not. I found this page on the ptouch driver for the Brother label printers: http://www.diku.dk/hjemmesider/ansatte/panic/P-touch/ which refers to this: http://etc.nkadesign.com/Printers/QL550LabelPrinter the Brother QL500W i $69 at officeworks and the printer-driver-ptouch is in debian. The Dymo LW 450 is $109 and doesn't seem to have a debian package for the driver. i think i'll get a QL500W. craig -- craig sanders <cas@taz.net.au> BOFH excuse #376: Budget cuts forced us to sell all the power cords for the servers.
Hello Craig, On Sat, 2012-04-07 at 15:12 +1000, Craig Sanders wrote:
can anyone recommend a decent reasonably-priced small label printer that works well with linux and standard text-processing tools.
I am doing labels for jam jars for someone else, albeit all the same on a sheet, using Postscript.
powered from the USB interface would be nice but not essential. multiple suppliers of consumables would also be nice but, i guess, unlikey.
There are "portable" inkjet printers, at a price, not forgetting the running costs.
i want to print some labels to put on stuff. like disk identifiers to stick on the handles of my hot-swap bays. nothing fancy, just needs to do a simple job, do it well, and not cost too much per label.
If you are prepared to do a full sheet of Avery or similar labels in a print run, then play with Postscript.
if anyone has any tricks for controlling them from the command line (rather than openoffice or some gui label-printing app), i'd love to hear about it.
e.g. in the first instance, I want to print sticky lables based on the output of:
$ /bin/ls /dev/disk/by-id/| sed -rne '/ata-(ST|WDC)/s/ata-.*_//p' | grep -v -- -part 6VP3FWAG 9VP16X03 9VP18CCV 9VP4P4LN 9VP4RPXK 9VP509T5 WD-WCASJ2114122 WD-WCASJ2195141 WD-WMAV50817803 WD-WMAV50933036
From what I have seen of your competence, you are more than capable of knocking up a script to put it into a Postscript template. Postscript can be a bugger first up, but competence with an RPN calculator can be a big help.
i also want to be able to print once-off labels with something as simple as 'echo text | lpr -Plabelprinter'
I have seen those "little" label printers, but not necessarily cheap.
craig
Regards, Mark Trickett
On Sat, Apr 07, 2012 at 06:48:59PM +1000, Mark Trickett wrote:
i want to print some labels to put on stuff. like disk identifiers to stick on the handles of my hot-swap bays. nothing fancy, just needs to do a simple job, do it well, and not cost too much per label.
If you are prepared to do a full sheet of Avery or similar labels in a print run, then play with Postscript.
i did that a few times many years ago (first time on a Mac SE30 and an original LaserWriter back in about 1986 IIRC). it wasn't pleasant to print only partial sheets back then, and i doubt the experience has improved much since. those full page label sheets are really meant for mailing-list runs and bulk-printing jam jar labels and the like. not as a substitute for a hand-held dymo labeler or similar.
From what I have seen of your competence, you are more than capable of knocking up a script to put it into a Postscript template. Postscript can be a bugger first up, but competence with an RPN calculator can be a big help.
maybe so, maybe not. the fact is, though, that i don't *want* to mess about with hand-coding postscript. i already have enough yaks that need shaving. i want to print some simple text on a little label with minimal fuss and hassle.
i also want to be able to print once-off labels with something as simple as 'echo text | lpr -Plabelprinter'
I have seen those "little" label printers, but not necessarily cheap.
they seem to cost between $70-$150 for basic models. cheap enough for me. and if a label on a drive's hot-swap handle stops me from yanking the wrong drive even once, worth every cent. craig -- craig sanders <cas@taz.net.au> BOFH excuse #147: Party-bug in the Aloha protocol.
Mark Trickett <marktrickett@bigpond.com> wrote:
I am doing labels for jam jars for someone else, albeit all the same on a sheet, using Postscript.
This raises an interesting question. What text-based input format would you recommend for one-off designs such as business cards? In my case, there's the added constraint that I can't see the output, but I can write the input in a text editor and read it with a braille display. I suppose it's either TeX/LaTeX/ConTeXt, or one of the vector graphics formats. How are the Postscript templates for labels typically created? Do people generally use graphics editors or is it possible to imagine the desired layout and fonts, then either write the Postscript oneself or write in a graphics language which is converted to Postscript? I've always thought of Postscript as a format that's written by software only, but it is plain text and in theory could be written by hand, though I don't know how hard it would be in practice. As a completely separate topic, I'm also looking again at LaTeX resume/CV classes - I've used ModernCV in the past, but I am now leaning toward a style that's more flexible and which uses more of the standard LaTeX macros and environments. I still haven't made a decision, so if anyone has an opinion to offer... Incidentally, Debian Sid was recently upgraded to TeX Live 2011, which fixes a few bugs that affected me and updates lots of TeX-related tools and packages.
participants (5)
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Craig Sanders -
Graeme Cross -
Jason White -
Mark Trickett -
Rick Moen