Gator08041971 • Volunteer Community Mentor 2024
That QR code is part of the shipping label. While it may seem to not be required, it should be there. This can be used in case the label is damaged and/or the main barcode is unreadable.
I normally include this with every label, as mine are printed with a thermal label printer with adhesive 4x6 labels.
But even when I used to manually print them and cut the label out, I still left that on the label. Its not like its using that much ink. In my case, its not using any ink, but before I bought the thermal label printer, I was using laser print anyway. I don't use ink jet printers anymore, they are wasteful.
@vw.nos wrote:There is a little QR code at the bottom of the label. I always cut it off when I tape the label to my package. It is using extra ink to print it and it never leaves the door. How can I stop it from printing on the package and wasting ink? It's obviously not needed by anyone as I have been removing it before I ship.
WOW !
Talk about being picky. And by the way, if you waste your time to cut it off how does that save ink?
And, by the way, it IS needed by the post office.
BUT if you are really concerned about saving ink then let’s get rid of everything that is REALLY unnecessary.
Not to change the topic to a discussion about printer economy, but here's my take after dealing with various printers for the past 30 years:
I have used about every brand/style of inkjet printer, from HP, to Epson, to Brother, to Canon, even Dell.
One thing they have in common? Expense. Cheap to buy, cheap to replace, but easy to murder. I don't care if you have large tanks, small tanks, all in one cartridges, it doesn't matter. You run into clogging issues, aftermarket cartridges that don't work, or printers that simply stop printing the minute the cartridge reads its too low, even when it might not be.
This is why I no longer use inkjet printers at all. I have been on color laserjet printers now for a few years and let me say, that while their higher initial purchase cost and higher cartridge cost seem daunting, their reliability and cartridge life/use is far superior to any inkjet I have ever owned.
Case in point:
I have had two printers given to me, because their owners wanted to swap to inkjet because the cartridge replacement was too expensive.
Well both of those printers with cartridges that said were empty continued printing perfectly fine for over a year! My main one finally did start streaking the black, so I replaced just that cartridge. The colors have been empty now for nearly 2 years, but it still prints color perfectly fine.
The thing about inkjet printers, they will stop once the cartridge says its empty. Lasers can continue to print, even empty, because the estimate is so bad on their usage. (that is how printer makers make money, by convincing you need to replace the cartridge as soon as its low)
So if you operate your laser printer on the basis that you can print till you actually start to see defects in the quality, you will seriously extend the page yield and value of your cartridge expense to where using an inkjet is just plain ridiculous in comparison.
Not only that you avoid:
Cartridges going bad from non-use
Heads going bad from plugging up from liquid ink going through them over time
Mess inside of the printer
Laser cartridges use a dry power, applied with static and imaging and fused with heat. They cannot bleed or get ruined if the paper gets wet either.
So many advantages. But as with any printer, I highly recommend using only OEM laser cartridges or reputable aftermarket ones. I have seen bad aftermarket cartridges ruin printers, both ink and laser, so keep that in mind.
But if you want the best results, and get the best value per page printed for color printing, laser is the way to go.
Thermal printing is a different animal, but obvious gain there is no ink to be used at all. Which is why its great for shipping labels. I switched to that, as the printer only cost me about 50 bucks and a roll of 100 labels was 23. So yeah. Worth it.
