Low Printer Ink and Mailing Label Bar Codes

[tamaralea]

My printer has been telling me "low ink" for two months.  I just keep printing and labels look fine.  Today, the USPS employee told me a package wouldn't scan.  Even thought the label looked fine, the bar code ink was lacking.  She had to enter it manually and told me it would not get another scan again because no one else would do it manually.  Just a word of warning to other sellers who are printing on "low ink".  

[ekmadonna]

Technically it should be hand input at every stop but most likely not going to happen. The final delivery scan will be input manually for sure!

[thehonorabletrader]

Operating your printer with Low Ink or Toner is the same as driving a car with the fuel light on. It will work for a while, but at some point, without warning, it's just going to stop working wherever it is and you'll have to be able to reach to and handle the repercussions.

[a_c_green]

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@tamaralea wrote:

My printer has been telling me "low ink" for two months.  I just keep printing and labels look fine.  Today, the USPS employee told me a package wouldn't scan.  Even thought the label looked fine, the bar code ink was lacking.    

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Is it an HP printer? Those things will run on fumes.

As noted, the carrier will probably key in the number manually, because they have to account for every package that goes out for delivery on their route, and they have no easy way of knowing whether the earlier scans were missed.

One other thought: while the bar code may look "fine" in terms of overall darkness or contrast, the real problem may be that it's blurring the individual lines (especially the thinnest ones) and painting them without sharp edges, which would be unreadable as a result. A new cartridge should be able to put down a crisp resolution of barcode striping, not simply a dark one.

[walwalwill]

I know this is an older thread, but it's not that old & it'd be ridiculous for me to start a new topic to reply to it.

This happened to me once with a QR code I printed for something. (Actually, it was pretty much exactly what @a_c_green said, with the wavy lines that I failed to notice.)

Ever since, if I'm not confident, I take a second to scan whatever code I've printed with a free barcode/QR code reader app that I got on my phone, just to make sure it registers.

[lja440]

With some printers if you run low on black you can switch to color print and it will come out blue. MY daughter said that you can copy the label into word and select a color to print it but I haven't tried that. Just don't select red, the scanners won't scan red.

[Anonymous]

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@lja440 wrote:

With some printers if you run low on black you can switch to color - 

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I do this with my inkjet because I always run out of black first and seldom use the color cartridge. For my Canon printer, I go to manage printer properties then maintenance then cartridges, then I select use color cartridge only. It will then make black by mixing the colors.
I solved this problem a while back by going to a cheap black only laser printer ($70) that can print 3,000+ labels from a single toner cartridge vs 500 from an inkjet cartridge set. The cost is about the same.

[Anonymous]

I haven't worked on inkjet printers in years because of how cheap they are but when I did I can say a fair amount of your ink ends up in the waste reservoir from the constant cleaning and purging process.
Purging is a necessary evil in an inkjet because of the tiny orifices but I think the manufactures are overdoing it because they make all their profit on replacement ink cartridges.

[mvls1]

You should check out an Epson ecotank printer. No more ink cartridges. We have been printing anything and everything we want for over two years and are still printing on the original ink that comes with the printer. We still have a second set of color ink bottles never opened and 3/4 of a black ink bottle left. 

We have gone through two cases (10,000 sheets) of paper and could not be more satisfied. We have four selling accounts so it gets a lot of use. Best move we could have made.