Zebra is one of the leading manufacturers of ID card printing solutions that can meet the needs of any environment from low volume, print only to high security, high volume applications. Their printers offer options for color or monochromatic, single or dual-sided printing, and even lamination options for the highest quality cards possible. Zebra’s printers also offer a full range of encoding features for magnetic stripe, smartcard, MIFARE, and RFID to ensure your cards are secure and reliable to meet the most demanding access control and government requirements.

With so many capabilities and options available, it can be a challenge to find which Zebra ID card printer is the best fit for your specific needs. The feature chart below quickly and easily breaks down each of the four main models currently available from Zebra by their key attributes. For further assistance selecting the right ID card printer, contact us at Barcodes, Inc.

Model	ZXP Series 8	ZXP Series 7	ZXP Series 3	ZXP Series 1
Print Method	Retransfer card printer	Direct-to-card printer	Direct-to-card printer	Direct-to-card printer
Print Sides	Single or dual-sided color and mono-to-retransfer film	Single or dual-sided color and monochrome	Single or dual-sided color and monochrome	Single or dual-sided color and monochrome
Print Speed	Single-sided: Color: 190 CPHDouble-sided: Color: 180 CPH	Single-sided: Color: 300 CPH Mono: 1,375 CPHDouble-sided: Color: 225 CPH	Single-sided: Color: 195 CPH Mono: 700 CPHDouble-sided: Color: 140 CPH	Single-sided: Color: 130 CPH Mono: 545 CPH
Images per Ribbon	Color (YMCKO): 625 Mono (Black): 2,500	Color (YMCKO): 750 Mono (Black): 5,000	Color (YMCKO): 280 Mono (Black): 2,000	Color (YMCKO): 100 Mono (Black): 1,000
Security	High security	High security	Locking features	None
Interfaces	Standard: USB, Ethernet Optional: Wi-Fi (802.11)	Standard: USB, Ethernet Optional: W-Fi (802.11)	Standard: USB Optional: Ethernet	Standard: USB Optional: Ethernet
Edge-to-Edge Printing	Over-the-edge	Yes	Yes	Yes
UHF Gen 2 RFID	N/A	Yes	N/A	N/A
Magnetic Stripe	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Smart-card Contact	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A
MIFARE Contactless	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A
Smart-card Contact Station	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A
Card Thicknesses	30-40 mil, 30 mil laminated	10-50 mil, 30 mil laminated	10-40 mil	10-40 mil
Input Feeder Capacity	150 cards	200 cards	100 cards	100 cards
Output Hopper Capacity	100 cards	100 cards	Integrated Hopper: 45 Cards External Hopper: 50 cards	Integrated Hopper: 45 Cards
Laminator	Yes	Yes	N/A	N/A

From the self-checkout lane at the grocery store to being able to order anything from the convenience of your smartphone, more and more customers embrace and even expect kiosk-based self-service options in retail environments. The added speed and convenience kiosks provide is beneficial to customers and businesses alike while strengthening customer relationships and improving customer satisfaction.

While the grocery store self-checkout is the most visible kiosk solution today, kiosks are just as beneficial to other retail applications such as couponing, gift registry, and product/stock inquires. Beyond retail, kiosks have become commonplace in hospitality spheres for self-serve concierges, hotel check-in/check-out, loyalty programs, and event management/scheduling. Regardless of the environment, kiosk solutions are an efficient means to improve the customer experience while reducing the cost of operations.

Continue reading »

Now is the perfect time to put your aging printer to even better use by trading it in for up to a $500 rebate on a new Zebra printer.

It’s a common misunderstanding that holding on to equipment for as long as possible is the best means to a positive return on investment. While this has some truth to it in many cases, aging equipment can often become a hindrance with hidden costs and time spent on the equipment. With a well timed hardware refresh you gain the advantages of new features and added efficiency. Especially in the case of thermal barcode printer technology, current models are engineered to:

• Gain visibility across the enterprise
• Expand business intelligence
• Increase staff productivity
• Reduce downtime
• Lower maintenance costs

The GO Zebra Trade-In rebate will be available for all eligible printer purchases until the end of this year. For more details on the rebate feel free to contact one of our printer specialists at Barcodes Inc. or the GO Zebra page.

Finding a rugged tablet that best fits your application and environmental needs is key to ensuring you get the best performance and long term value from your investment.  Given the wide range of features and options available for each model, getting a clear overview of what each tablet can do is challenging when looking at individual specification sheets.

This convenient chart breaks down the main features of some of the most common rugged tablets. No matter the environment or harsh conditions you need to handle, there’s a tablet to meet whatever your requirements are. For additional assistance finding the right tablet, contact one of our mobility specialists at Barcodes Inc.

Click here to see the Comparison Chart
Continue reading »

With the introduction of tablets there has been a very common trend to utilize them for Point-of-Sale systems. Compared to the traditional PC based systems, a tablet centered system did help bring down costs while saving counter space. For many small and new businesses this trend was the ideal solution.

Tablets and subscription based POS software helped keep costs down but the new challenge that had to be faced was integrating additional hardware like receipt printers, credit card readers, and cash drawers. Depending on what tablet and software you are using the options for  supported additional hardware is quite limited. This is where  the new Elo PayPoint system provides the same feel, functionality, and cost of a tablet based system with complete hardware integration.

Continue reading »

Finding the right tablet for your point of sale application is key to ensuring you get the best performance and value from your investment.  With a host of options available for each model, getting a clear overview of what each tablet can do is challenging when looking at individual specification sheets.

This convenient chart breaks down the main features of some of the most common POS tablets. From point of sale transactions to on-site applications there’s a tablet to meet whatever your requirements are. For additional assistance finding the right tablet, contact one of our mobility specialists at Barcodes Inc.

Manufacturers and mobile workers are the unsung heroes of invention and innovation. Their creativity builds stronger economies in their organizations, communities and around the world, and their services keep everything moving forward. But the landscape is intricate, and it’s a constant battle to maintain profit margins, revenues and quality of service. With the vast opportunities for waste throughout global manufacturing supply chains, it’s not surprising that enterprises are focusing on cost reduction and ways to improve efficiency and accuracy across their organizations.

With the increase of devices linked to manufacturing and mobility processes comes the increase in data available. However, much of this information is disjointed across the enterprise, making it difficult to obtain a realtime view of assets, people and transactions. When this decentralized scenario is replicated across the enterprise, with countless devices running disparately, inefficiencies continue to mount. This leaves enterprise workers incapable of harnessing value from their data.

Continue reading »

As time marches on, many of the influences on our businesses change as well. This change alone is a great reason to frequently review your operations and make sure you are employing the very best practices in every facet of your business operations. In a recent research study conducted by Vanson Bourne trucking professionals reported that only 61% of their companies had conducted any type of process re-engineering effort in the previous 12 months. That leaves 39% of transportation operations as a whole (33% of private fleets and 53% of for-hire operations) that have not made a focused effort to innovate and improve their operational processes.

When you contrast that static approach to business against constantly evolving regulatory requirements, you have an obvious disconnect. For example, let’s take a topic like commercial vehicle inspections. All commercial fleets perform them since they are required by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) initiative1 . Yet, how many companies execute these inspections and reports in a manner that not only improves the fleet’s Vehicle Maintenance BASIC score, but also improves the efficiency of the operation, positively impacting everything from driver performance to customer satisfaction?

Continue reading »

With the widespread use of consumer grade smartphones and tablets, many business have been looking to these types of devices for a variety of applications. While consumer grade devices may be viable solutions in limited environments like Point of Sale, most enterprise applications will find that for the same costs a dedicated ruggedized mobile device will greatly reduce the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and improve your ROI.

For more in depth comparison of consumer based devices vs dedicated mobile devices see this previous post as well – How Durable Handheld Computers are Better Suited to the Mobile Workplace than Consumer-grade Smartphones

There is no doubt that the advent of the WLAN controller was one of the greatest advancements ever for wireless networks. But the next best thing is being able to have that functionality without paying for the hardware or licensing!

Wait. What? You can still have zero-touch deployment, central management, and analytics of a wireless network without any additional costs other than the APs? For small networks, YES!

Enter the Virtual Controller! Aruba Networks and Motorola/Symbol Technologies have made this possible for deployments of 25 or less access points. Simply assign one of your Aruba Instant or Symbol/Motorola WiNG5 Access Points as a Virtual Controller and it will automatically adopt new APs as you add them to your network. and configure them for you! While there are some advanced features missing compared to a full controller solution, the bulk of the features are still there to help manage and troubleshoot your network!

Continue reading »