The Best Thermal Printer Settings For Zebra on Windows 10 | Barcode Stops In the Middle Troubleshoot

Ebay shipping labels pixelated? Etsy 4x6 postage looking light? Maybe printing your Poshmark labels are just looking low quality. Hopefully this will help.
4x6 Sample Label Download - fulfilledmerchant.com/need-a-...
Missing the power supply? -amzn.to/314IIJ1
In this video we go over the best thermal printer settings for the zebra printers, DITHERING is what needs to be turned off to get rid of that nasty pixelation and you can also mess with darkness and speed to make it really crisp 👌If you are having the stopping at barcode problem try this-
1) check amps/volts on power supply and match it printer. It should be at least as much.
2) turn down darkness
3) turn down speed
4) are you trying to print a screenshot? These printers are made for PDFs not screenshots (PNGs). You may need to crop the PDF rather than cutting. PNGs can overload the printhead causing it to stop when it hits the barcode
Best Zebra Driver for windows - www.seagullscientific.com/sup...
You can get free 4x6 Rolls of Labels from UPS.com or Fedex.com with a qualifying account (some people get it, some dont and we haven't really figured out why yet)
Cheapest Labels Otherwise - amzn.to/2BDGB4T
Thanks for watching =)

[@dorisp9127]

Thank you. My labels were very light. I used in NONE in dithering, and darkness the highest which is 15. This helped me a lot.

[@christiewright8218]

Thank you for all of the tips and explanations. I really appreciated this video as I was able to get a screaming deal on a ZP505 and needed help with the final set up. Also, thanks for the nice and subtle background music. It's so refreshing to have soothing music as opposed to annoying be-bop or worse music in a video. Kudos.

[@justinmertz6408]

Hey I got the same one! It's still showing grainy a bit after I applied both settings. Did you do anything additional? Thanks.

[@ElectronicsMonkeyRepair]

Thanks I’ve been sending packages with super light prints for a while. Cleaned it, checked settings, researched fixes. The power supply was a 15 volt and it needed a 20 volt power supply. It’s printing like it’s brand new. Thanks again for the video.

[@Antonio-wn4ci]

Thanks Eric, That was very helpful, the dithering setting on my printer was on halftone. It prints bright and clear now, thanks again.

[@thecollegepicker]

You Are welcome 🙂

[@merybandes4771]

Thank you for your clear explanation. I was going crazy trying to fix the all of a sudden light printing for my labels. I don't know if I did something to change it without me noticing when it first started but that's in the past now. Much appreciated!

[@LoveMyRottweiler1]

Great video...fix my bar code pixelated by using your advice, changed the setting from: "Halftone" to "None", while it did scan okay in the past it looks much better now...thanks. Printer used Zebra 450.

[@brianquinn4063]

Brilliant! Thank you! I have a Zebra ZD421. Changing the dithering setting from Photo to Clipart made the barcode print correctly and I could see all of the lines. With the default (Photo) setting, the barcode sections would print with black blocks instead of the individual distinct lines. Again, Thanks for saving me a bunch of time with this.

[@greatpix]

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! This problem with partial printing caused me nothing but problems and wasted an entire roll of 250 labels trying to fix. I ended up buying a different printer which worked perfectly. Then today I tried one last time to fix this before selling on Ebay for parts. Now I can sell it as Used and make a bit more.

[@thecollegepicker]

You are welcome.

[@Sometimes2242]

Changing the dithering to none and lowering print speed helped my "new" zebra lp2844-z noticeably. Cheers!

[@ms.sharpe8820]

Omg thanks bro! I was thinking I had to clean the print head which didn’t work. Didn’t know this was a setting fix. Thanks so much!!!!

[@mattwood8659]

Yay convenient this video comes through my feed. I finally got myself a label printer. I got a zebra second hand off ebay and it was having exactly this problem. I was considering getting a replacement head for it but I'll give this a go first

[@thecollegepicker]

Wow that's awesome. Yeah it's usually settings 🙃 almost always settings.

[@PYRCEbyJC]

Oh, thank you!! You are an answered prayer! Wishing blessings upon you! Take care!

[@thecollegepicker]

You are very welcome. ☺️ Happy to help 🙏

[@EpicTreasurePostcards]

Hi Eric. I just bought a refurbished Zebra 2844 and had to go into the "print using system dialogue" and on that panel I had to adjust my print border area to 0.00 all the way around and also adjust my darkness level. Initially it defaulted to "7" (which was too light) so I bumped it up to 15. I actually did this in the software and not on Windows. Also, the printer came with 1,000 4x6 labels. Are there other better brands of labels or are Thermal labels pretty much all the same? Thanks for the video.

[@jodoodles295]

Thanks so much for all your videos about label printers. This one really saved me a lot of headaches. Finally able to print after making the adjustments from your video.

[@thecollegepicker]

You are very welcome ☺️

[@jodoodles295]

@@thecollegepicker Is there a way to adjust the alignment? Mine prints close to the right edge of the label

[@thecollegepicker]

@@jodoodles295 try physically moving the labels over slightly or lining it up a little differently

[@jodoodles295]

@@thecollegepicker Thank you, I'll give that a go.

[@Sulfen]

This video will be very helpful I’m getting my first zebra printer next week.

[@luketinkley4806]

Thanks for these great videos, it's helped me a lot.

[@ElectronicsUSA]

It's a great video with good info, but I had less success getting my 18 year old UPS Thermal Printer 2844 to print solid lines without pixelation effects. It was frustrating, as I experimented a lot!! But.... I found a solution that worked. I opened a Paypal USPS shipping label PDF in LibreOffice. It produced nice solid lines, and no pixelation effect. So you might make a video explaining that a different software program could help solve the problem as well. I also found printing from Chrome or Edge looked better than Firefox. But nothing could compare to LibreOffice in quality. It was quite surprising. Thanks and good luck with your channel.

[@IKEEPMYFREEDOM]

Fixed it thanks man! Thanks a million.

[@WhatToSellOnAmazon]

Thanks for your help. Can't seem to calibrate my Zebra 450 ctp. No matter what I do, the alignment is off and the labels drift downwards so after two labels I have to open it up and realign it in order for the print to stay on the label. Any tips? Thanks again.

[@yardsalesteals3003]

agree on the print speed! I had the print head overheat and I needed to reduce the speed. that was the fix. great video!

[@thecollegepicker]

Thanks, good troubleshooting 💪

[@yardsalesteals3003]

@@thecollegepicker lol. Google is my friend!!! I was determined to fix vs replace. ;o)

[@worldclasspawn]

Fantastic video with loads of information. Thank you!

[@thecollegepicker]

You are welcome 🤗

[@Whichofthefavors]

The top of my label still comes out pixelated and faded. It doesn't print as a full 4x6 label either even though the relevant settings are on the 4x6 size. Any advice?

[@applejuice-4706]

Thanks for the video! Good to know about the darkness.. I have mine cranked up to 30 on my Zebra and I have no problems however I don't want to wear it out faster than normal so I am going to tone it down..

[@thecollegepicker]

You are welcome. Thanks for checking out the video 😊

[@laquisharobinson9664]

This video just saved me so much stress! Thank you

[@thecollegepicker]

You are welcome

[@crisjones4302]

Oh my goodness! You have just saved me. Thank you!

[@diaryofasysadmin]

Thank you. You helped me today.

[@gangametal_]

thanks, Man my brother Doesn't know how to set the darkness of the Printer and he thought its a printer issue then and he Watched Many videos But I did it in one time just bcz you tell the proper method , thanks again

[@thecollegepicker]

You are welcome. Happy to help ☺️

[@xxsecretdreamerzxx]

So printing screenshot will make it lighter? I just helped my brother print 4 labels. The labels came in an email with 2 pages so I screenshot just the label. But when I tried to print from my laptop it didn't work so I did it on my phone and it mostly work just light.

[@brendalteixeira2139]

Your Video is a live saving

[@Carrie-Mercado]

Thank you so much! I definitely appreciate this help:)

[@thecollegepicker]

You are welcome, glad it helped =)

[@77327gutierrez]

printer is printing 2x3 landscape labels, how do i switch it to 4x6 portrait ?

[@laguiadelbarbero]

Great video thanks!

[@Ziffel22]

Thank you, Sir. This video solved my problem.

[@shomehow8258]

I have no graphics tab? Is there another way to get to these settings?

[@maddieleleu8369]

how do you change the print quality settings on a Apple Mac?

[@michaele2629]

Thank you, Bro! that was so helpful! God Bless~

[@thecollegepicker]

You are welcome ☺️

[@gauravbedi]

Hi sir, we just got a new Zebra ZD220d thermal printer, we installed the driver and the ZSU everything seems to be good, its calibrated too, but its not printing anything. Even when we print the test page, its all blank. We tried a test barcode too, but nothing, just one empty sticker comes out all the time. If you have a solution to this problem, it'd be great. Looking forward for some help. Thank you

[@acc2golden574]

thank u so much bro .. i want to know how to make the tag bigger without crashing ?

[@WELDERMADEHEADBANDS]

I just picked up an LP 2844 ,was wondering if you might have this information but for Mac? Thanks Buddy great videos

[@AnijahRoseT]

I do not have a "graphics tab" is there something wrong? I have a POS-9200

[@worldeconomy12]

Do you have the same video for macbook users?

[@Mrijoy90]

Please help me.. i cant make a center when i print the qr code.. all setting i have done do it but still same..

[@PECKATOP]

What if the power button on ZD421 does not turn on the printer (have to detach and reattach power cable to turn on the printer) but works flawlessly for turning printer off

[@lilspicy1]

Anyway to fix the darkness via android Bluetooth for the beeprt thermal printer?

[@TheToolandDieGuy]

Perfect. Thanks for getting right to the point as in not telling me to buy a computer, buy a printer, plug the power cord in, etc. My problem was the speed was set too high. Labels are just a little off-center left-to-right. Ideas?

[@shittychannel4860]

There is alignment settings, this may help :) www.zebra.com/us/en/support-downloads/knowledge-articles/adjusting-left-position-and-top-position-on-zebra-barcode-printers.html

[@RockinDaBoombox]

Unfortunately that link doesn’t help the 2844 series. I just push the label to the left a bit before printing.

[@adamc976]

you are a legend

[@aqilahalias1441]

Im using other brand, but this helps too! Thank you so much!!

[@thecollegepicker]

You are welcome 😊 glad to be able to help

[@Ay-cp4nm]

Hey! Thanks so much for the videos! Hoping I didn't wast $80, I'm trying to get a little old LP2844 running- it prints but only prints out a section of the full label- I tried cleaning the heads, but do you think it could need a new ribbon? (Prints Full label but only half of it - The left side from top to bottom is missing if that makes sense.)

[@thecollegepicker]

Hi, It sounds like a power supply problem 🥺

[@henriquebfonseca1]

Thank you so muck !!!

[@thecollegepicker]

You are welcome

[@thompsonjennings7415]

Zebra printers are awesome! I use one in my day job.

[@thecollegepicker]

They are world leaders for a reason =)

[@brianloughran2446]

I can successfully print out a test label on my zebra 450 but a regular label stops at the bar code as in your video. in printer preferences there is no place to change the color or reduce the speed. Is my software too old where that option is not available? Using windows 10 . My labels also were pixelated & I installed a new printer head so I am assuming I need to reduce the color and speed, if only I can find where to do it.

[@thecollegepicker]

If it stops at the barcode then it could be the power supply not giving enough power when it hits the barcode. I've had that issue before.

[@ba9958]

Changed my darkness to 10 and it worked

[@thecollegepicker]

🙌 awesome glad it worked out.

[@dookiecookie8443]

My printer prints a bit blurry, Does that matter?

[@BlueSky-no1jv]

how to set if im using my phone only?

[@jesusvivancoherrera2264]

Hello!! i currently am using the Zp 450, and i cant seem to adjust the right size to my 4x6 labels... i also use pirate ship, and i did see one of your videos where you show how to edit the settings of size on pirate ship.. But it still doesnt seem to cover my whole 4x6 label..

[@thecollegepicker]

I have full tutorial on pirate ship or you can watch this shorter one just for the setting kzbin.info/www/bejne/gX6tiaKwdqZ4Zq8 the index of the video is in the description.

[@ShrekMeBe]

Thanks for the hands-on explanation! Won't thermal printed labels get unreadable in one or 2 years? The print from laser printed labels tend to flake away and rub off. Inkjet then? Those are a pain, and costly, but might produce the long lasting readability I desire. Plus, can one of these small printers make individually different labels (each with a new serial etc) based on a Excel table? Do not need the same label multiplied, need individually personalized labels. Anyway, it's a shot in the dark...hope it gets answered. Thanks!

[@LoveMyRottweiler1]

Been using a Zebra 450 thermal printer for my eBay business for over 2 years, it is a work horse, prints every time no problems (20-30 labels per week) knock on wood...love it. Paid around $100 used. Best investment ever. What's even better the labels are FREE from UPS, must have a UPS account.

[@Has11518]

Hi I have an netum thermal printer and i don’t know how to set it up can you help me pls

[@thecollegepicker]

Sure that printer is the same as the beeprt tutorial that I have on my channel, that should help you set it up =)

[@thearellanofamily9702]

Do you have this but for a Mac computer?

[@shittychannel4860]

Not the same settings. You can change darkness and speed on mac.

[@qasimghuman8382]

Hi, I have a GK420T. I print from FedEx.com but there is some areas on the label that are lighter than others and they print very unclear. But when I save it to PDF and print from there it prints just fine. Issue is we print 300 to 400 labels a day and saving to PDF is not the efficient or fastest way. We did fix the dithering to None and played with darkness setting to 15 and print speed from 5 to 3 but still same issue. Can you please help? Thank you.

[@imtiazshahed944]

I am waiting for the reply as having the same issue. I use eBay packlink shipping and Hermes. Only happen when I print from eBay. If I buy from the Hermes site, no issues. It sounds strange but i could not fix it.

[@shittychannel4860]

Hi! What part of the labels gets lighter? Logos? Text? Barcode? - Logos will often get lighter, and the fix is to set dithering to none, but if youve done that without success i dont really know. The dithering should make everything the printer prints plain black. It may be that the labels come out as .JPG or .PNG (images), should be a setting so you get the labels in .PDF without you needing to do anything. I know ebay have this setting, but i do not know if fedex have it.

[@DuyDepTraiPhoBaTrieu]

I really need help with the Margin offset for Horizontal and Vertical, I've changed it but somehow I don't see anything on the paper has been shifted at all.

[@thecollegepicker]

I havent been able to get margins to take right in the settings either =(

[@shittychannel4860]

Ive only done it on windows, but you cant set a too high number. This might help you :) www.zebra.com/us/en/support-downloads/knowledge-articles/adjusting-left-position-and-top-position-on-zebra-barcode-printers.html

[@Mohdzn]

Awesome, however i do not have printer graphics option

[@kulot326]

Hi, I have a problem with my zebra tlp 2844, maybe you could help me with it. So what happened is I will print a shipping label and it will print but it will not stop where the end of the paper where the cut is. Hope to hear from you. Thank you in advance and have a great day!!!

[@thecollegepicker]

What's up! Sounds like you need to calibrate the printer, do you know how to do that?

[@kulot326]

No 🤦🏻‍♀️ lol

[@vidpajek]

There is a relationship between darkness and speed. faster the print speed, the lighter the print will be, you can reduce print speed to "darken" the label. Image dithering type affects your barcodes because printing from chrome always sends an image to the printer. Other native software can send printer code, so this setting doesn't apply. (But I wouldn't worry to much about that). Also: The printing preferences window might change depending on who your driver provider is. For Zebras you can use drivers by Zebra itself, Bartender or NiceLabel, all have all settings just in slightly different places. they are also named the same.

[@StandOnScripture]

I have a dymo 4 xl and I cant see the graphix thisng

[@shittychannel4860]

Cant be changed on dymo printers. One of many reasons they are so bad.

[@IsaacDuVon.]

Whats up, I have a question. What is the difference between a zebra zp450 and the zp550? If you know of a new model as well that would be helpful. Thank you

[@shittychannel4860]

Not much. Both direct thermal printers.

[@kibous6885]

ZP450 are from UPS... ZP550 are from fedex

[@cherylhester8182]

I don't have a "Graphics" or "Options" choices when I go to Printing Preferences? I only have Layout, Paper Quality, Page Setup and About.

[@cherylhester8182]

I did save as a PDF like you suggested and that helped but that makes printing more time consuming and defeats the purpose of me having a thermal printer. I bought it to make printing quicker by not having to print to my big printer and cutting the label edges.

[@thecollegepicker]

Hi are you on a pc?

[@freyfu593]

Eric, I changed the dithering to none, but the bar code still looks the same as the first one you print in the video. Could you help me figure out why? It's a ZD420 Thank you!!!

[@thecollegepicker]

Are you on a windows or a mac?

[@YUNFEIFU]

@@thecollegepicker windows, I figured out, I didn’t use Adobe reader to open the file that caused the low printing quality issues.

[@thecollegepicker]

Nice! Good troubleshooting 💪

[@StandOnScripture]

I dont see the graphix on mine just layout

[@andyglass5147]

Zebra zp450 using 4z6 labels only print half of label. It wjust changed on its own and now I can't fix it. Any ideas?

[@shittychannel4860]

Sounds like you need to change the format on whatever platform you buy shipping from. remember it has to be in 4x6 format.

[@andyglass5147]

@@shittychannel4860 that isn't the issue. Bought a new thermal printer and it prints perfect. The issue is with the Zebra printer. I think it has some compatibility issues from latest windows 10 update

[@shittychannel4860]

@@andyglass5147 There were a problem with some websites when you tried to print that gave you bluescreen on your PC. Latest win 10 update

[@kidnickles101]

Anyway on Mac? Can’t seem to find it on mine

[@thecollegepicker]

Only on windows

[@Dougie085]

So unfortunately this seems to not of fixed my issue at all. What I'm wondering is if it can't get through a print even at low settings does that mean my little heating elements are likely bad? I tried 2.0 and like 5 darkness and it still won't get through the barcode.

[@Dougie085]

Also to note another weird thing is all my calibration stuff prints just fine even the multi sheet stuff....

[@Dougie085]

Well another update, I replaced the print head on one of these and it still has this issue. If I use the Zebra barcode app it prints barcodes completely fine so I'm not sure what the issue is....must be some sort of setting I guess.

[@tony_tony_bobony]

My Zebra ZN-450 was new a year ago but always printed light with eBay and Amazon labels (not UPS, however) on Windows 10. This being an older model, the print darkened to an acceptable level once I made it compatible with Windows 7 (in the driver software), which is what the computers at work ran the Zebras with.

[@tkb2325]

Great video. How do I print TEST labels (just to view) without paying postage?

[@thecollegepicker]

Thanks! Good question! I have a link in the description to a test label 😃

[@tkb2325]

Sorry, didn't see that. THANK YOU for all your information and time it takes to do these videos!

[@thecollegepicker]

You are welcome 😊 happy to help. Appreciate the support 🙏

[@davepro11]

Like ur videos-I don’t see a fix for mine- moved my laptop and printer to a new desk and now my label is cut off on the right side -worked perfect before-help before I hit it with my golf club!!

[@thecollegepicker]

Oh no! try cleaning the printhead and see if there is any adhesive there. Hopefully it will get sorted.

[@jorge9947]

Is there solution for printer printing labels off center? One label prints ok second label prints off center.

[@thecollegepicker]

For that the labels must be loaded and lined up correctly. It's a physical issue, not software.

[@jorge9947]

@@thecollegepicker thank you for the reply. but if it is a physical issue then why does first one print correct and the second one not?

[@thecollegepicker]

The first one is lined up but the roll behind it isn't, that's my guess. There is only so much I can theorize 😬😬 what printer are you using? Are the feeding guides properly adjusted. That's about all I can think of. Hopefully it gets it going in the right direction

[@countryside8122]

Windows 11 settings are different. Can not adjust print speed like you show.

[@chris120583]

Hi, I have a couple of issue with my Zebra lp2844 Printer: 1. it only prints one label at a time. I have to turn it off and on every single label i have to print, so like if i have 10 labels that i have to print on pirateship, i have to reboot the printer 10 times. 2. Randomly it prints a label that cut in half in 4 rows, its hard to describe, but imagine the bar code cut in half and it is on both side on the paper. The work around at the moment is to completely restart my computer, while turning the printer off and on... lots of labels wasted. Any help will be very much appreciated.

[@thecollegepicker]

Oh no, that sounds frustrating! What are your darkness and speed settings at? Are you on Mac or PC?

[@chris120583]

@@thecollegepicker thanks for the quick response, my darkness is 10 and speed at 2, im using windows 10 Pro 64-bit.

[@thecollegepicker]

Ok, Are you able to turn darkness and speed down to see if that helps?

[@chris120583]

@@thecollegepicker ok, ill try a much lower darkness and slower speed and ill get back to you. what do you think about my 1st issue? my printer stops at one label and i have to turn it off and on to print the next one.

[@shittychannel4860]

chris hernandez hello. In the driver you can choose if it should print all at once or one by one. That said, for it to print all of them you would need to have all labels in the same pdf, but in different pages. It's weird that you have to reboot it tho. When you've printed one label, what color are the button? Have you tried printing direct after another label? Do you get a error?

[@DeepSouthDawn]

Can you please do this for the Zebra and Mac?

[@thecollegepicker]

Hi, it's not a settings issue on the Mac it's a driver issue. I'm not sure who made the zebra driver on Mac, it works but it's fuzzier than PC. Hopefully a fix will eventually come out.

[@DeepSouthDawn]

thecollegepicker have you happen to look for a better driver? I would sure love to get a crisp label on my Mac. (I know your a super smart guy)

[@shittychannel4860]

Ms. Vicki drivers for Mac is hard. The one to use is a pre installed driver, and from what I know there is no good or known driver that would make the print better.

[@DeepSouthDawn]

Shitty channel I know of one that was made just for Macs but it's $97. Too much for my pocket book. Just want it to print as good as the Window machines.

[@shittychannel4860]

Ms. Vicki there i people selling the driver that's in the Mac:s just because it's hard for a non tech person to get it working. There may be others but I do think the printing result always will be similar.

[@paulnardelli6008]

Man. What timing. My printer was printing light and not printing bar code correctly last night. I was just looking up some fixes. I’ll have to watch later.

[@thecollegepicker]

Wow what serendipity 😅

[@paulnardelli6008]

Thanks Eric. Fixed the light printing problem. But, still get split labels sometimes. Right side prints on left and left side prints on right.🤪

[@thecollegepicker]

The spot label is a setting most likely (video to come) the left and right thing I have no clue 😳

[@brettonfischer837]

also a way to improve print quality is to print from adobe acrobat rather than from google or microsoft.

[@thecollegepicker]

Yes this is a great tip =)

[@williambenitez5908]

I’ve been wanting to get a label printer for my small business for the longest time and finally pulled the trigger. I’m glad I did ! This machine is great kzbin.infoUgkxw55tQTywUAAOsbrlwxONZULry77sFF1Q and the blue/green color matches the rest of the accents in my office. My favorite part is how small the footprint is. It’s less than 1/4 the size of my regular printer.Set up was fairly easy. Seller will email you a link with video instructions Which I found to be more helpful than the written instructions. I use a Mac and had no issues. They even included an adaptor for USB to USB-c which is great because I’m always losing mine! I had a few issues getting the labels to print properly and wasted quite a few sheets. You need to play around with the settings to get everything adjusted just right. If you have the wrong settings, it’ll crop off the edges or feed through blank labels. These aren’t issues with the machine though, just user error.

[@countryside8122]

Well just thought I would mention that every version of windows has different settings than windows 10. The screens are completely different.

[@taniam.4554]

correct! im trying to figure out why my ebay or FB shipping labels come out crystal clear, but others look faded

[@InappropriateShorts]

Where was this two months ago lol. Wait this is for windows...

[@thecollegepicker]

Yeah Mac one is a driver issue. Hopefully will be fixed in the future. I know a developer is working on one.

[@masterchief8855]

FIRST! #printerpeople #notificationsquad

[@thecollegepicker]

lol printer people hahaha