Brother QL-1100 Review - Review 2022

The Brother QL-1100 label printer ($179.99) is, at eye, a wide-format version of the Brother QL-800 we reviewed this time terminal year. Like its smaller sibling, the QL-1100 churns out labels in several sizes—in this case, up to 4 inches broad, both die-cutting and continuous-length labels—snappily and in practiced quality. It uses rolls of direct-printed thermal paper, and like well-nigh such printers, the per-label price varies a lot according to your source for the stock. That said, aside from its QL-1110NWB sibling (a network-connectable version with otherwise identical specs), this is the outset wide-format characterization printer of its kind that we've seen at this low a cost. It's a fine value for small-role and home-office shipping, barcoding, and other types of broad-format labeling.

Here Come the Big Labels

With its black top and contrasting fair chassis, the QL-1100 looks like a plumped-up version of the QL-800. Information technology measures 6.vii by five.ix by 8.seven inches (HWD) and weighs simply under iv pounds, which makes it a couple of inches narrower than the QL-800, and about 2 pounds lighter. The much pricier (more than than double the toll) Zebra GC420d Direct Thermal Printer , besides a wide-format professional-grade model, is a little bigger than our Brother review unit, only it's designed to carry much higher label-stock payloads than the Brother models discussed here so far.

Another somewhat wide-format (3.five-inch) labeler reviewed a few years back is the Leitz Icon Smart Labeling Arrangement ($43.70 at Walmart) , one of only a few low-cost straight competitors to the Brother QL-1100. As with so many of these thermal press devices, the actual physical machines themselves don't really amount to much, in terms of onboard controls and features. On the face of the QL-1100, for example, you'll find only four buttons: Power, Feed, Cutter, and Editor Lite.

Power and Cutter practise exactly what you lot'd wait them to. Feed, every bit the proper name suggests, advances the label whorl 1 at a time, or continuously if you hold it down. Editor Light opens a stripped-down version of Brother's P-touch label-design, -editing, and -press program on the Windows machine to which the printer is tethered, via USB. Brother provides no installation media for the software, though. You'll have to visit the company's support site to become what you need, including drivers for connecting to the printer, the P-touch Editor 5.2 software, and the P-touch Address Book (which you tin utilize to store addresses and print mailing-list labels).

Too included are a few Microsoft Role add-ins for designing and printing labels from inside Microsoft Word, Outlook, and Excel. In addition, you can merge and impress labels from Excel (and other) CSV files, or from the control panel. You tin can also designate that the QL-1100 cuts the label, say, subsequently each copy has printed successfully.

As I discussed in my review of the QL-1110NWB, Brother'due south smaller QL-820NWB ($174.98 at Amazon) supports an optional bombardment that, when paired with Wi-Fi, lets you utilise the printer without an Ac power source. Yous brand a data connection to a PC or mobile device running Blood brother's P-touch Editor software (for Windows) or iPrint&Label apps (for iOS and Android). In addition, the QL-820NWB extends its wireless prowess with a small display and navigation buttons; you can use these to browse and print pre-defined labels without the help of a PC or a mobile device.

In other words, the QL-820NWB, with the optional bombardment installed, can human activity as a standalone label maker/printer. The QL-1100, due to its lack of a wireless radio, wouldn't really benefit from such a battery except for existence able to plug into, say, a laptop for direct printing with no AC source nearby. The wireless-equipped QL-1110NWB would benefit more.

Setting Upward and Stopwatching

Inside about 10 minutes of taking the QL-1100 out of the box, I printed my first label. Loading the label cartridges consists of unpackaging them, removing a piece of tape, dropping the cartridge into the compartment, and closing the lid. Everything else is done via software. (The QL-1100 detects the label-stock blazon when you drop information technology in.)

If you don't utilise an existing labeling awarding (something designed in-house, or sourced from a major online aircraft or postage stamp site, such as UPS or Stamps.com), Blood brother has you lot covered. The combination of the P-bear on Editor and its database provides a robust place to get-go. In addition, the information stored in these applications is easy to migrate to other programs, if and when the time comes.

Once I got the QL-1100 up and running, I started clocking the characterization impress speed. Brother rates the QL-1100 at 69 labels per infinitesimal (lpm)—that is, for standard-size 1.1-by-3.5-inch mailing labels at 300dpi. That's close indeed to the 65lpm I averaged during my tests. That's considerably slower, though, than the Brother QL-800'due south 93lpm and the QL-820NWB's 102lpm. The more data you import into your layouts, or the more yous increase the size of your characterization (or both), the longer each label will take. If you employ the built-in cutter feature, that will slow down matters considerably. (Brother says the cutter should be good for about 300,000 snips with die-cut labels, or 150,000 cut through continuous ones.)

The minor banners and the 4-past-6-inch shipping labels I printed, for example, took considerably longer. (If yous accept a utilize for long, sparse prints, the QL-1100 can print banners of up to 4 inches broad by just over nine feet long.) The banners' print times varied, of course, with their length.

Direct Thermal Press: Thoughts on Quality

The "direct thermal" print engineering in these little label printers is the same as what'south used past most standalone fax machines (if you've been around long plenty to see old-schoolhouse fax-automobile output, the kind on big sheets of thermal paper). Granted, the technology has been tweaked down through the years, but it has its inherent monochrome limitations.

That said, nosotros are talking labels here, which in most cases are designed to relay basic information (addresses, warnings like "FRAGILE," notations like "2-Solar day Air") and to help keep rails of things (what's inside labeled containers, object weights, barcodes). While for some, designing, printing, and labeling objects can exist gratifying, how adept they look is seldom the bespeak. And labeling lots of things (say, a few hundred envelopes or pocket-size packages) tin get downright ho-hum earlier long. Beauty doesn't come into information technology; you merely desire the job washed.

So that's how I'd quantify not but the QL-1100'southward print quality, but that of about other characterization printers, too. The print quality from this machine easily surpasses what most of this piddling motorcar'southward intended applications need. Granted Brother'due south QL-800 serial machines do take the power to print ii-color (blackness and cherry-red, while also factoring in the colour of the newspaper), but that is more of a applied design enhancement than an aesthetic one.

At What Toll Labels?

Like most its competitors, the Blood brother QL-1100 supports a wide range of continuous and dice-cut labels (I counted near 40 varieties on the company site) ranging from 0.66 inch wide up to 4 inches broad. Many of the continuous-gyre label stocks are upward to 100 feet long, and I saw some die-cut shipping- and mailing-label rolls ostensibly good for 1,200 labels. Unfortunately, all you get in the box are 2 starter rolls: a roll for 41 big (four-by-6-inch) die-cut shipping labels, and 26.2 feet of 2.iv-inch-wide continuous-length stock for black-on-white mailing labels.

A modest-size scroll of 200 4-by-6-inch labels will price $51.49, which comes out roughly to 28 cents per label, and a roll of 300 2.four-by-3.9-inch die-cutting mailing labels will run about 9 cents per label. The former seems a tad pricey, forth the lines of your ink price for printing a color snapshot from a photo printer. That said, these numbers vary by the number of labels or the length of the continuous rolls, where you buy them, and if you lot can buy in bundles containing multiple rolls. I found one bundle, for example, that contained three rolls of die-cutting standard address labels that worked out to less than five cents for each label.

Considering the Brother QL-800 (and some of the other QL-branded models in the Brother family unit) all use primarily the aforementioned Brother DK characterization rolls as the QL-1100 (except where the roll size is too large; you can't use a 4-inch-broad roll in the smaller model, for instance), printing should price about the same across the series. The Leitz Icon Smart Labeling Arrangement has been effectually a while longer than these other machines (since 2022), and its cartridges, like the device itself, take fallen significantly in cost. I did find Leitz-compatible labels at several outlets at a price per label comparable to that of standard mailing labels.

Zebra's GC420d entry-level enterprise labeler, in contrast, is designed with much college label volumes in listen, with the idea of servicing multiple networked users and printing wide-format labels. It'south rated at a loftier suggested ceiling of up to 500 label prints per day. Plus, for the Zebra, you tin can buy much higher-book consumables that cost less per characterization and require roll reloads less often.

Remaking Label-Making

While the Brother QL-1100'south elderberry siblings in the QL-800 series are terrific little characterization printers, they fall short in many business organization-centric applications—such as for making iv-by-6-inch aircraft labels for your company or dwelling-bound eBay shop. If, however, yous need to print more than about 100 to 200 labels per day, you lot might desire to consider Zebra's GC420d for its higher capacity and lower print costs.

As well, you can go a more connection-savvy wide-format characterization printer on your network in the form of the Blood brother QL-1110NWB. It's $100 pricier in MSRP, only if y'all're because the QL-1100, check out that more-connected model earlier diving in. If all you demand from your label maker, though, is directly connectivity and bulk label output, with no wireless frills, the QL-1100 will serve you well for less coin.

Best Printer Picks

• The Best All-in-1 Printers for 2022
• The Best Photograph Printers for 2022
• The Best Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation Printers for 2022
• The Best Inkjet Printers for 2022
• More Printer Reviews
• More from Brother

Further Reading

• What to Do if Windows Tin't Connect to Your Printer
• How to Recycle or Donate Your Old Printer
• New 3D Printing Method Takes Seconds
• Ford Creates 3D-Printed Locking Wheel Nuts Using Driver's Vocalism
• 3D Press Helps Recreate Vocalism of three,000-Year-One-time Mummy

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/migrated-33102-printers/28920/brother-ql-1100-review

Posted by: stephensonfriter54.blogspot.com

Share this post