ZT411/ZT421 Industrial Printer User Guide

Evaluating Barcode Quality

The figure below shows how printer settings such as darkness and print speed can affect the quality of the printed barcodes.

Set the print darkness to the lowest setting that delivers good print quality. The Print Quality Assistant in Running the Print Wizard and Printing a Test Label can help you determine the most optimal settings.

Appearance	Description
Too dark labels	Fairly obvious. These may be readable but are not “in-spec.” The normal barcode bars increase in size. The openings in small alphanumeric characters may fill in with ink. Rotated barcode bars and spaces run together.
Slightly dark labels	Not as obvious as the too-dark labels. The normal barcode will be “in-spec.” Small alphanumeric characters will be bold, and may appear slightly filled in. The rotated barcode spaces are small when compared to the “in-spec” code, possibly making the code unreadable.
“In-spec” labels	Whether or not a label is “in-spec” can only be confirmed by a verifier, but they typically exhibit some visible characteristics. The normal barcode will have complete, even bars along with clear, distinct spaces. The rotated barcode will have complete, even bars along with clear, distinct spaces. Although it may not look as good as a slightly dark barcode, the barcode will be “in-spec.” In both normal and rotated styles, small alphanumeric characters will look complete.
Slightly light labels	In some cases, these are preferred to slightly dark ones for “in-spec” barcodes. Both normal and rotated barcodes will be “in-spec,” but small alphanumeric characters may not be complete.
Too light labels	These are obvious. Both normal and rotated barcodes have incomplete bars and spaces. Small alphanumeric characters are unreadable.