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Current Printer Trends & Avery's Recommendations for Printing

Printers are constantly evolving. We want to provide you with the knowledge to make sure you have the best printing experience possible.

Trends for Inkjet & Laser Printers

In general, both inkjet and laser printers have gotten cheaper over the years. This has affected printer performance negatively in terms of alignment and feeding.

Inkjet Printer Trends

  1. Most inkjet printers now have both pigment black and die base color inks
    • Avery Recommendation: for glossy labels, we suggest waiting the recommended dry time before applying labels to your product. Pigment black inks have higher dry time.
  2. There are more EcoTanks in the market for both sustainability and cost efficiency purposes
    • Avery Recommendation: make sure to print at least 1 sheet per week every few days. Certain tank printers will dry out if not in use.
  3. Printers are smaller and more mobile for space and cost efficiency
    • These smaller printers have a shorter turn radius for labels and cards to go through. This can cause a higher rate of misalignment and jamming
    • They have smaller ink cartridges and deposit less ink on a label. This causes a less vibrant print quality
    • They are made with cheaper materials and often without paper separation mechanisms. This can create more jams
    • Avery Recommendation:
      • Feed sheets one at a time when possible
      • If feeding a stack of label sheets, make sure to fan the sheets on all sides. This will prevent the printer from picking up more than one sheet at a time and lower the chance of a jam or misalignment
      • We always suggest printing a test sheet on plain paper to check alignment before printing on your label or card. Our Design & Print Online tool will allow you to make a printer adjustment to account for any alignment issues

Laser Printer Trends

  1. Laser printers have low temperature fusers for sustainability 
    • Having a lower temperature toner means that the toner will not adhere as well to the label when printed
    • Avery Recommendation:
      • Always print labels with a label setting
      • Always print cardstock with a cardstock or thicker setting
  2. Printers are smaller for space and cost efficiency
    • These printers have a shorter turn radius for labels and cards to go through. This can cause a higher rate of misalignment and jamming
    • These printers are being made with cheaper materials and with weak paper guides causing more misalignment issues
    • Small mono laser printers such as Samsung and Pantum printers have paper guides that are exactly 8.5" wide. This causes more jams
    • Avery Recommendation:
      • Feed sheets one at a time when possible
      • If feeding a stack of label sheets, make sure to fan the sheets on all sides. This will prevent the printer from picking up more than one sheet at a time and lower the chance of a jam or misalignment
      • We always suggest printing a test sheet on plain paper to check alignment before printing on your label or card. Our Design & Print Online tool will allow you to make a printer adjustment to account for any alignment issues
      • Print using the multipurpose tray or manual feed slot

Recommended Printer Models

We have done rigorous testing in our lab with all of our Avery labels and card products on hundreds of printers. If you are planning to print a lot of labels or cards, we do have recommended models for each printer type. You will want to make sure that you have the correct settings selected for the best experience.

Inkjet Printers

  • HP OfficeJet 3830
  • HP Envy 6055e
  • Canon Pixma MG3620
  • Canon Pixma iP8720
  • Epson ExpressionXP7100

Monochrome Laser

  • HP LaserJet Pro M29w
  • HP LaserJet Pro M227fsw
  • Canon imageCLASS MF236n
  • Canon imageCLASS MF445dw

Color Laser

  • HP Color Laser Jet Pro M479fdw
  • HP Color Laser Jet Pro M283fdw
  • HP Color Laser Jet M553n
  • Canon Color imageCLASS MF644Cdw
  • Brother MFC-L8900

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