Thermal printer that works with Chromebook

[gregsandiego]

Is anyone operating a thermal printer and using only Chromebook?

One re-seller told me the Zebra lp2844 would work, but I see little on the web from anyone that operates this way. Plus I never see Chrome called out in any of the specifications.

Greg

[Jay]

Not sure about Chromebooks, but we use the Dymo 450. Probably a new er version is available.

I only mention because that Zebra is over $250:

Dymo is $80:

I think the Zebra is built for a business that’s spitting out labels all day everyday in a shipping department.

[gregsandiego]

Thanks for the info on Dymo. I used your link to go to the questions on Amazon and found this. Too bad. Chromebooks are so much better than dealing with Windows but I really need to get away from cutting an taping my labels LOL

From Amazon:
Q: will this work with a chromebook?
A: Thank you for contacting us regarding your LabelWriter 450. Unfortunately, printing from a Chromebook is not supported as the LabelWriter printers require the full operating system of either Windows or Mac OS X and a USB connection. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to give our technical support team a call at 877-724-8324 Monday- Friday 8am- 6pm EST as we will be happy to assist you. We appreciate your business and hope that you will continue to use Dymo products.

[Sharyn]

I have a Dymo 4XL. I have a Chromebook. I’ve never put the two together since I normally use my desktop. I’m curious whether the two would work, but I’m off right now to an auction. I’ll post here when I get results. Perhaps tonight, but more likely sometime on the weekend.

[gregsandiego]

I’m still researching this but another idea I came up with would be to use a dedicated iPad or Android tablet with the printer.

Either that or buy an old cheap laptop on eBay and use that.

I guess Chromebooks aren’t ready for business. They are so great for everything personal.

[IndySales]

What OS are Chromebooks using nowadays?

My eBay laptop runs Ubuntu, which has Dymo drivers built in. There are some problems with it remembering default settings (page size, etc) but changing it takes a click or two and it’s good. My other desktop runs Arch Linux and I had to manually compile the drivers myself to get the Dymo printing.

[gregsandiego]

You sound pretty technical Indy. Good work. I haven’t compiled anything since I learned how to program in Pascal years ago.

I had to google Ubuntu.

[almasty]

Arch Linux, youch. 🙁 That is some serious dedication.

[Sharyn]

I finally did my experiment, and I was not able to print out a label. In the settings menu, my Chromebook could see the label printer, but it didn’t have a driver to use. I went to the Dymo website, and they only have drivers for Windows and Mac. Just for kicks, I downloaded the Windows version, and it wouldn’t open.

So, they information you received is correct, the Chromebook is not compatible with the Dymo. I don’t know if that is true for all label printers.

My dad will be giving me his old iPad when I see him in September, but I wonder whether that would be compatible. If the Dymo website says that they have a driver for the Mac OS, does that include iPads? Actually, does an iPad even have USB ports? My Dymo is an older version without wireless connectivity.

If my iMac were to go down, I can just print off my regular printer and cut and tape like I used to, but it would be nice to have a backup that would use the Dymo.

[IndySales]

Mac OS is different than the OS used on iPads, so the drivers won’t work there.

However, you can see as to whether or not it’s possible to hook the printer up the iMac and “share” the printer on the network. At least on Android it’s possible to print to a networked (shared) printer.

[almasty]

I’m going to attempt to hook up a Zebra Eltron Thermal Printer with my Macbook this weekend. Wish me luck! =/ Really hoping I don’t have to buy a Rollo printer for it (I’ve read that there are proprietary issues with DYMO labels, so I don’t want to mess with that.).

Chromebooks are fun to use to surf around on the web and check email, but that’s about it. Chrome is not a real OS, and I don’t think developers take it seriously enough to port anything over to it. I tried to make it work with a cheap Chromebook years ago, but sometimes you really need a mac/windows/linux to be able to use peripheral devices and just do normal things.

[gregsandiego]

This is the first thing I’v encountered that I’ll need to abandon chromebook for. Virtually everything else I can do with a browser or in the Google cloud.

Oh well.

[Amatino]

Hey Greg, this article was created 2 days ago. Dunno if it will help you, but it does have a question button…

https://support.inventorylab.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004970493-Chrome-Browser-Settings-for-DYMO

[gregsandiego]

Thanks Amatino.

No it actually confuses me a bit. i think they are talking about configuring the browser but still on a PC or Mac.

I’m going to just take the path of least resistance and get a PC and connect it to a label printer of some sort. The two will become kind of an old school specialized workstation.

I remember Griff on eBay radio raved about the Zebra LP 2844 and said it takes standard labels. I see good used ones on ebay. Or do you think Dymo is just as good?

[gfd_622]

I run a mac desktop and I have a Zebra S400 (was just sitting in my closet from over 15 years ago, and found that it works great) and I just bought a zebra GK420T per Griff’s advice. Both are running on different mac desktops. I haven’t tried to print from my iPad, but I’ll do that later tonight to see if it can be done. iPads can really only print to network printers or to newer ones with air printing so I have to use my desktop to share the printer with my iPad. I like the zebra because labels are very cheap ($20 or less for 1000 labels). You have to play a bit to get the darkness right so that the barcode will scan, but once you get it figured out it works great. I love the concept of no more printer ink.

[almasty]

My experiment failed with connecting the Zebra Eltron to my mac, but I think my cable is extremely old and not compatible with current macs? Waiting for a new one to arrive in the mail so I can try the experiment again.

I usually order a box of 20 rolls with 250 sheets per roll for $60-75 with free shipping. It’s almost a year’s worth of shipping labels for me. Maybe 5,000 sheets? For a Dymo printer, looking at Amazon prices, you can buy 8 rolls of 4×6 for $42.95 with free shipping. At 220 sheets per roll, that’s 1,760 sheets. If you ship a lot, the Zebra printers are much cheaper (and I’m assuming the Rollo printer, which I believe can take similar labels, but I could be wrong).

The Rollo printer is $170 new, but it looks like plug & play from what I can tell. It looks like the current Zebra printers are priced at $80 used. They used to be much cheaper back in the day ($30-50 apiece), but I guess they’re starting to get harder to find.

[gregsandiego]

Since this thread has shifted over to printer choices…
I like the price of that Dymo 450 that Jay mentioned.

But are those labels big enough for the normal eBay label? The photos don’t look like there is space for our return address.

[almasty]

I just looked into it, and it looks like the Dymo 4XL is the only thermal printer they have that uses 4×6 labels. It currently goes for $211 on Amazon, brand new.

I just spent like 30 minutes with my mac trying to get my extremely old zebra eltron printer hooked up to it with a new IEEE cable I just got in. It worked! It is not intuitive at all, and I had to use CUPS to get the printing sheet dimensions right, but it worked! Yes! So happy I don’t have to spend $160 on a rollo & $20 for an additional label roll holder to do the same thing my reliable zebra can do. So happy.

[Author]

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