Is Your Printer Smart Enough?

When you think of label printers, you probably picture a reliable device that prints barcodes, shipping labels, or product tags—doing exactly what it’s told to do, nothing more.

That’s the standard printer. But what if your printer could do more?

What Is Smart Printing?

Honeywell industrial printers support a powerful capability known as Smart Printing. This means the printer can run applications directly on the device, without the need for a connected PC or host system.

Using Honeywell’s Smart Printing SDK and supported languages like C# or Fingerprint, developers can create intelligent applications that live on the printer itself.

With a Smart Printing application, your printer can:

• Display prompts and collect user input on the built-in touchscreen

• Validate scanned barcodes or data in real-time

• Connect to databases or web services

• Perform calculations and business logic before printing

• Operate completely offline if needed

Smart Printers are not just output devices—they’re autonomous endpoints that drive efficiency and automation.

What Does a Standard Printer Do?

A typical thermal printer is limited to processing print jobs sent from a host device. It receives raw label data in a language like ZPL, DPL, or EPL, and prints it as instructed.

That model works—but it also creates some limitations:

• All decision-making happens elsewhere

• A network or PC failure can stop your printing operation

• You need multiple devices at the workstation (PC, scanner, keyboard, etc.)

Is Your Printer Smart?

Here’s the quick test:
If your printer needs a PC to do anything more than print a basic label, it’s not a smart printer.

A Smart Printer can:

✅ Make decisions on its own
✅ Continue printing even when the network goes down
✅ Interact with users or connected devices
✅ Adapt printing logic based on data, inputs, or scanned values

In other words, it doesn’t just print—it works.

Real-World Smart Printing Applications

Need some inspiration? Here are just a few ways Smart Printing is already being used:

✅ Print Production Line Information

Automatically print labels with real-time date, time, shift, and operator ID, pulled directly from the printer’s internal clock or scanned input.

✅ Scan-to-Print RFID Labels

Scan a barcode, and the printer immediately generates and encodes an RFID label—no PC or middleware required.

✅ Reprint Damaged Labels with Ease

Simply scan a damaged barcode, and the printer retrieves the last known good label data and reprints it on the spot.

✅ Print Price Tags on Demand

Use touchscreen menus or a barcode lookup to select SKUs and print accurate price tags from the printer’s internal database or connected system.

Smart Printing puts flexibility, speed, and control at your fingertips—right where the work happens.

Let Barcom Build Your Smart Printing Solution

At Barcom, we don’t just sell printers—we help you transform them into intelligent devices that power your business.

Whether you’re labeling in a warehouse, manufacturing environment, distribution center, or retail location, our team can build and deploy Smart Printing applications designed specifically for your workflow.

Let us show you how to:

• Reduce reliance on PCs and networks

• Automate complex printing tasks

• Improve uptime and throughput

4136B Jersey Pike, Chattanooga, TN 37421

Phone (423) 855-1822 | Fax (423) 499-6317

sales@barcominc.com