Zebra GK420d Direct Thermal Printer
August 7th, 2016
I bought a Zebra GK420d Direct Thermal Printer second hand but hardly used,
i’ve set it up etc,
put the Label roll in,
fed some out until it stopped,
then printed a 4×6″ Label on Photoshop,
it came out, but then was followed by a louder noise and the rest of the blank Labels coming out after it,
I had to lift the lid to make it stop.
I rolled the Labels back up, put it back in the Printer,
fed some out, but again was followed by the louder noise and blank Labels
(even though I didnt print anything this time, it was straight after the feed)
Any suggestions on why it’s doing this and how to stop it?
Also if anyone knows of a Software that compatible with Macs,
or whether I should just continue using Photoshop.
Thanks.
I used to work with lots of Zebra printer models and I don’t miss them. They can be fussy.
Check that the optical sensor that detects the gaps between the labels is clean. Clean it again.
Make sure that in your printer set up that you have the correct media type selected (web, mark or continuous)
Run the printer’s calibration routine. These are the typical reasons for that behavior.
Hey,
Im using a Mac and I dont have a specific Software for it,
when going into Settings – Printers & Scanners – selecting the Zebra – and checking options etc,
there is nothing there that says about feed or routines.
Im trying to find a Software thats suitable for Macs and will have this type of settings on it.
Press the feed button 3 times to start calibration. It will feed some labels and determine the label spacing.
Ok I managed to find some more settings if printing from the actual ‘Preview’ window on the Mac,
I selected continuous but THEN only found out that that it for labels with no gaps/spacing,
so basically I need to find the ‘speed’, maybe continuous wasn’t the correct wording after all.
I have 4×6″ Labels, with the gap/tear off strip between them,
but as I said before, it was printing 1, then waiting 4 seconds, then printing another and so on,
I need to get rid of this 4 seconds, so its 1 after another….
So I have it back on Non-Continuous (Web Sensing)
Direct Thermal Media is selected
203dpi is selected
4.00×6.00″ is selected
Darkness shall I put on 30? or keep on default?
Print Rate… not sure what inch/sec that should go on, or keep on default?
Label Top i’ve kept on default
Print Mode i’ve kept on default
Tear-off Adjust Position on default
Reprint After Error is on default
Paper handling…..
Collate pages is ticked but not sure what that means?
Sounds like you have made some progress. Is is still spitting out all of the labels of is the 4 second wait between prints the only problem now?
Keep darkness on default. Only change this if your print is getting unacceptably light, even after cleaning print head. Turning this up will wear out the print head faster.
Adjusting the print rate can also lighten/darken the print. Default should be fine for most applications. I’ve had to run larger Zebras at fairly high in/sec for industrial applications. Had to turn up darkness to compensate.
May find some useful general info here:
http://www.uline.com/PDF/IH-2550.PDF
Yep just the 4 second thing now, will have to keep messing with it I suppose,
wish there was a decent Software/App I could get for the Mac that worked perfect with all the necessary Settings on it.
This has a 30 day trial. Might be worth checking out.
http://mac.endicia.com/extras/zebra/
Im not sure whether this is just the quality of the Printer or whether it’s due to certain Settings etc but i’ve seen some Printers that print crisp lines and actual images….
but when I print, the lines are very jagged and when trying to print an image it’s really horrible……
maybe the ones i’ve seen are like this but the fact I haven’t seen them close up makes them look better?
Without seeing your original graphic, I’d say that is normal. These Zebra printers are primarily used for printing barcodes and text.
Playing up again, not sure why it’s doing it :-/
changed the roll, closed the lid,
pressed the button which feeds ‘usually’ 2 labels,
and then it usually prints, but its just stopping in the middle the second label and making a higher noise and constantly feeding the labels out slowly.
This is the details for it that I printed…
not sure if all this is ok or not,
or whether I should reset it?
(dont know too much about these Printers yet)
Just has ‘waiting for printer to become available’ now
ANNOYING
i’ve unplugged it and turned it off, and put back on, but still saying the same,
it’s now feeding the paper out normally,
I also did the reset (4 blinks) but still not printing
Clean, calibrate, bang head on table, repeat. Is it giving you any blink codes?
Nope no blink codes…
it’s working ok again at the moment,
not sure what happens,
I have to spent around 15 minutes taking rolls out and feeding and re-rolling and feeding, turning off etc.
Another thing,
when printing on the 4×6″ Labels,
obviously I choose 4×6″ in the printing settings,
but the print is never the same as on the actual design template….
it’s always a bit to the left and higher,
is there any way I can change the settings so that when I design something on the 4×6″ template, it’ll actually print in that exact position?
for example I just designed something with a black background and white design,
but when printed it’s gone too far to the left and higher so I have a white strip down the right side and bottom.
Noticed on the printed Config sheet it says Left Position +0000 and Label Top +005
this have anything to do with it?
but being +0000 i’d of thought the print would be center
and being +005 for the top, is that the reason it’s printing higher?
and how do I actually change these?
Those settings are changed in the printer properties. You should also be able to use negative values as needed.
How would I get to those?
im using a Mac as well….
Wherever you accessed the settings below is where I would look. Ok I managed to find some more settings if printing from the actual 'Preview' window on the Mac,
I selected continuous but THEN only found out that that it for labels with no gaps/spacing,
so basically I need to find the 'speed', maybe continuous wasn't the correct wording after all.
I have 4x6" Labels, with the gap/tear off strip between them,
but as I said before, it was printing 1, then waiting 4 seconds, then printing another and so on,
I need to get rid of this 4 seconds, so its 1 after another....
So I have it back on Non-Continuous (Web Sensing)
Direct Thermal Media is selected
203dpi is selected
4.00x6.00" is selected
Darkness shall I put on 30? or keep on default?
Print Rate... not sure what inch/sec that should go on, or keep on default?
Label Top i've kept on default
Print Mode i've kept on default
Tear-off Adjust Position on default
Reprint After Error is on default
Paper handling.....
Collate pages is ticked but not sure what that means?
Already looked there, not that much on there,
I’ve read about going onto the http://localhost:631 weblink to get to things but dont want to mess with anything that im not sure of.
If it has an http interface, you may be in luck. Beyond that, installing it on Windows with the proper drivers may be the only way to get it to behave.
that sucks, I found the LABEL TOP settings, was on +005,
i’ve put it to -10
I dont want to waste too many labels,
so will changing it to -10 make a big difference?
or shall I do it even higher?
and I found tear-off adjust position which was on 0,
but im not sure what position that actually is…
only thing is the left position, as it’s going too far to the left,
but cant find any settings for that one.
Tear off adjust is pretty much what it sounds like. It is the position of the perforation between labels against the edge for tearing against.
As for the label top setting, the increments should translate to x.xx inches. This may be different if you have cm or mm set in your label size. At least this is how it is set up in the original Zebra drivers and Seagull drivers.
The Label Shift setting should adjust your horizontal position.
I have not needed to change any of the positioning settings from defaults.
Wish I still had a Windows Computer, the Driver for the Mac doesnt seem to be that good,
also, do you have any experience with the GK420d Printer?
im not sure whether mine is printing at the best it can,
i did a design with a straight clean line, but when printed, it’s fuzzy
is this model Printer not that good…?
i’d of thought if it was for Barcodes etc then lines would need to be straight….
and I cant find any ‘label shift’ settings
Just wondering….
my Stepdad has a Windows Laptop,
if I install the Printer onto that…
is there a way to make the settings a default,
so when plugged back into my iMac…
I can go on ‘default’ and it should print out properly (how i’ve set the settings on the Laptop)
I worked with a fleet of the large ZM400 and 110Xi series industrial printers, but we had quite a few GX430t models similar to yours. I don’t think settings from Windows will stick if you switch it back to your Mac if they were set from the driver settings. Were you ever able to connect to http interface?
i did a design with a straight clean line, but when printed, it's fuzzy
is this model Printer not that good...?
i'd of thought if it was for Barcodes etc then lines would need to be straight....
The Printer Configuration info you printed out looks nice and crisp.
Some lines do come out nice, but most are kind of jagged….
and I can get onto the settings via a Browser,
but cant find any Settings on there that I need.
Here what I mean, the black box is supposed to be a clean crisp line,
but they come out like this….
even the text is horrible.
White voids in your printing can be dead spots in the thermal print head. I see some in your solid black areas but they are not consistently in the same place.
If you haven’t done so, clean the print head thoroughly with alcohol. It can never be too clean. Are you printing directly from photoshop or from another application? Is your original a direct 1:1 scaling? eg. 4×6 canvas in photoshop.
It may also be that the generic driver is doing a poor job of translating your image to the printer. Values you set in the http interface should stick with the printer, everything else will be specific to the machine it is installed on. At this point, I would find a Windows machine to test on. On your Mac, you may have the option of bootcamp, or parallels. I would set up a TinyXP install in Parallels for testing. That is what I use on my Hackintosh to allow use of my small photoscanner.
That’s a good idea actually, I had Windows on my Mac before but didnt end up using it so I removed it, i’ll get it again
also I put a 4×6″ Canvas on Photoshop, design on that, and then either print directly from Photoshop, or save it, open it on ‘Preview’ and print from there.
I’ll do the Windows installation and download the Windows Driver and see if that helps at all,
also, Alcohol, is there any Household products I could use?
Rubbing alcohol 75% or better should work fine for cleaning.
Thanks a lot for reminding me about the Parallels!
was up till late last night sorting it all and the printer settings but think it’s a lot better,
the print is better as well,
same design as my last image post… printed from the Windows 8.1 Parallels:
just need to be able to get it to print the whole Label now, supposed to be 4×6″
found the left right bottom top settings, cant put – in so im guessing you make the bottom and right more than 0.00?
as still leaving white/space on the left and top.
That looks much better! The right drivers make all the difference.
The one drawback with the thermal transfer labels is that they are chemical sensitive. If it gets wet with something acidic, the entire label will turn black. Your GK420d model only does direct thermal prints. The GK420t would also do thermal transfer printing with a ribbon. This would let you print onto all kinds of label stock material. I set up a print station for our chem lab with polypropylene labels and a special resin ribbon that allowed them to label chemical containers without smearing.
Only problem im getting now is that when I turn off the Plug every night to my Computer setup, and then turn it back on the in the morning… the Printer always feeds out 1 Label, which is a waste every morning, how do I stop this?
I don’t think you can. They always exhibit that behavior in my experience at power-on. It is the only way for the machine to confirm that it has a label in the correct position and ready to print.
Weird, never happened before since having it, only the last few days.