[Nhcoll-l] Desktop thermal printers?

Thu Apr 9 14:49:12 EDT 2026

Plus the fact that things change over time. HP printer - toner - paper
combination might work now, but will it still 30 years from now when
they’ve redesigned one or three of those components?

Ian

On Thu, 09 Apr 2026 at 18:20, Gali Beiner <gali.beiner at mail.huji.ac.il>
wrote:

> Doug is pointing out the heart of the problem - the variety of printing
> combinations which makes comparisons difficult.
>
> In fact, the variations in the way printer-ink-subsrate (paper or other)
> combinations work is the main reason why manufacturers recommend using
> their own brand for all three parts of the combo. In other words, the
> manufacturers say HP printers are supposed to yield better, more permanent
> results with original HP toners and HP specialized paper. The same goes for
> Canon, Epson or any other brand. Testing according to conservation
> parameters can work with that - or at least look very carefully into what,
> exactly is chosen for use (eg paper - OBA free, lignin free etc etc).
>
> The way things stand now - with endless possible variations and
> combinations - basically means it is up to us to try and set the criteria
> of choice and monitor whether that works. Not easy, but possibly we can
> try.
>
> Gali
>
>
>
> Gali Beiner (ACR)
> Conservator, Palaeontology Lab
> National Natural History Collections
> The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
> Berman Building, Edmond J. Safra campus, Givat Ram
> Jerusalem 91904, Israel
> Fax. 972-2-6585785
> *gali.beiner at mail.huji.ac.il <gali.beiner at mail.huji.ac.il>*
>
> *https://nnhc.huji.ac.il/?lang=en <https://nnhc.huji.ac.il/?lang=en>*
>
> בתאריך יום ה׳, 9 באפר׳ 2026, 18:46, מאת Douglas Yanega ‏<dyanega at gmail.com
> >:
>
>> On 4/8/26 11:38 PM, Gali Beiner wrote:
>>
>> Other than that, I think that maybe we could use this forum to up the
>> level of testing a bit - after all we have a pool of collection
>> professionals here, all with the same problem to solve re:labels for wet
>> collections (mainly alcohol but also other). Why shouldn't we gather
>> ourselves into a group of say 5 to 10 people in different collections and
>> agree on some sort of protocol for different labels in each collection (or
>> maybe sets of different labels to be tested in all collections, we could
>> consider the details)  - and have this followed both in the short and long
>> terms? That would be more interesting than any individual test. Dear
>> readers in this forum, how does this sound to you?
>>
>> Compilation of different people's experiences have been done here and
>> elsewhere with some regularity, and one thing that is a universal
>> impediment to generating a coherent picture is the variability of the
>> medium that is being printed on. Comparisons of different printers are
>> nearly meaningless if the "tests" are on different paper stock.
>>
>> The most dramatic example I can offer is one from personal experience:
>> back in 1990, we obtained a Laserjet, a fairly new technology at that time,
>> and printed thousands of labels for both dry and ethanol specimens. The
>> first several months everything worked flawlessly, and to this day, almost
>> 40 years on, those original labels are perfectly fine, even the ones stored
>> in ethanol. Then one day we ran out of the existing stock of paper, bought
>> a new ream, and loaded it into the printer without changing anything else.
>> The lettering on those labels chipped, flaked, and rubbed off the dry
>> labels, and when we tried to put them into ethanol, the letters floated
>> off. No alteration of settings was involved, and nothing we did made the
>> labels viable. That is, until we checked the packaging on the original
>> ream; we found it was not the exact same thing that we had switched to, so
>> we bought something IDENTICAL, and the resulting labels were just fine
>> again. The problem had literally nothing to do with the printer, and
>> everything to do with the paper.
>>
>> Again, any "test" that does not control for the medium will not be a fair
>> and objective test of the merits of a printer.
>>
>> We presently use an HP Laser printer, and yes, we have had to try
>> different types of paper to find paper stocks that work well with this
>> printer. Not all do. Even worse, when we use "replacement" toner cartridges
>> (not the official HP brand), sometimes *but not always*, the printing is
>> slightly flaky and easily abraded. That means there are at least THREE
>> parameters that need to be controlled: the printer, the medium, and the
>> toner. Variation in any one of those three can lead to variation in the
>> quality of the results. This makes objective assessment and testing
>> *very* difficult, and ultimately it's just a litany of anecdotes.
>>
>> Peace,
>>
>> --
>> Doug Yanega      Dept. of Entomology       Entomology Research Museum
>> Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314    phone: 951-827-4315
>> FaceBook: Doug Yanega (disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
>>              https://faculty.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html
>>   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
>>         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82
>>
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