In this month’s newsletter, we talk about printing labels directly and automatically from your ERP software using BarTender. But there is another use case for BarTender, and that is printing labels from virtually any device and any location using BarTender Print Portal.
There is a new product from BarTender that is a complete cloud product. But in this article, we want to focus on the old tried and true method of BarTender Print Portal App. This application is meant to be downloaded to an Android, or iOS device for printing labels from one of those mobile device operating systems. But this article focuses on Print Portal for Windows that allows you to use BarTender in a browser on your PC, to print labels to printers that are connected to that device.
Meaning that the PC that is printing the labels does not have to be at the same location, and on the same network as the BarTender license server. This can be very handy when you have a remote location that needs to print labels. Or a supplier that you want to use your label formats to print labels. Either for raw materials coming your way, or even a remote supplier shipping finished goods on your behalf.
Of course, there are some challenges to getting this installed and working. A Client Print Service that must be installed on the remote PC. Security settings, passwords, and authentication needs to be set up. Finally, controls on what formats can be seen and used by the remote instance of BarTender.
Another consideration is what version of BarTender you have now, and what is the best version if you start using this Print Portal feature. The capabilities of Print Portal vary greatly by BarTender version. To help you navigate this, we recently produced a YouTube video showing you the differences to help you choose what is best for your application.