Teller transactions archive - print barcode on papers

Question

Depends on how complex you want to be. Perhaps these documents could be multiple (stapled?) pages. would you want to index each page - and would the documents then form an associated sequence (eg. doc. 00001-01 to -20)

Next caper is to consider the form of the number. It's best to formulate a check-digiting system so that a printed number can be manually entered and the check-digit verifies that the number hasn't been miskeyed.

Now - if these documents may be different sizes for instance, or potentially a wad of paperwork, how would you feed them through a printer?

So I'd suggest that a good choice would be to produce your numbers on a specialist barcode-printer with human-readable line on the same label. Some idiot will want to insist on using cheap thermally-sensitive labels, but these almost inevitably deteriorate with time. I'd choose thermal-transfer labels which are a little more complex - your tellers would need to be able to load label-rolls and also the transfer-ribbon (a little like a typewriter-ribbon, if you remember those) but basically any monkey could do it.

Even then, there are three grades of ribbon - wax, resin and a combination. Problem with wax is that it can become worn - same thing as you get with laser-printing where the pages get stuck together if they are left to their own devices for a while. Another reason you don't use laser printers in this role - apart from the fact that you'd need to produce sheets of labels to attach rather than ones and twos on-demand is that the laser processing will cook the glue on the sheets. Fine for an address label with a lifetime of a few days, but disastrous when you may be storing documents for years. Document goes one way, label another...

Resin is the best but most expensive choice. It has better wearing characteristics.

My choice would be a Zebra TLP2824plus using thermal-transfer paper and resin ribbon. Software is easy - just means you need to go back 20 years in time and forget all about drivers - just send a sring to the printer as if it was a generic text printer. The formatting of the label - well, the manual will show you that...

Other technologies and approaches would probably be more complex than simply producing and attaching barcode labels. For instance, if you were to have an inkjet printer like those that are used to mark (milk/juice) cartons - well, it would have to deal with different sizes of paper, and different weights from near-cardboard to airmail paper. It would also have a substantial footprint since the paper would need to be physically presented to the printer. Then there's all the problems of disassembling and reassembling a stapled wad. And who can control precisely where the printing would occur? What may suit one document may not suit another - it may have inconveniently-placed logos or other artwork in the "standard" position for that-sized paper.

Another issue is colour. There's no restriction on background colour with a label (yellow or fluoro pink for example) - it would be easy to locate when necessary. Contrast that with the-ink's-running-low washed-out ink printing on a grey background. White labels wouldn't stand out all that well on the majority of (white) documents.

BUT a strong alternative technology would be to have reels of labels pre-printed by a commercial printing establishment rather than producing them with a special printer on-demand. Reels are better than sheets - they are easier to use especially for people with short fingernails.