Printing FAQ for B2B Buyers: Kodak Mini 2, Label Printers, and Is a Printer a Computer?

I work in procurement for a 140-person logistics company. We spend roughly $12,000 a year on printing—hardware, consumables, repairs—and I've documented every order in our cost tracking system since 2019. I'm not an engineer. I'm the person who gets blamed when the invoice is higher than expected. These are the printing questions our branch managers actually ask, answered the way I'd answer them in a budget meeting.

Printing cost questions at a glance

1. Is a printer a computer?
2. What does a Kodak Mini 2 printer cost per photo after the first pack?
3. What should I know before searching for a cricket label printer?
4. Thermal vs non thermal label printer: which one has lower total cost?
5. When does a Kodak photo printer mini make sense for a business?
6. Should we buy an all-in-one printer or dedicated photo and label printers?
7. How should I budget for printer consumables?

1. Is a printer a computer?

Technically, yes—or rather, it's an embedded computer. Modern printers contain a processor, memory, firmware, and often a network stack. Some have a touchscreen and a hard drive that stores scanned documents and print queues. My IT colleague likes to say that every printer is a computer, but not every computer is a printer. The procurement question is not the label; it's the support burden.

A smart printer with cloud features adds login credentials, firmware updates, and help-desk calls. If you only need photo prints, a simpler device like the Kodak Mini 2 printer is attractive because it does one job without turning into another device to manage. From a total cost of ownership standpoint, treat any printer with a network connection as a computing asset. Include support, security, and end-of-life handling in the decision. A cheap printer with complicated setup can burn more staff time than the money you saved on the hardware.

2. What does a Kodak Mini 2 printer cost per photo after the first pack?

I can give you a formula, because retail prices change. Add the printer price, shipping, and the first consumable pack. Divide by the number of prints that pack produces. That's your first-month cost per photo. After the first pack, only the consumable cost matters. For the Kodak Mini 2 printer, the ongoing cost depends on the photo paper and ribbon pack you buy, not the printer itself. The same is true for the Kodak photo printer mini lineup: the hardware is the small part of the budget; the consumables are the large part.

Here's a quick example. If the printer costs $90, shipping is $10, and a pack of paper and ribbon is $35 for 35 prints, your first photo costs about $3.86. Subsequent photos cost about $1.00. If you print 200 photos a year, a $200 printer with cheaper consumables can beat a $50 printer with expensive consumables. We made the mistake of approving a printer because the device price was low, then spent months paying for media without a clear per-photo number. Now we compare consumable packs first and printers second.

3. What should I know before searching for a cricket label printer?

When the phrase cricket label printer showed up in our sales notes, it was almost always a typo for Cricut. A Cricut is a cutting machine. It can cut adhesive vinyl and printable label sheets, but it does not print full-color labels by itself. If you need a dedicated label printer, a thermal or non-thermal label printer will usually do the job with less material waste.

If the search is for an actual consumer label maker called Cricket, apply the same test I use for any niche hardware: can you buy refills easily, is there business-grade support, and can it handle your monthly volume? For our warehouse, a hobby-grade label cutter would be the wrong purchase because we run thousands of barcode labels a month. A craft tool is not automatically a production tool. Knowing that boundary saves you from a costly pilot project.

4. Thermal vs non thermal label printer: which one has lower total cost?

The conventional wisdom—thermal is cheaper because there is no ink—ignores media cost. Direct thermal labels are heat-sensitive, so they cost more per roll than standard paper labels, and they can darken in sunlight or on a truck dashboard. For shipping labels with a short life, direct thermal often wins. For asset tags that need to last years, a non-thermal label printer or a thermal transfer printer is the better call.

I compared two options for our return center: a dedicated thermal printer plus media, and a non-thermal label printer using standard label sheets and existing toner. At 5,000 labels a month, the thermal device won. At 800 labels a month, the non-thermal route was cheaper because the toner was already being used for documents. Your answer depends on volume, label lifespan, and label stock pricing. Actually, let me amend that: it also depends on waste. The cheapest label stock in the world is not cheap if it jams every other run. And don't forget the cost of a failed label—removing a label from a package costs more than the label itself.

5. When does a Kodak photo printer mini make sense for a business?

A Kodak photo printer mini makes sense when you need immediate, portable photo output and the volume is low enough that outsourcing is slower or more expensive. We use one for event badges and for printing before-and-after photos in fleet damage reports. At 25 to 50 prints per event, the per-print cost is higher than a commercial lab, but the turnaround and privacy are what you're paying for.

For context, as of January 2025, a quick online print job from a service like 48 Hour Print runs about $20–35 for 500 business cards on the budget end and $35–60 in the mid-range; rush delivery adds 50–100% if you need it next business day. Those are publicly listed prices, not special quotes. That comparison matters because it puts your own printing costs in perspective. If an outside vendor adds two days of shipping and a $45 setup fee, the portable printer starts to look reasonable—but only if you actually use it.

6. Should we buy an all-in-one printer or dedicated photo and label printers?

A vendor who says we are not the best fit for that earns my trust. The same logic applies to printers. An all-in-one is fine for documents, scans, and occasional label sheets. But if you need high volumes of labels and photos, a dedicated device is usually simpler to maintain. The Kodak Mini 2 printer is a dedicated portable photo printer; a thermal or non-thermal label printer is a dedicated label machine; an all-in-one is a compromise.

Let me be boring: a vendor that tells you what they are not good at is rare. The ones I reorder from are the ones who say, We are not the best fit for that—use this other tool for it.

During our 2023 budget review, I found that about a third of our printing supplies overrun came from using the wrong device for the job—printing labels on the copier, for example, and watching toner disappear. A dedicated thermal label printer saved us about $430 over six months in supplies; no, wait—with labor and downtime it was closer to $900. My rule now: buy the dedicated tool for the high-volume task and keep one all-in-one for everything else. That is not a clever idea. It is just the truth about consumables.

7. How should I budget for printer consumables?

Budgeting for consumables is simple in theory and messy in practice. I keep a rolling 12-month forecast in a spreadsheet with four rows: equipment, media, maintenance, and labor. For label printers, add label stock and ribbon or toner; for photo printers, add paper and ink or ribbon packs; for all-in-one printers add drum wear. I know that sounds obvious, but our 2023 overrun happened because we grouped all printing supplies into one bucket and could not see which device was eating the budget.

Now we review the numbers quarterly. In Q2 2024, for example, we switched the warehouse to a dedicated label printer and moved photo printing to a Kodak photo printer mini. It was not the cheapest hardware, but the consumables were predictable, and predictability is worth a lot when you have to explain a variance to finance. If you cannot answer what your average cost per photo or per label is, you are not ready to buy another printer.