Label printing and applying apparatus

A label printing and applying apparatus, comprising:

• a printer for printing labels in a web of a series of labels, the printer including printing means for printing labels as the web of labels is moved past the printing means, and including feed means for advancing the web of labels past the printing means to a receiving means;
• a label holder removably attachable to the printer, the label holder including receiving means for receiving and holding the label web that is fed to the receiving means by the feed means, after label printing by the printing means;
• and
• a label applier, the label holder being removably attachable to the label applier;
• the label applier including means for feeding the label web from the label holder to the label applier;
• the label applier including an exit for labels of the label web, where labels may be removed from the label applier, and the label applier feeding means feeding the label web to the exit of the label applier;
• memory circuit means at the label holder for remembering the indicia printed upon the labels at the printing means while the label holder is attached to the printer and for providing an indication of the remembered indicia when the label holder is attached to the label applier.

A method of printing labels and applying the labels to other objects, wherein the labels are arranged in a series on a web of labels, comprising the steps of:

• printing the labels in series with indicia;
• collecting the web of printed labels on a label holder;
• separating the collected labels and the label holder from the means which printed the labels;
• attaching the label holder to a label applier;
• feeding the web of labels to the label applier and applying the labels individually to an object to be labeled;
• inputting printing instructions to the printer for printing particular indicia on a first quantity of labels on the web;
• also inputting the printing instructions in a memory;
• indicating the printing instructions from the memory at an indicator for each of the labels as each of the labels is being applied by the label applier.