Brother PT1290 Home and Office Labeler Save 28% off

• 15 Deco Mode Patterns to create extra-stylish and decorative labels
• Built-in memory, saves up to 9 of your favorite labels
• Professional Deco Mode layouts accommodate two rows of text
• Six auto formats and seven framing options
• Easy-view, 15-character LCD display

This is a good printer for someone looking to customize their labels with designs, upside down/right side up, reverse color and other fancy tricks. For business purposes, I''d recommend a printer that takes larger interchangable tapes and less gimmicks. Maximum tape size is 1/2" so dual line print is very small. Keyboard is very tiny, will be limited to two finger typing only. Has two fonts (Bohemia and Helsenki) but can alter with three sizes, three widths and nine stypes (bold, vertical, underline, shadow, hearts or stars, etc.) Emphasizes Deco Mode which does very fancy printing but wouldn''t be used in a standard business setting. Nice compact size so can be carried around easily. AC power supply is an optional accessory ($19) so may want to factor that into purchase, otherwise uses six AAA batteries.

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I got this as a gift for my parents they will probably not use all the fancy features like the graphics you can add with this laber. It comes with one cartridge so you may want to add a few more.

My likes about the p-touch system:

1 labels last a long time but not forever

2 colors are available and easy to switch out

3 conservative on the batteries

4 compact and nice form factor like a typewriter but smaller I have 2 other smaller P-touch labelers that go in my trucks for labeling cables and wires very handy at times.

5 added fancy graphics features on this model my small ptouch system is only good for perhaps drawing a box around text, these get pretty fancy

6 new label design has a split down the middle making removal of the new backing easier prior labels were troublesome to remove the backing.

I bought this for my dad who turned 75. If he can use it, I think most any age person can get more organized. We find unusual uses for the labels it prints some are used not only to identify property but also to hold on the battery door on a flimsy product. Others are used to annotate a spreadsheet of medications with a new one before giving it to a new doctor. The uses just keep showing up for the product!

I bought mine during the fast and furious sale which closed out in 5 seconds as did the next model up with a usb interface. The graphicss are minimal on this but add a nice touch to someone who is beginning scrapping or wants a simple, easy to use low cost label. For serious graphics you will want the pc version. For my dad, this will do fine.

I labeled some outdoor stuff that faded out after a while (3 years) so do note that p-touch labels expire with sunlight.

Lastly, the features are well made such that the cover can be removed fast and replaced without any lost screws or broken snaps. This has always been a brother p-touch feature that I appreciate from my truck labelers which get the tape color changed frequently it''s matter of opening the door and replacing the cartridge no fancy stuff and can be done one handed. Without that design feature you could easily have a product that breaks far too soon. My 2 other p-touch labelers that are 7 years old and have been dropped off ladders at worksites still run fine. Its a quality product that will serve many purposes for a long life, which is why dad got one. UPDATE 1 year later his is still on the first set of batteries and running strong!

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The extra space at the front of the label is definitely an issue for me. If you set margins to "Narrow" there is minimal space after the text but you still have 1" at the front so the text is not centered. The best way to save tape it to put it on "Chain Print" and print multiple labels at a time. Nonetheless, you still have to use a scissors to trim all the labels and that is a pain.

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This is a great little label maker. It has some great options including adding fun symbols and shapes like hearts, stars and different fonts to your labels. I''ve used it to label glass containers in our pantry for baking items and love the neat and easy to read look of it. Very user friendly and easy way to keep things organized. Of course like all label makers I''ve used, it seems to use up more tape than I''d like but this one offers a great solution by giving you the "narrow margin" option. This avoids the extra inch margin on either end of your label. Great! I find myself looking for things to label just so I can use this labeler.

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Before purchasing this product, you should be aware that it is designed for laminated tape and ONLY works on laminated tape. The machine itself costs 50% more on Amazon at the time I write this than the non-laminate model, and more importantly the laminate tape costs twice as much as the non-laminate tape. The laminate tape also can''t be written on. Moreover, because of concerns about the laminating print head, it is designed to waste an inch of the expensive tape each time you cut the tape. Since the tape costs $12 for the 26-foot tape on Amazon (and a Brother tech support told me it''s $15-20 purchased locally, yes, you read that right, almost as much as the machine), that''s fifty cents a foot, or about a nickle per inch. So that extra inch costs you a nickle each time, and each label costs you from 15 cents to 30 cents depending on how long it is. (My very first label, which says simply "Test", is almost 3 inches long and therefore costs almost 15 cents, with all settings on default.) I may return it, despite the cumbersome process for returning things online, because I don''t have any need for weather-proof labels and am not willing to pay several dollars extra a year for them. Now, if you are willing to always print several labels at a time, and cut the labels apart yourself with scissors, you can avoid this inch wastage by using the continuous mode. Or if you want a blank inch on either side of your label all the time, which is the default, then arguably it isn''t wasted. For me this isn''t worth the dime that 2 inches of blank space is costing me plus I didn''t want it anyway because it may unnecessarily make the label too long to fit on a file folder without cutting it with scissors myself, which is exactly the sort of manual thing that label makers are supposed to get rid of.

The second thing you should be aware of is that while the machine is quite powerful, it is not very easy to use. I am not saying the product is badly designed, it''s just that it has enough stuff crammed into it that I think will confuse many people (it confuses me slightly, and I have a Ph.D. in a technical field). The design could be a lot worse, but my guess is that for most people the extra options will simply confuse things.

So for those of you who just want to label file folders quickly and cheaply, like me, I''d consider Brother Personal Labeler Machine, White (PT90). Also, it seems the laminate tape models like this one also use 6 batteries, whereas the non-laminate like the one I link to above use only 4.