Brother QL-570
Since reading David Allen’s book Getting Things Done, I have been using a Brother PT-1280 to label folders and other things around my office, and even garden tools. It is small and portable and has been pretty good, but I found better in the Brother QL-570. I love my QL-570.
It is rare to find me creating labels very far from my office so portibility wasn’t really very important and I was always worried how much of the $30 label tapes the PT-1280 was wasting. The QL-570 on the other hand uses pre-cut labels without any waste. The QL-570 also supports labels up to 2.4″ wide. In many shapes and sizes including round labels for a CD/DVD. The paper labels are much cheaper than plastic tape labels although I am sure they are not as durable for outdoor use.
I have found changing label size and type is very easy. The printer recognizes the label size and adjusts the paper for printing. I was very pleasantly surprised when I printed my first label and found there was no waste. The printer adjusts the tape to print on the first label and cuts off between labels. I do have a growing drawer of label rolls for address labels, folder labels and free form tape. The CD/DVD labels are next on my list.
The QL-570 uses the P-Touch Editor and connects easily to my Mac, running Snow Leopard. This makes it easy to add an image or icon to the label. I like the ability to type my labels using the full sized keyboard and the ability to layout and format the text on my computer screen. There is also a provision to save the labels if you have something you use frequently.
I know it is probably wishful thinking but I haven’t been able to get the Mac version of the label editor to print to a shared printer across the network. I don’t know if the feature is supported by the PC version but it would be a nice to have. The printer is cheap enough I could probably put one by both desktop computers though. If you use MS Windows there are some cheaper options from Brother as well.
I have had the printer for a couple months now and use it regularly. It was a good investment for the time and cost it saves.