Doesn't Mind Being Labeled

How the PT-80 came into our home:
We recently set up our new Oggi 7-Piece Canister Set in our kitchen. The only problem, we had to continually open the canisters to remember what was inside of each. I am a very organized person and thought that a label maker would serve me in more than just labeling the canisters.

I asked my husband to stop at Staples on his way home from work. He selected the Brother P-touch PT-80 Label Printer for $31.49. When he got home he said it was between this one and another he had seen. We went on to Staples Online Store
and found the other one he was considering, a Brother 1880. I examined the two and decided I liked the one he got better. It is compact, lightweight, and easy to hold. And if that did not convince me it is blue and light green, very attractive.

One thing we did notice on the Staples Online Store was the price difference. There it was only selling for $21.99. My husband brought the receipt into the store and they verified this and gave us money back, so we only paid $22 for it, plus tax.

Purpose:
The Brother PT-80 is a hand held personal label maker, which can be used around the house or on the go. That's right, it runs on batteries and never needs to be plugged in so you can take it anywhere. It is smaller than its other brothers, which are usually designed for businesses and need an outlet to work. Labeling on the go, presents a lot of possibilities.

Label uses:
I can think of many uses for my portable label maker. I have already used it in my home on drawers, storage boxes, items in the freezer, and other containers. I can imagine it would be good when trying to learn a foreign language. This Brothers product has an accent feature so you can print our foreign words for different objects. For example, I could find out what window means in Spanish and then put it on the window to help me learn the word.

Inside the package:
Now that I have got your attention, let me tell you what you get inside the package. First, the package the Brother PT-80 comes in is easy to open and requires no scissors. The items you will find in the package include the label maker itself, instructions, the label cartridge, and registering information.

Appearance:
The label maker is an attractive dark blue and neon green color. It measures 6 inches across and 3 1/2 inches in height. It is 1 1/2 inches thick. The top is blue with blue keys and white letters. A few of the buttons are green and the sides of the machine are green. The bottom is blue.

Set up:
The blue bottom snaps off the label maker to add the label cartridge. The first thing I noticed when I went to put the label maker together is it requires four AAA batteries. Luckily, we had those on hand. Next the cartridge has to be placed into the back of the label maker in a position that the paper will come out the cartridge and feed through the label maker. These were easy things to do and while there were instructions the tasks did not require them.

I popped the bottom back on and turned on the label maker. It immediately said English? I hit enter. Other options for languages include Spanish, French, or Portuguese. Next, it asked inch? I hit enter again, but could have selected the metric system. The next task was to set the date and time, which was easy to do using the numbered keys and the right left arrows. After doing so I hit enter and was ready to use the machine. I did not need the instructions to complete set up, but they are very detailed in walking the user through set up.

Use:
Eager to test out the label maker, I at first ignored the instructions. I turned on the label maker and punched in the word baking soda so I could label one of the canisters. The top of the screen has an LCD that is 2 inches in length and shows up to 12 characters at one time. Later I found out that up to 80 characters can be used on a label.

The keys I saw on the screen included all the letters of the alphabet set up like a keyboard. Two shift buttons to access the numbers, which are shared with the top letters of the screen; there is also a numbers lock button. A caps lock button. Left and right scroll buttons. A time and date button. Symbol and access options. Backspace, space, enter, zoom. And finally print.

I hit print and my baking soda label feed through the left side of the machine. I pushed the green cutter to detach my label from the rest of the tape. I was disappointed to see that my label did not have the two piece easy to remove tape. However, as my husband noted from the instructions, there is a place on the labeler, which I inserted the label and pulled out to have the peel on my label released.

Instructions:
Once I played on my own for a bit, I consulted the instructions to find out what else this baby could do. The instructions are printed in both English and Spanish; funny Portuguese and French are not included despite the machine being set up for them. The instructions were easy to read and walked me through set up if I needed and outlined such items as making text, designing labels, printing labels, and other functions.

Features:

Making Text:
As I mentioned earlier, text can be changed between turning capital letters on and off or using the number lock. The Brother PT-80 also has symbols that can be accessed for use on labels. The symbols are not shown on the keyboard, the symbol button has to be hit and then each number coordinates with a set of symbols. For example if I press 1 after hitting symbols, seven different punctuation marks will appear on the LCD and I can use the left and right arrows and enter to select the symbol I want. Some basic punctuation symbols can be selected via the keyboard such as a comma, slash, quotation, hyphen, or period. Other symbols include an asterisk, money symbol, heart, star, paw print, car, plane, cat, dog, arrows, parentheses, and more. There are a total of 71 symbols. My favorite of the symbols is the poison symbol; a skull with bones underneath, because it easily labels bottles that have toxic items in them.

The enter button and cursors can be used to create two lined text on the same label. Obviously doing this makes the writing on the label slightly smaller. The last text feature is using accented characters. The accented characters are controlled by hitting the accent button followed by a letter. Each letter coordinates with a list of accents the way the numbers coordinated with symbols. For example if I hit capital A I will see a list of ten possible capital A accented symbols. The symbol desired can be selected by using the left or right scroll button and enter. There are over a hundred possible accented characters.

Designing Labels:
Label design is controlled by the green key marked fn in combination with other keys. The first setting allows a view of either large or small text. The next setting changes the width or the length of the text. Text can be cleared one letter at a time or all at once. Another designing option gives the choice text style. Options include normal, bold, outlined, italic, shadowed, vertical, and more. The design can also be changed to make text appear inside a bubble, as a banner, inside a candy shape and more. The last design option is adding the time and date to a label, which can be done for a variety of things. The example the instructions give is in using VCR VHS applications. Other applications include Mini DV, Audio, File Tab, and Divider.

Printing Labels:
Text is seen in the LCD prior to printing to ensure an error free label. Up to 9 copies of the same label can be printed. Labels can be cut with the side green cutter as previously mentioned. And backing can be peeled by placing the tape in the peeler and removing it quickly.

The Label Tape Cartridge:
The label cartridge comes with label tape size 1/2 inch. The tape provided is non-laminated. The cartridge did not tell me the length of the label tape provided, nor could I find this information on the Brother website (www.brother-usa.com/). I ended up finding it on a refill purchase form within the package. All tapes sold for this product are 26.2" long. Refill cartridges cost $10.49 at Staples Online Store.

Recommendation:
Overall I am very happy with my Brother PT-80 Label Maker. I like that it is compact, lightweight, and cord-free to take with me anywhere. I use the label maker for basic labeling, but it has many options and possibilities. For example; the text can be surrounded by a conversation bubble so I can create phrases to dress over pictures in scrapbooking.

This label maker is easy to use and the directions make use even easier to understand. I have had it over a month now and am still on the same label tape ream. The label product looks great, as if it were printed off a computer. The one drawback is the labels are not easy to peel on my own, but the built in label peeler has eliminated this complaint.

The Brother PT-80 Label Maker is a great tool for daily home use, for teachers, scrapbookers, and for use in any profession or creative outlet.