Anal Retentive Organizers Rejoice!

I admit it, I have a problem. I always have. I was one of those dorks in high school (think Reese Witherspoon in Election) who had a fancy daily planner and would write down my evening's homework assignments according to a color coded system. (Red ink was for Calculus; blue ink for AP Physics; purple ink for English; etc.)

Well, this need to have everything organized and put in its proper place has only become more of an obsession as time goes by. (Of course, having a cute little baby poses some challenges to "the system".) At any rate, it got into my mind at some point that the one thing I most wanted in this world was....a label maker.

Confession: The PT-2700 was not my first time
The first label maker I got was a cheapo thing from Target, made by Dymo. It cost probably $25 or less. I figured that all labelmakers were created equal. I was wrong. When you asked this thing to print in a larger font size, the text on the label was stretched out longer, not larger. And--I'm finicky about this sort of thing--the text looked ugly. It looked the way text looked on the monitor of your Apple II computer back in 1987. (When there was a diagonal slant in a letter, the Dymo printed it in a step-ladder fashion.) Plus, if you had letters which have tails (e.g., the letters g, y, j, p) those were squished and set above the line of printing. Hard to explain, but trust me, it looked bizarre and ugly. Honestly, some people only need a label maker to tell you the contents of a canister. I wanted it to look nice too. (A little Martha Stewart in me, no doubt.)

Features
The Brother PT-2700 is one of the latest models by the manufacturer to turn to for label makers, as I learned from a little research. I promptly purchased it and am now happy as a clam.

It uses tape up to 1" wide, so you can make larger mailing labels or name tags with the 1" tape as well as tiny little labels for your CD jewel cases using 9/64" (3.5 mm) tape. (By the way, the PT-2700 can also print vertically--very helpful for those CD & DVD jewel cases.) Also, you can print up to 7 lines on a single 1" wide label.

It has 8 built-in fonts, 8 sizes (6pt to 48pt), and 12 type styles (bold, shadow, italic, mirror, outline, etc). It can underline text as well as make borders (some silly graphic borders included).

The labels come out laminated, so it's durable and can be used indoors or outdoors. There is also a huge variety of label colors available (to be purchased separately), like red text on a black background, white text on a blue background, black text on a clear label, etc.

If you run your own business, this label maker can make working bar codes for your products!

The keyboard is set up in QWERTY fashion (like a computer) which is very handy. Other label makers (including the sucky Dymo I started out with), put their keys in alphabetic order, so you have to search for each letter. Also, the PT-2700 has all the numbers and the basic symbols (&, %, $, ;, etc.) right on their keyboard. Some other label makers require you to go into a symbol menu and find the symbol every time you want to use a dash - symbol. The PT-2700 only puts the more obscure symbols in their symbol menu.

The PT-2700 can save up to 99 label files in its memory, so you don't have to go back and retype text and redo your font and size preferences. However, the memory will erase if you disconnect the PT-2700 from its power source without having battery backup. You can run the PT-2700 on the included AC adapter or use 8 AA batteries.

Another WONDERFUL feature is that you can connect it to your PC or Mac using the included USB cable (super easy!). There is a CD of software included which allows you to make more complex labels on your computer and print them to the PT-2700. In this way, a whole variety more of fonts and symbols become available.

The cons
The LCD screen is backlit and gives you a preview of your label before you print it, which is good. But I have to admit that the screen is very simplistic and it's hard to get a real idea of the finished label from the screen alone.

The buttons are tough/sticky. Though the QWERTY board makes you tempted to type as quickly as on a computer, the buttons stick and require you to press down on each one with adequate pressure. I can't tell you the number of times I've tried to make a label quickly and had to go back and insert letters which the PT-2700 skipped because I didn't push the button hard enough. (Thank goodness for the LCD preview.)

The label maker is not that small. It is almost 7 x 10 inches and weighs 1.87 lbs. It's not something that you're going to throw into your purse or briefcase.

The biggest downside? The labels can be costly. Regular (black text on white background) Brother TZ tape is less expensive, but still runs about $14 for two cartridges on Target's website. If you want to have a variety of label sizes (I have a 1" and a 1/2" tape) and colors on hand, you're looking at a very expensive initial investment. But the 1st cartridge I've bought still hasn't run out on me and I've done a lot of labeling already. The nice thing about the PT-2700 is that it gives you the option to adjust the size of the white space that precedes and follows your text, so that you can save a little on the label tape.

My own experience with it

I actually saw the PT-2700 on sale at Staples for $100 with a $50 mail-in rebate. I didn't buy it immediately, though, and by the time I came back the sale was over. Thankfully, I found the PT-2700 at Superwarehouse.com for $62 (instant rebate!) and also got TZ tape cartridges there for between $8-$12. (You can read my review of Superwarehouse.com)
At that price, the PT-2700 is far superior to all the other label makers, even of the P-Touch series.

I've used it to label CDs & DVDs, electronic equipment, the flour, sugar, rice, pasta, etc. canisters in my kitchen, my kitchen shelves and drawers, notebooks, etc. Since I could run it on AA batteries, I disconnected it and brought it downstairs when my husband and I decided to rearrange and clean out our basement storage space. We had maybe 30-40 files boxes filled with books, music albums, and odds and ends. Using the PT-2700, we were able to quickly label the boxes on the side with a list of its contents. Then, using the labels as a guide, we were able to stack the boxes, organized according to the type of books, etc. I labeled all the boxes with my daughters infant clothing according to the size of the clothing--ready to be pulled out when we have our next child. This label maker really helped make me feel productive and organized.

One other thing I would recommend to users is to be careful when printing extra long labels. Since the label tape is wound so tightly in its cartridge, when you go to peel the backing off of long labels, the label may curl and stick to itself. So just use some caution if you want to prevent throwing away that label.


Conclusion
I'd recommend the PT-2700 over and over again if you're looking for a label maker. It just can't be beat.