Brother PC-Connectable Label Maker with Auto Cutter (PT-2430PC)

I love how you can design your labels on the computer and get a fairly accurate idea of what you'll get before actually printing a label. This can you save you a lot of money in the long run since you don't have to print a bunch of trial and error samples using expensive tape to get it right.After months of daily use the cutter still works fine. This was a concern for me when I bought this model, because it has no lever or anything to manually cut the tape if the automatic cutter gets jammed or dull. But after literally thousands of labels made, there has been no problem here.The computer software is easy to install and use and has a huge selection of font, alignment, styles, and clip art options. Of course you can save your designs for repeat use.In my own application I often have need of the same layout but with differing contents, like the same label with the same text but also with numbers in a sequence counting up from the first label to the last. Or also as wire markers with not only varying numbers but also varying lengths to fit different size wires and wire bundles.Since I'm also a programmer in Visual Basic I downloaded Brother's free SDK (Software Development Kit) to create my own custom programs to automate the labeling process. I just select the type of label I want, and enter the sequential numbers range to be printed on the labels, how many copies, even the AWG gauge and numbers of wires in a particular cable bundle so it can calculate the necessary length for each label, and then just sit back and watch all the labels spit out of the printer.Anyone with programming know-how can easily create their own applications. You add the Brother utility into your application and then use simple code to send data and instructions to the printer. For each particular layout you want to use, you make a template and save it. The template has named fields for all of the label's content. Then your program application simply calls up the saved template and plugs your data into the defined fields and then sends it to the printer.My only issue with the on-screen editor which comes with the printer is that it's a bit quirky sometimes. It tries to auto-size and wrap your text as you are entering it, so if you want a specific and precise spacing and alignment you may have to fiddle with the font sizes and alignment, etc, while designing a label or template.I have been able to produce some very accurate results with some trial and error. For example, a one meter length measuring tape with one, five, and ten millimeter markings which I put on my workbench for cutting wires to length. Or marking the numbers of dip switches or LED segments accurately in electronics control panels. The scale provided in the provided on-screen editoris fairly matches what you'll actually get on the printed label until you get down to the smallest font sizes. Then you may have to play around to find the right font and alignments and print a few test samples to adjust it perfectly.The ability to use non-integer font sizes is cool. You can specify a font size like 12.3 or 18.75 rather than just whole numbers, so this allows you to tweak the spacing and alignment of text to fit your needs pretty closely.Although you can print images like jpegs and gifs, don't expect it to be photo quality. But for stuff like company logos it works fine.A close-up of my dog's face did come out recognizable - not too bad for basically just a bunch of dots on a skinny label.All in all, this is a very durable and versatile label maker. It can do way more than any label maker without a PC interface.My only question is why they bothered to make it big enough to hold so many batteries since this thing is made for the desktop and plugs into an AC outlet with the included adapter. It's not really portable. I guess you could use it with a laptop or something but it would be a bit awkward.But this is a very useful and cool product and worth every penny I spent on it!P.S. Use only genuine Brother label tape. I know it's too expensive. I wish you could by it in bulk at wholesale prices! But the cheaper imitation brands just don't work nearly as good as the real thing.

I have used both TZ and M type brother lable printers for many years. This one is my favorite of all!It is much faster to use than any of the self contained units, and I can print a whole spreadsheet of inventory labels with bar codes in one sitting. Sweet!These units are much less expensive than the stand-alone units. I got the one that will print up to 1" wide labels, for those wanting to spend less, the unit that prints up to 1/2" is an extremely good deal ($20 when I saw it a couple days ago).There are a lot of "gotchas" with printers that use the TZ series cartridges. However I prefer this type of cartridge as the label backing is easier to peel off than the "m" type labels. The gotchas of the TZ lables are:- Larger cartridge, that can only hold 26' of tape. If you print a lot of labels, you will buy a lot of cartridges. The M cartridges hold the same amount of tape, but are half the size... But M tapes are very difficult to peel, and if you print a lot of labels, you will hate the M-type labels.- The cartridges are easy to jam if you make a mistake. On stand alone printers, hitting the cut button while the label is still printing will cause you to jam (50% of the people that borrow my printer do this on their first label). For the label makers that support larger cartridges than the one you are using, if you fail to push the cartridge in all the way, it will jam. Both of these are user errors, but both are easy to accidentally do. There should be clear warnings about this on a peel-off label, the instructions cover proper use, but most people don't read or even see the instructions.I gave the unit 5 stars because I am an experienced user, I am very happy with my printer, and the only problems I had were user error.But it is only fair to warn you that the limitations I have seen with these label printers over the years are all still present, you have to be careful. If you misuse the unit, you can easily ruin a label cartridge.Also, I printed so many labels on my first day that I went through 3 cartridges the first hour. I disassembled one of the used-up cartridges, and found the roll of transfer film. The roll of transfer film has a negative image of all of the labels you have made on that cartridge. So just like some of the old type-writer single-use printer ribbons, the part you throw away has a record of everything you have printed. So if you work with classified or secret documents, don't toss your spent cartridge in the trash in an insecure manner. It will need to be properly destroyed, or kept in an archive for as long as your information remains classified. Fire is probably the only good method of destruction, and then only if you are sure it is 100% burned up. Something to keep in mind!

This piece of equipment is deliberately designed to be unsustainable. Actually, it is deliberately designed to rip customers off, but it does so at the additional cost of screwing the environment. Because: why not! It seems to be what some companies proudly interpret as The American Way. It has an "auto cut" feature. That is a selling point. They don't tell you that for every label you print, it spools off exactly one inch of empty tape, cuts it, spits it out, then prints your actual label. Many of the labels I print are an inch or less. So for every label I print, Brother gets a label. Their tape is expensive. Before you buy this printer, check out the price. Then know you will be throwing half of every spool you buy onto a landfill. Their latest "middle finger" moment is the "eco friendly" description on the packaging of their tape. They have gone to the herculean (apparently) effort of making the plastic part of their packaging thinner. That is lovely. The point is that the individual hard plastic cartridges are still individually wrapped in a plastic baggie, then sealed in a (now somewhat thinner) plastic box, with a cardboard surround (which is where they have a bold "eco friendly" pictured above a grove of trees and a tranquil, blue lake). I now make lists of labels I want to print, and print them off as one loooooong label with spaces in between the words. Then I carefully cut them by hand. Such technology. Such convenience. And every single time I use this thing, I am pissy and annoyed.