grimjack2's Full Review: Brother P-Touch® PT-65 Label Printer
First off, I’ll give a gold star to anyone who gets the reference I’m making with the title.
I remember 25 years ago seeing my parents get all excited about a little label maker. It was bright red, and had a circular wheel that you would rotate around until you found the letter you were looking for and then click the large button that was the size of the handle. This would then emboss the letter onto a sticky tape for easy labeling. It was fun to play with, but having little use for labels as a child it didn’t impress me as a toy, like it seemed to be for my parents.
I haven’t really had to label much since then that I didn’t either use computer printouts for, or a large felt pen. All this changed when I came across a Brother PT-65 at a temp job I was working. This thing is great, and makes labeling anything very easy. And the labels are clear, easy to read, and can be stuck onto anything from file folders to VCR tapes.
The PT-65 fits nicely in the hands. It is about 6” across, 4” deep, and weighs about 2 pounds when the batteries are installed. The keyboard is laid out like a typewriter which is good, except it is really too small to type as if it were a laptop, and it may be hard to find the keys when you are using just your thumbs. It is shaped a little like a console videogame controller so I can’t help but feel like I should be holding it in the air and trying to type with my thumbs rather than put it down on a surface and type with all my fingers.
The LED display is a little inadequate, showing only 8 characters, but I think they would have to increase the size of the unit to show any more. There are good representations on the display for which font you are using, and whether or not Caps or numbers are selected locked.
The options for your text are rather extensive. There are five sizes: 9 point, 9 point extended, 17 point, 17 point condensed, and 17 point extended. 17 pt type is largest, and unlike typewriter fonts, the point size seems to represent the width more than the height. At the smallest size, you can print out two lines on the ˝” tape. The font is fairly uniform, and is sans serif.
There are also nine styles: normal, vertical, italic, bold, outline, shadow, bold italic, italic & outline, and italic & shadow. The vertical is great for things like CD cases or VCR tapes (assuming you stack them vertically of course). Shadow is a nice effect that adds a little depth to your labels.
The Numbers can be ‘locked’ on, like caps lock, or you can press the code key with one of the letters on the top row for the same effect. This is a nice touch satisfying both those who only use numbers and those who need to stick one in occasionally. There are eighty symbols available by pressing the symbol key and scrolling through pages of examples. These range from little pictures to foreign alphabet letters.
You also have the ability to do text framing. This puts a box, or picture, around your text. The wooden and candy are easily the strangest. I can see them being used occasionally, but not too often. Even the standard square with rounded corners seems odd when placed on a label. The exception to this might be if you were sticking a white label to a white object and wanted to emphasize that the text is on a label. The shaded patterns would work best for this too.
The PT-65 uses 6 AA batteries. This seemed like a lot to me, but it might need it. I’ve used this for several hours and haven’t needed to replace the batteries yet. A few hours is actually a lot of time to spend printing labels.
The PT-65 can take either 3/8” or ˝” width tapes. It comes with ˝” tape, and you have to purchase the smaller one separately. Different accessories are available. But in actuality, just a carrying case (that almost costs the price of the unit), and various different colors of ribbons.
The packaging Brother puts this in is great. There are large, easy to read samples on the back of the plastic package. Also, the instructions are great. They are on an easy to use, fold out sheet of paper that includes sample text of all the different typefaces, frames, extras, and even a grid of the available symbols. This is really handy to have until you are used to some of the more arcane features available. It is also exceptionally nice to see them all laid out in front of you when deciding which effects you want.
This currently sells for $20, and at that price, I doubt there is a better deal available for a labeler.
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