Brother P-Touch® PT-1180 Matrix Label Printer

Pros: Very quiet; Not very expensive
Cons: Display holds only 55 characters; Wastes tape

Printing labels is a common task in offices and schools and many companies and institutions have several hand- operated label makers for easy, non- electrical usage. But for a small price, you can purchase an electronic device to print labels that is ...

Pros: Low cost, ease-of-use, quietness, versatility, excellent customer service
Cons: Needs longer character length per label, cassettes might jam and tear if not installed correctly

Why I Purchased This Label Printer A friend of mine has a Brother label printer that he uses for his home-based business, and one day he showed it to me. I was amazed at how it spit out labels quickly, quietly, one right after the other. ...

Pros: it seemed to power on and off very well.
Cons: There are too many too mention in 15 words.

How many things could possibly go wrong with this thing? I took this machine back to target twice. I trust the brother name, but this plastic box desperately needs to be put out of its misery. The ribbon gets wrapped around the inside of it and requires a good deal of finesse and wrapping around to get it back on track - then it is just a matter of time until it tangles up again.
The interface is hard to read and the menus are confusing. There are too many features that do not work well, I wish that brother would make a device that has simple formatting options instead of all that other junk like shadow or outline.
BEWARE OF THE P-TOUCH 1180!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pros: Nice features and keyboard layout.
Cons: See above about issues with tape margins and waste.

I bought this machine to label two entire file cabinets' worth of file folders, only to find that the machine automatically inserts a 1" left lead margin onto every label printed, and it is impossible to reset the left margin. The length of the tab on a standard file folder is 2", which leaves you with two options:
(1) Print out a label that is 1" longer than the tab you're trying to label -- making it unusuable for labeling file folders; or
(2) Reset the right-hand margin, and when you print out the resulting label you must cut off and throw away the 1" left margin that is irreversibly blank.

In other words, you end up wasting over half the cassette of label tape just because you can't reset the left margins. The lady on the customer service line told me it was because the 1180 uses laminated tape. I just think it's plain idiotic, and I would have never bought this machine if I'd known.

Pros: Easy, rugged, versatile.
Cons: Expensive tape. Can't mix font sizes on a single label.

Have been using this for almost 4 years. Very satisfied. Perfect for occasional household labels (shelves, PDA, mailbox, circuit box, washer-dryer controls, hard-to-see hi-fi buttons,...). Easy to use, 5 font sizes, can make multiple copies of same label. Variety of tapes available -- foreground/background colors. Laminated tape ensures rugged long-stick no-smudge labels. But laminated tape is not cheap, would not be economical for making hundreds of office labels. Still using the original set of 6 batteries.