Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Brother P-touch Label Maker, Versatile Easy-to-Use Labeler, PTD400AD, AC Adapter, QWERTY Keyboard, Multiple Line Labeling, White

Top positive review

A work horse packed wth features.

May 6, 2016

I was pleasantly surprised when I started using this guy and realized all the things that it did. I had originally purchased the Dymo handheld and I'll leave that topic for my review of it but it's with my nephew. The Brother is easy to use, intuitive, has an awesome book of directions. Now their is a small learning curve once you track down what you want to do, it makes sense.

It runs with an included adapter and or 6 AA batteries. I mostly want to make flag labels to help me more quickly identify the mass wires that support my electronics. But other uses became known rather quickly. "don't open", On/off for light switches, reminders around the thermostat and so much more. Really glad I bought this. I tried to do the labels on the computer with the Dymo and it was a useless experience. I think you can do all that you need with this guy and you can save the extra cost to run a label program on the computer (like the upgraded models offer)

258 people found this helpful

Top critical review

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BLT

Read before you buy - it will save you money, frustration and waste

January 13, 2018

It would be 4 maybe 5 stars if I didn't have to literally cut each label after I print because it only allows you to adjust the right margin - I am literally throwing away between 30% and 40% of the tape for each label!! Obviously their money is in tape sales - I'd love to see their margins and sales #'s when it comes to tape vs the label maker. I feel like I am being patronized and I may just pony up for another product so I don't feel quite so used. Please correct me if I am wrong.

129 people found this helpful

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BLT

Read before you buy - it will save you money, frustration and waste

January 13, 2018

Verified Purchase

129 people found this helpful

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44 comments

A work horse packed wth features.

May 6, 2016

Verified Purchase

258 people found this helpful

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33 comments

Small, intuitive label maker that is great for home organization

March 20, 2017

Verified Purchase

Great little label maker which is extremely easy to use. There are fancier label makers out there with color screens and advanced other features, but to me this one hits the sweet spot of doing everything I need without making me spend money on features I won't use.

I use this primarily for "domestic organization" -- i.e., labeling storage boxes and such -- and this label maker is more than sufficient for that purpose. It is small enough to be easy to store, but not so small that I have to strain to see the screen or the keys. Most of the features you will use commonly (selecting font size, etc.) you can do without reading the instructions. My point here isn't that you don't need the instruction book, but rather that this thing is largely intuitive.

One tip: As other reviewers have noted, if you print labels individually this machine by default leaves annoyingly large margins on either side of them. You can partly overcome this if you are making more than one label at a time by using the "chain" feature, which helps cut down on the size of the margin between the labels.

Overall I'm very happy with this little label maker.

94 people found this helpful

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M. Ward

Wonderful for creating spine labels for my books

June 3, 2016

Verified Purchase

I used the sample cartridge to experiment and still had enough to do a bunch of labels. The cure for too-much-white-space on each end of the label is to put it into 'chain' mode. (I don't have the manual with me, so I can't tell you what page explains how to get it into that mode.) There will be white space at the beginning and end of the chain, but hardly any in between each label. It asks you after each label is printed if you want to advance the tape so that it can be cut. I printed 10 labels in a row with minimal white in between. Perfect.

Keyboard makes creating the labels so quick, printing is almost instant, the AC adapter means I won't ever have to fool with batteries, and the manual explains everything very well, making it easy for me to jump in and start creating labels immediately.

At the moment, I'm using them for spine labels on books, so I mostly did 2 lines. Big numbers and letters. I also used the 4-line setting when I had very thin books: small numbers & letters but very clear and readable. Auto-font chooses the largest font that will fit, depending on the number of lines needed. I easily changed the font size down when I needed the letters to fit onto a smaller space.

When I'm done with the books, I will try address labels and labels for the drawers and boxes that hold supplies for all my other hobbies.

I've not had any trouble with it, so I can't say how helpful customer support is...and that's good!

65 people found this helpful

0Comment

November 24, 2017

I bought this label maker this summer for my husband for work. He's a chef and needed his kitchen label. When I received it, the box was damaged (inside a large Amazon box so it had to be damaged before it was shipped) and there was no AC adapter. When I tried to return the item, they would not let me because it was an electronic. I'm not putting 6 batteries in it so it has been sitting back in the box as a waste of $50. I unpacked it again to snap a picture. So disappointed.

62 people found this helpful

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22 comments

ejune

It's not easy to figure out how to use and you waste ...

April 4, 2018

Verified Purchase

It reminds me of my printer. The cost of machine is not that expensive however the ink is very expensive. Same thing with
with this label maker. It's not easy to figure out how to use and you waste lots of labels. Would not recommend to anyone.
I will keep looking for something better then this label maker.

35 people found this helpful

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11 comment

KMTop Contributor: Pets

My first label maker, & it works pretty well.

August 2, 2019

Verified Purchase

This is my first label maker, so I have nothing to compare it to. That said:

Pros:
* Has a fair amount of versatility. (Not like a computer, but a lot of choices)
* Has the framed options, or just letters.
* Has a preview screen, which is limited, but still helpful.
* Allows multiple labels to be chain printed, without sooooo much wasted tape.
* Looks good, and made of quality materials, so not an eyesore on the desk.
* Fairly compact, so not a space hog in the cupboard, when not in use.

Cons:
* HUGE waster of label tape. Just like all modern printers, it's all about selling you supplies!
* Label Tapes are very expensive.
* Preview window is nowhere near WYSIWYG. Know that.
* Unnecessarily complicated learning curve. Way too many steps to do the simplest things.

Overall, the labels it makes are nice, waterproof, and make things much easier to find and read, so worth the one time hassle of learning how to use it, and wasting a ton of tape trying to find out what you can do with it.

TIPS:
* I quickly learned to print out a sample text of each size, and each font I liked, & pasted on the bottom of the unit, so I can make an informed decision on lettering, without wasting a ton of tape to see what fits, for each new label.

(I actually made a chain of labels with the font & size by name: Atl 12 pt, Hel 12 pt, etc, etc, for all the sizes and fonts I'd be likely to use, as each size 12 font is wildly different in size when printed, so you can't go by that.)
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* Once I discovered how to reduce the wasted tape, by making a chain of labels without cutting them off individually, I printed off a list of steps to do that, and pasted it right on top of the label maker, so I'd always remember how.

Steps to Chain Print: Label, Margin, Chain, OK, Type out the label, Print ... "OK to Feed?" = ESC, or OK.

Note: When you hit Print, it will ask you if it's "OK to Feed?", where your answer will either be "ESC" to make the next label with a tiny waste of tape, or "OK" to feed the last label out for cutting off (ie the big waste of tape way).
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Hope that helps others, as it was a fairly long process, and a lot of wasted tape, for me to figure it all out. : )

19 people found this helpful

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0Comment

killerb255

Squeaky and environmentally unfriendly...

January 21, 2016

It works well, but there are two gripes--one minor, one major:
Minor Gripe: As others have mentioned in their reviews, it does squeak a bit.
Major Gripe: Every label job wastes about 1 inch of tape before actually printing. This is unacceptable--it seems to force customers to purchase more label tape. That 1" per job adds up over time...

I can deal with the minor gripe, but the major one makes it hard to recommend this product to anyone else. I mean if every labeler had this limitation out of necessity, then it would be somewhat understandable, but that's obviously not true, as even Brother's smaller P-touch labelers don't have this problem.

NOTE: Pressing the "Label" button and switching the margin to Narrow only eliminates the margin on the right. It will not eliminate the margin on the left. If you're printing with default settings (full margin), then it's not noticeable, but any other setting will leave the large blank space on the left.

328 people found this helpful

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55 comments

John Harrison

Can't read LCD. Not returnable. Feel cheated.

January 14, 2018

Verified Purchase

Can't read LCD. Not returnable. Feel cheated.

No date stamp.

31 people found this helpful

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11 comment

Larry In Billerica

Decent label maker, AWFUL AWFUL display

September 16, 2018

Verified Purchase

Like others, I agree that this label maker wastes a lot of tape. The only way around it is to plan ahead and make several at once, separated by spaces, and cut them yourself. But the thing I really dislike is the AWFUL LCD display. Small, non backlit and dark, low contrast and low resolution. I have to hold it up to my nose in good light to make anything out. Useless at desktop distance.

9 people found this helpful

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