Customer Reviews

Brother PT-1280 P-touch Electronic Labeling System

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

After owning a P-touch labeler for years,I found the need for a more duable label than my "M" tape was providing. I opted for this "TZ" tape labeler. Good price,looks good. What a mistake!!! The only thing well designed about this unit is it's abilty to waste more tape than it uses!! If you print a label of any size,count on it costing you two full inches of tape to do it!!! At $20.00 a roll,prepare to be screwed each time you push the print button.Then go find the scissors and cut the excess off,so the label does not look as stupid as the person who designed this pile of junk!!! But cheer up you can push six buttons,every time,to reduce the margin to "narrow". This will reduce the waste to a half inch on ONE side of the label,and print two small dots on the other side,this will show you where to cut it with your scissors,to match the "narrow" side. Also you must do ALL settings for EVERY label EVERY time!!Another "great feature,it will use the same amount of tape regaurdless of print size,so you will only print large print.What a joke!!! What a hassle!! Now the good news. I used to make lots of labels,and now I only make labels for VERY important items. And only when I am up to getting mad for doing so. I really wish amazon would allow us to give items a negative five stars! You have been warned!

I kid you not: every label has an inch of air on the left and the right, for a total of two inches wasted per label.
You can tweak the Margin setting to reduce one of the margins to about 1/4 inch, leaving you with 1 1/4 inches of waste.
Even ignoring the waste, you still need to trim each label with a pair of scissors--not very convenient, and isn't that why you bought a labeler?

I sent mine back to Amazon, even though I had to pay return shipping.

I took this device out of its package and printed the label I wanted without having to read the instructions. It gets high marks for an intuitive UI, and quality. The only thing that brings this from being a 5 * product is the waste of _very_ expensive tape and the lack of an AC adapter which I knew before getting it. Two reels of tape equal the price of this machine btw.

I just wanted to post a review here since there are so many people complaining that this thing wastes tape. Yes, on the default setting, it will put a lot of white space at the beginning and end. This is because the cutting blade on this model won't clear the end of the label unless it feeds some white space at the end. However, it is ridiculously easy to set this model up to use less white space.

1. Touch the Function (Fn) Button.
2. Use the arrow buttons to scroll to the "Margin" setting. Hit the OK button.
3. You have four options for margin Full (default), Half, Narrow, or Chain Print. (I normally use Chain Print for the least amount of white space.)
4. When you are done making your series of labels, remember to manually feed the last label (shift + Print button). Otherwise your last label won't clear the cutting blade and it will get chopped in half.

It takes about 5 seconds to set this machine up to use a minimum of tape. I can't believe how many irate reviews are on here when it's so freaking simple to make it NOT do the thing everyone is complaining about.

We've had this machine for about a year now and it works great. I use it regularly and have only gone through 2 rolls of tape. My only issue is it seems to run through batteries fast. I wish it came with a an AC adapter included.

There are a few reasons why this product ranges from poor to great.

The labels themselves are definitely good quality labels.

The wasted tape is most everyone else's complaint.

1) The reason why the beginning of each label has wasted tape- The rollers that hold the tape after a print will cause the beginning of the label to curl, preventing proper adhesion to some objects. Brother made it so when you cut the tape's beginning you will have a straight flat tape.

2) The end part of the label has a similar problem, the feed mechanism needs to push the text past the door after a print. You can not cut the tape exactly after the last part of your text as that will cause feed problems for the next print.

I hate the wasted parts of the tape as well. I avoid it when I make multiple labels of the same text by using the repeat function. It continues the text in between labels without wasting any tape.

Other brands cut the labels closer, but those 'other' brands that I have used and owned almost always jam after a while and I lose the remaining tape from that cartridge. Brother 'could' most likely engineer the device to cut closer, but as for now I can accept some wasted tape for a quality label. If you actually calculate the number of labels you get with your cartridge, you will be surprised how expensive other label makers really are.

Unless you enjoy wasting your money on the refill tape, this one is nearly the same as the PT-80, but the "TZ" refill tape for this 1280 is at or more than $20 per refill. The "M" refill tape for the 80 is about half the cost and has all the same printing features as far as I have seen (I used the 80 regularly at work and bought this 1280 for home use). Also a main reason I bought this one is that the TZ tape comes in 3/4" and 1" widths for more printing options; however this model does not fit the larger widths, maximum is 1/2", so don't waste your money on this one. I got burned.

The product serves its purpose and does so competently. However, I discount two stars for the following reasons:

1) It is wasteful of label tape. Even when reducing margins to the narrowest setting, the product still leaves a chunk of needless white space that you need to cut off on the front of each label.

2) The product can use an AC adapter but does not ship with one. Of course, this addition would probably increase the low price.

3) It has a pesky way of clearing both text and settings when the "clear" function is used. It would be nice if it only cleared the text. The workaround is manual backspacing of each character, which is not as convenient.

All in all, these are small inconveniences given the low price for an otherwise high-quality product. It is probably one of the best labelers available in its price range.

Just got this device this afternoon from Staples (...). (...). So far very pleased with it. The labels are really clear and professional looking. There are some nice functions to change the text style, add frames and symbols. Also looked at the Dymo QX50, but it looks really cheap by comparison. The PT-1280 looks really high class and executive.
Only complaint is that while it will accept a mains adaptor, there is not one included. Also it takes 6 AAA batteries, which are also not included, which is a bit tight. There is a short run of label tape in the box though, and the instructions are reasonable given the price.

I've had a PT-1280 for about six months now, and I'm very happy with it. I like the qwerty layout, the TZ Tape system is compatible with several different sizes and many different colors, and the interface is extremely intuitive without being limiting. Most importantly, it can print two lines of text on a label...extremely useful!

Though I've never found any use for the "favorites" buttons on the front, it has some nice extra features, like a handful of cute banner styles, and a surprising variety of useful symbols, including electronic engineering symbols. It will also do automatic numbering, mirror print for clear tape, and vertical print.

It's surprisingly quick and easy to switch out tape cartridges, so it works well if you have different colors and sizes that you switch between frequently. There are no mechanisms to engage; just swing open the bottom and place the cartridge in.

It's clear that Brother is in the business of selling tape and not printers, though, and this device makes it clear. It puts ridiculous 1" wide margins on everything it prints, and almost always requires me to trim the labels manually. You can adjust the margin sizes, but this only actually shortens the left margin, and then prints a marker on the right telling you where to trim it yourself. The margin setting is also one of the most buried options in the labeller's menu, and has to be reset every time you clear the display.

Overall, I'm happy with this device, but I have to keep scissors with it, and my desk is confettied with waste after even small printing jobs.

We bought this tool to label a large collection of spices in bottles, and I'm really very happy with it. It's very easy to use, and the labels it produces have clear text and stick well.

My only criticism is a bit of wasted tape at both the beginning and end of the label. I suppose you could cut it off if you don't like how it looks, but I always feel a little unfrugal wasting the tape.