Brother PT-80 P-touch Electronic Labeling System

by Brother

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4 x 2 inches ; 13.4 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000FHYZRW
• Item model number: PT-80
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (190 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,236 in Office Products (See Top 100 in Office Products)
  • #33 in Office Products > Office Electronics > Other Office Equipment > Label Makers
• Date first available at Amazon.com: April 23, 2006

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The Brother PT-80 Personal Labeler is an affordable, handheld personal labeling system that can print a wide variety of tape colors and styles. Everyone can use a little help getting organized, and this compact, easy-to-use device makes it a breeze. It's perfect for homes, home offices, and small offices and particularly helpful for crafts, school projects, financial management, and all sorts of kid activities. You'll come up with hundreds of uses for this label maker. From tidying up your closet to making scrapbooks, the PT-80 can help keep your household -- and your life -- running smoothly.

PT-80 Personal Labeler is an affordable, handheld personal labeling system that can can help keep your household running smoothly. View larger.

Special Features
The PT-80 easily prints labels in six type sizes, nine type styles and one font for all different labeling needs -- all you have to do is type in your text and print. It's that easy! To make things even more precise, at the touch of a button you can also add the time and date to your label. This feature is especially helpful for labeling perishable food, financial records, smoke alarm batteries, and spice racks. With the PT-80, you can print non-laminated labels that are 0.375 and 0.5 inches wide.

Personalize Your Labels
It's fun to personalize your labels. The PT-80 gives you the option of selecting from 71 symbols to creatively display information on the label, and also includes five auto formats and five framing options. In addition, you can take advantage of nine different types of styles, including italic, bold, and vertical. Along with its easy-to-view, 12-character LCD display and easy-to-use typewriter style keyboard, the PT-80 features raised keys for more accurate input. It also prints one to two lines of crisp text, and can add text framing and underlining.

Print Speed, Resolution, and Tape Size
The PT-80 is designed to offer you the very best label-making technology available in a compact, personal-use unit. The print speed is 7.5 mm/second, while the resolution is 230 dpi. You won't have to wait long for your labels to print out and when they do, the eye-catching sharpness of the text will stand out. The tape measures 26.2 feet, which means it won't require constant re-supplying. You can also print up to nine copies at one time.

The PT-80 comes with a one year limited warranty.

What's in the Box
PT-80 label printer, 1/2-inch black on white tape, and user's guide.

Product Description

PT-80 Home and Hobby Label Maker. Battery powered. Vertical and horizontal printing. Text framing and underlining. Foreign language symbols. Battery-powered handheld label maker uses non-laminated M tape in 3/8" and 1/2" widths. Eight-character LCD display. Prints 70 different symbols. Prints two lines in nine type styles, five type sizes (up to 17 pt. ). Repeat printing (1-9 copies). Includes 1/2" black-on-white non-laminated starter tape. Uses four AAA batteries (sold separately). 6Wx4-3/16Dx2-6/16H.

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

449 of 464 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars First Labeler, January 28, 2007

By 

Bette (East Coast USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Brother PT-80 P-touch Electronic Labeling System (Office Product)

I am a very organized person, and I wanted to streamline the look of my filing systems. Martha Stewart recommended the Brother P Touch on her shows many times, and I figured I'd give it a try.

Here are some thoughts and comments:

* Sucks up battery life like crazy. I attempted to use NEW yet out-of-the-package AAA batteries (expiration 2009) and the machine would stop printing and power off. You MUST use extremely new/fresh batteries, but really, I suggest that you take this opportunity to buy yourself a battery recharger with several rechargeable batteries if you are going to use this product. I also think an upgrade to this product would be the ability to operate it two ways : with batteries AND electric power source.

*There is a little piece of paper included somewhere in the packet that is very easy to miss, but is crucial to its operation. It is of a diagram which shows you that you must first REMOVE A PIECE OF THIN FOAM from the machine before installing the tape. This is NOT in the instruction booklet!

*$10+ for replacement cartridges seems expensive, seeing as how they do not last very long. Think ahead and buy your cartridges online at a discount so that you do not find yourself at the office supply store mid-project, paying way too much for retail.

*Colored tape makes it easy for you to color code your files. Though I prefer the plain black/white, you can use different color tapes for specific projects. For instance, financial files could be GREEN. There are several colors available but I did not find them visually pleasing, so I'm sticking with the black on white.

*In addition to color coding, there are functions which allow you to BOLD, ITALICIZE, and UNDERLINE, as well as choose which border you'd like to use. One of the more fun borders is CANDY, which looks like a candy wrapper. It's fun and feminine, and I use that one for my designer files. But there are more plain borders, as well as a masculine WOOD look. Others options are font size ; normal, 1/2 and X2 and width, which you can use to adjust for more characters. For example, a short word such as BANK is short enough to fit X2 on a file folder, whereas FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 2007 could be in regular size font and on 2 lines, to fit the folders. It's quite user friendly that way.

*The keyboard is obviously small, and therefore so are the keys. If you have big fingers, or long nails, use the eraser-side of a pencil on the keyboard.

*As with any new gadget, it will take some time to figure out how to use the product, but the instructions are easy to understand, overall.

Unfortunately, I paid full retail for this, but the price at Amazon is HALF of what I paid at the office supply store. I'm going to buy one from Amazon, with tapes, for my sister for her birthday. I think it makes a great gift, everyone will love this item. (And perhaps include the aforementioned batteries/charger as well!)

I have given the item 3 stars instead of 4 because Brother is soaking its customers with expensive replacement tapes. Doesn't seem very ethical to me. Also, new models are introduced to the market all the time, so while you may think you will use this for several years, it is more likely that newer, better models will become attractive with more experience and use. In this sense, the item is not cost-effective, especially since repair/replacement is probably more expensive than just buying a new one.

138 of 139 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just what I needed!, February 15, 2007

By 

Timothy J. Drozinski (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Brother PT-80 P-touch Electronic Labeling System (Office Product)

I've been going through a phase lately where I'm trying to organize the clutter around my house... I'm just tired of the mess. One of the main reasons why I wanted a label maker was because of the tangle of cords associated with my home theater system. With power cords for two game consoles, cable box, TV, DVD player, a Roku SoundBridge and a wireless bridge all plugged into the same power strip it was nearly impossible to figure out what I was unplugging at any given time. Same went for the A/V cables connecting everything. I made double-copy labels and folded one in half around every cable to make an easy-to-read tag, so now I know what every one is for without having to trace a wire from one end to the other through the rat's nest of wires behind the entertainment center.

I also used it to label all the boxes and Rubbermaid bins full of stuff in the attic storage space, and labeled some more plastic storage bins in a few closets.

The PT-80 features a full QWERTY-style keyboard that is easy to use, which is nicer than some other models that arrange the buttons in alphabetical order... I can two-thumb-type out any label in a matter of seconds. I've read some complaints about wasted tape, but I've organized three rooms with dozens of labels (many of them double-ended cable tags as I described for my entertainment center) and still haven't used up the first 26' cartridge. The little slot in the back of the device that helps peel the label end is nice, but doesn't work on the first time, every time... usually I have to put the end in and strip it back a few times before I can peel the label from the backing. I don't know if that experience is any different with other styles of tape, as I've only used the standard black-on-white tape.

An added bonus was that this device and the tape cartridges are significantly cheaper from Amazon than at the local office supply chain stores, especially with free 2-day shipping with Amazon Prime.

94 of 98 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Label Printer, Great Value, July 23, 2006

By 

Andrew Abrahamowicz (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Brother PT-80 P-touch Electronic Labeling System (Office Product)

I just picked this label printer up (at Office Depot, since it was on special at nearly half the current amazon price) and am very pleased with the purchase.

The device is very light weight, using just 4 AAA batteries (not included).

I felt that the standard QWERTY keyboard was a plus over the ABC keyboards that the Dymo label printers use (this is personal preference -- some people may be more comfortable with the latter).

The device has several built in preset label sizes, to accomodate the spines of VHS/DVD, MiniDV, File tabs and Dividers (though this does 'waste' the label tape, causing the user to have to restock sooner).

The device comes with a single spool of Black on White -- the instructions indicate 26.2", though the product description here on Amazon states this means 26' of tape.

There is just 1 font, however labels can be printer either horizontally (the default for most people) or vertically. IN addition, you can 'stretch' it to 2x width or 1/2x width. A handful of symbols help you visually identify information (such as a small phone to indicate a phone number, or envelope to indicate email address).

Overall, the value is great, especially if you can get it for a low price!