Brother PC-Connectable Label Maker (PT-1230PC)

Product Description

Great for labeling file folders, storage containers, and much more, the PT-1230PC is an easy-to-use PC-connectable label maker. It’s intuitive, “pop-up” label making program, requires no software installation. Conveniently design durable, laminated labels up to ½” wide using your PC keyboard and monitor. Prints exactly what you see on your screen! Capable of printing multiple lines of text, graphics, and all True Type resident fonts. Its compact footprint and built-in manual cutter supports maximum efficiency. Supports PC USB Connectivity. Includes 1/2” (5m) black on white “TZ” laminated tape, and USB cable. Uses 6 "AAA" batteries or AD-24 adapter (not included).

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3816 in Office Product
• Color: BEIGE
• Brand: Brother
• Model: PT-1230pc
• Published on: 2008-10-31
• Platform: Windows
• Format: CD-ROM
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 10.90" h x 3.20" w x 6.10" l, 1.50 pounds

Features

• Easy - Fast - Secure!
• Easy to Use - No software installation required
• Prints on four different label widths, up to 1/2" wide (laminated)
• Prints multiple lines of text and graphics
• Compact, with built-in manual cutter

Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

133 of 135 people found the following review helpful.
Great label maker - if you know how to get the correct software
By BookMan
I needed an inexpensive label maker and found this at Staples ($19.95 on sale). At first I was a bit irked by the apparent problems with the software (which automatically installs when you plug the label maker into a USB port on your computer) and this is where, I suspect, that others have had some problems. Brother did something very stupid with the software that is pre-installed on this device - they didn't bother to add an "update" feature. As a result, many people may not be aware that Brother has updated the driver, the firmware, and both (yes, there are TWO) label editors that work with the PT-1230PC. Unfortunately, you have to go to Brother's web site to find this out on your own.

Also, the default settings cause the tape to waste space while printing labels - it is necessary to hunt around a bit in order to determine how/where to adjust the settings but, again, the label maker can be set so that very little tape is wasted (especially if the same label needs to be printed many times).

Once that the updates are installed (make sure that you pay attention to the instructions on Brother's site) and settings are adusted, this turns into a great little label maker. Had it been less trouble to search around for software updates, I would have given this label maker five stars.

65 of 68 people found the following review helpful.
Tips on minimizing waste of tape on PT-1230PC
By Zbigniew Trzepizur
BACKGROUND:

First of all, let me explain why the P-Touch printers do waste the tape in the first place. It doesn't look like a manufacturer's conspiracy to force us into buying even more (already priced ridiculously to begin with) tape but more like a design consequence to me. It's quite easy to figure out once you take a peek at the mechanism with the cassette cover open. The printing thermal head is about an inch before the cutter blade so the printer has to advance the tape once it's done for you to be able to cut it. You'd cut halfway through the label otherwise. And once it has done that, it seems impossible to rewind the tape back because of the cassette construction and the fact the tape consists of several layers. I'm not saying they couldn't design this better, just saying it's not there just to annoy us and make the tape run out sooner.

TIPS on more efficient tape usage:

First of all, if you're planning to repeatedly use the device on your own computer(s), install the full version of the P-Touch Editor software and only resort to the convenient "built-in" Lite version for the casual jobs on other people's PCs. Here's why: the built-in, simplified version seems to be tuned for occasional usage on the go, when you don't have scissors at hand. Most probably in order for the label not to look weird when not trimmed with scissors, the software seems to add the ADDITIONAL 1-inch-long empty fragment of tape AFTER the printed content. This way, when not using scissors, you end up with a label with about 2.5 cm margins both before and after the text.

That's why you should use the full version of P-touch editor on a daily basis. First, download the driver and the software from there: [...]. You'll need your device's serial number which is printed on the label located ON THE BOTTOM OF THE TAPE/BATTERY compartment (under the tape). Install the driver first and then proceed with the actual software. Just follow the instructions displayed to set the switch on the back properly and turn the printer on only after prompted to. Full version of the P-touch Editor doesn't leave the trailing empty space after the printed label by default, only the mandatory leader before the new one (okay, it depends how you look at it ;-)). Just leave the "Auto length" and "2 mm margin" on the "Paper" tab and "Automatic length" in the text field properties. This way you save at least an inch per label comparing to the "Lite" software. Just use the "Cut Mark" option so there will be a mark printed where you should trim the leading end of the label.

Now, IF YOU ARE PRINTING MORE THAN ONE LABEL AT A TIME, DON'T DO IT ONE BY ONE. Notice the "Sheet 1" tab below the editor area, akin to the multiple tabs in an Excel sheet. After you're done with entering of the first label, DON'T PRINT IT YET but right click on the "Sheet 1" caption and choose either "Add New Sheet" or "Duplicate and Add Sheet" instead. I prefer the latter as it saves me from adding the new text field manually again and choosing its properties like the automatic length. Now, rinse, wash and repeat until you're done with your batch of labels - one per a "sheet". Now choose "Print" and select "All sheets" under "Sheets to be printed". Enjoy your labels being printed in a one go, divided just by a cut marks and use your trusty scissors to divide them (which you'd have to use to cut the first label's leader anyway).

Hope someone finds this helpful

Cheers!

Zbig

78 of 85 people found the following review helpful.
Remember scissors. Forget formatting.
By Sigint
I bought the Brother PT-1230PC Label Maker primarily to create labels for hanging folder tabs and interior folder tabs. For hanging folders that take 5 tabs across, this means about a 2.2-inch label. For a simple task, I ran into several issues:

1. I like my label text centered. The P-Touch Editor Lite software installed on the device has a button with a drop-down menu to select text alignment: Left, Center, Right, etc. Unfortunately, it has no effect on the text you enter. Select Center and type, or type, select, and choose Center - it doesn't matter, the text remains left-justified. I searched Brother's support website thinking I may have missed something because they implemented alignment in some non-intuitive way, but there was no information about this topic.

2. As the label needs to be 2.2 inches long, I'd like to type the text and have the software adjust the size to fit a fixed length of 2.2 inches. The Editor Lite allows you to fix the label length, but it doesn't adjust the text size to fit: it simply lets the text overrun the boundary of the label. If you don't fix the label length, it will adjust the length of the label to the text - but not vice versa.

3. I knew going in this model has a manual cutter, so I was prepared to push a button on the unit to cut the label after printing. However, every label starts with 1 inch of blank tape. If you create a 2.2-inch label on screen, when you print it you will get a 3.2-inch label, with your text starting after that blank first inch. So in addition to using the built-in manual cutter to cut the tape and remove it from the printer after it prints, you have to use scissors or a knife to remove the leading blank 1 inch so your label is the length you intended.

This unit might be OK for you if you don't care about the length of your labels, or if your label text is skewed to one side of the label, or if you want to both push a cutter button AND wield a pair of scissors after every label. Otherwise, you might consider the PT-2430PC, which has an automatic cutter than not only cuts the label after printing, but apparently also cuts that annoying leading first inch of blank tape. I assume the built-in Editor Lite has the same broken text alignment; hopefully the full-featured Editor software you can download from Brother functions correctly in that respect.

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