Brother P-Touch PT-2430PC - Label printer - thermal transfer - - 180 dpi - up to 23.6 inch/min - USB - cutter - white gray

Saw this labeler on sale at my local retailer and I'm big into the "make my life easier" products so I just HAD to buy it. I am SO GLAD that I did. This really is the best labeler I have ever used. Yeah you have to connect it to a computer, but still, it's great, cause you can do SO MUCH with this little thing. Especially if you instal and use the P-Touch Editor 5.0 Software vs. using the built in Editor Lite. You can do so much with this style labeler vs. a regular handheld that it's ridiculous! Adding a huge variety of clip-art. A huge variety of symbols. Even adding your own custom imaged and symbols.Being able ot print up a label using any font you have on your computer is great too. The biggest plus for this thing, vs. a regular handheld of any kind, you have complete and total reign over the placement of your text and symbols, and ALSO, this model has an "Auto Cut" feature, that automatically cuts the margins to any specified length. The narrowest is .08", which is roughly 1/8", which is GREAT for when you need really narrow margins, and with this machine once you print it out YOU DONT HAVE TO CUT DOWN THE LABEL WITH SCISSORS! Absolutely excellent!Look, I'm telling you, just trust me and BUY THIS PRODUCT! YOU WILL LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is an essential item to help keep things organized

Brother PT-2430PC is very simple to use right out of the box.

This would be a 5 star machine if it did not have to cut off a small piece of tape every time just before it prints the label. I am not sure why this is necessary but after a while those small pieces add up and you can pay for a lot of wasted tape. Other than that, I love everything about it. I am in the electronics repair business and I must label a lot of small drawers and bins. This machine does it very well with a lot of options. The tape also sticks great to about anything. The pros do outweigh the cons by quite a bit. Brother should put an extra length of tape on their reel to make up for what is lost.

Can put amazing things on a label. Using the computer you can create really artistic things to use for your labeling needs. My only gripe is the unit runs out 1 inch of tape, cuts it off, then prints your label. I waste a lot of tape for no good reason that I can see. It really rubs my thrifty side the wrong way.

I've been using a PT-2430PC at work for almost two years. I've used a over a dozen rolls of 24mm laminated tape and over twenty rolls of 12mm laminated tape. I needed to make labels for small quantities of custom test equipment. The front panel has 24 toggle switches which need to be labeled. The back panel has several rows of connectors which also need to be labeled. The P-touch Editor software enables complex label designs with icons, bitmap graphics, basic shapes [lines, boxes, circles], and full text editing. I typically make long label strips with multiple text boxes such that each text item is aligned with the switches or connectors. Also, I make sets of labels in one long strip, and the automatic editable cut-lines cut the individual labels as they print. The equipment I build looks almost "manufactured" thanks to the high quality labels I am able to make. I've used a couple of Brother P-touch hand-held label printers. The PT-2430PC is much better. I liked the one at work so well that I bought one for home use. PRO: - very good label editor software - label software measurements in inches, millimeters, or points - very little waste to start a print job - any length label can be created [up to limit of length of tape cartridge, i.e. 8 meters] - high quality label stock - good variety of colors, widths of label stock CON: - The printer does not handle 24mm laminated tape very well. After a few centimeters, the laminate becomes misaligned such that about 1mm of laminate is protruding above the top edge of the label base, and a corresponding 1mm of sticky label base at the bottom of the label is left uncovered by the laminating film. [I reported this to Brother technical support and the issue was ignored.] The second PT-2430PC I bought 8-months after the first one has the same problem with 24mm laminated tape. There is a pervasive problem with either the printer or with the 24mm tape cartridges. - There is a lot of unusable space at top and bottom of 24mm tape. The printable area begins 3mm from the top edge and ends 3mm from the bottom edge. This is total 6mm of unprintable space or 25% of the tape. This limitation is not mentioned in the product features. On narrower tapes, the unprintable area is only 1mm top and bottom. - The label editor alignment tools for label items are limited. e.g. It is not possible to align one element to another element. - The label editor tool to position an element is limited to coarse dimension [e.g. whole millimeter increments]. OVERALL: Good printer for simple to complex label requirements.

Acknowledging the shortcomings of wasteful of expensive tape (by throwing away about an inch of tape per label print), I appreciate the tidy labels this little machine continues to make. I have used it for mailing packages, labeling equipment and sorting out wiring circuits. Although the printer seems wasteful in using up tape, I have yet to actually use up a cartridge. I use the PC-based software, rather than the build-in 'lite' version, because of formatting flexibility and address library. This is one of those tools that is hard to justify for the first use but is appreciated once you have it.

Once I was able to install the label printer, I found it to be a pretty neat little gadget with many options for label making. However, the installation CD was corrupted and would not load. I had to get help to install the label printer and it took forever, or seemed to. I am most displeased with the hastle to register and install the device.

I finally got the PT-2430PC to work with my Mac, but only by using drivers for a different printer. The printer deserves four stars, but I can only give 2 because of the lack of Mac drivers.

Converted from a PC to a MAC. Without having a Windows Operating system running on the MAC, I was not able to get the PT-2430PC to work. With Parallels running Ptouch Editor does work enabling the unit to print. However the latest version of PTouch Editor V5 does not want to load.