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Do you print labels from your word processor or database on an ink jet or laser printer? If so, you know what a pain it can be--you have to organize and format the data carefully, and lay out margins and spacing so a single label's information prints on only one label.

Of course, if you're printing big batches of similar labels, especially with addresses or information that you'll use repeatedly, it's worth the trouble to set up and maintain a database. But otherwise it's overkill.

That's where a dedicated label printer excels. Several vendors, including Dymo and Seiko, make modest little label printers that sit inconspicuously on your desk, attach to your PC, and zip out labels on demand. Brother makes a "dual-function" device--that is, it can attach to your PC or you can carry it around and enter data on a built-in keyboard. All three vendors' products come with software for organizing and formatting your data.

PC Labelers Surface

Remember Dymo? It makes that label gun with a wheel that you rotate to select one letter at a time, then squeeze a trigger to emboss each letter on a heavy plastic adhesive tape. The company has been in the computer age for a while. Its most recent labeler is the LabelManager PC, a $99 printer that attaches to a USB port and can print text of any length on laminated plastic tape up to one inch wide.

The tapes come in numerous color combinations, including black, white, blue, or red text on clear, white, green, silver, or fluorescent red background. The 23-foot-long rolls cost a stiff $18 or $25, depending on width. The LabelManager PC can print text vertically or horizontally, date and time stamp your labels, and even--if you're really serious about keeping that CD collection organized--print bar codes. Its software is designed to convert text copied from Microsoft Word or cells from Excel into proper label formats.

Another USB-connected Dymo printer, the LabelWriter 330, costs about $170 (the faster Turbo version of the LabelWriter 330 costs about $200) and prints on labels designed for specific tasks such as video- and audiocassettes, file folders, and name badges. Its software can clean up addresses according to USPS standards, provides a label-template design function, can print counters and serial numbers, and reads data from several common desktop programs and Palm PDAs.

Seiko makes several USB-connected label printers. The most capable model, the Smart Label Printer 240, costs about $250 and can print on blank media up to 2-1/8 inches wide or on Seiko's preprinted label templates for file folders, 35mm slides, shippers, and other uses. The SLP 240's software reads data from most common word processors and contact managers, can shrink an oversize block of text to fit on a label, and can mix fonts and graphics in WYSIWYG layouts.

Walk With Your Brother

Brother's P-touch 2300 is a dual-function unit and costs about $100. It's designed to run on eight alkaline AA batteries, so Brother charges $25 extra for an AC adapter. The PT-2300 has the basic features of the PC-only labelers: It prints on several widths of tape up to 1 inch wide, provides a WYSIWYG label-design utility that can place logos and graphics in labels, and has a database that can read Microsoft Access format files.

But the PT-2300 can also print labels without the brains of a PC backing it up. A 10-character, 2-line LCD and small keyboard let you enter and edit text, and you can store up to 99 characters on six lines in current memory. (A "long-term" memory feature can hold up to 300 characters in up to 10 blocks, so you could, for example, store your return address to avoid having to retype it for each label.) Using function keys, you can format letters in several sizes and widths, and even in bold, italics, outline, and shadow.

Brother sells media with various color combinations and some unusual tapes, among them are security labels, fabric tape, water-resistant laminated material, and fluorescent backgrounds. Using a stamp tape you can cut stamps to attach to Brother's $38 self-inking, handheld stamper.

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