In this post, we’ll be talking about the best label makers. The options are limitless when it comes to label makers. For every one hundred products you consider, there are probably still a thousand more you haven’t seen. That’s why most people just gamble when shopping for a label maker.

Not to worry, this post will help you narrow down your choices by showing the top 10 best label makers. We will also give you information on why you may need a label maker and the qualities to look for when you’re buying one. The post also contains many other tips and information that you will find helpful. Keep reading to learn more.

What is The Best Label Maker?

The hallmarks of a perfect label maker are efficiency, portability, and customization. If you want the best label maker, you should look for a portable product that makes printing efficient and produces good-looking results. The flexibility of customization and the durability of the label are also important.

✅ This specific product is our choice. It is efficient, portable, and highly customizable.

The best label makers have the following qualities:

• They are easy to set up
• They come with good batteries or any other reliable power source
• Their tape cartridges are easily accessible
• Cartridges and batteries are easy to load
• They offer a diversity of beautiful fonts
• You can easily change the text formatting
• It’s easy to fine-tune the label’s spacing and margins

These should be your first considerations if you want a label maker that will fit your needs and boost your craft and label making game. As you read on, we will still show you a comprehensive buying guide. But for now, let’s show you the top 10 products we found on the market.

Top 10 Best Label Makers

#1. Brother PTD210 P-touch Label Maker – Best Label Maker for Office

Brother PTD210 is a portable and lightweight label maker, powered by either AAA batteries or an AC adapter. It can print 2 lines of texts. The PTD210 label maker comes with a sturdy protective case so that you can easily store the device and take it along with you to job sites.

This product offers much functional flexibility at an affordable cost. It allows you to either use a pre-designed label temperate or design a custom label for yourself. In all, there are 27 pre-designed templates you can choose from. It also features 14 fonts, 600 symbols, and 97 frames, and allows you to store 30 labels for later use. Before you print your label, you can preview your design on the screen and what you see is what you get.

✅ Video – Brother PT-D210 Label Maker Review

#2. DYMO LabelManager Handheld Label Maker 160 – Best Label Maker on a Budget

The low cost of this product is your best bet if you want to purchase the best label maker on a budget. It prints different sizes of water-resistant labels for quick access to office files, among other things. It features a QWERTY-style one-click keyboard that allows for quick typing and fast formatting so that you can easily customize your labels.

There are 8 text styles, 6 font sizes, 4 boxes, and more than 200 clipart images and symbols to choose from. The device also allows you to change background and text colors. You can also format the texts with italics, bold, and underlining, among others. It works with both battery and AC adapter power options with an auto shut-off feature that prevents your battery from draining when the device is not in use.

✅ Video – Dymo LabelManager 160 Handheld Label Maker Review

#3. DYMO Organizer Express Embossing Label Maker – Best Embossing Label Maker

This is the ideal label maker for those who prefer to print vintage-look embossed labels. The handle is soft-grip and comfortable to hold, so you can emboss letters, symbols, and numbers effortlessly onto your tapes in seconds. What’s more, you don’t need batteries or adapters. You don’t need to worry about downtimes, and you can carry them around and use them anywhere.

Organizer Express is very effective but it is not for heavy-duty use. It’s only ideal or household and simple indoor use, with allowance for only one line of texts. You can also carry them with you for simple day-to-day applications. They are popular among students and small businesses.

✅ Video – Dymo Embossing Label Maker Unboxing and Review

#4. Brother P-touch PTH110 Handheld Label Maker – Best Simple Label Maker

This is one flexible and versatile product you can use with ease. It’s a portable, lightweight, battery-powered device that can create labels on demand. With only 3 fonts, 14 frames, 250 symbols, and 5 patterns, things are not complicated. You can create simple but perfect label designs within seconds.

The PTH110 device has ten pre-designed label templates you can choose from. It also offers various color options and prints on specialty tapes, including flexible cable tapes, fabric tapes, and extra-strength adhesive tapes. You can use them both for indoor and outdoor applications.

✅ Video – Brother P-Touch PT-H110 Label Maker: UNBOXING, REVIEW, AND HOW TO SET IT UP

#5. Brother P-touch PTM95 Handy Label Maker – Best Handy Label Maker

This handy labeler is notable for its lightweight, portability, and ease of use. It has an easy-to-view display and a one-touch QWERTY keyboard. It also features various font styles, fun patterns, and frames. With this handy label maker, you can easily make labels to mark your school items, file folders, gift bags, and storage bins, among other things.

✅ Video – Brother P-Touch PT-M95 Label Maker Review

#6.  DYMO LetraTag 100H Plus Portable Label Maker – Best Portable Label Maker

This portable battery-powered label maker creates quick on-demand labels. It has 5 font sizes and 7 print styles to choose from. There are also 8 box styles with a wide LCD screen that can display up to 13 characters and two text lines. The labeling experience is efficient with this label maker.

The widescreen of the DYMO 100H label maker allows you to preview label contents before you print them. What’s more, you get a warranty of one year in case anything happens to the label maker within a year of purchase.

✅ Video – DYMO Letratag LT100H Portable Label Maker Unboxing & Review

#7. Brother P-touch PTD600 Label Maker – Best Label Maker for Crafters

This device is highly customizable and that’s what every crafter needs to boost their game. It allows you to create customized texts on labels with great speed, ease, and comfort. It also features an auto-cut mechanism to give you durable and professional labels. You can connect this device to your Mac or PC with a USB cord. This allows for more design options, as you can design labels with computer software.

PTD600 offers 99 frames, 11 styles, 14 fonts, and more than 700 symbols. With this functionality, you can design and print custom labels with 7 lines of character. Its colored backlit display gives crafters a precise preview of labels before printing them out. Aside from texts, you can also print high-resolution logos and barcodes with this top-notch label maker.

✅ Video – Brother P-touch PTD600 Review

#8. Brother P-Touch PT-P710BT Cube Plus – Best Bluetooth Label Maker

Most of the regular label makers out there don’t have Bluetooth connectivity but this one does. The Brother Cube Plus label maker has neither screen nor keyboard. Instead, it connects to tablets, smartphones, laptops, and desktop computers with Bluetooth technology. So you can design the labels on your preferred device and send it to the printer via Bluetooth.

Since you can design your labels on any Bluetooth-enabled device, this product offers you a wide variety of fonts, symbols, and frames. Some pre-designed label templates are available too. Unlike many other products with disposable batteries, this portable product has an in-built Li-ion battery. You can charge it and take it with you anywhere you go.

✅ Video – Brother P-touch CUBE+ Label Maker Review [4K]

#9. Brady Handheld BMP21-PLUS Label Printer – Most Rugged Label Maker

If you are looking for a rugged, heavy-duty label maker, go for the Brady BMP21 label maker. It’s the perfect choice for heavy-duty industrial purposes. It features rubber bumpers on its sides to offer protection from hard impacts and bumps. The kit includes the printer, one label cartridge, the rechargeable battery, and an AC adapter.

The BMP21-PLUS features over 100 safety, electric, Datacom, and smart home symbols. You can use it to label patch panels and fiber optic, as well as for cable flagging and other similar uses. It, however, prints texts in one single color but font sizes range from six to forty points. You can make use of this rugged labeler for multi-line labeling with different text sizes.

✅ Video – Brady BMP 21+ review

#10. Epson LabelWorks LW-400 Label Maker – Best Warehouse Label Maker

This is the best label maker to use if you work in a warehouse. Aside from producing the least possible waste, its display is fully backlit. This means you can use it in low-light or dark conditions, such as in warehouses. It also has a huge memory space that can store 50 label designs per time.

This label maker amazingly supports 7 languages and features 10 styles, 14 fonts, 75 frames, and more than 300 symbols. It can also print barcodes, among other things. This product uses specialty labels, but the labels are of several types, including reflective and double-sided tapes.

✅ Video – How the Epson LabelWorks Ribbon Printer Kit works!

Do I Need A Label Maker?

Label makers are amazing gadgets and almost anyone can make good use of one. You can use them to make on-demand labels and tags to organize your file cabinets, bins, closet clutter, and spice racks, as well as other office uses. They will help you get more organized, be it at home or in your office. They are also amazing for crafters who intend to boost their craft making.

A label maker can help save your energy and time while making your labels. What’s more, label makers are usually portable, lightweight, and produce quick labels.

Can I Print Labels Without Using A Computer?

Label makers allow you to make labels without using computers because they are stand-alone devices. Label makers are label printers that have in-built displays and keyboards so that you can use them without having to connect them with a computer. Some models, however, allow computer connectivity. Label printers, on the other hand, often require connectivity to Mac or PC before you can print labels with them.

Do Label Makers Run Out Of Ink?

Label makers don’t use ink, so they never run out of ink. Instead of ink, they use a self-contained tape cartridge. So whenever your label maker starts producing faded prints don’t think that it’s running out of ink. In most cases, this happens because the batteries are weak and you need to replace them.

The residual charge in weak batteries can still power the label maker’s drive motor but it can’t power its printhead. This means that low batteries can still feed the label tapes but they can’t create imprints. This is why you get the feeling that your label maker has run out of ink when the batteries are low. If your label doesn’t use batteries or battery replacement doesn’t fix the problem, then you may have a printhead problem.

What does P touch mean?

If you have been searching about top-notch label makers, you must have heard about the P-touch tapes. The P-touch tape, a brother label product, is unique for its special lamination. It is resistant to heat, water, cold, and harsh chemicals. This specialty tape is also fade-resistant, so it’s perfect for both indoor and outdoor uses.

P-touch tapes are very durable and long-lasting. They also have an excellent professional finish that makes them last longer than other labels. More so, there are varieties of types, sizes, and colors of P-touch tapes available. You will find one that suits your label maker.

What Can You Do With A Label Maker?

You already know that you can use label makers to organize your files and cabinets. They help create order in homes and offices. You also know that they are great tools for crafters, but there’s much more you can do with your label maker. Let’s walk you through some of them:

Domestic Home Use

You can use label makers for domestic use in the home. You can use them to label your kitchen ingredients and house plants, among other uses. Let’s check out some of the domestic home uses:

Ingredient tags

If you work with a small kitchen space or you want your things to be organized, you can label your spices and ingredients with a label maker. That way, you can easily identify the specific spice or ingredient in each jar.

✅ Video – Pantry & Spice Rack Organization With a $10 Label Maker

This video shows how easy it is to organize your spice rack and pantry when you have a label maker. Watch this video to see how you can use a label maker to make your pantry more modern, beautiful, clean, and organized.

Plant tags

Plants usually come with factory tags but these tags are sometimes not so strong. When these tags peel off, it becomes difficult to identify the plants or remember how to take care of them. You can take care of this problem by making a durable tag with a label maker, and attaching it to the plant.

Shelves

You can make labels and place them along on your shelves. That way, you’ll know what you have in each shelf area. You can use this to organize your storage spaces, including your fridge.

Organize Cables and Cords

Cables and cords can easily get tangled if you don’t have them well arranged and sorted out. You can manage this mess better by making labels and attaching them to each cord. You can write the device belongs to or what it should be connected to on the label. This ensures that you’ll never unplug the wrong cable or connect a cord to the wrong device.

Make Gift Tags

You can also make customized gift tags with label makers. All you need do is get a blank tag, print on it with your label maker, and customize your holiday gifts with it.

Learn a New Language

Label makers are also great tools for learning new languages. Check the words for your day-to-day household items in the language you intend to learn. Print labels in that language and label the different items in your house with those terms. Reading those words every day will improve your command of the new language you are trying to learn.

Label Makers for Jars

You can make custom labels for jars using labels makers. Aside from labeling your jars at home, you can also use them to label jars for commercial products. At home, jar labels will keep things organized and beautiful. Label makers will also create custom labels to add visual impact to your commercial products without having to pay a professional designer.

Embossing Label Maker

Embossing label makers are often handheld devices that emboss characters on embossing tapes, usually made of hard plastic media. These label makers typically create imprints by stretching the plastic to make the characters on them stand out. The characters, including numbers, letters, and symbols usually look white.

How Embossing Label Makers Work

Embossing label makers don’t have keyboards and screens. They use a turn-and-click system to make labels. To create a label, you would turn the wheel and set it to the character you desire to print. Then, you will press the trigger to print the character on the label. When you release the trigger, the tape would advance to the next position for you to click another character.

Embossing label makers don’t use paper labels. Instead, they use embossing tapes, which are more durable and fade-resistant. Embossing tapes rarely break when you remove them and they don’t leave sticky residues like the adhesives of paper labels sometimes do.

Manual Label Maker

Embossing label makers are also often called manual label makers because they use neither batteries nor AC adapters. They are the ideal option for small offices and homes; economical and also easy to carry around and maintain. The process is very simple. Select a character on the wheel and press the trigger. The device will create the imprint on your tape. However, they can only make one line of text.

Vintage Label Maker

Vintage label makers are known for their all-metal construction, unlike newer models that are made of plastic. The all-metal construction of vintage label makers makes them very durable and gives them a signature vintage look. The good thing is that these vintage models do not require specialty tapes. You can use any of the contemporary tapes on them.

Electric Label Makers

Electronic and electric label makers are the new models that have replaced embossing label makers. Many people still use embossing label makers but most people now use electronic and electric label makers. The difference between the two is that while electric label makers use AC adapters, electronic label makers use batteries. Some brands now have both AC and battery options.

Aside from paper labels, most electric label makers can also accept metallic and plastic materials. While their labels don’t have the tactile qualities of embossed tapes, they offer more flexibility. The only artistic expression you can have with embossing label makers is to choose different tape colors. But electric and electronic label makers allow you to choose different fonts and formatting, as well as a wide variety of tape colors. More so, many of them are also portable.

Industrial Label Maker

Industrial label makers are mostly for industrial purposes that require a rugged device. You can use an industrial label maker to print file labels, safety signs, shipping labels, barcodes, and pipe markers.

Portable Label Maker

Portable label printers and makers are handheld devices. They are compact devices, suitable for on-demand labeling. You can use them in your office or carry them along to remote job sites. You can use portable label makers to print labels for office files, cabinets, and storage containers.

Label Makers with Different Fonts

More formatting and font options will make your label maker more versatile. Some label makers can print multiple fonts, which is not only great but also essential for some applications. Some others can even print logos and high-resolution barcodes, which is also a great feature. This type is the best label maker for crafters

Label Makers near Me

You can get label makers from local stores that stock office supplies. But the easiest way to get label makers near you is to order them online. You can get label makers online by ordering them from Amazon or other online stores. Online retailers can deliver the product right at your doorstep.

Label Makers Brother

The Brother brand makes some of the best models of high-quality label makers you can ever find. They have a vast array of reliable and quality label makers to meet your specific needs. You can use Brother Label Makers for the following applications:

• Home organization, including home or hobby purposes. You can effortlessly create various patterns of decorative labels.

• Industrial usage, including the creation of professional and durable labels for electrical installations, such as faceplates and cables, among others.

• Office use, including labels for boxes, files, visitor badges, and other high-quality labels for your office or small business.

• Portable use across diverse industries, including high-quality barcodes and serialized labels.

Label Makers Dymo

DYMO label makers are also very popular, especially among small businesses. Their vast array of label makers includes products that create top-notch labels with ease. You can use them for both home and office applications.

At your office, you can use Dymo label makers to produce labels for binders, rulers, staplers, and other office items. All of their products have one-touch keys that get the job done easily. Dymo also has industrial-grade label makers, including rechargeable desktop label makers that you can connect with your Mac or PC.

Best Label Makers Buying Guide

If you are shopping for the best label maker, this buying guide will point you in the right direction. Here are three ways to choose the right product:

Brand

Brother and Dymo are the two most popular brands of label makers out there, so you may want to check their products out. These two brands have dominated the industry for years. They have many innovative products that have no equal on the market. You’ll realize that most top-notch label printers and makers come from these brands. However, there are top-notch products from other brands too.

Price

A label maker can cost anywhere from $20 to $200. So, think of your financial capacity when you go shopping for a label maker. You should, however, know that top-notch professional label makers will cost more than the average product. Simple label makers are typically cheaper, but they won’t make a good choice for industrial applications.

Reviews

You should check out customer reviews from multiple online sources before you buy any label maker. Amazon reviews from verified customers are quite reliable, so you should read Amazon reviews. Make sure to read as many reviews as you can so that you can get a balanced view of the product.

However, customer reviews can sometimes mislead you if you don’t check out professional reviews too. Professionals give further insights about issues that customers may have misunderstood. We evaluated both customer and professional reviews to arrive at our list of top 10 products above.

8 Things to Consider When Buying Label Makers

Whenever we evaluate a label printer, we check for certain criteria. These criteria can also help you streamline your options when you go shopping for label makers. If you are in the process of purchasing a new label maker, check out the following criteria:

Screen Size

A large-sized screen means you can preview your labels before printing them. Many models can only display one line of texts at once. But it’s best to get one that can display about 3-5 lines on-screen; they make it possible to preview your labels ahead. You can go for label makers with a small screen if you will only use it for your simple day-to-day home or small office applications.

Rechargeable Battery

Some electronic label maker models make use of rechargeable batteries while some only use disposable batteries. The rechargeable models are always better and more reliable. While buying the label maker, make sure to check if it comes with an adapter to charge the batteries.

Rechargeable models may be more expensive, but they are also more convenient and reliable than non-rechargeable models. When a rechargeable label maker dies, you only have to plug in the adapter. But for non-rechargeable models, you would have to remove the weak batteries and replace them before you can continue using the device.

Comfortable Typing

Make sure to also check the keyboard of a label maker before buying it. Make sure you go for a product that has a full keyboard with complete function keys. More so, the keyboard should be one-touch and comfortable enough for typing.

Some models have no keyboard but you can type label texts on your phone and print directly from the phone. There are also models with Mac/PC support. These models allow typing from your Mac/PC, which is usually more comfortable than that label maker’s on-device keyboard.

Printing Multiple Lines

Models that can print 2-5 lines of texts per label offer a balance between legibility and flexibility. As such, they are more preferable than other models. A model that prints multiple lines may not be as legible as those that print fewer lines. Below 2 lines, flexibility is limited and above 5 lines, legibility would be poor.

Tape Options

Plain labels with only white and black colors are usually good enough. But some applications require a different color scheme or material. So it might be best to get a label maker that supports various tape options. They are suitable for several label needs.

Saving Labels for Later Use

If there’s a text you print frequently, you might want to save it so that you don’t have to type it all the time. Being able to save the text makes it easier to print your labels. Average models make allow about 15 slots for saving labels, but high-end options can have as plenty as 50 slots.

Font Options

Certain label applications and crafts need models that offer multiple fonts. Larger font selections allow you to be more creative with the labels. A model that offers about 8-14 fonts installed should be flexible enough for most applications. But some high-end models support Google and Apple’s font library. For some other models, you can plug them into your Mac or PC to use their installed fonts.

Connectivity

Some portable label makers can’t connect with any other device. These are suitable for simple applications. But if you need something more flexible, look for a device that allows connectivity with Macs, PCs, Android, and/or iOS. These devices offer the possibility of using more fonts, including Google and Apple font libraries. However, don’t spend a fortune on a device with multiple connectivity capabilities if your applications don’t require it.

FAQs

What is a Label Maker?

A label maker is a label printing device that has an in-built display, operating system, and keyboard. Unlike label printers, you don’t need to connect a label maker with any computer or external device before you can print labels. In summary, a label maker can operate as a stand-alone printing device.

What do I use a Label Printer For?

You can use a label printer to make product labels and shipping labels. You can also use them for printing receipts, wristbands, asset labels, and tags. However, these various applications often require different media and printer types.

How Long Do Dymo Label Makers Last?

Dymo label makers are durable and can last for over 100 years. The lifespan of label makers is, however, not measured in years. They are measured in inches of labels printed. Dymo label makers can print about 2 million label inches before the printhead wears out. This equals about 500,000 standard-size address labels.

To break it down, if you are printing 10 address labels daily, it will take 50,000 days before the printhead wears out. This means that the printhead could last for more than a hundred years.

Can I laminate LabelWriter labels?

Many laminators use materials that can damage thermal prints because of the chemicals they contain. Label makers use thermal printing to create labels so it’s best not to laminate them. Lamination can affect the label print adversely because these chemicals would either fade or darken the print. You should keep thermally printed labels, including those produced by label makers, away from materials that contain PVC films or vinyl plasticizers.

Do You Need Ink for Label Makers?

You don’t need ink for label makers because they use thermal transfer technology to create prints. They use a self-contained tape cartridge in the place of ink. The cartridge would contain a thermal ribbon that transfers pigment to the label tape when you’re printing.

End

Amazingly, there are diverse models of label makers, even within the same brand. The models differ from one another and are of various qualities. If you work in a team, you might want your team’s label to match. And that might require getting the same model for everyone in the team as different devices might print something slightly different from others.

It will, however, be a big risk to take if you don’t research well before investing in a single model for all your team members. That is why we created to post to help you. We hope that with what you have read so far, and the products we suggested, you can safely decide and choose the best label maker for you.