I own the Brother QL500 label printer, which is similar to the Dymo. I picked it up super-cheap after an instant-rebate at the office store. One thing I like about it is that it takes labels up to 3” wide, which lets me use it for things other than file folders. The Brother software it comes with is a horrible WIndows port, and I don’t use it at all. The Mac OS X printer driver is just fine, and for met that’s all that really matters.

One more tip, I use Ambrosia’s Easy Envelopes with the Brother labeler, making the tedious job of addressing envelopes (or generating any kind of label, really) just a Dashboard invocation away.

I use Seiko SII 450. Very nice. It works very well with Mac-OsX. Has universal drives and software. connect via USB. The Labeling software is excellent and it´s a Mac soft not a windows port.

I use a Dymo LabelWriter Duo via USB. It does both the mailing labels, up to 2 5/16” by 4” and the permanent labels, up to 1”. I use those big shipping labels for everything from envelopes to packages. I use 1/2” permanent labels for file folders.

I particularly like that the Dymo permanent labels have a pre-split back which makes applying them very much easier than the Brother labels. I use a Brother labeller at work and it takes forever to get the backing off those labels.

The software is fine, it seems Macish to me. I got it at a considerable discount when an office superstore closed some locations near me.

http://global.dymo.com/enUS/Products/LabelWriter_DUO.html?WT.srch=1

I use the Dymo LabelWriter with my Mac and love it. The labels are big and clear and the Dymo software adjusts the Font size automatically so the text always fits. I also love the way that the labels are easy to get off. I have to admit to becoming quite irrational with my previous stand alone label maker because it would take me two minutes to extract the label from its backing.

This is a little OT, but I also need a label writer able to write bigger labels. Like the back of video tapes (Digital Betacam specifically). Anyone?

I bought aDymo LabelWriter 400 few weeks ago. It works very nicely and allows me to print from what ever application I want, plus the Dymo printer app. The salesperson tried NOT to sell it to me because he said it was for Windows only, but I showed him the opposite on the box. Dymo supports the mac fine and they have Tiger compatable drivers on their site. Great tool.

You got me thinking now. I have one of those older CoStars (now under Dymo) LabelWriter. Despite it’s age it works beautifully. Have not ever hooked it up to the Mac - its always on the PC but I distinctly remember seeing downloads for Mac.

The only problem I find with using the label writers is having to swap the rolls - I use it to print postage 99% of the time. I saw a new one that can accommodate two types of labels. That’s nice.

I picked this up at work, and thankfully I have a really decent laser printer at home. For making labels, I simply take one sheet of labels, which may or may not have been snuck out of my workplace cough, and put it into my printer. I pull up the Word template sitting on my desktop for those labels, put in whatever I please… into the one box on the label template that I intend to use. Then I hit ‘print’.

Price: Free! Er, that is, the cost of a sheet of labels. Also compatible with anything, and doesn’t require extra equipment cluttering up my desk. The key for making this usable is to be careful not to wrinkle up the page corners—if they don’t get folded over by accident at some point, you can easily run a single sheet through a laser printer for each label individually if you want to. Or do a bunch at once, if you like.

I bought a newer version (the Labelwriter 400) of these when they first came out in Australia a few months ago, and I ended up taking it back for a refund. I wanted it for file folders and CD/DVD labels. The idea is good — but the execution is lacking. When I loaded a roll of labels and launched the software, the first label would print fine, but subsequent labels would drift from centre — the feeder didn’t do a good job of keeping things aligned. For larger mailing labels it probably would be a problem (or not often), but for smaller labels like those I was using, it just didn’t do a very neat job. The print quality was adequate, though nowhere near laser quality — the labels themselves are very thin (one of the boxes I bought with the machine was actually water-damaged).

I think a cheap inkjet dedicated to the job, a pack of Avery labels, and something like a copy of BeLight Software’s Mail Factory (which lets you choose the position of the label that you’re printing to, so you can re-use partially used label sheets) would do a better job.

I just went to Staples the other week to get another labeler, and noticed the PT-65 was gone also. Looks like they replaced it with the PT-80, which actually fixed a lot of things I didn’t like about the PT-65. The PT-80 is slightly smaller, lighter, and has a better color scheme. It also has some improvements to the interface, solving my biggest complaint with the PT-65: the lack of a “Shift” button. If it has bluetooth printing, it’d be almost perfect.