Brother P-touch PT-D200

By Tony Hoffman

The Brother P-touch PT-D200 is a standalone label printer that needs no PC to operate. It's highly portable, can be held in the palm of a hand, and is battery powered; an optional AC adapter is available.?It's similar in many ways to the Epson LabelWorks LW-300 but with a simpler interface in which most functions are controlled through a menu system. It's also a lot faster than the Epson LW-300 or the Epson LabelWorks LW-400 , though it lacks the latter printer's ability to print wider labels, or specialty labels like barcodes.

The PT-D200 measures 2.7 by 6.5 by 6.1 inches (HWD) and weighs 1.1 pounds, excluding batteries and tape cassette. It's slightly larger than the LW300, and is nearly square, with rounded corners. The PT-D200's back is raised, however, so that the keyboard and screen tilt slightly forward.

The LCD?large for a standalone label printer?displays one line of 15 characters, though you can enter a maximum of 80 characters as well as break the text into two lines for printing by hitting the Enter key. ?Although only one line of text is visible at a time, above the text appear icons that indicate type size or style, and below it is displayed the length in inches of the label that you've typed.

To the left of the keyboard is a menu key; below the keyboard are keys to navigate through the menus: left and right arrows; escape (which takes you back one screen); and OK (which lets you select a menu item). By and large, the menu system?combined with other keys like font, frame, symbol, and the suitably artsy Deco mode?is intuitive. I found it easier to work with than Epson's controls, which feature a number of function keys?identified with icons rather than labeled?some of whose purpose is obscure.

The PT-D200's keyboard is a simplified QWERTY model that retains control keys such as tab, caps, shift, enter, and backspace. Flanking the space bar are a file key and an accent key. The file key lets you save up to 30 label designs you create and then print them. Pressing the accent key after you type a letter lets you add an accent?common or obscure?to it (provided, of course, that there are accents for the letter).
As has been true with other standalone label printers that I've tested, the keyboard is too small for touch typing but responds well to thumb typing, either when set on a surface or cradled between one's hands. The keys require a somewhat heavy impression, which didn't impede my typing but all but prevented me from pressing the wrong key accidentally.

The PT-D200 is powered by six AAA batteries (not included). Should you forget to turn it off, it will shut itself off after five minutes. The bottom can be easily opened to replace batteries or the tape cartridge. An optional AC adapter is available for $27.99 (list).

Brother offers 30 label cartridges, up to a half-inch wide, for this printer. Label types include standard laminated labels, fabric iron-on labels, super-narrow non-laminated labels, and labels with extra-strength adhesive. Epson offers 25 different label cartridges of various types up to a half inch wide for its LW-300, and 41 label types up to ? inches wide for the LW-400, including barcodes and other specialty labels.

Printing speed for a label printer isn't as critical as for a business printer (unless you're printing large numbers of the same label), but nonetheless, faster is better?and the PT-D200's speed is impressive. It averaged 5.2 seconds in printing out a 3.8-inch label that reads This is a test. and 7.9 seconds to print a 5.9-inch label that reads PCMag:Printer Speed Test. The P-touch employs a manual label cutter to clip the label after printing.

The Epson LW-300 took more than twice as long in printing, averaging 11.6 seconds to print a 2.8-inch This is a test. label and 19 seconds for a 4.9-inch PCMag:Printer Speed Test label. The Epson LW-400's times were nearly the same as the LW-300's.

The Brother P-touch PT-D200 has an easy-to-use interface, and is faster than either the Epson LabelWorks LW-300 or LW-400. If you need to print barcodes or other specialty labels, or labels wider than half an inch, you'll want to pick the Epson LW-400. But the PT-D200's overall user experience and its speed are better?good enough to earn it an Editors' Choice as a standalone, PC-free label printer.

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