The Write Label

There’s nothing that makes a student respect and take care of a homework folder or find the right drawer in the art room than when it has a printed label on it. Forget about writing them with a Sharpie because there’re a multitude of label printers out there that make putting together creative labels as easy as typing a name. Here’re my favorites.

When speed is of the essence (and when isn’t it?), Dymo’s $300 LabelWriter 4XL does the trick by pumping out 53 labels per minute in an easy-to-read 300 dots per inch. Because it uses 4- by 6-inch labels, the 4XL can perform many roles in the classroom and office, from first-day name tags to marking storage boxes. The system comes with software for Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Mac’s OSX.

Rather than using a computer to type or import names for your labels, Brother’s PT-9600 has its own mini keyboard so you have the choice of tapping out a label on the fly or connecting it to either a PC or Mac. With the ability to put a super-sharp 360-dots per inch onto an adhesive label, the PT-3600 has a wide variety of fonts, type sizes built-in and can print images alongside words and numbers. It has a handy preview screen, can work with labels that are between 0.25- to 1.5-inches wide and weighs just 4.4 pounds. It costs $500, but unlike the other two which use thermal technology and don’t need ink, the PT-9600 uses a transfer ribbon that adds to its costs, but allows the use of a variety of different colors.

It may be small and light but Seiko’s SLP 450 printer can churn out labels that are 2.1-inches wide at about 30 per minute in sharp 300 dots per inch. It works with PCs and Macs and the SLP 450 can grab data from a variety of programs, like Goldmine, Word as well as importing lists from just about any database program.