I’m looking for an inexpensive label maker that can print small labels. I need to label various things around my house for my sanity (outlet/breaker mapping, coax endpoint mapping, etc).
I was going to buy a NIIMBOT D110, but then I saw in their FAQ that they put an IC (chip) into their labels and the printer won’t print if it can’t sense it. I really don’t want to support a company that DRMs their consumables, if I can help it.
Can anyone recommend a good, small, inexpensive label maker? Preferably one that doesn’t have sketchy DRM embedded.
I have the dymo label maker 160, it doesn’t have any DRM that I’m aware of (at least I used generic labels with no issue and it’s easy to find compatible refills) and I like that it has a qwerty layout, since some annoyingly have an ABC layout which is a pain to use.
My only gripe is that it doesn’t have a ton of symbols though it has a decent selection, and even though the text can go small enough for like 3 lines it only lets you do 2 lines on top of each other. Also all non alphanumeric (apostrophes, parentheses, etc) are in the symbol menu instead of having dedicated keys but that’s not terrible.
It’s also only ~$30 which is really reasonable, I’ve gotten a ton of use out of mine.
Just get a Dymo. They’re like $20-40 depending on the model and the ink carts are easy to find in bulk for hella cheap. They also don’t have any DRM so you can get 3rd party carts. I bought 12 pack of carts with my label maker 5 years ago and I haven’t even emptied the first cartridge yet, and I labeled fuckin’ everything in my apartment.
I see a couple notes in here for Dymo stuff. Please do your due diligence on Dymo. Their more recent label hardware is doing something similar to what you mentioned by forcing the use of their labels and not working if you try to use any other brand.
DYMO Label Maker LetraTag 100H checking in. I’ve had mine for 5 years and remain happy with it!
I am looking for something similar: a printer for stickers on a roll. The printer must be controllable from a PC. I need to print one sticker at a time, printing a whole sheet would make the process absolutely complicated.
