How do I get automatic labeler to stop printing large left margin?

November 6, 2007 9:47 AM

I just bought a Brother P-Touch automatic labeler. How do I get it to stop printing a a long margin before the text begins? The "margin" setting seems to only control the right margin (i.e. after the text), not the left margin.
posted by Malad to technology (10 comments total)

It's probably a limitation of the labeler's mechanism. The print head is a certain distance from the cutter, and that's the absolute minimum left margin. In order to make the margin smaller, it'd have to move the tape back before starting to print, which sure seems possible, but Brother probably doesn't have enough people complaining about the left margin to add this feature.
posted by zsazsa at 9:56 AM on November 6, 2007

That's the space between the cutting blade and the print head... that's as short as the left margin gets. I think scissors are your only option, although you might try making a longer label with the text you want separated by spaces and then cutting it up.
posted by ulotrichous at 9:57 AM on November 6, 2007

As others have said, it's just not adjustable due to physical limitations. I found I often had to hand trim both ends if label space was at a premium.
posted by nomisxid at 9:58 AM on November 6, 2007

This is an annoying "feature" which some have speculated is a ploy to make users buy more label tape. To save tape, I've printed a bunch of labels in one go and then cut them out later.
posted by exogenous at 10:10 AM on November 6, 2007

Yeah we got one too and it absolutely sucks as a 'feature'. There is just no way to avoid using scissors and wasting tape unless you want acres of space on each side. Here's 4 people complaining Brother!
posted by clarkie666 at 11:32 AM on November 6, 2007

You can't.

The minimum margin at the start of the tape is equal to the distance between the print head and the tape cutter. It can't be made any shorter than that.

The best you can do is print it with a short margin (on the tail end) and then cut it with some scissors. I have to do this for file folders all the time. Alternately, just wrap it around the tab, which also works.
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:51 AM on November 6, 2007

I just checked this out with mine; code+"tape" buttons will allow you to set margins at full, half, narrow, or none. There is an obligatory minimum margin on the left, but the cutter cuts it off for anything less than full margins, leaving a little nubbin (chad?) of tape in addition to the label. On my PT-2600 this affects the margins on both ends of the tape.
posted by TedW at 12:02 PM on November 6, 2007 [1 favorite]

total ripoff.
posted by Mr_Crazyhorse at 3:41 PM on November 6, 2007

I have to chime in as a fellow Brother Labelmaker user....I hate that! I sit around with scissors like a mad woman chopping at the ends of the labels. I guess it makes me feel better than other people think it's stupid.
posted by nursegracer at 4:59 PM on November 6, 2007

I will typically do alot of "labels", seperated by a single or double-space and then grab the scissors to reduce tape wastage.
posted by jkaczor at 6:40 PM on November 7, 2007