Brother QL-700 High-speed, Professional Label Monochrome Printer

Ok so after this box has been sitting on my home office floor for about 3 months (just never enough time to sit down and setup). I finally cracked it open to install. I use Windows 7 and the installation was flawless. No issues with drivers or updates. Once the printer was installed I made sure (as you should as well) you download the latest software version. The initial install has will place a button on your desktop just for this, a great little feature. I updated the software first and then the lite version which it stores on the printer memory itself.I then went to work. I tried the lite version first and in under 2 min I had my first label come out. Sweett!!!. Cutter blade is fast. I then went for the next big step. Creating a local spreadsheet as a database and then connecting that database to my first label design. This took longer of course since I have not used the software before. I did not use the express scree but the professional screen. A very easy toggle between the two at the bottom of the screen.Once I got my ADDRESS label to look how I wanted, I then added one more thing. A postnet bar code at the bottom of the label to seal the deal. A postnet barcode is what expedites your mail through the post office sorting system. This took a few minutes to figure out. Added the bard code first then linked it to the zip code field in the database. BAM !!! Done. I used a MS Word to validate the bar code that I already use for some window based envelopes I have, and the codes looked identical. I suggest you start with a test database first, like excel, just a few fields like name, address 1, address 2, City State and zip and just a few rows of data to get the hang of it. Once your done with how your labels look then simply blow up the database with the real data you will be using.From cracking open the box to this review 3 hours and I work in technology so this stuff comes a bit easier to me. Take your time this thing works but you can be overwhelmed with the design screen. BTW once you have the label layout file looking the way you want make sure you save it. I did this with the excel database and next time I went in to open it up. It linked up straight away to the database and brought up the label just as I have designed it.I will be sending a poor mans copyright letter (that's a letter mailed back to yourself) to make sure this thing makes it through the postal system just fine before I do anything in bulk. While at the post office I will inquire what I can do to cut down on the postage since I may be sending out a couple of hundred of letters with these labels on them.Stay tuned

I've been a seller on eBay and recently Amazon and I decided to get this label printer not expecting that I would write a review. Here is my experience in chronological order:1. Ordered printer and it arrive here in Okinawa, Japan in 8 days. As usual, Amazon sellers are on their game when it comes to shipping. Great job!2. Box and contents arrived with no damage. Thanks USPS.3. I had the printer for about two weeks before I decided to open it up and get it going. It was well packed and no damage.4. Unlike most of the time, I read the quick setup directions which took about 5 minutes. Easy to read and understand.5. Followed directions and hooked up the label printer to my computer, loaded the tape (it came with two different size label rolls), feed through the slot and aligned it per directions. Very easy to do, you can't screw it up.6. I happened to have 7 orders I had to work on so used the software that came on the machine (lite version), cut and pasted my first address (my business) and saved it and printed 10 labels. Worked like a charm. Fast and labels were perfect. You can adjust the size and font (Windows theme selection) and hit the print button.7. Cut and pasted customer addresses and printed their labels and again; PERFECT!8. You can print postage but I haven't gotten to that stage yet.9. This label printer is GREAT!!! It's a snap to setup even for non-computer geeks, doesn't take up a lot of space, and works as advertised. This printer is worth it's weight in gold. Will save you time and make your packages look professional.10. I don't do reviews often, but just had to on this particular purchase.Semper Fidelis,Richard

As others have noted, the printer works very well, but my surprise was how good the software was. Generally, I find the software included with these sorts of products is very poorly designed with a limited feature set. The Brother software, however, is quite full-featured (including allowing you to import CSV files, or connect to a SQL database), and logically designed. I was able to print out a bunch of labels from data in an Excel spreadsheet with a custom layout in under 30 minutes from opening the box, and without reading any documentation.The software has two modes; a simplified mode for people who just want to print basic labels with some standard templates, and a power-user mode where you can connect to external data sources and do all sorts of fancy things (bar codes, QR codes, complex layouts, etc.)Also, the printer includes a cutter that (optionally) automatically cuts the labels to the correct size (or whatever size you define when using the continuous-feed paper). I've never used a thermal label printer before, but I was surprised how fast the output was.If you're a developer, there's an open API you can you to integrate this printer into your own application.