Brother QL-1050 Wide Format PC Label Printer

Great machine. I bought the Brother because: A. it was priced below $200 (lower than DYMO and Zebra), B. it had better product reviews than most other label printers, C. Brother has been a trusted brand for me, for years. I bought the machine to print 4 x 6 shipping labels, using Endicia. It works, though youll need to configure the margin and scale settings in Endicias Printer Setup so that the print job fits within the 4 x 6 space. It was trial and error for me, and I went through about 6 labels to get it right. The attached screen shots capture the setting I used (Scale = 95%, Top Margin = 0.65, Left Margin = 1.25). Im not sure why Endicias Printer Setup does not have a default Brother setting (it has a Zebra and DYMO), perhaps their relationship is not as strong. Anyway, the machine is very well built, quiet and quick. Printed label quality is very professional looking. I would buy this machine again.

While I really enjoy how easy this printer is to use, I am thoroughly disappointed to discover that the spindles/cartridges that the sample paper/labels came on in the package are glued together. The problem, in my opinion, is two-fold: 1) its ridiculously wasteful to not be able to reuse the fairly large piece of plastic, and 2) I needed to buy yet another spindle/cartridge from a non-OEM manufacturers distributor so I could use non-OEM continuous paper labels.in the machine, which, of course, needed the spindle/cartridge. Im assuming then that if Id bought replacement labels/paper from Brother, that spindle is always included with the labels/paper pre-loaded and non-reusable. I just dont understand the huge waste. ::: shaking my head :::

I wish I knew this wasnt compatible with stamps.com Printer works great. The software looks so dated and is a little awkward switching from some labels and also hard to switch from different saved addresses. Maybe Im technologically challenged, but it wasnt as simple as I would like it to be.

I have the brother ql-700 label maker and have used it everyday for past 2 years. It is awesome and works great with off brand labels. I needed the ability to print 4x6 and found an amazon warehouse price that was awesome and I am very satisfied with this wide printer. It functions just as good as the ql-700.

Works flawlessly. I do not use the P touch program however. To print labels, I save them to a pdf document, then right click show in folder. Then go to that pdf in the folder and open it. Then click the edit tab on top and choose the Take a Snapshot option. A crossbar shows and you hold down left click to highlight exactly what you would like to print. Now right click over the highlighted image and choose print. The dialogue box for your printer should open - choose the QL-1050 and adjust width etc. based on paper you are using.

It works well, but dont like the fact that you cant use UPS labels. You have to use brother brand labels for this printer.

I am undecided on how I feel about this unit. It prints fast, easy to change between label widths (2.4 and 4 for me), and the quality is good. The only reason I am docking it a star and the reason why I am undecided about the unit is the random times when the label maker doesnt work at all. Itll throw a virtual fit and flash red and no matter what I do to try and fix it I cannot get it to work. Ill come back in 20 minutes and itll work. Sometimes it occurs after printing a few hundred labels, of which then Id understand, and then other times it will happen even if I havent printed any labels that day. Heres a tip that I found out too, if you plug in your QL-1050 to an Airport Express you can make it a wifi-enabled label maker saving you money from having to buy the QL-1070 that has Wifi.

Horrible. Complicating. Never could get it to make a shipping label large enough to read no matter what setting it was on. Called Brother and spoke to the foreign representative who was disinterested in their products. He informed me that it was the fault of ebay, paypal, and usps websites that had the problem with lack of compatibility and not Brother. Will never buy another Brother product again. Will go with Dymo or Zebra and pay a little extra.

I liked it and would hve used. The problem is they are not compatible with Stamps.com. Which was my purpose in buying the product.

I bought this product because the advertisements all say Prints 4x6 Shipping Labels. Once I received this printer, plugged it in, and called tech support, I was informed that while this printer does technically print shipping labels (only for Ebay or Paypal), it does NOT support or print labels through any of the main shipping companies: USPS, USP, or Fed Ex (unless you also subscribe to Endicia for $16 per month). I promptly returned it and called DYMO. Their 4xl printer is the only one Ive found that prints typical shipping labels on a Mac computer through the major carriers. (They provide the Endicia software free of charge.) Be forewarned...