Brother QL-800 High-Speed Professional Label Printer, Plug & Label Feature, Brother Genuine DK Pre-Sized Labels, Multi-System Compatible – Black & Red Printing Available (Required USB Cable Included)

I purchased this on February 11, 2025, and wrote this review on March 23, 2025. I use this printer regularly for work events and it’s been a game-changer. It’s fast, compact, and super easy to set up. The plug-and-label feature saves time during tight schedules, and the ability to print in both black and red adds a professional touch for badges and signage. It handles both pre-sized and continuous labels flawlessly, with no jamming issues.

I returned another label printer and got this one, and I am glad I did. This label printer is very easy to use. In the Editor Lite mode, you don't even need to download any drivers - you can just create your labels on your laptop, print, and boom you're done. That's all I need - I just need to print decent quality envelope labels for a small business. This printer is also cute. My kids think it looks like a T-rex, so we might nickname it Dino or Rexi. :)

From reading some of the reviews, I was under the impression that it could print the regular USPS 4"x6" labels, however, it does not. Rather it prints labels with the maximum width of 2.4"x(desired length). Make sure if you are purchasing this printer that your source from which you purchase your shipping labels (Paypal, eBay, Shopify, etc.) allows you to change the size in which you print your labels. The printer requires the shipping label setting to be set to 2.3"x7.5" for USPS shipping labels. I have not tried using it to print FedEx or UPS labels, but I imagine it is similar to USPS labels. It is possible to print the larger style label, but what this printer will do is print the different parts of the label on separate strips, then you have to cut and piece it together like a puzzle, which in my opinion would be a nightmare being that if you mess up in aligning the label which is a sticker, then you would have to print and start all over. So the 2.3"x7.5" label is the way to go. Keep in mind, if the package you are shipping is not long enough to accommodate the 7.5" long label then you will need to either cut the label and make it fit or just purchase a different label maker entirely. Overall, this printer is well made and does the job.

This is terribly hard to use. Almost impossible to set up proper size.Brother forces you to download and install a third-party app if you use a MacBook.Then through this app (just to print a simple label), everything gets complicated, it takes forever to load, and it doesn't print at the right size so you waste paper and time for every single try.This is such a hassle and a scam, honestly. I don't recommend this to anyone. It takes as fast to print it on a normal printer and put a piece of tape on the package yourself.

Small learning curve to get going with this but prints very quickly once the free software is downloaded. I'm just using it to help organize storage totes, but theres a lot more functions such as barcoding and more. Wish I could get it to work with my iphone

Overall this is a great printer, it's an upgrade to my shipping workflow. One downside is the Mac setup (tips for this at the bottom)I'm using this to print shipping labels for individual trading card shipments. (Magic the Gathering, Pokemon, Baseball, etc.)I use the 2.4" Continuous Tape for everything, the printer comes with a 5-meter sample roll of the DK-2251 Black/Red which I blew through pretty quickly. I bought a roll of the generic BETCKEY DK-2205 Black Only 2.4" Continuous 100 ft which has been working out very well.For Mac Setup make sure you download the drivers and P-Touch editor from the Brother site. In the P-Touch editor make sure to select the proper tape. You need to specify if you're using the 2.4" Black/Red or 2.4" Black only. Even if you're only printing in Black, if you're using the Black/Red tape then you need to specify the 2.4" Black/Red option. If you don't then you'll get the dreaded blinking red light.It's a good idea to download the P-Touch Editor even if you're not going to be using it just for the ability to troubleshoot any issues. For Mac make sure the light above the "Editor Lite" button is NOT on. This is a Windows-only feature and will give you headaches. Any time you install new tape make sure to fire up P-Touch Editor and do a test print to make sure the tape is loaded properly.I have had success printing labels via Paypal multi-order shipping by selecting the "QL-500" option. In the print options do the following:For "Paper Size" Select "7 Postage Label"In the dropdown underneath "Orientation" Select "Preview"Make sure "Scale to Fit" and "Print Entire Image" are selectedIn the dropdown menu select "Basic" and for "Quality" select "Give priority to print quality"Next select "Advanced" from the dropdown menu and for "Color" select either "Monochrome" if you're using the Black only labels or "2-Color(Black/Red)" if you're using the "Black/Red" labelsThese options seem like no-brainers but I came into this assuming that it would "just work" and I was wrong. The printer knows what kinds of labels are loaded by referencing the dots punched into the bottom of the label holder and I assumed that it would be able to adjust its presets automatically but that is not the case. This was especially frustrating when moving from the Black/Red labels to Black only.Once you print successfully using these presets I would save them to make it easy in the future. Once you pass the hurdle of setting it up once then this printer is fantastic (hence the 4/5 stars).The only other gripe I have is that sometimes the labels will get stuck if I'm printing short labels less than an inch tall. When this happens they can fall back into the cutter and they'll get cut when the next label comes out. When they get cut it's usually minor, they'll get a corner cut off or a bit of the bottom but there were a couple times where it nearly cut the label in half which meant that I had to reprint that label. I remedied this by putting a short box underneath the rear feet to tilt the machine forward a bit.Overall this printer has been super solid. It's relatively portable so I can chuck it in a box with my printing supplies and set up shop wherever I am. Before I was using Avery address labels, using their templates is a bit clunkier than using the P-Touch editor. Plus, I would never use a full sheet of labels so I was constantly having to adjust cells so that my labels lined up. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to print PayPal labels, there isn't much documentation online of people using the QL-800 for this purpose, so I rolled the dice and ordered it. Now this little machine that's smaller than a loaf of bread takes the place of my big clunky printer. No more switching out label sheets in my printer, I only have the one roll of labels to worry about and that's it!

I am not a business user, but my handwriting makes it even difficult to address an envelope. I've used Dymos at work, but this Brother was sort of a more "sedate" choice. Fits nicely on my desk, is always ready to print, was relatively easy, for me, to install, and fun figuring out just how to set up a generic label. The add-ons of different images, borders, frames, are extras! Very happy with the Brother QL 800.