10 Best Label Makers of 2023 [Tested and Reviewed]

The P-touch CUBE Plus PT-P710BT has two separate smartphone apps. One is for making decorative labels, while the other is meant for office supply labels, and both have a wide range of preset templates. This label maker allows you to add decorative frames, emojis, symbols and images, and also allows for customizing margin sizes. The buttons are intuitive and both of the compatible apps are easy to operate.

We had no trouble making intricately designed labels thanks to the logical presentation of the design options. Being able to use a color screen that displays text the actual size it will be printed at means you'll have no trouble getting your labels to look exactly the way you imagined them to. In addition to the 1,700 emojis and symbols it comes pre-loaded with, it can also print emojis from your smartphone's keyboard. Plus, you'll have access to 260 decorative frames and over 50 fonts, which should be more than enough for anyone to find a design they like.

The P-touch CUBE is compatible with one-inch, 3/4-inch, 1/2-inch, 3/8-inch, 1/4-inch, and 9/64-inch tapes. As for tape types, it handles nine different materials, including standard laminate tape, color tape, ribbon tape, and strong adhesive tape, meaning you won't be limited to where you can stick your labels. You can adjust your margin sizes or enable chain printing to make sure you waste as little tape as possible.

With options to print ordered numbers on labels and automatically cut each label for larger tasks, we greatly appreciated just how efficient this label maker was for office use. Whether you'll be using it at home or at work, this is one product you'll definitely want to put on your radar.

As the name suggests, the P-touch Business Professional Connected Label Maker is the work-centered model in the P-touch series. It allows you to design labels on the product or your computer screen. This label maker contains 900 emojis and symbols, 17 fonts, and 160 decorative frames. As it's intended for business use, the designs tend to be practical or utilitarian. It handles a wide range of tape sizes, including one-inch, 3/4-inch, half-inch, 3/8-inch, 1/4-inch, and 9/64-inch tapes. And with nine compatible tape types, you'll be able to make labels to put on pretty much any type of material.

Another thing we found appealing was that the screen is in color and displays text at the actual size it will be printed, meaning labels don't come out differently from what you expected. The button placement is also intuitive. One downfall is that the screen can only display a small amount of information at once, so you can't see all of the font or printing options at a glance. It certainly has plenty of design options, but you'll need to know what you're looking for in advance.

With the ability to print ordered numbers and barcodes, this is an extremely useful product for keeping track of office supplies. If you'll be using batteries for power, keep in mind that you'll need to have three AA batteries ready. At eight inches wide and nearly eight inches deep, you'll also need to make sure you have ample space on your desk for it.

The D110 is a label maker that comes in a compact size and uses its own app for operation. The small size and light weight mean it won't take up space, and it's easy to pick up and get started making labels without any hassle. The app menus are simple enough to make label designs intuitively. You can adjust the placement of text or icons freely on the label layout. You can print not only emojis and decorative frames but also pictures, barcodes, or even Excel sheets, and getting everything in place is easy as well.

This label maker comes with 680 emojis and symbols and 48 decorative frames, which isn't the most of all the products we looked at but certainly not a small amount either. And with 19 fonts, you should be able to make natural looking labels for any location. Unfortunately, it isn't compatible with a large number of tape types. While the documentation shows that it offers a wide array of tape variations, some of them weren't available on the maker's website. It's compatible with 1/2-inch, 14-millimeter, and 15-millimeter tapes, and it uses a predetermined length of tape for a single label.

The labels it printed were clear with no smudges or bleeding, but since it uses the direct thermal method for printing, you'll need to make sure the labels aren't in direct sunlight for long periods. Once printed, you can neatly cut off the label using the tape cutter along the opening. Since the length of each label is predetermined, it isn't particularly cost efficient on tape, but it's still a good choice for easily making your own original labels at home.

At six inches across and nine inches in depth, the P-touch PTD210 is sized to fit in your hands. This is the most basic model in the P-touch series and has simplified buttons for various functions like fonts, frames, and printing options. We had no trouble editing fonts, adding decorative frames or other aspects of designing labels.

However, there are no preset templates, and the screen doesn't have enough space to show all the options for fonts and frames. If you're trying to make a label with a specific design you have in mind, you may end up feeling frustrated. The screen is just over three inches across, which is big enough to see, but it's black and white, and also doesn't display text at the size it will actually be printed, making it difficult to get labels to come out exactly as you expect.

This label maker comes with 596 emojis and symbols, 14 fonts, and 99 decorative frames to combine into your own original labels. In addition to the standard laminate tape, it also accepts several other materials like masking tape and fabric tape. Even though this is the basic model, it still had a wide range of applications. With compatible tape sizes of 1/2 inch, 3/8 inches, 1/4 inch, and 9/64 inches, the PTD210 comes in handy for getting organized or putting your name on your own items.

The P-touch Easy Handheld Label Maker PT-H110 is indeed small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, and has handy buttons to cycle through things like fonts and decorative frames for intuitive operation. With its eight-inch wide screen, you won't have to squint to see the text you're editing. But frames and emojis are only displayed one at a time, so getting the exact design you're looking for will require a bit of patience. The preview does show text and images at the actual size they'll be printed at, but being in black and white makes it hard to imagine exactly how they'll turn out.

One of the benefits of this label maker is just how easy it is to pick up, plug in, and get started, but it doesn't have the wide range of design options like some of the other products we looked at. There are only three fonts, but at least you can also add or remove bolding, italics, borders, and shadows for a bit more variety. It also comes with 250 emojis and symbols and 15 decorative frames. It's just the right amount for people who primarily plan on printing text labels and occasionally may want to add a bit of design flair.

Thankfully, it's compatible with just as many tape types as the other label makers in the P-touch series. It accepts laminate tape, color tape, masking tape, and strong adhesive tape, among others, and can be used with 1/2-inch, 3/8-inch, 1/4-inch, and 9/64-inch tape. You can also split text into two columns on the label. People who want to use their label maker for simple organization tasks or naming their possessions should keep this one in mind.

This compact DYMO LabelManager 160 Portable Label Maker comes with pictures on its operation buttons for intuitive control and straightforward label design. While there are options for bold, underlined or italic text, this label maker only has one font. Decorative frames are also lacking, with only five options. Even with 230 emojis and symbols, it's unlikely you'll be able to make complex designs.

It accepts 1/2-inch, 3/8-inch, and 1/4-tape sizes, and is compatible with color tape, clear tape, and laminate adhesive tape. The screen itself isn't too small to impede editing, but it's black and white and doesn't display text at the size it will be printed, meaning it's hard to know exactly how your design will look until you've printed out a label. Another thing to keep in mind is that this label maker doesn't have any margin settings. The default setting makes for large margins, and with small text in particular, it feels like a waste of empty space.

Neither does it allow for chain printing. Even if you're printing multiple labels with the same design, you'll need to hit print again for each one. And the tape cutter is completely manual, so expect to spend some time cutting if you need to print a large number of labels. While it may seem like enough functionality for just printing text labels, keep in mind that it's not particularly efficient.

Phomemo's D30 label maker combines portability with smartphone compatibility for simple editing on the maker's app. You can select what tape type to print on and also specify the position of text and images all with the included app, making for intuitive editing. It also allows you to upload pictures, barcodes or QR codes from your phone. Thanks to having buttons for each type of operation and being able to see emoji and frame options as lists, this label maker feels simple to control despite the wide range of features.

It comes with a plethora of design options, including over 1,200 emojis and symbols, 175 decorative frames, and 16 fonts to choose from. Tape sizes, however, are limited to 15-millimeter, 14-millimeter, 1/2-inch, and 1/4-inch. The number of compatible tape types is also on the small side, including things like color tape, clear tape, and matte tape.

In the case of this particular label maker, inconsistency in the quality of printing negatively affected its score, primarily because it doesn't have any method of straightening tape that's been inserted unevenly. This would often cause printed text to come out at a slight diagonal. And you should be aware that it uses the direct thermal method for printing, so you'll need to keep labels out of direct sunlight to prevent fading.

The Lite LR5E, by Japanese stationery and office supply maker KING JIM, touts itself as being light and compact enough to hold in your hands for convenient use. This model can only print text, emojis and symbols, and decorative frames. There are no options for specifying label length, text spacing, or margins, but to be fair, this comes with the advantage of easy-to-grasp operation.

The screen is black and white and 5/16 of an inch tall, which is good enough for editing text, but comes up short when you're trying to make intricately designed labels. There are 650 emojis and symbols, 49 decorative frames, and seven fonts to choose from. It may not come in first place for design options but still offers a respectable amount of variety, and we had a fun time coming up with our own original labels. But it takes a considerable amount of time since you can't see the options as lists.

As this label maker uses direct thermal printing, labels left in the sun for too long will fade. The labels printed were consistently neat and even, but it's not the best choice for organizing or labeling items for years to come. Considering all of the tape types it's compatible with, like color tape, clear tape, matte tape, character tape, design tape, and masking tape, we think it would work well for making gift tags or decorations.

The first thing you'll notice about KING JIM's Lite LR20E is that it's made in the shape of a house. It claims to include convenient features that make it fun to use in everyday situations, and comes in a small size that feels comfortable to hold in your hands. Only text, emojis and symbols, and decorative frames can be customized on this label maker.

What it lacks in detailed settings, it makes up for in simplicity of use. But there is the downside that the small black and white screen, which is only 5/16 of an inch tall, makes it difficult to predict how your designs will come out once printed. And it can only display one design option at a time, which results in a bit of stress when trying to cycle through them to find the one you want. While it is easy to operate, it also takes quite a bit of time to get the exact design you're looking for.

This label maker comes with around 670 emojis and symbols, seven fonts, and 36 decorative frames. In particular, the fonts it comes loaded with are quite unique, and make for fun, attention-grabbing labels. Printed labels came out neat and consistent, but they aren't necessarily best used for long-term labeling due to it using direct thermal printing. It's compatible with a wide range of tape types, like print tapes and masking tapes, so consider using it for gift tags or other decorations.

The Embossing Label Maker by DYMO prints raised text on embossed tape. It's a non-digital, non-electric device with letters printed on a dial that you input one at a time, and doesn't require batteries. The only available symbols on this label maker are the uppercase alphabet along with the exclamation point, quotation marks, pound sign, dollar sign, comma, period, hyphen, forward slash, and @. While operation is simple, it will take some getting used to before you can get the tape to feed properly and hit the correct letter you want.

The maker's official embossed tape comes only in black, red, green and blue. The labels printed by this product, with their raised, convex text, have a greatly different appearance from any of the other label makers we looked at. It doesn't come with a wide array of design options, but even so, you may still get a kick out of its results.

Unfortunately, it was sometimes hard to get the tape loaded in correctly or cut evenly, which resulted in a lot of wasted tape. The letter molds tended to miss their mark as well, which caused the spacing between letters to become uneven at times.