Home standing, eating gray artifact: Brother brother PT-2730 label printer out of the box

Like many value-friends, I also think that the biggest attribute of the label printer is "eat gray," and in most cases it is idle. However, it is undeniable that certain specific circumstances can still play a big role, such as decoration.

The last time I had a home renovation, I used a Brother PT-E100B portable label printer to mark all kinds of cables, panels, and switches. The most impressive is the quality, especially the “resistance”. Gold expensive electronic equipment. However, the simpler features limit the ability to create complex tags, leaving me with some regret. So when I was once again facing renovations, there was a reasonable excuse to update a more powerful label printer.

Because of the good experience before, the brand chosen this time is still locked in Brother (Brothers), and it is also the number one manufacturer in the field of label printing. For functional aspects I would like to be able to use wide ribbon multi-line printing and connect to a computer for simple graphic editing to display richer information. So after some comprehensive consideration of price and value, PT-2730 was finally selected.

This is an old machine that was launched in 2011. Backlit screens can support up to 3 lines of display, each with 16 characters. It can be used offline and can also be used via USB connection. It supports Mac and Windows systems. There are 8 professional fonts, 10 input methods, 7 font sizes, and 20 template options. Up to 7 lines can be printed on a label, and the printed labels can be used for a long time. At the same time, bold fonts can be enlarged, and font sizes of up to 24 mm can be printed. Functionally, it basically meets my needs, and the price is particularly affordable. It just happened to be met with a purchase price of US$40 for the United States and Asia, and less than 400 yuan for the transfer. Although it has not caught up with historical low prices, it is also within the acceptable range.

Brother PT-2730 packaging front and back, with a typical American supermarket style

Product accessories family portrait, in addition to an external power supply and USB cable, also comes with a 24mm width print ribbon.

In fact, when I took out the main body, my heart broke down. I thought the printer's size was similar to a slightly larger calculator, but it actually exceeded my photo print. So this product is completely out of touch with the "portable", so called "desktop label printer" may be more appropriate

Aside from the disappointment of the volume, the exterior design of the PT-2730 is very distinctive. The whole body can be divided into upper and lower parts. The upper half of the ribbon installs the print area and the lower half of the information display input area.

The top cover of the PT-2730 is equipped with a small, transparent window that allows the user to monitor the remaining condition of the ribbon. The top cover flips over the ribbon compartment.

After loading the ribbon, it feels like an old-fashioned cassette tape player, but the reel is reduced to one, and the head is replaced with a thermal print head.

The PT-2730 has a monochrome dot-matrix liquid crystal display. The white backlight looks very refreshing. It is because it is not licensed on the mainland and it cannot display Chinese.

Full-size keyboard, key layout is basically equivalent to PC keyboard, so most users can quickly get started

On the left side of the paper exit, the PT-2730 has an automatic cutting function.

Right-side power supply and USB interface for powering using the included DC power supply

In addition to the DC power supply, the PT-2730 can also be powered by a battery. The battery compartment needs to be equipped with 6 AA batteries. Although the battery life is guaranteed, the added weight further weakens the "portable" property.

In the offline use state, the printer's own editing function can be used to easily adjust the font and size of the label, and the style of the label can be simply selected depending on the stored template. When using a 24mm width ribbon, up to 7 lines of text can be printed. . There is no major problem with the print quality, the handwriting can be clearly displayed, and the durability is also guaranteed because of the laminate design.

The PT-2730 has a version difference. The non-Mainland version of the machine cannot display Chinese, and offline cannot input Chinese information.

Therefore, for users with professional needs, especially mainland users, connecting the computer to play the full functionality of the PT-2730.

Brother official website can be downloaded to the PT-2730 driver and tools

The PT-2730 driver supports the WIN system from XP to WIN10 (32bit, 64bit) and Mac OS X 10 series operating systems. After the installation is complete, it becomes a standard attribute printing device, with general printer settings properties, even with network sharing The ability to print, which has a certain value for the environment used by the unit.

P-touch Update Software is used to update the firmware of the device and transfer the officially provided label template to the host for offline use

PT-2730 Host Memory Supports Storage of 30 Tag Styles

However, it should be noted that the official label has a clear ribbon width specification, labels that do not conform to the current ribbon width cannot be printed, and most of the label content cannot be edited offline on the host computer.

The real strength of the PT-2730 is the label editing tool called P-touch Editor. This software needs to input the serial number of the printer when downloading. However, there is no need to worry about this, and there is no restriction on the host version. The host's serial number can be downloaded as a Chinese version of the software.

P-touch Editor uses Office-like features and interfaces, so it is very easy to get started. In Professional mode, Brother integrates many professional editing functions. It can be considered as a standard tool for label design and can be freely requested by users. edit.

The missing Chinese print function in offline mode can also be smoothly implemented using P-touch Editor.

to sum up

The shape of the PT-2730 made me happy. The simple shape design and standard keyboard layout all made my experience very good, but the huge size and weight also caused some obstacles for portable use.

The PT-2730's functionality really made me very satisfied. Under the blessing of P-touch Editor, I played a very professional label editing capabilities.

Combined with relatively inexpensive prices, the PT-2730 is a good choice for label printers such as “eating gray” devices.