label

Etikez PM260 Label Printer review

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A photo of the Etikez PM260 Bluetooth label printer, in a pastel purple colour.

I’ve bought myself a new Bluetooth label printer – it’s this Etikez PM260 Label Printer (sponsored link).

But wait, you may think, don’t you already own a Bluetooth label printer? Yes, I do, and I reviewed that one a couple of years ago. And, despite buying this new one, I still use the previous one more frequently! I’ll get onto why in a bit, but first let’s outline the ways in which this Etikez PM260 model is better:

  1. It supports larger labels. It comes with 30x40cm labels, but can support 50x80cm portrait labels.
  2. As well as connecting to mobile devices via Bluetooth, it can also plug into Windows PCs and Macs via a USB-C cable.
  3. You can do mail merges from Excel spreadsheets.
  4. There’s a wider variety of label designs, including clipart.

It’s mainly the first three reasons why I bought the Etikez PM260. I wanted to be able to print labels easily via a mail merge, so that I would be more likely to actually send Christmas cards this year. And yes, I’m aware that posting about Christmas cards in March is a weird flex, but I’ve already had a chance to use it for something else. Namely, our ten-year-old’s birthday party invitations. I drew up a list of names in an Excel spreadsheet, and then we designed the invitations in Word, and used Word’s mail merge feature to print the invitations. Then, we used the Labelnize app on Windows to design the labels, and imported the names for the labels from the same spreadsheet. As well as installing the Labelnize app, there are printer drivers to install.

It worked reasonably well, although for some reason the printer only printed on every other label. In other words, after printing 10 labels, we ended up with 9 blank ones interspersed. I was able to re-stick the labels onto the backing roll to use again, and I hope this was a one-off, otherwise a roll of labels will last half as long. The labels print quickly, as it uses thermal printing rather than ink or laser toner.

What’s less good about it

For day-to-day use, we still use the Phomemo D30 printer. It’s more basic and can only print text and emojis, albeit in a variety of fonts. But it’s much quicker to use. By contrast, the Labelnize app for the Etikez PM260 is much more powerful, but you have to choose a design for each label, or design your own. It’s therefore not as quick to use as the Print Master app for the Phomemo printer.

The Phomemo printer is also quite a bit cheaper – currently it’s £16, as opposed to £27 for the Etikez PM260 – and it’s smaller. Both have a built-in battery, although the Phomemo printer should have slightly longer battery life.

If you don’t own a label printer at all, then the Etikez PM260 definitely offers more features, and overall gets my recommendation. But both printers have their place, and we use them both regularly.

Hopefully, this means I’ll have less of an excuse not to send Christmas cards this year!

How to use Bluesky Labellers

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Last year, I wrote about how to view and share pronouns on Bluesky. Bluesky is the social network that I spend the most time on nowadays and, as I write this, recently surpassed 30 million users.

The Pronouns Labeller uses an interesting feature of Bluesky called labels, which can be applied to individual posts (or skeets) and whole accounts. They can be used in a positive way, such as sharing pronouns, but can also be applied as a potential warning to other users. Today, I’m listing some of the labellers that I use – all of these are listed on the (unofficial) Bluesky Labellers page, which ranks them by popularity.

To use these, you’ll first need to subscribe to the labeller whilst logged in to Bluesky – there’ll be a big ‘Subscribe to labeller’ button on their profile. Once subscribed, you can configure which labels you want to see, and optionally hide all posts with a certain label (or all posts from users with that label).

If you want to apply a label to your own account, then there may be additional steps, usually detailed on a pinned post on the profile.

  • TTRPG Class Identifier. It’s somewhat telling that this is the most popular labeller on Bluesky. Once you follow, you’ll be given a class from a table-top role-playing game (such as Dungeons and Dragons) which will display as a label on your profile. There are commands that you can send to re-roll your class, and you can choose your race too. More details available here.
  • Nations. Allows you to add your country’s flag as a label, and see others’ flags. You can also add the standard pride flag emoji, and/or the trans pride emoji to your account too.
  • Sorting Hat. I have my issues with the author of the Harry Potter books, due to her views about trans people, but this lets you tell the world which Hogwarts house you would belong to, and see others.
  • XBlock Screenshot Labeller. Labels posts containing screenshots from other social networks, so that you can have them labelled and optionally hidden.
  • Developer Labels. Show off what programming languages you know on your posts.
  • Private School and Landlord labeller. Subscribing to this will reveal which private (fee-paying) school various (mainly UK) users attended, so you can see who benefitted from a paid-for education. Nepo Baby Labeller works in a similar way.
  • Birthdays. Will show you if it’s a user’s birthday.
  • Profile Labeller. Warns you about potential bots, and people whose posts are bridged in from other social networks.

Anyone can make a label, and there’s a Label Starter Kit on GitHub if you want to make your own. If I had the time and the skills, I would consider writing a labeller which allows users to show which British university they graduated from, for example.

Labels are one thing that I particularly like about Bluesky – especially as users can contribute their own. It’s quite a unique feature – I’m not aware that others have anything similar. Sometimes, a bit of extra context on each post is welcome.

Phomemo D30 Bluetooth Label Printer review

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A photo of a Phomemo D30 Bluetooth Label Printer

We’ve had this little Phomemo D30 Bluetooth label printer (sponsored link) for about 3 1/2 years now, and it’s a fab little gizmo.

It lets you quickly print labels from your phone, with text or emojis, using the Print Master app. It’s quick, as it uses thermal printing in the same way that receipts are printed in shops. The label printer itself is also quite compact – about the same height and width as a smartphone, but about twice the thickness. It comes with a built-in rechargeable battery, and a micro-USB port for charging. There’s a variety of colours to choose from – we have a ‘green’ one that’s more turquoise, but they come in pink, purple, grey and a cheaper all-white model.

The Print Master app is relatively easy to use. You select the size of label to match, type what you want and add any emojis. There are also templates that you can use, and a variety of fonts. When you’re ready to print, you can select the number of copies, and it’ll pop out of your printer in a couple of seconds.

We’ve used our label printer extensively since we bought it. It was especially useful in our new kitchen as it meant that we could label boxes of things in the cupboards. We also use it on a regular basis to label leftovers before they go in the freezer. It’s easier and neater than writing labels by hand.