Dymo LabelWriter 330 Turbo

You may be wondering whether or why you might need a dedicated label printer. Can't an ordinary printer do the job? Sure it can, if you want to print out partial sheets of labels and spend money replacing your ink cartridges.

If you don't find this prospect appealing, take a look at the Dymo LabelWriter 330 Turbo, which never runs out of ink, thanks to its thermal technology. It prints a variety of black-and-white labels: file-folder labels; address and shipping labels, which come with the unit; price tags; and CD and DVD labels, which cover only the center part of a disc.

Setting up this USB printer is easy. Just plug it in, put the label roll on its spool, and feed the labels through the printer's front slot.

The LabelWriter 330 Turbo prints very fast, taking about five seconds to produce a label. The output is clear, though a few times the print was too heavy or too light.

The included Dymo Label Software is easy to use and surprisingly full featured. It also comes with a utility for exporting OS X Address Book entries. However, the software failed to detect text after I applied a background color. But you can also print with the software you probably use already.

Dymo's OS X support is excellent: it even works with Panther and Rendezvous. Unfortunately, there's no Mac support for Internet Postage or the Address Fixer utility, which Dymo advertises as features of the printer. A Mac version of Internet Postage is reportedly in beta.

Macworld's Buying Advice

This printer works only for labels, but it's a winner if you need to print them quickly and on demand in OS X. If speed isn't your highest priority, the Dymo LabelWriter 330 costs $30 less and prints half as fast.