I first saw this thread late October 2024; my answer may be too late for for outRAGEis, but I hope it helps others.
I have a Brother P-touch D610BT label printer. When I print a single capital M, the blank area of the label extends 23 millmeters ahead of the first downstroke of the M. There are three valid reasons (and one small miracle) for this on my printer, using a 12 mm wide black-on-white cartridge:
First, with the cover open, and looking down into the area of the print head (the 10mm wide white blade sticking up through the hole in the cartridge), the cutter blade on the left is 23 millimeters from the edge of the print head. It cannot get much closer, given the wheel between the cutter and the print head. The wheel must be downstream of the print head, so it can maintain tension on the tape as it passes the head.
Second, if you look at the print head itself (a magnifier might help) you will see that the black line (the thermal heating surface of the print head) is ANOTHER 1.5 mm from the edge of the white blade.
Third, if you look at the white border (the "kern") around the M character displayed on the screen, that projects ANOTHER 1.5 mm beyond the first black stroke of the M. Different graphic characters might fill the whole character box, and show up a little closer to the cut edge of the tape.
So, lets see ... 23 mm of tape to the cutter, 1.5 mm spacing to the print head, another 1.5 mm to the start of the M as displayed on the screen.
That adds up to 26 mm, yet the tape as printed is "only" 23 mm from the cut to the down-stroke of the M. 3 mm less waste than I naively would expect, given my measurements.
All the magic happens with the cover closed, so I can only guess ...
... that the mechanism actually pulls back about 3 mm of tape before starting to print, saving users three millimeters of waste per label. I can't imagine it pulling back any more tape without un-threading it left of the tension wheel, and jamming.
So, given the constraints, the mechanical engineers at Brother were VERY CLEVER and wasted less tape than a lazy engineer would.
IF YOU WANT TO WASTE LESS TAPE, concatenate many labels into one long label, perhaps with a period in the spaces between the labels so you know where to cut the tape with scissors or a paper cutter.
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I make use of the extra tape in front when I print bracelets. That extra becomes the underside of the overlap area of the loop of tape. I use a sharp knife to score the paper backing off 23 mm of the right hand side of the tape; that closes the loop around the wrist of the patient/prisoner/victim. I do the same for medical inhalers, with " Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su " spaced at 1/7th intervals. Many clever ways to use (or abuse) these labels, and I hope to learn about more on printerforums.net or elsewhere.
