How are labels like razor blades? Bloomberg Boot Camp, a report on today's technology. You know the old business model, give away the razor and sell them razor blades. Computer printer makers have been following that model for years... making their money not on the printers but on the ink cartridges. When it comes to printing labels with your PC, Brother and Avery Dennison will get you started for a song... as long as they can sell you supplies. Brother has dropped the price on its P Touch 1500 printer to under 90 dollars. The labeling cassettes range from ten to twenty dollars. Brother's Bill Henderson says the USB connected printer makes design and layout simple...

"People use it for labeling collections or doing gifts or school projects for their children and they also use it for more serious applications like labeling the fuse box, labeling equipment in the house. In an office environment it's used for everything from CDs, floppy discs, file folders, name badges, that sort of thing."

The labels are neat and professional looking. The chief competition... is Avery Dennison... best known for making labels of varying sizes that work in all kinds of computer printers. The company hopes to spur those sales along with the release of a software package called DesignPro Deluxe... .

"It's a powerful new software tool for business and home consumers to format a variety of different products. It offers over 600 Avery brand templates in there."

Avery's Gail Bradley. The software sells for about 40 dollars... but there's a free trial version on the Avery Web site. You will, of course, have to buy the labels. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.