Label printing apparatus

A label printing device is disclosed in which font data for a plurality of characters is stored. Characters are derived from the font data for displaying and printing in sizes determined by appropriate scaling factors. In this way, characters derived for printing have the same proportion and appearance as characters derived for displaying. Moreover, a large variety of character sizes can be produced both for printing and displaying. A sensing arrangement determines the breadth of tape and a clear area is provided on a display of the label printing apparatus corresponding to the sensed tape breadth.