5 Common Mistakes in Trade Show Exhibiting

Fail to implement marketing plan:

The effort that you are taking for your trade shows must be consistent and engaging. At first many exhibitors make scratches while designing their trade show displays and their booth ends up entirely different when comparing to others.

Fail to set your trade show goals:

You need to set your goals every month for your trade shows. How could you determine whether your exhibiting experience is a success or not? If you make an established goal, it will be an easy task to measure. So to be successful in trade shows you need to set your goals for exhibiting.

Fail to provide a reason to visit your booth for trade show attendees:

Don’t think that visitors will simply visit your trade show booths even if you don’t offer discounts. There are numerous methods that exhibitors use to grab the attention of their trade show booths. Use any avenue available to you to generate interest on your booth. Use different sections to grab the attention of the visitors.

Fail to follow leads that you generate:

The common mistake exhibitors make is that they fail to follow leads into sales that they generate. Your Trade shows display, booth and exhibit staffs are absolutely useless if all the leads they generate go waste. You should learn more about how veteran exhibitors fail to implement a plan to follow up on the leads they generate.

To know more visit Panel displays and Trade show exhibits

Maximize your trade show success with impact displays

Trade show event is a significant opportunity to enhance your product visibility, promotes your new and existing products, generate leads, and drive incremental sales. It enables you to stay on top of the latest industry trends, gain competitor insights, make key industry contacts, and further solidify relationships with current customers.

Create a powerful marketing initiative that engages potential buyers and sales lead. Choose the trade show display booth that meets your marketing needs and requirements with in your budget. This also includes different sizes, designs, and configurations of trade show exhibits.

We at impact displays provides you trade show booths made up of most effective graphic elements that portray your key messages and fulfills all your brand communications needs. Our trade show displays add polish and impact to all types of exhibit booth from pop up display to custom-built systems to tabletop display for your successful trade show events.

Select cost-effective giveaways or promotional products from impact displays that have high-perceived value among your target prospects and complement your company image. We're your one-stop shop for high quality trade show displays, trade show exhibit booths, pop up displays, tabletop exhibits, banner stands and exhibit graphics. Contact us to create a buzz on the exhibition floor and attract more sales prospects to your trade show display area.  Buy or rent your trade show display and graphics from Impact Displays and enjoy our outstanding customer service.

To know more visit http://www.impact-displays.com 

Support your Trade Show Goals using pop up display

Trade show events provide you wider exposure and productive insight. Achieve your wider exposure and trade show goals using pop up displays. The pop up displays are treated as an effective metrics to monitor and evaluate the success of trade show displays. Here are some goals that help you to achieve

• Boost up your product sales and grabs new customers.
• Launching new products or services
• Boost up customer share.
• Branding, positioning and image building company product in the market.
• Generates sales leads

Pop up display are an effective aspect trade exhibition strategy. Unless you tie it up with pre-show, at-show and post-show activities, your trade show goals will remain unattainable. To make sure you can achieve them fairly, chalk out plans insightfully.

The Leverage between the goals and the costs is an important factor. Increase your sales leads and build your brand stronger by using this pop up displays. The booth is too designed most contemporarily and professionally so that it can grab the attention of the visitors at the very first glance. You may use LED television in a good position of the booth at anywhere, cover the table with graphic table-tops, and convey your message through graphic backdrop display.

With having attractive booth designs, you can reach out most number of audiences roaming about the exhibition floor. Be sure that the instant they notice your well-designed pop up displays, they will show up at your place.

To know more visit http://www.impact-displays.com

Portable and Attractive Tension Fabric Display

When compared to other type of display units, tension fabric displays make your trade show booth more attractive and less expensive in trade shows. These kinds of displays can be customized into any shape, size and design. The features of the tension fabric display make them so popular among trade show exhibits.

Quality graphic:

The material used in this display comes along with a number of colors and designs, according to your product design and requirements. Besides these, you can also use innovative printing technology such as 2D and 3D using standard UV resistant ink, in order to create the most striking designs.

Flexible:

Due to the flexibility, you can customize your trade show display to any shape and size as per your requirements - table top display, pop-up display, retractable banner stands, and hanging displays or banners.

Convenience

Transporting and maintaining this display is very simple, which makes your task a lot less easy.

• Easy setup - The tension fabric display panels can be set up easily, due to their simple design.

• Easy to maintain - The fabrics for such displays won't fade easily and are also available in wrinkle-free material, and can be stored anywhere.

• Portable – This display unit can be stored easily in a small case and can be carried around without any difficulty. Besides portability, it also saves you a considerable amount of money, spent on shipping costs.

To know more visit trade show displays and pop up displays

Modular Booth – An Eye catching and Cost effective trade show booth

Trade shows are the best venues that increase the level of exposure of your products or services. The main problem will be to transport and set up the display booth. Custom-built modular booth can meet your requirements and are available in various sizes and units, with different designs and capabilities. They can be assembled to fit into booths of any size. 

Modular trade show displays helps to showcase your exhibit and ensure that it will be noticed. Besides being flexible and easy to put up, modular booths are eye-catching and cost effective.

Modular booth creates an impact at trade shows by providing high quality design and a strong branding message to make your company stand out from the crowd. Impact modular exhibits combine portability, ease of setup, and modularity with the look of a high end custom booth. We can custom-tailor your modular displays with the use of graphics, high quality finishes and by adding uniqueness to the exhibit. There are wide ranges of benefits available when you use this trade show exhibit and they are

•    Modular displays can be adaptable to any space
•    There are different design opportunities available and it is fully customizable so that you can promote your companies brand in a unique way
•    Modular exhibits can be easily and quickly constructed and you can integrate the media within it
•    It is the most cost effective trade show display where there are endless possibilities to incorporate multimedia into this system
•    It is made of light weight materials(i.e.) 60% less than other traditional exhibits so that you can easily transport it to different places

You can also select designs for your custom trade show exhibits as per your budget and needs. This may also include banner stands and large-scale designs. Call today and learn more about what we offer and how we can help you.

To know more visit Panel displays and Trade show flooring.

Epson WorkForce 310 Printer

The good: Best in class print speeds; inexpensive; all-inclusive control panel; five separate ink cartridges.

The bad: No Wi-Fi or autoduplexer; underwhelming photo quality.

The bottom line: The Epson Workforce 310 may be a cost-efficient all-in-one printer that gives you five separate ink cartridges with an automatic document feeder and a detailed control panel. Combine those features with its lightning-fast print speeds, and the WorkForce 310 is a worthwhile addition to your office arsenal.

With all-in-one printer vendors competing to offer the most functionality at the lowest price, consumers are left with a difficult shopping decision to make. During a recent review, to the $99 Lexmark Impact S305 scored positively with us, but we felt cheated by the missing fax function. Epson picks up Lexmark's slack with the introduction of their $120 WorkForce 310, a true all-in-one device that can print, fax, copy, and scan with output speeds that crush the competition. The printer can use improvement in photo output quality and benefit from a wireless connection, but its low-cost cost of ownership and rapid print speeds make the WorkForce 310 a fully capable business printer and well worthy of our recommendation.

Design and features:

The Epson Workforce 310's design marries an elegant wave shape with a solid control panel in the center that gives you one-touch access to the most popular settings. Most of the printer is swathed in a matte black finish with small touches of a faux-carbon black plastic weaved throughout the external case. We took issue with the barren control panel on the Lexmark Impact S305, but Epson suffers no issues here; the two-line LCD displays all relevant print information as well as individual job progress, cartridge-installation directions, and detailed instructions on how to fix a paper jam. The unit can store up to 60 speed-dial numbers for outgoing faxes and you get five empty buttons on the panel to start you off. There's also the standard array of buttons for print modes, menus, and a large directional pad for scrolling through the screens.

Merits of Retractable Banner Stands

If you are concerned about your budget, then the X and L banner stand should be your likely option without any doubt. However, if you are not concerned about your budget accordingly, then you need to move along with handy retractable banner stands. Retractable banner stands are very handy for many purposes. They are

Easy to transport: 

The handy retractable stands are easy to transport as they are self-contained. Each retractable stand houses its own banner and parts.

Safety of Banners:

These banner stands reside in the base when not in use. Hence they are protected against being torn or even stained.

Easy in storage: 

This portable banner stand does not require much space for storage. You need to worry about storing the banner as well as the stand because they are altogether, thereby taking less space.

No replacement of banner: 

It’s not necessary to remove the banner each and every time you use. Simply give it a tug and roll it right back up into the base. Replacing the banner is also easy and it requires minimal effort.

Easy to Assemble: 

Banner stands are easy to set up. Simply pull the banner out from the base and attach it to the center pole which folds out of the base and now you are ready to go.

To know more visit Trade show displays and Trade show accessories

Use Pop up displays for your impactful trade show events

To acquire sales-leads and to make onsite sales by promoting brands, Pop up displays is the right choice for trade show events that brings out the benefits in multiple ways. The following elements are the fundamental trade fair displays, which has to be included in order to create an impactful trade show display.

Provide careful attention while selecting Graphic Display:

The simplicity and Clarity are one of the important features that need to be incorporated with the graphics display layout to create a memorable canvas.  Keep your attention always in telling a simple story. Explore your story with top-rated professional designer who can design the display in a simple tone and illustrate the story in an effective manner.

Provide Easy and Simple Title:

The title must be easy-to-read and simple typeface. By applying this principle, you will get visitors who had no plans to visit your booth at all. Your display should be a simple and bold graphic pop up,   and see how it plays magic on the minds of the visitors. You should also take care about selecting right typeface.

Description must be written carefully:

To grab the public’s attention you need to write an attractive and tempting   description on the displays. The text should be short and simple. Use bullet points as much as possible. Use less technical terms.

Trade shows are used to create a positive impact. For, easy-to-set-up pop up trade shows displays you can go with impact-displays. The impact displays are the one which offers a complete line of recycled printing media substrates with excellent performance characteristics. We can help you find the best imagery and the best media to display your message on.

To know more visit Trade show displays and Banner stands

The Lexmark Pro915

It’s not the most stylish printer we have ever seen, either – it’s so rigidly rectangular that the corners of the unit are actually quite sharp. However, it includes all the main features that you’re likely to need from an office printer, including scanner, copier and fax machine, plus a 50-page document feeder, and automatic two-sided printing.

The Pro915 supports both Ethernet and Wi-Fi networking, so it’ll fit simply into your existing office setup. The 150-sheet input tray must be fine for most small businesses, and there’s an option to buy a second tray that holds 550 sheets if required. 

We like the way that the LCD screen displays a countdown of the pages as they print out, however it’s annoying that the printer asks you to confirm the paper size every time you put more paper into the tray.

Print quality is very good – text may be a particular strength, producing very smooth, delicate text characters. The Pro915 also produces sensible photo output even on plain paper. However, its speed is disappointing for a printer costing over £250. Lexmark quotes speeds of 10ppm for black and white printing using the Pro915’s ‘laser-quality’ mode, and 6ppm for color. We have a tendency to use its standard-quality mode in our tests, but still only got 8ppm and 4.5ppm respectively.

Lexmark’s Pro915 produces admirable print quality, but isn’t very fast or particularly cost effective
Running price is also something of a mixed bag. Lexmark boasts about the low cost of black printing – at just 1.9p per page – but omits to mention the high cost of its colored ink cartridges.

HP Photosmart D110a e-All-in-One Printer

The HP Photo smart e-All-in-One D110a's was at 17.4 inches wide, 15.9 inches deep, and just 7.1 inches tall, the HP Photo smart D110a takes up so little real estate on your desktop that others might mistake it for a single-function inkjet. In fact, the printer includes a copier and a flatbed scanner that tucks neatly into the top of the unit, and also the rest of the front panel is limited to a paper tray, a memory card reader, and a 2.3-inch color touch screen LCD on the left with virtual buttons surrounding it that control the typical menu functions.

In terms of general printing functionality, the D110a is limited in two ways that you must consider before buying it: first, the media reader just underneath the display can only read Secure Digital (SD) and Multimedia Card (MMC) storage cards and there's no available USB port for direct camera connections. That means Sony Memory Stick and Compact Flash card users are forced to use a computer to transfer photos for printing.

Second, the D110a works best for low-output work stations, because the printer has an 80-sheet paper input tray and a maximum monthly output capacity (also called a "duty cycle") of 1,000 pages. If you recognize you'll be printing a high volume of documents, you'll find yourself wishing for competing printers like the Lexmark S405 that hold up to 135 sheets of paper and may print over 5,000 pages a month.

We also wish you might adjust the angle of the touch screen, which instead is fixed in place, but we'll let that slide. The home screen includes a set of scrollable icons for your favorite applications as well as four shortcut buttons at the bottom to bring up controls for photo printing, copy, scan, and fax. You can drag your finger across the list of apps to select one, delete ones you do not use, or download any apps from the growing list within the ePrintCenter.

The good:

The HP Photo smart e-All-in-One D110a's interactive touch screen adds Web connectivity to the quality print, copy, and scan functions, at a lower price than other HP ePrint-connected devices.

The bad:

Print speeds are languid and the smaller paper input capacity makes it a hassle to refill for bigger households. You also should have a wireless connection to use the D110 to its fullest potential.

The bottom line:

We wouldn't suggest it for high-output households or large offices, but the HP Photo smart D110a provides inexpensive access to HP's clever new ePrint and Web-connected apps.

The Lexmark Pro 715

The Lexmark Pro 715 may be a latest updated design and quick print speeds, but looks aside, its core is a near replica of the previous model, the Prevail Pro 705. That printer earned a rating of Excellent for its easy control panel and studio-quality snapshots, but there are not enough updates in this new version to catch it up to the Epson Workforce 845, a competing device worthy of its "all-in-one" moniker with mobile printing features, a massive 500-sheet paper input capacity, and a generous 7.8-inch interactive display. By comparison, the Lexmark Pro715 comes up disappointingly short and small offices and busy home users can get more done with the Workforce 845 at the same price.

Design and features:

Like the Pro705 before it, the Pro715 has a drab gray-black color palette that might have earned points with us in the past, but now feels all too typical of an office printer. Its smooth edges and rounded paper input tray shave off the sharp corners and make the device look more streamlined, but the general design of the line has modified very little.

Instead of the massive touch-screen LCD you get on the Epson Workforce 845, the Pro715 has a 2.4-inch color LCD show with a directional panel just to the right for scrolling through onscreen menus, as well as a number pad for dialing fax numbers. The silo paper drawer is built into the base and can only hold 150 sheets of paper, which may be sufficient for a small business. Still, several businesses may find the Epson Workforce more convenient with its 250-sheet tray for standard 8.5x11-inch paper and separate 250-sheet tray for photo paper.

Good:

The Lexmark Pro715 may be a streamlined version of its predecessor, the Pro705, with a higher-resolution 2.4-inch LCD screen and also the company's enhanced Vizix 2.0 set of inks for vibrant photos and professional-quality documents.

Bad:

For the same cost, the Epson Workforce 845 trumps the Lexmark Pro715 in several areas.

Bottom Line:

Lexmark's latest all-purpose office machine introduces a new set of inks with a separate print head that outputs higher-quality photos than the previous model, but competing devices offer you with convenient features like cloud printing and a larger touch-screen display for the same price.

Kodak Hero 9.1 All-in-One Printer

The Kodak Hero 9.1 does away with the tangible keypad and very speed dial buttons that gave the 6.1 it’s a business-friendly productivity. This one has a flexible for 4.3-inch touch-screen display with a slim profile that matches the chiseled angles and alternating glossy black, silver, and perforated matte black finish of the whole machine.

In fact, if you don't essentially need the buttons, I don't see why graphic designers and general offices wouldn't be satisfied with its aesthetic. Like the 6.1, the Hero 9.1's exterior gives off a more streamlined approach than the older Kodak ESP line with a small red strip marking off the control panel and the hidden scanner bay. The angled show contrasts with the narrow auto-document feeder up top that can hold up to 30 sheets of a document at a time for hands-free copying and scanning.

The printer also includes a small green Wi-Fi indicator LED on the right side of the control panel, and just below the buttons you'll find a multimedia card reader for Memory Stick, xD-Picture Card, SD, and USB via the PictBridge-compatible port just above it. Kodak Hero 9.1 advantages and disadvantages are given below.

Good:

A very low cost for per printed page, dual feed trays, a functional touch screen, and capable print speeds make the Kodak Hero 9.1 a Strong printer for home users.

Bad:

The tricolor ink tank will cost more in refills over time than single-color cartridges, and the 50-sheet paper output tray may be too small for home offices with high-volume print needs.

The Bottom Line:

The Hero 9.1 may be a suitable choice for shoppers who need a capable multifunction imaging device with acceptable performance, apps that bring workflow into the cloud, and dual paper feed trays.

HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus e-All-in-One Printer

The HP Office jet Pro 8600 plus e-All-in-One printer is a latest updated version of the Pro 8500A plus multifunction CNET reviewed last year. The design of Office jet Pro 8600 Plus printer strips away the glossy veneer of the past and replaces it with a modern matte paint job that does its best to hide dust and fingerprints.

It has a professional look that should simply fit into any office or home decor, though at 12.4 inches tall, 19.4 inches wide, and 18.9 inches, you'll need to clear a sizable quantity of space to fit its large chassis. The printer's sides feature two indented handles that make it easier to carry around, although you won't need to move it on a daily basis.

A single 250-sheet input tray protrudes 4 inches out of the front of the 8600 Plus and a 50-page automatic document feeder (ADF) resides on top. You won't realize a manual feed tray in the center console like you would on a laser printer, which might be irritating if you print on irregular media like heavy cardstock or nonstandard envelopes. If that's the case for you, I like to recommend the HP LaserJet Pro 100 Color MFP, a capable Hewlett-Packard laser printer with similar all-in-one functionality (scanner, copier, fax, and printer).

The HP's ample 4.3-inch touch-sensitive color display makes navigating the print, copy, scan, and fax functions a breeze. The screen is the same size as the Office jet Pro 8500A Plus' screen and the competing Epson Workforce 840, but the Workforce 840 surrounds its color LCD with a larger 7.8-inch touch panel that provides additional navigation buttons. The HP's entire touch panel, on the other hand, resembles an iphone on its side and measures 6 inches on the diagonal.

Good:

The HP Office jet 8600 Plus prints professional-quality photos and documents quickly with multipurpose connectivity options and robust features like an auto-duplexer, cloud printing, and a legal-size scanning bay.

The bad: 

The touch screen requires violent finger presses to actuate the display functions, and there's no way to calibrate its sensitivity.

Do printings make much impact in trade shows?

On reading the above title, on how many of you said yes for this question? I hope many of you would have been thinking a positive answer. Yes of course it‘s true that printings make much impact on trade shows. Trade show deals with how you attract audience and on trade shows, as an exhibitor you use different trade show displays and equipment.  

It has been proved by researchers that visual or image representation gets to the minds of the people than other techniques. So to make an attractive impact on trade shows, you need to design your booth in a professional way with varieties of images printed in an elegant way. 

An empty banner gets the beautiful look when it is printed with proper materials and objects. Some of the most economical displays like banner stands have reached thousands of visitors due to its attractive printing and design. So any displays without proper printing won’t attract the audience, so utilize proper printings when you exhibit your product in trade shows, event or any promotions events. 

Kodak Office Hero 6.1 color inkjet

The Kodak Office Hero 6.1 color inkjet multifunction printer (copy/fax/print/scan) delivers on its marketing boast on approximately all counts. The noteworthy exception is speed, which is more like that of a home unit than of one intended for a small or home office. Still, for $200 (as of 12/06/2011), you’re receiving a full load of features, as well as stellar photo quality.

It's a shame that Kodak dropped its classic gold group across the front of the printer for a red one. That gold group was a nice nod to Kodak's tradition, and it made their printers look friendlier and less cheap. The red just highlights some poor styling choices, such as dull-silver buttons, and detracts from the otherwise solid erection and flawless performance.

The front panel of the Office Hero 6.1 sports a 2.4-inch color LCD and an array of logically placed controls, as well as a keypad for faxing. The ink cartridges are easy to get to, and the machine has Secure Digital, Multimedia Card, Memory Stick, and USB/Pictbridge ports for easy photo printing or offloading scans.

They may connect the unit via USB, Ethernet, or Wi-Fi. The bottom-mounted paper tray holds 200 sheets, and the output tray, approximately 50 sheets; the automatic document feeder for the letter/A4-size scanner holds 35 sheets. Duplexing is fully supported, with both two-sided printing and two-sided-to-two-sided copying and scanning.

We had been careless if we didn't mention the Office Hero 6.1's Home Center software. The package is the easiest to use and the easiest on the eye of any place forth by the major vendors. It's also extremely integrated: Everything is done from within the application. 

The fun 3D-photo feature prints and photo as a 3D photo; Kodak even provides a pair of 3D glasses for enjoying them. The OCR (optical character recognition) feature is so well integrated that you know it's there only because it has a save-to-RTF (rich-text format) selection for document files. The OCR is not fit for recreating complex documents with graphics, but it's great at grabbing text. The only thing missing is the documentation, which is available only online.

Ink costs are another plus for the Office Hero 6.1. The standard-sized $10 black cartridge lasts for 425 pages, for a per page cost of only 2.4 cents. The joint cartridge costs $20 and lasts for 420 pages, or 4.75 cents per page. Combined, a four-color page costs only 7.1 cents. In addition, a 770-page, $17 XL black cartridge reduces black costs slightly to 2.2 cents per page. Not a huge savings, but it nearly doubles the time between cartridge changes if you print a lot.

A barn-burner the Office Hero 6.1 is not, but in every other way it is a worthy inkjet MFP. It's extremely cheap to operate, it offers an easy out-of-box experience, and the photo printing is the best you'll find in this or most other price ranges. If you need faster performance, spend a hundred bucks more on the Epson Workforce 840 or the HP Office jet Pro 8600 Plus.

HP DeskJet 3050A e-All-in-One printer

The latest high quality printer was HP DeskJet 3050A e-All-in-One printer. Its advantages and disadvantages are listed below.

The Good:

The HP DeskJet 3050A features a refreshing design and its wireless Web connectivity lets you print in the cloud with HP ePrint technology.

The bad:

The printer lacks an Ethernet port for wired networking and its double ink cartridge bay is a money sink if you print a high volume of photos and color documents.

The bottom line:

The HP DeskJet 3050A All-in-One printer is an attractive design with the latest cloud printing technology in a multifunction device that works for small offices that don't need to print a lot of full-color photos.

Design and Features:

The DeskJet 3050A's natural, flowing curvature appears to draw motivation from the aesthetic principles of mid-20th-century furniture designers. The exterior pieces are brushed with various shades of matted gray and burnt umber, and a 2-inch monochrome LCD pops out of a cut-out on top of the printer for quick access to application controls, the set up menu, and one-touch installation for a wireless connection and HP's ePrint service.

A 60-sheet input tray also folds flush into the unit and features an adjustable marker that can align with a variety of media sizes down to No. 10-sized envelopes. Of course, several markings also exist for standard size sheets of 4-inch by 6-inch and 8-inch by 10-inch photo paper, but the single tricolor cartridge inside limits the quality of photos this printer will produce.

Pairing the 3050A with a companion computer is easiest with a hard-wired USB connection; however a wireless router offers a more elegant solution and allows you take advantage of ePrint, a service that lets you send jobs directly to the printer using a unique e-mail address issued to the printer when you establish a connection. Similar to your Face book or Flicker e-mail address, you can load print jobs into the 3050A by either copying an article directly into the message body or attaching a document to the e-mail.

The Epson Stylus NX430 Small-in-One All-in-One Printer

The good: 

The Epson NX430 stuffs a printer, scanner, and copy machine into a device that also fits in tiny places, and Epson's iPrint software extends your printing reach to compatible Android and iOS devices.

The bad:

The printer lacks an Ethernet port for wired networking, and its "moderate-capacity" cartridge bay may be a money sink if you print a high volume of photos and color documents.

The bottom line: 

The Epson NX430 "Small-in-One" printer is a solid investment for students and office jockeys who print high-quality photos and documents however don't have the space for a large format device.

Released in time for the back-to-school season, Epson squeezes a printer, scanner, and copy machine into a little device it's calling the "small-in-one." The Stylus NX430 occupies roughly the same quantity of desk space as your average Blue-ray player, and it performed twice as fast as the four other competitive models, with high-scoring quality results to boot. We suggest investing in Epson's extra-large-capacity ink refill tanks if you print a large volume of full-color documents and photos, but if price and space hold top priority on your printer shopping list, the $99 Epson Stylus NX430 is worth your dollar.

Design and features:

The Stylus NX430's space-saving design is that the printer's main focus, measuring a little more than 15 inches wide, 20 inches deep, and 11 inches tall. Relative to different printers, its size falls somewhere between a single function inkjet and a color laser printer, but at 9 pounds it's only half the weight of the average color laser printer and ideal for offices that regularly move workstations.

The center control panel sits within a console that rotates up an appropriate viewing angle. Though I'm not usually a fan of virtual-only button layouts, I like that the only buttons that light up on the NX430 are the four-way directional pad and the power on and off controls--the rest of the functions enlighten depending on the particular function you are accessing.

I did notice that the screen on this machine feels distinctly less responsive than the capacitive touch dials on the higher-end Workforce 845 All-in-One. By contrast, NX430's plastic surrounding the screen contains a tendency to flex as you press down on it, lending a mushy feeling to menu navigation. The screen itself never gave me problem in terms of virtual button actuation, however.

I can't fault a $99 device for not including an auto-document feeder or multiple paper input trays, thus all paper handling is fed through the single tray on the back and exits through the "mouth" below the controls. You'll also notice a memory card reader up front that lets you walk up and print from an expansion card without really touching a computer. You can preview your photos on the ample 2.5-inch LCD touch panel, and even make simple adjustments to crop dimensions, resize, or perform one-button touch-ups.

Epson offers you the option to connect the printer to your computer using direct USB or Wi-Fi. I assume most of you will prefer the latter, since Epson doesn't include a USB cable in the box. Smart setup on the touch panel may be a two-part process: turn on the machine and click Network Setting, then designate your wireless network and enter its password and that's it. The complete setup from start to finish, with a connection established on our lab network, took us less than 2 minutes. 

The installation procedure also includes a step that asks if you want the system to automatically hunt and install firmware updates, and we recommend you click "yes" when prompted; the appeal of Web-connected printers like the NX430 means you don't have to wait for Epson to ship you software updates, so take advantage of it.

Connecting through Wi-Fi also means you can take advantage of Epson's host of free mobile printing apps that allow you print directly from mobile devices. First, the Epson iPrint application for iOS and Android devices enables you to print Web pages, photos, documents, and anything else on a Smartphone directly to the Workforce NX430, though I noticed the printer cropped photos when I flipped orientation from portrait to landscape and vice versa, so I wouldn't suggest using the app to print important images like business presentations this way; it's more appropriate for quick outputs of snapshot photos and to-do lists.

HP Deskjet D1600 Printer series-Overview

Overview:

HP's most reasonable printer comes with a simple one-button design that offers you only the features you need for easy color printing.

Features:

Affordable reliability and one-touch simple of use, all for one low price.

HP's most reasonable printer performs reliably with one-touch ease of use, so you can enjoy effortless printing all at one low price. Get up to 2 times more printed pages using the optional high-capacity cartridges1?

Easy to set up and install for printing within minutes.

This printer is designed to fit in small places with its handy industrial design, and features only one button (power button) for easy printing. With its easy set up and installation process, you can also start printing within minutes.

Save more with resource-conserving printing.

Recognized for consuming less energy, this ENERGY STAR certified printer is intended to help save both resources and money. Its paper-saving printing choice lets you print multiple pages onto each side of the paper, saving paper while you print.

HP LaserJet Pro M1212nf MFP

The good:

 The HP LaserJet Pro M1212nf may be a compact mono laser MFP that boasts a cheap price, a compact design, dead-simple installation, and quick print speeds.

The bad: 

To hit its low cost, the HP LaserJet Pro M1212nf leaves off a few features, including autoduplexing, Wi-Fi, and a full-size paper tray.

The bottom line: 

The HP LaserJet Pro M1212nf is the company's least expensive monochrome multifunction laser printer. For the money, it earns our recommendation for its Smart Install feature and wonderful price.

The HP LaserJet Pro M1212nf is an entry-level monochrome multifunction laser printer that cuts only a couple of corners on its way to supplying print, copy, scan, and fax functionality for only $200. Built-in autoduplexing for double-sided printing and Wi-Fi networking are two features that didn't make the cut, however there are plenty of useful features that did, including a 35-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF), and HP's Smart Install application, which makes setup a gentle wind. We also found the LaserJet Pro M1212nf's print speed and quality more than acceptable, even if text isn't quite as deep and rich as the output from the HP LaserJet Pro P1606dn. With its low cost, compact size, and easy setup, the M1212nf is a great choice as a first multifunction laser printer for home offices and small businesses.

Design and features:

The HP LaserJet Pro M1212nf is matte black, lending it a little more of a consumer inkjet look than your typical gray or beige corporate laser printer. It's also compact and light for a laser printer, measuring 12 inches high, 17 inches wide, and 10.5 inches deep and weighing 18 pounds. Two cutouts on the bottom of every side are useful handles, adding to the printer's portability. As is frustratingly common, HP does not include a USB or Ethernet cable within the box.

HP's Smart Install app makes it easy to set up the LaserJet Pro M1212nf. Plug it into a wall, connect it to your PC (via USB), and turn on the printer, and a few mouse clicks later, you're done. Smart Install loads drivers and software stored in the printer's memory. After running our tests on a Windows 7 machine, we tried connecting it to a Mac Book and found Smart Install did not work, which is why HP also throws a CD in the box.

Setting up the printer with an Ethernet cable is almost as easy as setting up a direct connection. As with USB installation, you can use either the included CD or Smart Install. We opted for the latter. First, you must print out a configuration report using the printer's control panel by pressing the setup button, using either of the arrow keys to select "Reports" from the Main menu, and then selecting "Config report." 

The printer will spit out two pages of configuration details, one of which is the printer's IP address. Type the address into the browser of a PC on your network, and on the resulting Web page, click the HP Smart Install tab. From there, click the green Download button to install the software. After a quick download, the printer will print out a test page confirming it’s connected to your network.

After you get the HP LaserJet Pro M1212nf set up, you'll find it's a considerate officemate. Energy Star-qualified, it doesn't waste electricity, and it's fairly quiet during operation.

HP Envy 110 e-All-in-One

The HP Envy 110 e-All-in-One inkjet multifunction printer looks like a classy VCR, acts like a Transformer toy, and prints magnificent photos. It’s also fully equipped for cloud printing. Is all that sufficient to make you forget its costly inks? Aesthetically oriented home and small-office users who don’t print much might be willing to make the trade-off.

Virtually everything on the Envy 110 e-All-in-One is designed with appearance in mind. It forgoes basic black for a dark-mocha casing with copper-colored metal accents. Thanks to it’s extremely low profile--just 4 inches high--it can sit discreetly on a deep shelf. When needed, the motorized control panel tilts upward, and therefore the arm that catches the paper swings outward; otherwise, they tuck neatly into the machine’s smooth chassis.

Another classy touch is the heavy scanner lid, which slowly settles into place rather than slamming when you let it go. Everything on the printer feels rock-solid--an increasingly rare attribute when it involves any printer, let alone a consumer model. The solid construction also makes the Envy 110 quieter than most printers.
HP makes setting up the Envy 110 e-All-in-Ones easy. We chose Wi-Fi; USB is also available. The very attractive HTML-based interface lets you access printer settings across the network using your browser. The software bundle includes Photo Creations and HP Scan, which are both capable and attractive applications.

• See HP Photo smart 7510 e-All-in-One review
• See Brother MFC-J825DW review
• See Canon Pixma MG6250 review

The control panel is wide and flat, with contextually lit controls. The 3.45-inch LCD touch screen offers a crisp picture and smart response, though one might argue that HP tries to fit too much information on every screen.

The Envy e-All-in-One prints, copies, and scans, but doesn't fax. USB/PictBridge, SD Card, and Memory Stick slots are included for printing directly from flash memory. With the focus on looks and a sleek profile, the Envy 110's paper handling is, not surprisingly, low-volume. Although automatic duplex printing is standard, the bottom-mounted input tray holds only 80 sheets, and the output arm holds just 25 sheets. The worst compromise is the nontelescoping lid on the letter/A4 scanner bed. The design doesn't put much of a margin between the glass platen and the edge of the cover, so it allows in more light than usual; it created shadows around our magazine scan. Such shadows are easily cropped, but in our tests they seemed to fool the scanner software's automatic-crop function.

HP was in the vanguard of cloud printing. Web-based printing apps have been available for select HP models for over a year, and the company's ePrint remote-printing feature launched in early 2011. The Envy 110 e-All-in-One offers all of that functionality, as well as support for Apple’s Air Print.

In our tests the Envy 110 e-All-in-One printed very nicely. Images we printed on HP Advanced Photo Paper looked rich. Text was dark and sharp at both the default and best settings. We did notice some slight banding in images printed on plain paper; this effect became more pronounced in draft mode, especially with monochrome graphics. Scans and copies were good overall.

The nice-looking output arrives somewhat slowly, however. Our text pages with scattered monochrome graphics printed at only 5.2 pages per minute on the PC and 5 ppm on the Mac--poky compared with the speeds of other inkjet MFPs we’ve tested. Printing a snapshot-size photo at default settings on plain paper took 22 seconds, or about 2.7 ppm; but it slowed to 56 seconds, or a little better than 1 ppm, when we switched to HP Advanced Photo Paper and better settings. On the Mac, a full-page, high-resolution color photo took a slower-than-average 3 minutes and change to print.