| Company Name: Pat's Hair Salon
Hi to all,
I would first like to thank all who have voted for me, family, friends and lookers on the web as well. I may not have received the most votes for the grand prize but I am enjoying the hp project office printer that I have won and feel very, very lucky to have won this printer. I have always used small all-in-one printer and sometimes would have get my daughter to help print out cards and etc., but now this is so easy.
I went to creative studio for business and downloaded one of the free templates and it is great. No more having to have help with my cards. You all have been such a big help. I am not a spring chicken right out of school so I am one who has to learn the hard way sometime, and hp has helped me a lot and I which to think them too.
I did some pictures and all I have done looks so great I can by the punch of a button make the shade and the size I won't. I am learning so much more about what and how I can help my business and my church projects that I don't know where the end would be of learning.
I tell everyone I come in contact with about my printer and what it does.
Thanks again
Patricia
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| Company Name: Reinhart Marketing
Well it might be week 4 and the end of my blog, but I know it's not the end of learning new uses for my HP 8500 Office Jet Pro. This week I've been checking out the HP web site, specifically their Creative Studio for Business, and the choices are HUGE. There is a multitude of template choices for flyers, brochures, postcards, labels, stationery, presentation kits, logos, posters, signage, direct mail, business cards, power points ... the list goes on and on. They even have a blog template. While many of the choices require a fee, I was impressed with the number of choices that were free. Great for a business just starting out or a non-profit where every penny counts. I could see myself using this for flyers or event invitations. There's even an HP Creative Studio for Home that can be used for greeting cards, scrapbooking and school projects. I know my kids would use that for school reports and power points.
I decided to try a business application flyer and it was a lot of fun. So easy to use. I picked the one I wanted, downloaded it and started to add my own pics and text. I could choose font styles, sizes, colors, shading, bolding. Move things around wherever I wanted them. Delete boxes I didn't need. Borders, no borders. Pretty much anything I wanted was possible, but I had a template to start with, which made it so much easier to finish the project quickly. A blank piece of paper can be scary for a lot of people. I personally love the challenge of a blank page, but seldom have time to start from scratch. Time is money and creativity takes time. A template gives me a good jumping off point. A mix of efficiency and creativity. 
The big surprise came when I printed my practice flyer. I usually email most everything, so what gets printed in the office is drafts on cheap white paper. But since HP gave me some nice brochure paper I decided to give that a whirl. I personally didn't expect much. I always thought paper was paper, even though toilet paper companies spend big bucks on ads trying to convince me differently. Guess I was wrong; the paper does make a difference, because the flyer looked beautiful and it felt great on my tush! No really, even with off center headings and misspellings the flyer popped. The photos especially. They had almost a three dimensional quality that I think was caused by the rich, deep dark colors and the shimmering, light colors. I chose all nature shots because those can be hard to replicate, but these were like looking out the window. Actually better than looking out the window, because my lawn is fried after a summer of unusually high 100 degree months! And the feel of the paper was substantial. Heavy in my hand, not prone to crinkling up. The combination of the printer and the paper gave me a professional printed document, without having to take time to run to the printer or pay the big printer's fee.
Given the flyer success, I decided to try printing some of my family photos. You know those years and years of vacation photos that are living on my memory card? The ones saved in folders on my computer, never to see the light of day? That chore I keep putting off because it means going through all of them, loading them on a flash drive, making the trek to the local Walgreen's to get them printed? No way I could even consider printing photos on my old printer. Photo sized, 4x6 pages never fed through right, and the pictures turned out grainy and blurry. Like the photos on the roll of film that were so bad, Walgreen's didn't even bother to print them for you. With the 8500 and the great premium photo paper HP gave me, I now have great photos ready to frame. Fifteen years of my kids' birthdays and Christmases can now come out of hiding. Wonder if this stuff comes in 8x10? Wonder if it's this easy to get all those home movies off the 8mm tapes I have stockpiled?!!
I copied a couple of old photos too. Ancient pictures of my grandparents and semi-ancient pictures of my parents. I wanted to blow them up, recenter and crop them. It worked so beautifully using the touch screen. I'm well on my way to having a family photo gallery. Now all I have to do is paint the upstairs hallway so I can hang all these things. I knew there was a down side to this machine! Wonder if I can talk my husband into doing the painting?!!
Seriously, as I wrap all this up I can honestly say the HP 8500 Office Jet Pro is a wonderful all-in-one printer. If you're thinking about getting a new machine, please consider this one. I have been completely happy with it and feel so very lucky to have won it. Many companies tell you all the things their machine will do, but this one actually delivers. Cheers! – Cindy
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| Company Name: OVI
I find myself rushing home from work just to see what else I can learn from the new HP Officejet Printer; what I call now, my new Transformer! I have become easily addicted to all the unbelievable stuff this one machine can do. I'm still in awe of how I can save my faxes directly from the printer to my laptop in a "digital fax" folder.
 This wireless world is unbelievable!!! As if that wasn't enough, I've created a basic brochure which I have attached to this email. The templates and the simpleness of creating was so much fun. It was so easy to just follow a few simple steps and see the outcome.
I've also attached a few of my daughter's pics. She will be celebrating her SWEET 16 pretty soon so we started trying out dresses & she finally picked one!
At first I was confused as to where I put the photo paper on the printer. OMG, with just one button on the touch screen it relayed the simple directions to my laptop on how I can insert the photo paper to the printer. The pictures came out so clear. HP, you have now just received a whole family of HP ADDICTS!!! WE BLAME IT ALL ON YOU! Thank you!
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| Company Name: Content Feast
I decided to use the photo paper to print "postcard" inserts that I would include when I send print mockups to my clients. Most of my business is done online, so I don't have business cards, but I know that some people include them when they ship orders. So I decided that I would include these postcards instead, and they would have a bigger impact and I wouldn't have to pay for professionally printed business cards. Printing the smaller size was a breeze with this printer, it didn't jam up like my old printer would do when I'd change the paper size. The color quality was good - but remember not to grab the paper off the tray too quickly when you're printing on glossy paper!
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| Company Name: BID Blinds
OUCH!!!
Okay, this week was a very tough Challenge given my manpower and time constraints. Trying the templates and photo producing options were demanding from my perspective. I say demanding because the Challenge required me to spend a lot of time trying to meet this experience to report to you, not due to any problems with the machine itself. The templates are quite impressive as they are presented, but there were none that were conducive to my industry. There is a “custom” option but I couldn’t do that and meet my deadline to respond to this Challenge.
I ended up selecting a template for a trifold brochure that was rich in its “face” and classic in its detailing. I entered some generic text. Then the fun began. I played with the spacing, the colors, the font and photo inserts. If I’d had another 2-3 days I could have really “knocked it outta here.” I love to create and there are some real possibilities with this concept. But only having 36 hours to pull it off AND do my regular gig AND not have a template that fit my industry left me sprinting today after the marathon that is known as my work day.
Now for the result: The product was excellent in every visual category. My text, not so much. The brochure was rich in colors and clarity. Lots of, “WOW” factor, or whatever the term the sophisticates would use, are inherent. The depth of the imaging was precise. For a generic industry layout, the packaging and flexibility were very good. The paper provided for this exercise left NOTHING to be desired. If I could get more industry specific features (and more time for my “message”), this would be as good as I could expect from most outsourced documents. I could definitely use something like this to make an “intro” document to hand to my client at our first meeting. First impressions would be MAGNIFICO!!
As far as the photo reproduction quality and ease, all I can say is, “HP ought to be in pictures.” Top notch, high quality and ultra fine clarity and definition!
This Challenge has been extremely rewarding. The 8500 has opened possibilities that I never could have done with my old all-in-one. And the ease with which things could be accomplished is THE highlight for me. Better results, better production, less time and lower costs…what more could I want? Great job, HP!!
Thanks for following the journey,
Mark
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