Rating: 7/10
The Smart Label Printer 430 is printer developed for the specific purpose of printing labels (surprise surprise). It is predominantly white even including the various leads and power plug supplied in the box. Setting up this printer takes around a minute with connection to your PC a simple job via serial or USB. However, despite what it says in the brief Quick Start Guide, when taking the USB route you should install the software before attaching the printer to the computer otherwise there could be problems having it recognised. In my case the software insisted that the printer was the 240 model rather than the 430 that was actually attached. Fortunately this model number confusion seemed to have no adverse effects on the performance of the printer.
Seiko includes a version of its Smart Label software which presents an on-screen representation of the label. Various buttons allow you to apply templates and add specific design effects to a label and although some of the templates are US specific, you can add images, borders, barcodes, include a return address and create ID badges. You also have full control over the font, size and alignment used by the text.
There is also mention of a Text Capture feature. This is meant to detect and transfer an address from a document into the Smart Label software with a proviso that it is only compatible with US Postal Zip codes. The only way I could get it to work, even using US addresses, was to highlight the appropriate text before selecting the feature. If no text was highlighted then it would grab everything and try to fit in on the label.
The quality of label produced was excellent with a choice of portrait or landscape orientation. Speed wasn't an issue but I would hesitate to use this printer for carrying out a mass production of labels - it is more suited to producing a small number of labels for a rush job.
For more information, visit Micromart.co.uk