Posts tagged ‘Printer’

Things you should know about color and monochrome Laser printers

By sizes paper, 25 January, 2010, No Comment

Laser printers are one of the largest selling printing products around the world. Laser printers are capable of printing both high end pictures and written text on the paper.

Laser printer uses laser beams to actually print on paper unlike inkjet printer, which uses jets of ink to print or impact printer, which prints by using mechanical impact.

As the name suggests these printers uses electric charge in its photo receptor. This photo receptor is in the form of a drum that accumulates electric charge.

Dry ink is used in laser printers for printing purposes. Laser beam from the laser unit falls on the rotating drum and gives it letter or the image that has to be printed on the paper.

Keep all the above things in mind and you will be able to make a right decision.

Laser printers are one of the largest selling printing products around the world. Laser printers are capable of printing both high end pictures and written text on the paper. Laser printer uses laser beams to actually print on paper unlike inkjet printer, which uses jets of ink to print or impact printer, which prints by using mechanical impact. As the name suggests these printers uses electric charge in its photo receptor. This photo receptor is in the form of a drum that accumulates electric charge. Dry ink is used in laser printers for printing purposes. Laser beam from the laser unit falls on the rotating drum and gives it letter or the image that has to be printed on the paper.

Keep all the above things in mind and you will be able to make a right decision.

Assessing Your Office Printing Needs

By sizes paper, 9 January, 2010, No Comment

Every business needs to have printing facilities to be able to function. Look around any office environment and you are sure to find a printer and a copier – essential equipment for day to day operation. But how do you determine what printing and copying equipment you actually need in your office? What are the most economical systems for your needs? Which office copier will handle your copy volume demand without coughing it’s mechanics across the office floor? On many occasions office printing and copying equipment is selected by opinion, without much consideration of the facts.

When considering replacing the office printing and copying equipment, a more informed approach will help select the correct equipment to suit your needs. Draw up a check-list for your requirements and ask others to check that your have listed the facilities that they need – as well as ensuring that you haven’t included benefits that your office will not need. Do you need larger paper sizes, colour or black and white images, networked into the office workstations or computer server, etc?

If you already have a copier installed, then check the monthly counter readings from the machine to give you information on how many copies are being produced each month or annually. Calculate how much copy paper your company consumes, between the copier counter and the copy paper consumption, you should be able to work out an average number of copies produced per month.

Do you have a number of individual office printers scattered about your offices? If so, then these are also adding to your print and copy requirements – as well as adding to the running costs of your printing facilities. If these are inkjet printers, then the cost of each page produced is probably disproportionately high compared to other printing methods. Laser printers, although cheaper to run than inkjets, will also have a relatively high cost per page. Having determined your copy and print volume requirements and the facilities needed from an office copier/printer, then you’re better equipped for starting your search for the most appropriate machine for your office. You may wish to consider including a networked copier / printer / fax / scanner in your considerations, giving a central point at which the office requirement for printing and copying is centralised – creating a cost saving return across all users (this technology is commonly called a Business Hub).

To assist with your decision making process, many office equipment specialists are now able to perform an analysis of the costs of operating your existing office print and copy facilities through bespoke software technology. This service will give you the information to make informed choices to obtain the most advantageous copying and printing equipment to cover your everyday needs – and it is normally done without cost or obligation. If you need assistance in calculating the number of copies/prints each of your office machines is producing, they can install print auditing software onto your system for you. This will generate a detailed report and costings of your present printing volumes. Business By Technology (Manchester and Coventry) offers this service free of charge and without obligation.

In the longer term, this same software technology can be installed onto your office system to provide a constant feedback of office print and copy usage, along with relevant costs. A good example for this software function is that before you had telephone call handling systems (PBX’s), nobody knew where their call volume went. Once the PBX’s came along, the phone company could break down your calls on the billing. So you could analyse that a salesman with a high call volume would be expected, yet the guy in the warehouse with unusually high call volume would be questionable. Apply this situation to a company’s printing and copying consumption and you can see where the usage and wastage is occurring.

Many companies have saved significant amounts of money simply by applying this software to their office systems. In some cases, they have even discovered use of costly printing facilities that they didn’t even know they had!

Establishing the Paperless Office

By sizes paper, 7 January, 2010, No Comment

The paperless office has been talked about for a long time, yet never seems to even start to become a reality in almost any sector of business. Look around any office environment and you would be forgiven for thinking that the opposite of the paperless office is evolving, with ever increasing stacks of printed reports and greater need for filing and document storage than ever before. Most companies, and their individual employees, still hold the opinion that copies of documents still need to be retained ‘on file’ to see and read and a continued mind-set of mistrust of digital storage prevails. This is assisted by many government departments inflicting legal requirements for specific accounting and administrative documents being retained and available for inspection for periods of up to six years beyond their production.
All of this document production and storage is occurring in a time when almost everything we generate comes from a digital system, eg. word processing, accounting systems, digital copiers, etc. – and most of these documents are already stored in digital file format on the system that created them originally (Word files, spreadsheets, photographs, accounting systems, etc). Yet there is still a great reluctance to take the final step and commit these paper files into a concise digital filing system and reduce the amount of environmentally damaging paper consumed, as well as reducing the expense committed to vast amounts of wasted space given over to document storage. Much of the resistance to change stems from old and somewhat flawed technology being made available before it’s limitations were determined. Those who tried digital document storage in its infancy had poor experiences, with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and poor scanning facilities producing less than accurate results in the stored documents; bad characters, poor formatting, etc. The previously poor experiences, coupled with localised, instead of centralised, file access has created a resistance to change that still prevails today.
Try the exercise of breaking down the requirements for a digital, therefore paperless, document storage and management system. The majority of businesses will store correspondence, reports and other items produced on a computer-based word/presentation/numeric software program, accounting and auditing documents produced by a computer-based system, email and fax documents transmitted on most occasions via a computer or digital software – and all of these have one thing in common: they are already stored in digital format on the system that was used to create them. Additionally, photographs are either transferred from a digital camera/phone/download/email attachment or scanned (with very good results) into a digital format onto the company’s computer network, so these too are already stored in a digital format. Other documentation, generally received from external sources (customers, suppliers, etc.), will not have an existing digital file format in your business’s computer – these can be scanned into the system and digitally stored with great accuracy using the advanced software that is now available, and retrieved with accuracy when needed for further reference. So almost 100% of the documentation that your business uses every day can be stored in a digital document storage and retrieval system; eliminating the need for stacks and files of papers; cutting the need for expensive storage space; reducing wasted employee time searching for those elusive mis-filed documents.
So why are businesses resisting the paperless office? In addition to any previous poor experiences with early technology, the primary reason seems to be a lack of coordinated facilities. Most companies have a networked computer system, many have digital copier and printer systems and most have scanning facilities. However, the file storage systems are fragmented and often personalised, the copier/printer facilities are not correctly networked and scanning facilities are sometimes inadequate and localised. The resistance towards introducing and operating a paperless document storage and retrieval system is often down to a simple lack of coordination within the business itself, coupled with a lack of responsibility – is it the overburdened IT manager’s job, the office manager’s job, the director responsible for admin’s job, or the ‘Mr Nobody’ who gets lumbered with those tasks no one else has time or incentive to undertake? Yet a great deal of wasted time and money continues to drain from the business resources while this task remains unaddressed.
A straightforward approach to addressing the introduction of a paperless office can have the whole process introduced in little time with comparatively small set up costs, quickly recouped by the savings generated from reduced paper consumption, reduced storage space and wasted employee time. In terms of personnel, one person should be appointed the task of overseeing the implementation of the system and ensuring that the (probably existing) equipment facilities are correctly networked together into the central business computer network. A reliable and efficient document storage and retrieval software system should be sourced and installed onto the business’s network and set up ready for use by everyone who handles documents as a part of their daily routine. Having created this hardware and software environment, the task of transferring/installing existing files and documents (historical documents already stored elsewhere) should be undertaken prior to the central document filing and retrieval system becoming ‘live’ (although this could be done retrospectively over a period of time if necessary). The final stage is to roll out the system to all employees from a predetermined date, allowing for any training/instruction being implemented beforehand.
The software for digital document storage and retrieval is the key to it’s success. Scanning, Archive and Retrieval systems have been viewed by some businesses as a ‘dark art’ or at least with some doubt and suspicion in the past, where poor experiences of older and less stable systems have caused problems with document retrieval. By combining the facilities of the office digital copier/printer/scanner systems (often referred to as Business Hubs due to their networking capabilities), with the networked computer system a good quality software digital document and retrieval program will allow you to store and find that illusive “needle in a haystack”. A quality system will incorporate fast scanning speeds, excellent search and OCR (Optical Character Recognition) tolerance, automatic document indexing, fast search and retrieval facility with efficient and easy to use Boolean search commands (Google style searching). One such system is PowerRetrieve, available through Business By Technology Ltd., Manchester and Coventry, along with fully trained and experienced consultants and IT advisors.
Three definable supplier areas are clear for the introduction of a paperless office environment: the networked computer system, the digital office copiers/printers/scanners, and the document storage and retrieval software. Each of these areas have their own specialist advisors who can be called upon for advice and assistance, but some supplier companies, primarily from the office copier/printer sector, now have specialist trained IT advisors who can coordinate the introduction of a paperless office system from inception to completion. A specialist IT advisor from one of these companies is of great assistance when working alongside the internal person charged with responsibility for introducing the paperless office system, from the early planning stages through to final implementation. The paperless office is within the grasp of every business, however large or small, it can create a more efficient working environment and immediately recognisable cost savings from implementation.

Your Guide to Buying a Color Laser Printer

By sizes paper, 24 December, 2009, No Comment

Laser printers have become the ultimate choice of many corporate offices across the world. According to a recent study by the analyst firm Gartner Inc. the sale of color laser printers in the United States sees a 20% augmentation yearly. Despite being more expensive in price, more and more offices are adopting color laser printers because they make your business efficient performance wise. Whether you are running a Desktop Publishing Unit or owing a law firm, a color laser printer helps you present yourself in a highly professional manner.
If you are running business that requires frequent color printing, you should seriously consider buying your business a color laser printer. You should consider the following points while buying a laser printer for your business.
Resolution: Usually, resolution in color laser printers is expressed in terms of DPI (Dots per Inch). The higher the number of DPI, the sharper the image. Figure out the frequent needs of your business in terms of using a color laser printer. As a rule of thumb, choose a 600×600 resolution if you will use your laser printer more for text. If your daily printing requirements are more than just text, consider buying a laser printer with at least 1200×1200 resolution.
Print Speed: Talking about print speed, consider two important aspects such as PPM (Print per Minute) and time the laser printer takes to print the first page. If, for instance, you are running a run firm and need to print out 200 pages at a time, an 8-ppm printer would take about half an hour. Whereas, the same number of pages can be printed in just five minutes if you use a 35-ppm laser printer. However, PPM should be less important for your if you print requirements substantially include large documents.
Networking: Do you want to use a printer at home or office. If your requirement is for the latter then consider buying a laser print that comes with built-in network capability. Although, it might be a bit expensive for you, it will be extremely helpful in the long run.
Memory: Look at the RAM capacity of the laser printer and whether it is expandable.
Paper Size: What paper size do you use very often? The answer will vary depending on the nature of your business. While most low-priced laser printers can accommodate 8.5×11-inch paper of medium weights, organizations such as law firms will need expensive laser printer that can handle heavy-weight and large papers such as legal papers.
Paper Tray: See if the printer comes with a paper tray to hold papers, letterheads and envelopes. This is critical to saving a lot of your time. You don`t want to swap and refill the papers each time you print documents.
Number of Print: Usually, printers rated according to their ability to print pages per month. Choose your printer according to the workload of your business.
Toner Cartridges: Usually, low-budget color printer will cost you more in the long run in terms of consumable such as toner cartridges. Expensive laser printers will give you a low cost per page print. So, it`s entirely your call. Moreover, look if the supply for the toner cartridges can be available locally. Many manufactures offer them online, but it helps if you can find them at any local stores during emergency.
Duplex Printing: Does your laser printer need to have the capability to print both side of the paper? While some printers come with duplex printing features, others may not offer this feature at all. Laser printers with additional features tend to cost higher. Hence, look if you are really going to need this feature.

Your All-In-One Printer Copier Choices Must Be Wise

By sizes paper, 19 December, 2009, No Comment

The PC printer has evolved from a singularly print functionality to an all in one printer copier. The modern all in one printer copier, slightly bigger than a regular printer, utilizes an integrated scanner with the capability to take the image in the paper fed to it, store it digitally and print it. Once the digital image is converted into the format it uses (formats may differ with the software used) it can be stored.

The advantage of an all in one printer copier is in the printer’s capability to print copies from direct images of the scanned copy without running the usual application from the PC to print the document. The employee can thus free his computer from printing copies and engages his PC to another task such as the preparation of another document while the copier prints copies of the first document. This is due to the scanner and printer functioning independently of each other.

The multitasking function of a PC is also improved by an all in one printer copier because of the scanner’s capability to generate a digital image of the scanned object. The digital image, usually in the JPEG format can be stored by a PC and later on retrieved for printing as well as other uses like picture combinations and other art work using photo editors.

As most all in one printer copier makes use of ink jets, after sales support in terms of stability and availability of supplies need to be considered. Another consideration is the estimated volume ofprinting and copying jobs that will be demanded. As an all in one printer copier is only recommended for use in a single PC its durability in handling high speed copying and the volume it can handle will not be as fast and as many as the bigger multifunctional copier that is used over a network of PCs.

In considering buying an all in one printer copier, alternative sources of supplies for its consumables such as ink and paper may be evaluated. Another consideration is the ease with which your PC can switch from another printer to yourall in one printer copier. Some PC use a switch to use two or more printers like it uses a dot matrix printer to inexpensively print drafts when there is time to do them then switch to another printer for the final copy. Some printers do not allow the ease by which Windows switches your default printer. HP for example requires you to load its own printer interface and overrides Windows’ setting the default printer. Most consumers see it as a scheme to use only HP printers and inks and are turned off by the lack of choice considering that HP is on the high end of the printer’s market.

How Do Inkjet Printers Work

By sizes paper, 18 December, 2009, No Comment

The printers utilizing inkjet technology were first introduced in the late 1980s and since then have gained much popularity while growing in performance and dropping in price. They are the most common type of computer printers for the general consumer due to their low cost, high quality of output, capability of printing in vivid color, and ease of use. Each printer which works on inkjet technology places extremely small droplets of ink onto paper to create a text or an image.

In the personal and small business computer market, inkjet printers currently predominate. Inkjets are usually inexpensive, quiet, reasonably fast, and many models can produce high quality output. Like most modern technologies, the present-day inkjet is built on the progress made by many earlier versions. Among many contributors, Epson, Hewlett-Packard and Canon can claim a substantial share of credit for the development of the modern inkjet technology. In the worldwide consumer market, four manufacturers account for the majority of inkjet printer sales: Canon, Hewlett-Packard, Epson, and Lexmark.

The typical inkjet printer usually includes inkjet printhead assembly, paper feed assembly, power supply, control circuitry and interface ports.

The inkjet printhead assembly contains several components. One of them is the printhead which is the core of the inkjet printer and contains a series of nozzles that are used to spray drops of ink. Another printhead component is the inkjet cartridge or inkjet tank. Depending on the manufacturer and model of the printer, ink cartridges come in various combinations, such as separate black and color cartridges, color and black in a single cartridge or even a cartridge for each ink color. The cartridges of some inkjet printers include the print head itself. The printhead along with the inkjet cartridge/s are moved back and forth across the paper by device called a stepper motor using a special belt. Some printers have an additional stepper motor to park the print head assembly when the printer is not in use which means that the print head assembly is restricted from accidentally moving. The print head assembly uses a stabilizer bar to ensure that movement is precise and controlled.

One of the paper feed assembly components is the paper tray or/and paper feeder. Most inkjet printers have a tray that the paper is loaded into. The feeder typically snaps open at an angle on the back of the printer, allowing the paper to be placed in it. Feeders generally do not hold as much paper as a traditional paper tray. A set of rollers pull the paper in from the tray or feeder and advance the paper when the print head assembly is ready for another pass after which another step motor powers the rollers to move the paper in the exact increment needed to ensure a continuous image is printed.

While earlier printers often had an external transformer, most printers sold today use a standard power supply that is incorporated into the printer itself.

A small but sophisticated amount of circuitry is built into the printer to control all the mechanical aspects of operation, as well as decode the information sent to the printer from the computer. It is connected to the computer by a cable through the interface port. The interface port can be either parallel port, USB port or SCSI port. The parallel port is still used by many printers, but most newer printers use the USB port. A few printers connect using a serial port or small computer system interface (SCSI) port.

Different types of inkjet printers exist based on the method they use to deliver the droplets of ink. There are three main inkjet technologies currently used by printer manufacturers. The thermal bubble technology used by manufacturers such as Canon and Hewlett Packard is commonly referred to as bubble jet. In a thermal inkjet printer, tiny resistors create heat, and this heat vaporizes ink to create a bubble. As the bubble expands, some of the ink is pushed out of a nozzle onto the paper. When the bubble collapses, a vacuum is created. This pulls more ink into the print head from the cartridge. A typical bubble jet print head has 300 or 600 tiny nozzles, and all of them can fire a droplet simultaneously. Thermal inkjet technology is used almost exclusively in the consumer inkjet printer market. The ink used is usually water-based, pigment-based or dye-based but the print head is produced usually at less cost than other ink jet technologies.

Contrary to the bubble jet technology, the piezoelectric technology, patented by Epson, uses piezo crystals. A crystal is located at the back of the ink reservoir of each nozzle. The crystal receives a tiny electric charge that causes it to vibrate. When the crystal vibrates inward, it forces a tiny amount of ink out of the nozzle. When it vibrates out, it pulls some more ink into the reservoir to replace the ink sprayed out.

The continuous inkjet method is used commercially for marking and coding of products and packages. The first patent on the idea is from 1867, by William Thomson. The first commercial model was introduced in 1951 by Siemens. In continuous inkjet technology, a high-pressure pump directs liquid ink from a reservoir through a microscopic nozzle, creating a continuous stream of ink droplets. A piezoelectric crystal causes the stream of liquid to break into droplets at regular intervals. The ink droplets are subjected to an electrostatic field created by a charging electrode as they form. The field is varied according to the degree of drop deflection desired. This results in a controlled, variable electrostatic charge on each droplet. Charged droplets are separated by one or more uncharged “guard droplets” to minimize electrostatic repulsion between neighboring droplets. The charged droplets are then directed (deflected) to the receptor material to be printed by electrostatic deflection plates, or are allowed to continue on undeflected to a collection gutter for reuse. Continuous inkjet is one of the oldest inkjet technologies in use and is fairly mature. One of its advantages is the very high velocity (~50 m/s) of the ink droplets, which allows the ink drops to be thrown a long distance to the target. Another advantage is freedom from nozzle clogging as the jet is always in use

When printing is started, the software application sends the data to be printed to the printer driver which translates the data into a format that the printer can understand and checks to see that the printer is online and available to print. The data is sent by the driver from the computer to the printer via the connection interface. The printer receives the data from the computer. It stores a certain amount of data in a buffer. The buffer can range from 512 KB random access memory (RAM) to 16 MB RAM, depending on the printer model. Buffers are useful because they allow the computer to finish with the printing process quickly, instead of having to wait for the actual page to print. If the inkjet printer has been idle for a period of time, it will normally go through a short cleaning cycle to make sure that the print heads are clean. Once the cleaning cycle is complete, the inkjet printer is ready to begin printing. The control circuitry activates the paper feed stepper motor. This engages the rollers, which feed a sheet of paper from the paper tray / feeder into the printer. A small trigger mechanism in the tray / feeder is depressed when there is paper in the tray or feeder. If the trigger is not depressed, the inkjet printer lights up the “Out of Paper” LED and sends an alert to the computer. Once the paper is fed into the inkjet printer and positioned at the start of the page, the print head stepper motor uses the belt to move the print head assembly across the page. The motor pauses for the merest fraction of a second each time that the print head sprays dots of ink on the page and then moves a tiny bit before stopping again. This stepping happens so fast that it seems like a continuous motion. Multiple dots are made at each stop. It sprays the CMYK (cyan / magenta / yellow / black) colors in precise amounts to make any other color imaginable. At the end of each complete pass, the paper feed stepper motor advances the paper a fraction of an inch. Depending on the inkjet printer model, the print head is reset to the beginning side of the page, or, in most cases, simply reverses direction and begins to move back across the page as it prints. This process continues until the page is printed. The time it takes to print a page can vary widely from printer to printer. It will also vary based on the complexity of the page and size of any images on the page. Once the printing is complete, the print heads are parked. The paper feed stepper motor spins the rollers to finish pushing the completed page into the output tray. Most inkjet printers today use inkjet inks that are very fast-drying, so that you can immediately pick up the sheet without smudging it.

Compared to earlier consumer-oriented printers, inkjet printers have a number of advantages. They are quieter in operation than impact dot matrix printers or daisywheel printers. They can print finer, smoother details through higher printhead resolution, and many inkjet printers with photorealistic-quality color printing are widely available. In comparison to more expensive technologies like thermal wax, dye sublimations, and laser printers, the inkjet printers have the advantage of practically no warm-up time and lower cost per page (except when compared to laser printers).

The disadvantages of the inkjet printers include flimsy print heads (prone to clogging) and expensive inkjet cartridges. This typically leads value-minded consumers to consider laser printers for medium-to-high volume printer applications. Other disadvantages include ink bleeding, where ink is carried sideways away from the desired location by the capillary effect; the result is a muddy appearance on some types of paper. Most inkjet printer manufacturers also sell special clay-treated paper designed to reduce bleeding. Because the ink used in most inkjet cartridges and ink tanks is water-soluble, care must be taken with inkjet-printed documents to avoid even the smallest drop of water, which can cause severe “blurring” or “running.”

Besides the well known small inkjet printers for home and office, there is a market for professional inkjet printers; some being for page-width format printing, and most being for wide format printing. “Page-width format” means that the print width ranges from about 8.5″ to 37″. “Wide format” means that these are inkjet printers ranging in print width from 24″ up to 15′. The application of the page-width inkjet printers is for printing high-volume business communications that have a lesser need for flashy layout and color. Particularly with the addition of variable data technologies, the page-width inkjet printers are important in billing, tagging, and individualized catalogs and newspapers. The application of most of the wide format inkjet printers is for printing advertising graphics; a minor application is printing of designs by architects or engineers.

A Buyer’s Guide to Printers

By sizes paper, 10 December, 2009, No Comment

Printers can be expensive, and there are many brands and types to choose from, so it is important to assess your printing needs before buying.First, consider whether you need a laser or an inkjet printer. Laser printers are faster and more precise than inkjet printers, but they are also more expensive. Consider a laser printer if you regularly print documents that contain graphics, print photographs, or print in high volume. Most inkjet printers provide decent print quality in documents and photographs, but they are not always professional grade. They are cheaper and so are their ink jet cartridges. Remember that almost all printers are now capable of color printing. Another point to consider is whether you need a printer that is multifunctional. Many printers are now all-in-ones. In other words, they scan, fax, and photocopy documents as well as print. All-in-ones may be inkjet or laser, and the cost of the machine reflects the number of functions the machine provides. The statistics to keep in mind as you shop for a printer include price, compatibility, print quality and speed, cost of consumables, power consumption, expandability, paper capacity, and availability of replacement parts and consumables. • Compatibility: You need to make sure that the printer you want is compatible with your computer or computer network. Be sure to double-check the details of your computer before your shop. Then compare them to the specifications of the printer. This is important if your computer or its operating system is older. • Price: Prices vary greatly depending on the printer’s type and model. A more expensive printer is not necessarily better. Keep your needs in mind and then buy within your price range. • Print quality and speed: Print quality varies, but even the cheapest printer should consistently create legible documents. Even if you want to buy online, go to a retail outlet and look at the quality and speed of documents created by the printer you want. • Cost of consumables: You may spend several times the cost of the printer on the replacement toner or inkjet cartridges, so investigate the prices before buying. • Power consumption: How much power your printer consumes is no small matter. Check the printer’s specifications. There is no reason to buy a power-hogging machine. It only adds to the long-term costs of your printer.• Paper capacity: If you print a lot, your printer needs to be able to hold a lot of paper. Otherwise, you will be constantly refilling the paper trays.• Memory and Expandability: Before buying, think about how you may use your printer in a year or two. Will its workload increase significantly? If so, purchase a printer with enough memory and the capacity to expand and handle networks. • Availability of replacement parts: Not only will you need to replace the ink or toner, but you may also need to repair moving parts in your printer. Make sure that those parts are easily available by purchasing a printer from a recognized maker. Ask about warranties.

Ensuring Your Inkjet Cartridges & Printer Operates Well

By sizes paper, 6 December, 2009, No Comment

Inkjet printers are great inventions and today they are in most homes that have computers. Many small businesses also use them for their business printing needs due to the low cost of the printing equipment and the inkjet cartridges required for printing.
If you want to ensure that your inkjet prints onto the paper for the best quality printed output possible, there are a few things you should keep in mind. First and foremost, ink dries when it contacts air. Because there is always some ink in the inkjet nozzle, if you do not use your printer often, you can end up with clogged ink nozzles and have to run the cleaning maintenance routine several times to unclog the inkjet nozzle, if it can be unclogged at all. The simple, easy solution to this problem is to use the printer frequently. If you print a full color page or two at least once or twice per week, you shouldnt have this problem, but there are many users that infrequently use their printers only to learn their ink wont distribute properly. So, just print a test page once a week as a minimum. Sure, it wastes a little bit of ink but it prevents having to possibly discard the entire ink cartridge and avoids the expense of buying a new one.
For the best quality ink distribution, be sure you use the correct paper for your printer. Paper looks like it is all the same and it is easy to select the wrong type of paper unless you realize that some paper is specifically for laser printing and the inkjet will not perform as well on this type of paper. Choose general purpose or inkjet paper and youll be ensured good results from your inkjet printer.
If you notice your inkjet is not printing as clearly as it has been in the past, you probably need to perform routine maintenance by running the software applications which came with your printer. The ink nozzle alignment maintenance ensures that the ink is being distributed exactly where it should be by making certain the position of each nozzle is exactly right. If one ink distribution nozzle is misaligned, you can have streaked printing. This is most noticeable when printing pictures, but it can result in fuzzy text print as well. The routine is simple and easy to run and will provide you with step-by-step instructions to follow. The printer will really do all the work for you.
So, remember to keep your ink cartridges working optimally to use your printer regularly or print a test page regularly. Remember also to use the right paper for the type of printer you are using. And remember to align the nozzles periodically. This will help ensure you get the finest possible output from your home or small business inkjet printer. After all, you want your printing to look professional and neat; thats why you purchased an inkjet printer in the first place!

Choosing The Right Photo Paper And Ink Cartridges For Your Inkjet Printer

By sizes paper, 29 November, 2009, No Comment

Introduction
We all love taking digital photos and sharing them with family and friends. With more and more of us printing our pictures at home, how do we successfully achieve that ‘photo lab quality’ look?
Follow these 5 simple tips and you’re on your way to creating crisp, vibrant, long-lasting digital prints every time with your home photo printer.
1. Choosing the right photo paper
True of false? Digital prints don’t last as long as traditional prints. False! Using the right paper is key to your success. Printing onto plain copier paper will just make your prints look dull and faded.
By using a good quality photo paper specifically designed to produce high-quality, true-to-life colour images you’ll get equally good or better results than traditional lab-developed photographs.
2. So which type of photo paper should I use?
There is a wide variety available for every type of print or project, ranging in thickness and finish. Choose from your ink jet printer’s own brand of photo paper or a good quality, alternative brand at competitive prices. It’s good to shop around.
The type and texture of the paper used has direct relation to how well prints look. If you treasure photos, use photo paper and ink that help ensure prints last long, are light and water resistant. Some premium papers resist fading for 25, 50 or more years and have the look and feel of traditional photographs.
Ink jet paper characteristics:
- Paper weight
This refers to the thickness of paper. Generally bond or office copier paper is the most common weight used by consumers, averaging around 80gsm, whilst paper used to print photos is usually thicker, ranging between 150gsm and 215gsm.
- Paper brightness
All ink jet papers come in a range of levels of brightness, known as whiteness. Brightness is rated on a scale of 1 to over 100, with the higher the number, the whiter the paper. For example: Brighter and whiter means better, more vivid colour prints.
- Check the brightness rating of paper
Many manufacturers may claim their paper is “bright” or use a similar term on the packaging. So before buying your photo paper, check its number rating. For top quality printing, get paper with a brightness rating of 95 and above.
3. What inkjet photo finish should I use?
There’s a variety of photo paper finishes available, ranging from extremely glossy to matte. Glossy produces deep, vibrant colours while matte offers rich textures and resists fingerprints. High quality inkjet paper is coated and results in sharper images, displaying brighter colour and more detail. Gradients are smoother and are very important for printing quality photos and other half-tone images.
Inkjet photo paper comes in three finishes with variations on each. The basics are:
Glossy – high shine with the look and feel of traditional glossy photo lab paper.
Semi-gloss – satin lustre and a slight bumpy surface. Less shine than glossy.
Matte – dull surface with no glare or sheen. Often used when prints are displayed under glass.
4. Choose the right paper size
Photo papers come in a variety of sizes. The most popular size used to achieve photo-lab quality, is 4″ x 6″ paper. A perfect fit for most photo albums.
Print spectacular panoramic photos, such as a tropical sunset, using 4″ x 12″ paper. When you’re making studio-quality enlargements of family or pets, 13″ x 19″ is ideal. And try 11″ x 17″ paper for calendars and posters.
Some printer models have software, which helps you quickly and easily print common sizes or even select a custom size.
Photo paper comes packaged and pre-cut in the most popular sizes, and can be purchased online and in office supply stores
5. Choosing your ink
Ink jet printers offer the most cost-effective colour photo printing solution. Most printer manufacturers will recommend their own branded ink cartridges. Significant investment in developing and testing their inks and papers will have taken place to ensure they produce finer colour gradations, richer colour saturation and better colour solids. However, with the soaring costs of branded cartridges, more and more people are turning to quality alternative compatibles. There are many alternatives on the market, making your budget stretch that bit longer, without compromising the quality and reliability of consumers’ requirements.

How and Where to Get Free Printer Paper When You Recycle Your Printer Ink

By sizes paper, 28 November, 2009, No Comment

This is quite simple! Although some stores may have changed their policies and procedures, you can still get a HUGE savings. I stumbled upon this with an ex coworker of mine. As I was complaining about all the paper I had to print out from home and why it is costing me so much money to replenish some of the office materials (mainly printing paper), he mentioned to me that if I went to “Staples” they will actually give you a cube stack of printing paper when you bring in your printer ink. Can you imagine that!

So if I bring in “1″ printer ink for recycle (per ink cartridge per stack of paper), I can get some free printing paper? Well need you say anymore…. I was on it!! I had so many ink cartridges just sitting in dust and now it was ready to be actually used. So I gathered up my printer cartridges and ran down to Staples and lo and behold (as the music was playing), they took my used printer ink cartridges and gave me FREE printing paper. Don’t get me wrong, I was not going to complain about the quality of the free paper, I was just soooo happy that I could actually utilize something that I paid too much for (I think ink cartridge prices are ridiculous), and I could actually get something back for this. I was so happy that everyone I met walking out I greeted them with great big smiles. You know like the Geico commercial. I just saved a bunch of money… Hee, hee. Well I DID save a bunch of money.

I believe all the stores who are involved in this exchange are Staples, Office Depot; Office Max and the others but you would have to ask. Hmm.. I haven’t called the other stores like Rite Aid, Wal-Mart and etc… Sounds like another project coming up. I have learned through out my business venture is to always ask!! It can’t hurt right?

Now I believe some things have changed. I think some of the stores are offering in store rebates for the printer ink recycling. I believe it is like $3 off any products. So if you were to bring in lets say 4 printer cartridges, then you would have an in store rebate of $12.00. You can get about 3 stacks of bulk paper for that price. Still not bad at all. You would probably (if any) pay about a couple cents more.

So to close, any corners that you can cut for now will help you in the long run. There are Smart businessmen and Shrewd businessmen. Think to yourself which would you rather be or are? That is what separates us from the others.

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