Posts Tagged ‘laser printers’
Tuesday, December 18th, 2012
It has come to my attention a multi function printer with a difference which is going to be released in the market soon. Firstly it is going to be released in Japan February 2013 and then a worldwide roll out.
Toshiba E Studio 306LP/RD30
This printer set up is in two separate parts one is the printer 306LP the other part RD30 This removes the toner cartridge from a printed document so you can reuse the paper over and over again. It is the first printer combination to do this.
It can do this by using a special toner put in the Printer itself then when the paper is put through the RD30 it heats the toner to a high temperature and deletes the toner colour from the page.
It also copies the documents in a digitised format before you delete it so you still have a copy available.
The printer itself also has a lower carbon foot print as it will be made out of bio plastics (plastics that are bio gradable)
In eco terms this is a great saving of resources, paper that would normally be either filed away or destroyed is being reused. We may not have a paperless office but this will reduce the bulk of paper that is stored.
Tags: Inkjet toner cartridges, laser printer, laser printers
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Friday, October 1st, 2010
When the time comes to choose a new printer you may find yourself swamped with options. One of the newest types of printer on the scene is the wireless printer. But you might be asking yourself, how exactly can a printer produce documents without cables?
The process is remarkably simple! Wireless printers work in the same way as Wi-Fi internet. The message is passed between the computer or source device to the printer through transmitted signals. This of course means you could encounter some of the same issues you have with your Wi-Fi at home or in your workplace, which includes going out of range and service outages. However, this should certainly not put you off considering purchasing a wireless printer.
One of the main benefits to having a wireless printer is not having cables trailing across your floor space. The more cables you have clogging up your office, the more potential hazards there will be. Not only can people trip and hurt themselves, the cables can also become damaged and rendered unusable over time.
Wireless printers are much the same as a wired printer. There only real difference apart from their cost is the lack or trailing cables. Most wireless models available are standard colour or mono laser printers, although multifunction variants are becoming more popular.
Your computer will need to connect to the printer remotely and will require the downloaded driver that you use for standard printer models. Once the connection is made the computer will be able to send documents remotely to the printer where the documents are completed.
There will be no loss of quality in the print out and the initial installation is no more difficult than a standard wired printer. The majority of wireless printers are laser printers which use a toner cartridge filled with powdered toner.
In short, a wireless printer works in a very similar fashion to a cabled printer, only using a Wi-Fi internet signal to communicate between computer and printer.
Tags: laser printers, multifunctionn printers, powdered toner, printer, printers, toner cartridges, wi-fi printer, wi-fi printers, wired printer, wired printerm wired printers, wireless printer, wireless printers
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Thursday, March 25th, 2010
Correct paper and ink combination
Paper is your printers best friend, there’s no point in having a printer without paper! You should ensure that the paper you feed into your printer is the correct type. Below are some important details you need to know to make sure your printer and paper have a ‘lasting relationship’!
Never used damaged paper
Whilst you should always try your best to use recycled paper in your printer for unimportant documents, you should never feed torn or bent paper into the paper tray. This could damage your printer and cause paper jams. Aside from the inconvenience and waste of time that removing jammed paper from your printer causes, it could also break some internal parts. When using recycled paper, make sure you remove any staples, sticky tape or anything else attached to the paper before inserting it into the printer.
Never fan a ream of paper before loading it
Static electricity may build up between the sheets of paper and this can result in nasty paper jams. The very thing you are trying to avoid by fanning the paper actually causes paper jams to occur! More recent printer models can separate pages efficiently on their own.
Never store paper in humid environments
High humidity can cause sheets of paper to stick together. This can cause printing errors, especially if you have a low-end older printer model. As mentioned, recent printer models are capable of separating the pages in the paper tray. If you don’t have a recent printer model, always ensure you store your paper in a low humidity area.
Paper and ink combination
We all carry on printing and printing, but do we ever stop to consider the quality of our prints? Especially when printing photographs and high quality images. Below are some important factors you should consider the next time you print.
The first thing you should look for in the printer it it’s compatibility with the paper. What paper types are compatible with your printer? Does it require photo paper? Is it only compatible with regular white paper? How about thermal paper? Looking at all the different types of paper can help you determine the quality of your prints.
The second thing to consider is the type of your printer. Prints from a colour inkjet printer generally take a long time to dry, so you need to be especially careful when printing from this type of printer. There is a chance of smearing the ink, thereby ruining an otherwise good quality print out.
Laser printers are slightly better to use since they are more accurate and the ink dries much faster compares to their inkjet counterparts. Considering this advantage, laser printers may seem the much better option, but there is a problem! Laser printers tend to be too expensive for home users, a laser printer can cost at least twice as much as an inkjet printer and the toner cartridges are a lot more expensive too. Home users on a tight budget might want to stick to an inkjet printer. If you want professional quality prints then you may be better off considering a laser printer.
Quality prints boil down to two main things – paper type and printer type. Both of these have a direct impact on how the prints will turn out, since both the paper and ink are the main determinants of print quality.
Tags: colour inkjet, colour inkjet printer, ink, inkjet printer, laser printers, paper jams, photo paper, printer, Printer Paper, printer type, printers, printing, printing errors, printing photographs, recycled paper, regular white paper, thermal paper, toner cartridges
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Thursday, March 18th, 2010
Ways to increase the speed of your printer
You can improve the printing speed of your inkjet printer by following the simple tips listed below.
1. Print Quality
If you are fed up of waiting for your output to inch slowly out of the printer, one easy solution is to change your printer’s output settings. Methods will vary slightly by model, but basically you need to click on the ‘print’ application on any program, and then click into ‘properties’. Select the appropriate tab such as ‘paper/output or ‘main’ and select the draft mode. You can set this permanently through the ‘printers and faxes’ box in Windows XP by following the same steps.
2. Fit more onto a page
If you can stand the smaller output, you can reduce the printing time in half by printing two pages onto a single sheet of paper, both on the same side, not duplexed. This method will vary by model, but try under the ‘layout’ tab if available.
3. Printing from websites
Simple basic text will always print quicker than coloured graphics. The more complex the graphics the slower they will print. If you don’t need to see images from a website, you can set your web browser to load pages without them. The website may offer a ‘printer friendly’ format, so keep an eye out for this. Otherwise there are a couple of ways to change the settings manually. In internet explorer select ‘tools’ and then internet options under the ‘advanced tab’, go to the multimedia section and uncheck the box for ‘show pictures’. In Mozilla Firefox, go under tools and then options, click the connect tab and uncheck the box by ‘load images automatically’. Once you have printed your document you can always change them back.
4. Connectivity
With inkjet printers, you may or may not have a choice of anything other than USB 2.0, which is the fastest USB technology. However, if you have a network ready printer you are able to connect your printer wirelessly or via Ethernet cable. Out of the two, Ethernet will always be faster because of the dedicated link. Distance will always have an impact on your printing speeds with Wi-Fi because of the proximity from the computer to the printer. For the fastest printing time using Wi-Fi always keep your printer as close to the computer as possible.
5. Add memory
Just like your computer, adding RAM to your printer gives it the ability to do things much faster. This is not an option you will find on inkjet printers, however a good number of laser printers allow you to do this. This is not usually a cheap option as adding memory doesn’t come cheap. Check your printer’s owner manual or the manufacturer website to see if your printer has expandable memory.
Tags: inkjet, inkjet printer, laser, laser printer, laser printers, printer, printer wirelessly, wi-fi, wi-fi printer
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Monday, March 15th, 2010
Top 5 Printer Manufacturers
We have compiled the top 5 printer manufacturers and included a brief history of each company.
1. Hewlett Packard
HP began in 1939 when Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard created HP whilst working on an audio oscillator in a garage in Palo Alto, California. Walt Disney purchased several of these oscillators for their latest move ‘Fantasia’. HP started as a small company which produced all sorts of electronic products and they first focused on counters and voltmeters. In 1984 HP produced their first inkjet and laser printers. HP rose to popularity in the late 90’s by marketing their computers and printers to the average consumer and they opened an online store to help reach them. HP is currently one of the largest providers of printing hardware and printing supplies. They feature in inkjet printers, laser printers, all in one printers, multifunction printers, photo printers and large format printers.
2. Epson
Epson is a Japanese company which was established in 1961 under the name of Shinshu Seiki to provide precision parts for Seiko watches. The company won the contract to make the precision timers for the 1964 Olympics and also picked up a contract to design a printer. The first printer Epson produced was called the EP-101 and was released in 1968; it was the first printer with an electronic calculator printer mechanism. Epson’s first dot matrix printer was released in 1978; however this did not attract much attention. In the late 80’s Epson produced an improved version, the MX-80. This printer took 2 years to develop and quickly became the best selling printer in the United States and eventually became the industrial standard for microcomputers. Epson is one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of dot matrix, inkjet and laser printers for home and office use.
3. Canon
Canon was established in Japan in 1933 by Goro Yoshida and Saburo Uchid, who founded the Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory. Their aim was to make cameras that would compete with the most advanced German models of the day. They produced Japan’s first 35mm camera called the Kwanon with a focal plane shutter. The company name, Canon, was chosen because it was so similar to the name in Japanese of their debut product, the Kwanon. Nowadays, Canon makes cameras, printers, copiers and many other office products and their most profitable area involves the sale of digital copiers for offices. Canon makes and supplies the print engines used in many Hewlett-Packard products, specifically the LaserJet laser printers. Canon is currently working on rear-projection displays.
4. Lexmark
Lexmark is a relatively new company and was established in 1991 it was a branch off from IBM. They produce printers and ink cartridges and are located in Lexington, Kentucky. In 1994 all IBM logos were removed from Lexmark printer products as the company had made a name for itself and was proving very successful. The company went public in 1995. With over 13,000 employees across the world and 4,000 at their headquarters alone, Lexmark has come a long way from its birth in the early nineties. They currently make third-party products for other companies including Dell. Lexmark was the first company to offer a printer for under £60. They were also one of the pioneers in releasing the state of the art Wi-Fi-based inkjet printers.
5. Dell
Dell was founded in 1984 by Michael Dell whilst he was still a student at the University of Texas. The company was first called PC’s Limited. The following year, Dell came out with their very first computer called the Turbo, which had an eight-megahertz processor. The major goal was to produce personal computer systems that were IBM compatible and were produced using entirely stock parts. The first Dell laptop made its debut in 1991 and by 1993; it became one of the top five computer companies in the world. By 1995. The progress of the business was rapid and in 1997, Dell had shipped its ten millionth system. In 1996, Dell began selling their products through their website and three years later they took over Compaq. Dell printers are known for being versatile and easy to use; however a recent development has brought criticism to the company when Lexmark began working with them and modified their cartridges so that they don’t work with Dell printers.
Tags: all in one printers, Canon, Dell, dell printer, dell printers, dot matrix printer, Epson, epson printers, Hewlett Packard, HP, IBM, ink cartridges, inkjet, inkjet printer, inkjet printers, large format printers, laser printer, laser printers, LaserJet laser printers, Lexmark, lexmark printer, multifunction printers, photo printers, wi-fi
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Friday, March 12th, 2010
Power Saving Tips for your printer
Your printer consumes the most power in an office after your computer. We have listed some tips below to save power from your printer and help you achieve an energy efficient workplace.
1. Minimize your printer use by printing only when it is absolutely necessary. Your documents can be saved on to your hard drive or they can be emailed so they can be read directly from your monitor.
2. If your printer has a power save feature, you should ensure you use it as frequently as possible.
3. You should completely turn off printers and copiers at night as these devices continue to consume energy even when they are turned off but left plugged in at the wall!
4. Ensure you place your printer in a very well ventilated area so that the heat generated from the printer will be lessened and your air-conditioning will be used less.
5. Regular maintenance of your printer unit will ensure you continue to get optimum performance. Some printers have in-built maintenance features to clean the ink cartridges and print heads.
6. When purchasing a new printer, you should access if an inkjet printer can carry out all your needs. Laser printers consume a lot more power than an inkjet printer.
7. Consider purchasing a multi-function machine or an all in one printer. This will limit the number of devices plugged in and consuming power.
8. Look for printers or copiers which have the energy star logo or one with advanced power management capabilities.
Tags: ink cartridges, inkjet printer, laser printer, laser printers, print heads, printer, printers
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Friday, March 12th, 2010
Why are ink cartridges so expensive?
The cost of buying a new printer these days is unbelievably low. You can purchase brand name photo printers for as little as £50 and work horse laser printers for under £100. Colour inkjet printers still remain a bargain starting at around £60. If you are not careful though, what you save in the initial purchase price of the printer, you will rapidly lose when the time comes to buy replacement ink or toner cartridges. The printer manufacturers bring out printers at low prices so that all households have access to them. The problem is that for them to make any money they have to sell the replacement ink cartridges at a very high price. This has been a common business plan for many other products over the years such as cheap razors but expensive razor blades, cheap or free phones with expensive contracts. Although this may be true, printer manufacturers charge so much for their ink cartridges because they can, there is a demand for the product and people do pay the ridiculous prices for original ink cartridges.
When deciding which printer to buy, you should look at the cost per page. This cost is calculated by the cost of the cartridge you use. For example, you have purchased a Brother laser printer for £100 and a HP colour inkjet printer for £100. A new OEM (original manufacturer equipment) toner cartridge for the brother printer costs around £40 and will print roughly 2500 pages. The black ink cartridge for the HP printer only costs around £20, you might think this is good as it’s half the cost of the Brother Toner cartridge, but the HP cartridge will only print roughly 800 pages. The brother cartridge will give you a cost per page of a little over 1p per page where as the HP cartridge will actually cost you up to 2p per page. This may not sound like a lot but over the course of printing 50,000 pages, you will pay roughly £400 more for the HP ink than you will for the brother.
If you are in the market for a new printer and are churning out page after page with the printer you currently own, chances are you are paying top price for expensive OEM ink cartridges. A great way to bring down your cost per page is to choose a less expensive option when it comes to replacing your ink cartridges. The two cheapest options currently available are compatible ink cartridges and remanufactured ink cartridges.
You have probably heard that using non branded ink cartridges will ruin the printer or produce poor inferior quality print outs. Printer manufacturers have an enormous economic stake in making sure you buy their brand name cartridges, of course they do.
Compatible and remanufactured ink cartridges are made and sold by companies other than printer manufacturers. You can find reputable inkjet and toner cartridge sellers online who take pride in providing products that meet or exceed the specifications set forth by printer manufacturers. Compatible cartridges will work perfectly in your printer and won’t void the warranty. They essentially consist of previously used casing with all new parts and new toner or ink. Remanufactured ink cartridges have been recycled, fully tested, cleaned and refilled with comparable ink.
You must remember that ink cartridges are the hidden cost in any printer purchase. Don’t end up paying for your printer over and over again by paying top prices for OEM cartridges when you can save up to 75% of the cost by purchasing compatible or remanufactured ink cartridges!
Tags: Brother, brother ink, brother laser printer, brother toner cartridge, compatible ink cartridges, HP, hp ink, hp inkjet cartridge, hp inkjet printer, HP printer, ink cartridges, inkjet, laser printer, laser printers, OEM cartridges, OEM ink cartridges, original ink cartridges, photo printers, printer, remanufactured ink, remanufactured ink cartridges, replacement ink cartridges, replacement toner cartridges, toner cartridges
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Thursday, March 11th, 2010
How do wireless printers work?
When the time comes to choose a new printer you may find yourself swamped with options. One of the newest types of printer on the scene is the wireless printer. But you might be asking yourself, how exactly can a printer produce documents without cables?
The process is remarkably simple! Wireless printers work in the same way as Wi-Fi internet. The message is passed between the computer or source device to the printer through transmitted signals. This of course means you could encounter some of the same issues you have with your Wi-Fi at home or in your workplace, which includes going out of range and service outages. However, this should certainly not put you off considering purchasing a wireless printer.
One of the main benefits to having a wireless printer is not having cables trailing across your floor space. The more cables you have clogging up your office, the more potential hazards there will be. Not only can people trip and hurt themselves, the cables can also become damaged and rendered unusable over time.
Wireless printers are much the same as a wired printer. There only real difference apart from their cost is the lack or trailing cables. Most wireless models available are standard colour or mono laser printers, although multifunction variants are becoming more popular.
Your computer will need to connect to the printer remotely and will require the downloaded driver that you use for standard printer models. Once the connection is made the computer will be able to send documents remotely to the printer where the documents are completed.
There will be no loss of quality in the print out and the initial installation is no more difficult than a standard wired printer. The majority of wireless printers are laser printers which use a toner cartridge filled with powdered toner.
In short, a wireless printer works in a very similar fashion to a cabled printer, only using a Wi-Fi internet signal to communicate between computer and printer.
Tags: laser printer, laser printers, printers, toner, toner cartridge, wireless printers
Posted in How do wireless printers work? | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
Choosing the right printer paper
Once you have decided which printer and ink cartridges best suit your needs, you will need to think about which kind of paper to use in the printer. Many people think the kind of paper they use in their printer isn’t important. To ensure you get the very best results from your printer you should choose your paper based on the kind of printing you do. Not all paper is suitable for all printers. Inkjet and laser printers can print on a variety of surfaces such as photo paper, labels, business cards, stickers and T-shirt transfers. One of the benefits of laser printers is their ability to print on almost any paper. Although most printer paper is up to the task, your prints can be better if you utilise paper specifically created for inkjet printers. When buying inkjet printer paper there are a number of important facts to consider. These include the brightness, absorption, weight and the purpose it was designed for.
Brightness
The brightness of the paper refers to how well the paper reflects light. Many people confuse whiteness with brightness. The higher the brightness rating of the paper, the more vibrant and alive the colours will appear. The brightness rating could be the difference between a dull looking picture and a picture that is so alive with colour it could jump out from the page. The whiteness refers to the actual shade of colour on the paper and how close it is to pure white. Also, paper which is advertised as being brighter than average will also be smoother. The smoother your paper the better your print will appear.
Absorption
If your printer paper absorbs less ink, your document will look better. As the paper absorbs the ink, small dots on the page could spread outside their borders. This might cause the perimeters of text and images on the paper to look fuzzy and unclear. To overcome this problem, quality printer papers are coated with a waxy substance which prevents the absorption of ink by the paper. A well coated paper will produce more precise and clearer print outs. Overall, the majority of printers on the market will print at the next resolution on waxy coated paper than on normal paper.
Weight (Thickness)
The heavier the paper rating, the thicker each sheet of paper will be. Heavier printer paper will feel more substantial and stiff in your hand. Many people choose slightly heavier paper over normal paper as it has a more professional feel to it. You are less likely to have a paper jam in your printer if you use a slightly thicker paper. When it comes to photo paper, the most common weights are between 120gsm and 280gsm. If you are printing in bulk then 120gsm should be sufficient and cost effective. If you are printing images at home you should consider 160gsm to 200gsm. If you require shiny photographs you will need to purchase glossy paper, if shine is not an issue you should consider matt photo paper.
Purpose
To obtain the very best results possible you should choose your printer paper based on what you plan to do with it. All purpose paper is generally the cheapest kind of paper available, but this will tend to give you poorer results when printing images or colour. Printer paper which is designed specifically to go through inkjet printers will perform better in an inkjet printer than general purpose paper will. This will be slightly more expensive but the results will speak for themselves. Inkjet paper is also usually treated with a special coating which enables the colours to stay bright and vibrant.
Photo paper
You need to remember that the majority of branded photo printer paper from well known manufacturers is only appropriate for printing at 1440 and 2880 DPI. There are some important points to consider when purchasing your photo paper. You should always check the DPI (Dots per inch) of the photo paper. The DPI is an indicator of how much ink the paper will absorb per inch on the page. If you use a low DPI paper for prime resolution printing this will result in lower quality prints. Often, if the seller does not state the DPI of their inkjet photo paper, then it usually means it is very low and therefore a low grade paper. You need to also check that the photo paper is instant dry. Some cheaper photo papers might not be designed to dry instantly, and this can lead to colours running or smudging whilst the ink is soaking into the paper. Once again, if the seller does not advertise this feature, it is likely it won’t be instant dry.
Tags: ink cartridge, ink cartridges, inkjet, inkjet photo paper, inkjet printers, laser, laser printers, photo paper, printer, Printer Paper
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Friday, January 29th, 2010
So you’ve decided to invest in a new printer but you don’t know where to start. The sheer choice of printers available today can be confusing and daunting for most of us. There are several different types of printers to choose from, each suited to individual needs. Printers these days come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and prices range from budget inkjet printers to expensive laser printers. Don’t worry; we have compiled the top most important things to consider when buying your new printer!
What are you going to be using the printer for?
Firstly, you need to know what your individual printing needs are. If you require a printer with one particular function, for example a scanner or a photo printer, you can immediately narrow down your options. You will then need to look at your own personal printer usage. Do you use your printer every day? Once a month? Do you mainly print photographs? Is the printer at home or in an office?
If you only use your printer occasionally at home to print basic documents, maps or a few photos here and there, you are best off buying a basic entry level inkjet printer. If you print more photographs than text you should consider an entry to medium level photo printer, depending on the quality of the prints and your budget. If you are going to be printing large quantities of professional leaflets or brochures, you should invest in a medium to high end colour laser printer. If you regularly use your printer at home or in a small office to print a large number of mainly black text pages but no coloured text, then you could consider a mid range black laser printer. In general, if your print volume is high, it may be best to consider a laser printer for long term cost savings. For example, an average inkjet printer has a page yield of 450, where as your average toner cartridge will have a page yield of 3500.
What is your budget?
You can begin your search by firstly coming up with a realistic budget and then try to get the best printer that fits your needs in that price range. Also, ensure you consider the cost of the ink cartridges into your budget as they will be a recurring expense. If you prefer to purchase remanufactured or compatible ink cartridges, be sure to check they are available for your chosen printer model.
What kind of paper do I use?
If you regularly print greetings card on cardboard, you should think about buying a slightly higher end printer, as some inexpensive printers cannot handle the thickness of the card.
What do professionals and consumers think?
Before buying your chosen printer, you should read some recent reviews about it. There might be something you haven’t thought of or a common fault.
Tags: colour laser printer, compatible ink cartridges, inkjet printer, inkjet printers, laser printers, photo printer, printer, remanufactured, remanufactured ink cartridges, toner cartridge
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