Posts Tagged ‘lexmark printers’

How Green is Your Printer Company?

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

How Green is your Printer Company?

Canon

Canon has a program called ‘Generation Green’ which began back in 2008; the main aim of this program is to ensure that as many of their products are as green as possible throughout their lifecycle. This includes all of their printers, copiers, scanner and the toner they use. Canon also wants to use the program as a way to educate companies and consumers about how to be more energy efficient.

Epson

Epson has been concerned with sustainability for almost 60 years now. Work began back in the 1950’s and continues to this day with work in four major areas: “Energy Savings and Efficiency”, “Preservation of Resources”, “Elimination of Harmful Substances” and “Recyclability”. To maintain and advances these four practices, Epson set forth each year to create increasingly more energy efficient products which are easy to recycle. Epson also practises what they preach by maintaining the same standards for themselves in their own offices and manufacturing facilities. They work hard to eliminate hazardous materials from their own wastewater and also hold their vendors and suppliers to the same level of accountability through their “Environmental Vision 2050” project.

HP

HP is one of the greenest companies in the world, independent of their industries; HP also has long standing concern for the environment. They also started way back in the 1950’s; HP began its efforts with their “Global Citizenship Objective”. HP ranked number 1 as the greenest company back in 2009 and as recently as March 2010, they were recognised by the “Cooperate Responsibility Magazine” as the top ranking company amongst their top “Cooperate Citizens” list. In addition to their own manufacturing practises HP has also created programs such as “Design for the Environment” and “HP planet partners”, as means to recycle as close as possible to the loop.

Lexmark

On of Lexmark’s top environmental concerns is reducing their own carbon footprint along with the help of their customers. Lexmark attests that if each customer will send back their empty ink cartridge, the carbon footprint can be reduced up to 60%. In support of this claim, Lexmark released a ‘Life Cycle Assessment’ that is reported to prove the number.

Lexmark also have their own cartridge collection program which is totally free to Lexmark customers. They take it a step further and provide a discount to people using Lexmark’s return program cartridges. In addition, Lexmark practices what they preach internally, allowing employees to do community service and get paid for it.

Xerox

Xerox, relies on consumer education for its green contribution. The initiative is called the “Xerox Green World Alliance” and it works to create public awareness of their low-melt toner, their energy star devices and their free recycling program as part of a partnership with UPS. Xerox is the only manufacturer of their ‘solid ink’ which resembles a thick giant crayon and requires no plastic casing. Xerox says that “Every day is Earth day”.

How to Print From Your iPad?

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

How to Print From Your iPad?

After months of anticipation the new Apple iPad has finally been unleashed. There is no doubt that this new piece of kit from Apple is fantastic, however there is one major issue, which is the inability to print from it. Apple has released a statement saying the easiest way to print from their new iPad is to sync the files back to your PC or Mac and print from there! This is not the answer that many early buyers wanted to hear. According to an external source there have been some workarounds designed by third parties, but few of these actually work. What they really need to design is a third party application which allows printing to a variety of Wi-Fi printers. So far there has only been one app which has been moderately successful and that was “Air Sharing HD” which is capable of printing to Macs “on the same Wi-Fi network as your iPad”, however this app is far from perfect and has its fair share of quirks.

Currently, there are three types of apps available to enable you to print from the iPad. The first kind reported prints directly to Wi-Fi enabled printers. The second type keeps an eye out for Macs sharing printers in the same Wi-Fi network, this of course only works if you are somewhere with Macs and printers! The final type of app is the least desirable and requires a server running in the background of your PC or Mac. With the last kind it would definitely be easier to just sync your iPad.

Printing to shared printers

The previously mentioned ‘Air Share HD’, which costs approx £8 has had the most success. Unfortunately it only works by finding Macs on your Wi-Fi network, leaving PC users out in the cold. It cannot, however, access your iPad’s local files for printing. According to PC Mag “it attaches to a range of servers’ including MobileMe and email accounts, and then prints to any printer connected to a Mac on the same network. So in theory, if you email yourself a document, then you can print it, but PC Magazine only found success with their Lexmark and Epson printers. It would not work with their HP printer.

Direct Printing Apps

PC Magazine looked at three different apps for direct printing; these are Canon’s Easy Photo-Print for the iPhone, HP’s iPrint Photo and ePrint. The first application they tried was Canon’s easy photo print, this app did work, but it was far from easy as the name implies and it is only designed to print photos. You can only print screenshots saved to your gallery and nothing else. It also does not display well because it was designed to work on the phone’s much smaller screen.

HP’s iPrint Photo, which has supposedly worked on the iPhone before, would not print directly to their HP printer. It did however, find a Mac on the network and print to a shared LaserJet.

The final tried and tested app was e-Print, which costs around £2 and reportedly prints ‘contacts, photos, web pages, notes and your clipboard’ crashed whilst attempting to print to either a HP or Epson printer. It did not fare any better with a Canon printer either where it stalled out. Its only success was it managed to print to a shared Lexmark laser printer tied to a Mac on their network.

In conclusion, it is clear that in order for the iPad to find even more success and praise, a printing app that works 100% of the time is needed.

Lost your printer installation disc?

Friday, March 26th, 2010

Lost your printer installation disc?

If you have gone to install your printer and realised you no longer have the installation disc … don’t panic! You will still be able to install your printer without having to wait weeks until your printer manufacturer sends you out a new disc. Printers need software and drivers so they can work with your computer. Today, all printer manufacturers provide downloads on the internet to their software programs and drivers that are included with their printers.

If you need to set up your printer but don’t have the installation disc, visit your printer manufacturer’s website to download the latest drivers for your printer installation.

Below find links to some of the popular printer manufacturer websites, select your specific printer model from their list and download the drivers to your computer. If you want a hard copy of the disc contact the manufacturer via their contact information from the websites below and request that they send you one. This method is the slower option, but if you must have the hard copy for any reason then most companies will comply.

Drivers and support for HP printers – http://welcome.hp.com/country/uk/en/support.html

Drivers and support for Epson printers – http://www.epson.co.uk/Support

Drivers and support for Canon printers – http://software.canon-europe.com/

Drivers and support for Lexmark printers – http://support.lexmark.com/index?page=home&locale=EN&userlocale=EN_UK&segment=DOWNLOAD

Drivers and support for Kodak printers – http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=7895&pq-locale=en_GB

Drivers and support for Dell printers – http://support.euro.dell.com/support/index.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs

Windows 7 and your printer

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

Windows 7 and your printer

Windows 7 is the latest operating system from Microsoft; it was released on 22nd October 2009. Windows 7 is designed to be a compromise between the user friendly interfaces of Windows XP with the security features of Windows Vista. As with any new operating system, there will be questions about which printers or other hardware/accessories will work. You will have a much better chance of moving your printer to Windows 7 without any serious problems, than you would have done transferring from XP to Vista. Microsoft state that most drivers should work problem free, but all of the big name printer brands are producing upgrades for their range of printers.

It is important to understand that printers can have different levels of support in Windows 7. For a single function printer, the first and most minimal level is the basic ability to print. Beyond printing, a Windows 7 driver may or may not support such features as duplexing (print on both sides of the paper) or multiple paper trays.

For an all in one printer (also know as multi-function) support may or may not cover other functions besides printing. HP says that for it’s all in one printer models, the drivers included on the Windows 7 disc and on the Windows Update site will allow printing and scanning, but the scan support for network printers is limited to scanning over a USB connection. Also missing from the Windows 7 disc and Windows updates are things like fax drivers for those HP all in one printers that include a fax capability.

Below is a rundown of what the top printer hardware companies are saying about their compatibility, according to www.printercomparison.com

Brother

Brother are offering driver updates for many of their newer printer models, and are promising eventual compatible drivers for all their current models, implying that Brother users will be able to integrate their new operating systems very easily! Unless they use a model that is not classed as ‘current’. The American version of the Brother website released a ‘schedule of driver updates’, they will be releasing a UK version very soon.

Canon

Canon has classed themselves as the ‘proud partner’ with Windows 7. Many of Canon’s latest printers are already compatible with Windows 7. In addition, they have processed a long list of their existing products (including cameras) that are already compatible with Windows 7. For older printer models, the drivers are available on Canons website.

Dell

Dell is primarily a computer company, so they have been understandably preparing for the coming of Windows 7 on their PC’s. It appears that they have been focusing more on their PC’s and hardware and have been leaving their printers in the cold. Dell lacks formal documentation like Canon or Brother, but you can visit their drivers and downloads page to find updates if needed.

Epson

Just like Canon, Epson are also proud partners in the launch of Windows 7. Since the release of the new operating system they have been actively promoting Windows 7 all over the world. For their existing printer models they have got a simple and easy to use drop down menu page with a list of all their products that will have compatible drivers. For those of us who get easily confused when it comes to downloads and drivers they also have a well written FAQ page to help guide you through the change.

HP

Very similar to Dell, HP is mainly a computer company which branched out into the printer market some time ago. They were the market leaders in PCs at one point. Unlike Dell, HP meets its users head on with their Windows 7 pages and documentation. Their website offers a software and driver search on the first page as well as FAQs and support forums. They also have a handy page which easily lets you check each individual printer’s compatibility.

Kodak

Kodak is falling behind with regards to it’s compatibility for Windows 7. Their two latest printers the 5250 and 3250 do not seem to be Windows 7 compatible. Kodak seems to be more interested in lowering the cost of ink, then in compatibility at this point.

Lexmark

Lexmark is another company which makes compatibility information easy to find. On the front page of their website there is a link to ‘Windows 7 compatibility’ under the drivers and downloads heading. They also have a page where users can search for the Windows 7 driver for a particular product.

Samsung

Samsung do offer some readily available drivers, but they don’t have any blanket support page for any problems with Windows 7. They only have a more general support page for all Samsung printer enquires.

Oki

Oki are a ‘Gold certified Partner’ of Microsoft, which means that all of their products will be compatible with the new Windows 7. There is a reasonable set of dropdown menus on their website that can be used to find out if a specific printer has a Windows 7 compatible driver.

Xerox

Xerox have followed the trend of dropdown menus for finding if your printer has a suitable Windows 7 driver, for the average home user who needs to check a single printer this is adequate, for business users who need to check multiple printers, Xerox have also made a list too!

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