Posts Tagged ‘new printer’

Download and Print Photos and Images from the Internet

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

One of the first things most people do when they get a new computer or printer is print everything and anything they can find! They’ll print their favourite webpage or download lots of photos and print them. However, beginners tend to make several mistakes when printing websites so it’s important to follow these printing tips to make the most of your hardware and software.

Photo Printing Tips

1. Download the photos you want to print.

First create a new folder on your desktop. Then start downloading pictures into this folder. You can do this by right clicking on the image you want to save from the web and selecting “Save Image As…” You can then change the name of the file or leave it the same.

2. Edit the photos.

With your photo manipulation software, set the photo resolution to somewhere around 200 to 300 DPI. This makes the image print quality rather than web quality, which is around 75 DPI. Photo printing at web quality makes for blurry, unfocused image. During this stage, you can also adjust the brightness, contrast, colour, hue, saturation, and sharpness. Doing this will give your photos the best quality they can achieve for photo printing.

3. Save your image.

After you’ve made the adjustments to the photo, it’s time to save it. The standard format in which to save photos is JPEG. These image files compress each time they are saved, meaning a bit of the quality is lost with each save, so don’t save them too often!

4. Time to print.

Your first concern should be that your printer is of photo quality. If not, you cannot expect to achieve high-quality results. When you go to print, be sure to set the printer on high quality or photo setting. This ensures your photo printer achieves optimum results. You should also use photo paper, which prevents bleeding, running and “muddiness.”

So the next time you want to try printing websites or photo printing, make sure you follow these easy steps. You’ll get the best results and have photo-quality pictures to show off to your family and friends. Now you know the photo printing tips to give you professional quality photos every time!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Download and Print Photos and Images from the Internet | No Comments »

Buying Your Printer With Your Computer

Friday, June 18th, 2010

Pros and Cons of Buying Your Printer with Your Computer

It can be tempting to purchase a new printer at the same time you purchase your new computer. Many brands offer lucrative packages, which are designed to draw you in. However, in the long run, this could end up costing you more. Below we have listed some of the pros and cons of purchasing a printer alongside your new computer!

Price

The price is probably one of the biggest advantages to buying a new computer and printer together. If you were to purchase the same computer and printer separately, you would find the overall cost a lot more than what you pay for both together. Most brands will slash their prices when you buy their products as a bundle. Holiday seasons and sales are the best times to find these reduced price bundles.

Compatibility

You may think that purchasing a computer and printer from the same brand means there will be no compatibility issues. There is less likely to be issues about improper drivers for the printer or being able to find the latest device drivers for your printer. There is also less likely to be hardware malfunction and associated issues, you will therefore be less likely to be calling tech support every now and again.

Better Deals

Many brands are clever enough to position their special offers in such a way that makes you feel like you are getting the best possible offer. You can probably find a better deal elsewhere and did some research of your own. You may also find that purchasing a computer from one brand and a printer from another actually works out cheaper. The features provided by a particular printer brand may also be more suited to your personal needs and provide more efficiency. Many brands try to shift their old stock lower end printers in their special bundle packages. So you think you are getting a better deal, but are infact getting a lower spec outdated printer model.

Versatile Printers

These days, there are lots of different types of printers available, from photo printers to multi-function printers. These printers can have copier, scanner and fax facilities. Buying one of these printers makes much more sense compared to buying a base model printer along with your computer. While the initial cost of a multi-function printer may be higher in the first place, the functionality of these machines compensates for it several times over. If you later decide to start a home business or your own small office, these printers will be invaluable to your needs. The cost savings of having your own multifunction printer is huge, especially when you consider the amount of functionalities on offer. In conclusion, it is better to buy a special multi-function printer for more efficiency. This way you will get more advantage and mileage from both!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Buying Your Printer With Your Computer | No Comments »

How to install your new printer

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

How to install your new printer

So you’ve decided which printer best suits your needs, you’ve found the best price, been to the shop and picked it up, now it’s sitting there all boxed up waiting to be installed, where do you start? Installing a new printer is a relatively easy task, even if computers aren’t your strong point! A few years back you had to go through a load of nonsense to get a printer up and running, but those days have now passed. We can’t possibly cover how to install every individual printer model in one blog post, but we can show you how to install printers in general.   Follow our straight forward guide below to get your new printer up and running!

Materials needed –

  • New printer
  • Printer cable
  • Computer with an Enhanced Parallel Port (EPP) or Extended Capabilities Port (ECP)
  • Printer software installation disc
  • Internet connection (optional)

1. Turn on the computer and then wait for the operating system to fully load.

2. Now attach the printer cable to the corresponding parallel port. After you securely connect the printer to the computer, switch on the printer. Windows will automatically detect the new printer and will prompt you to install the required drivers. Some printers may not be detected automatically by your computer. To manually detect the printer, click the ‘printers and faxes’ option available on the ‘start’ menu. Double click the ‘add printer’ icon to launch the add printer wizard. If your computer still does not detect the new printer, unplug and adjust the connection of the printer to the computer.

3. Next, the installation wizard will ask you to choose between a local printer and a network printer. The computer will search for the connected printer after you select the type of printer.

4. The computer will now prompt you to install the needed driver. Your new printer will usually come with an installation CD which contains all of the drivers for the printer. Insert the installation CD into your computers CD tray. The computer will now automatically detect the driver files on the CD.

5. You need to manually detect the driver required for the installation just in case the driver is not detected. Select from the predefined list of driver software depending on the manufacturer and model of the printer.

6. If you can still not find the driver for your new printer, you may need to perform a windows update. You will need to connect to the internet in order to gather components from the online windows product support.

7. The computer will finalise the installation procedure after the driver is successfully installed. A notification will appear on screen informing you that you have successfully installed a new printer. A new printer icon will appear on your task bar. This enables easy access to the configuration and maintenance settings of your printer.

Installing your new printer on a home network

Installing a network printer allows multiple users and computers to share a single printer, rather than having numerous printers throughout the home or office. When you install a network printer, ensure it is located in a central place so all users can access it conveniently.

There are three types of network printer you can install.

  • Wireless Printer

These printers use a built in wireless card and they plug into a power source, not your network or computer. After you turn on the printer, you will need to refer to the printer manual and read how to set up a wireless connection to each computer on a home network. The security options for a wireless printer are determined by each individual printer manufacturer.

  • Connect to a printer directly to the network

To do this, you will need to plug in the printer to your network hub or router. How to install these printers depends on whether the printer and your network device use Ethernet, universal serial bus (USB) or any other type of connection. You also need to refer to any installation information or tools provided by the printer manufacturer.

  • Connect multiple printers to the network

If you want to connect more than one printer directly to the network, you must make sure your router is able support more than one printer connection.

If you want to install the printer using an IP address, go to Start>Control Panel>Printers and Faxes and then click the ‘add printer’ icon. Next click ‘Create a new port’ then ‘Standard TCP/IP Port’ from the drop down menu. You will then be asked to enter the IP address. Enter the IP address of the print server and click ‘next’. You will be asked to select the printer manufacturer and the model from the list. If you do not see your printer model listed, insert the installation disc that came with the printer and click ‘have disc’.

If you do not know the IP address of the printer, you can select ‘browse for printer’ in the beginning of the process. If the networked printer is attached to another computer being shared, you will need to enter the name of the computer followed by the share name of the printer. For example //computername/printername.

Spending extra on a network printer can save you money in the long term. Network printers can be higher grade and the ink cartridges can last longer than personal inkjet printers!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in How to install your new printer | No Comments »

  • Categories

    • Archives