Posts Tagged ‘wi-fi printers’

How do wireless printers work?

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.

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Printing Photos from your Phone or Digital Camera

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

Printing Photos from your Phone or Digital Camera

These days with the right know how and kit you can easily print your pictures wirelessly from your digital camera or mobile phone. There are a few different options available to choose from. However, the basic steps for printing the photo remain the same.

1. Wi-Fi enabled

You must purchase a mobile phone or digital camera that is Wi-Fi enabled. This is technology that is founded on the IEEE 802.11 standards. This helps you achieve interoperability between two wireless devices.

2. Wi-Fi enabled printer

To be able to print your photos wirelessly, you will need to ensure that your printer has full Wi-Fi capabilities. Try to choose a printer that helps you achieve wireless compatibility.

3. Fully Functional Devices

Once you have full Wi-Fi compatibility, the devices that you are going to use, mainly the digital camera or mobile phone will need to have all the features and settings that will enable you to print your photos without wiring the devices.

4. Bluetooth

You could also use a Bluetooth device to wirelessly print out your pictures. Once again, you must make sure your printer and computer are both Bluetooth compatible.

5. All in one camera

These days, there is often to need to have a printer if you want to print your photos directly from your digital camera. The printing process will be done by the camera itself. There are various types of cameras available today which offer a full printing function. These cameras are available for all the major printer manufacturers and there is increasingly more choices available and prices are dropping!

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Kodak EasyShare Printers

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

Kodak EasyShare Printers

If you are looking for a simple and easy to use printer that also has photo sharing capabilities you should look no further then the Kodak Easyshare range, they have a wide selection of printers to suite every budget.

Kodak EasyShare

Kodak’s EasyShare systems include digital cameras, printers and software that make it really easy to print, organise, share and archive your digital images. Kodak’s EasyShare digital cameras all feature the Kodak colour science, the exclusive share button and the award winning simple to use design and interface. The smart capture feature can instantly detect and analyse a scene, conditions, objects and faces and then it can automatically adjust the scene mode, focus level and flash setting. The Kodak EasyShare printers let you create prints, transfer pictures and much much more, and all at the touch of one button. The Kodak EasyShare 5300 all in one printer (printer, copier and scanner) is the most popular choice the product line up. It includes Kodak’s new revolutionary inkjet system that gives you crisp, sharp black documents and brilliant photos that will last a lifetime. It also includes a high resolution 3 inch colour display for easy photo cropping. The EasyShare 5300 uses a convenient 2 cartridge, 6 ink system and will print from most memory cards.

Kodak Easyshare Printer Docks

Kodak also has a range of portable printer docks that allow you to print high quality photos directly from your camera with one touch of a button. These printers include auto picture enhancement software and red-eye reduction, and some have wireless capabilities. The maximum print size is 4” by 6” borderless prints, and the print speed is 60 seconds.

Kodak Wi-Fi Printers

Kodak currently offer two printers that offer built in Wi-Fi and Ethernet connectivity, which means you can set them up anywhere in your house without having to worry about having a USB cord that reaches far enough. See below for a quick summary of each of these printers.

Kodak EasyShare ESP 9

This all in one printer enhances productivity for home users with its built in printing, copying, scanning and faxing features. The new 10 inch one touch control panel is an innovative consumer inkjet printing industry first that makes printing, copying, scanning and faxing a whole lot easier. The auto-document feeder, built in duplexer and the most intelligent paper tray system in the consumer inkjet printing industry make this printer an excellent choice for all your printing needs.

Kodak EasyShare ESP 7

The more affordable Kodak ESP 7 all in one printer has most of the same features as the ESP 9 but lacks the 10 inch control panel. Both printers can print 32 pages per minute in black and white and 30 pages per minute in colour. Both front panels have a range of slots for importing pictures directly from your digital camera.

Kodak’s EasyShare line up of digital cameras, all in one printers and software make sharing your photos simple, convenient and fun, perfect for home office users, families and people who are new to digital photography.

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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.

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Setup Your New Wireless Printer

Friday, June 18th, 2010

Setup your new Wireless Printer

There are lots of advantages to purchasing a wireless printer. Firstly, by adding a wireless printer to your small office or home it will help diminish the mess of tangled cables. It will also enable you to print from anywhere in your home, and will allow the whole family to share a single printer.

Follow our step by step guide below to help you set up your new wireless printer network.

  • Determine the type of wireless printer

You will need a wireless router to be able to connect your new wireless printer to your home network, so first of all you need to make sure your router is up and running. Most new computers and wireless printers come equipped with either Bluetooth or Wi-Fi capabilities. If your printer is not wireless, you can easily purchase a wireless card that plugs direct into the USB port.

  • Select a good location for the printer

The wireless printer needs to be set up in a location in your home or office where it will be easily accessible to everyone. There should be ample space for paper, printer ink and other supplies. If you are using a Bluetooth wireless connection, you may want to give this thought since Bluetooth printers have a much smaller wireless range than Wi-Fi printers.

  • Enable printer sharing

The server computer’s operating system must be informed that the printer you are adding the network is a wireless printer. (The server computer is the one the printer is connected to). In Window’s Vista, this is done by accessing the network settings in the control panel and then activating file and printer sharing in the local area network settings. For Window’s XP operating systems, go to ‘Start’ and then ‘Control Panel’ and go into ‘Printers and other hardware’. Go to ‘View installed printers or fax printers’ right click on your printer and select ‘sharing’, then select ‘share this printer’. Give the printer a specific name and click ‘ok’.

  • Add the wireless printer to any other computers on your network

The other computers on the network must also be setup to use the wireless printer. If you are using Window’s Vista you will need to open the control panel in classic view and then open printers. Right click on the printer that you want to share, and then open ‘properties’. In properties, check the box that allows the printer to be a shared device.

If you are using Windows XP please follow the tips below.

1. Open the control panel, go to printers and faxes, and click on ‘Add a printer’.

2. This will take you into a Wizard to find the printer you shared previously.

3. Click ‘next’ until you are at the Local or Network printer page.

4. Select ‘A Network or a printer attached to another computer’ and then click next.

5. Now click ‘Browse for a printer’ and click next. This will display your workgroup; the PC’s connected to it and any printers that are attached to them.

6. Click on the wireless printer you shared earlier and click ‘next’. (This should begin installing the driver automatically, if not you may need to get the CD software that came with the printer.

7. Now click ‘yes’ to make the wireless printer the default printer for this PC (or No if the computer already has one attached to it).

8. Click finish.

  • Wireless printer troubleshooting

Both this computer and the one that is wireless might need to be rebooted after the installation process.

If you can’t see the computer that it is attached to, you will need to double check that all computers have the same network name. To check this go to the control panel under performance and maintenance, and click ‘see all basic information about your computer’. From here click on your computer name and your workgroup will be displayed.

If you are still not seeing the printer, make sure it’s switched on. If the printer still doesn’t work, you may need to install the printer driver using the software CD that it came with.

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