SURVEY: People Using Printer Cartridges For Leisure More Than At Work
As technology has made working from home as easy as it has ever been—with high-speed connections, video chat platforms and cloud-based networking—the modern home office needs little more than a laptop, a few printer cartridges, some paper and of course the printer. So when PC Advisor released the results of a survey this month, probing respondents on how they use their home printer, the results came as a surprise to bloggers and even some printer and ink cartridge manufacturers.
The survey, sponsored by Kodak, asked: ‘Who in your household uses your home printer the most?.’ 60 percent of respondents selected ‘Me or my partner – for leisure’. The other options were ‘Me or my partner – for work’; ‘Kids – for leisure’; ‘Kids – for homework/college’; and ‘Other family/friends’.
Tech reporters at PC Advisor have a number of theories as to why so many people are eschewing the home office printer in favor of a more fun, photo-friendly printing option. In an increasingly digital world, the UK tech publication posits, many of our business documents—from contracts to boarding passes—have come online, to our phones or onto a growing number of tablet devices, reducing the need to fire up the printer and waste our precious printer ink.
Like many paper-based office practices, photo developing has gone digital as well, creating an entirely new segment of photo printing technology. Gone are the days of developing rolls of film and waiting for the guy at the corner drug store. Today, many printer owners are printing their own photos from home and getting instant access to their memories in the process. Printers have become more adept at printing photos, creating more vivid colours and better resolutions to handle top-flight digital cameras with high mega-pixel images.
While the home office is still a reality in many homes, most business people are leaving their business printing tasks at headquarters and saving their paper and printer ink for fun.
New Technology Syncs Printers With Mobile Devices
With mobile technology bringing everything from books and newspapers to legal briefs and contracts online, the need for paper has diminished in places like the school and the office. But for some, the need or even want for actual paper and printing is not going away any time soon. For those still loving their printer cartridges and paper trays, new technologies are making it easier to get hard copies from tablets and mobile phones.
The Little Printer: London-based design team Berg has partnered with some of the world’s largest companies to release a prototype called the “Little Printer.” The machine takes up as much room on your shelf as an alarm clock but wirelessly connects with a smartphone app to pull a number of daily factoids from your personal web (upcoming birthdays from Facebook, agendas for the day from your address book) and print them into a handy little receipt for quick perusal. Sporting a tiny ink cartridge and wi-fi router, the device is little more than a few components and a faceplate yet can be completely controlled from your phone. According to tech blog CNet, the Little Printer is a marketing tool for Berg’s newest concept, BergCloud. This online ecosystem would allow you to control an array of household items from your mobile device.
All-in-1 Printers: The self-contained printer-scanner-fax combo is so 2007. Today’s all-in-one printers—like the Kodak Hero 9.1 released this week—offer more than the average home office staple. From wireless connectivity over your office network to ordering double-sided prints from your mobile device to even receiving printer ink refill warnings to your phone, these printers create a more complete office eco-system. You can also print from the Google Cloud, swap back and forth between photo paper and regular documents with ease and even print 3-D pictures and video captures. The Hero and printers like it are connecting the digital world with the tactile world like never before.
Value for money- printer refills, recovery fluid, and more
Running a printer can be expensive, particularly if you’re busy, and seem to spend a lot of time buying printer refills and other essentials. The best way to deal with this constant spending is to find a good source of cheap ink cartridges. Ink and toner are very expensive in the retail market, and these costs can get to be annoying for busy people.
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Buying discount inks and toners and getting top printer performance
If you do a lot of high quality printing, you will know the story about retail ink prices only too well. The amount of money, vs. the results, can really get on your nerves. The solution is good quality discount ink and toner, and finding a reliable bulk supplier.
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The Print Status dialog box is your best friend
When printing, the Print Status dialog box pops up and usually just goes through the motions of printing. The results of printing can vary, and it’s usually because people don’t know how to use the Print Status box properly. It’s really very easy, and you can also do maintenance on your printer, check your ink status, and test your ink and toner feeds.
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Printers, performance and inks- Making sense of your printing needs
Printers are hard working machines, and they’re usually pretty reliable. The performance problems often relate to maintenance, materials, and using the right inks. It’s worth your while to spend some time researching what your printer needs for best performance, and checking out the ink cartridge and toner situation.
Printers and print jobs- Matching your printer to your work
The type of jobs your printer needs to do define the type of printer you need. Most people have multi function printers, which are also scanners, copiers and faxes.
If you run your own business, your printer will be doing a lot of work of all kinds, which means you need a high performance, name brand printer. These printers are used for everything, all the time.
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Colour printing – Do’s and Don’ts
Colour printing is really a matter of getting some fundamental processes done properly. If you’ve seen some of the very strange things that colour printers can produce, you’ll know what we mean. There are ways of avoiding these horrors, and getting good prints every time. Getting the right ink cartridges is the first step.
Colour printing basics
Colour printing is a really a combination of software, hardware and your printer. A good printer and good software, with a good graphics card, will give you great prints.
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Top 4 tips for caring for your printer
Your printer may have to do a lot of work at times. Some print jobs really do put a strain on printers, particularly the home printer, which will bravely try to print anything you give it. The fact is that even the best top brand printers need some care and maintenance. It’s actually pretty easy to do, and you can keep your printer going for a long time. Even your ink cartridges can help.
Printer care basics
Printer care is really about being careful how you handle your printer:
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The home printer – How to save money and get top quality prints
Home printers are actually very good printers, and if you know how, you can get excellent quality prints, and save a lot of money on inks, toner and materials in the process. A bit of shopping around for ink cartridges online will find some really good deals, and help you get the best out of your printer.
Prices vs. quality- No contest with good materials
Cheaper definitely isn’t better when you’re getting constant issues with your printer. It is possible to get some good prices on name brand printers like Epson and Samsung, which also helps when you’re looking for inks. These are all purpose printers, and can be used for any print job. Their product life is good and they can handle bulk printing as long as you run the maintenance jobs regularly before and after hard work.
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Bulk toner and cartridge purchasing – How to spot a good deal
If you use a lot of toner or ink, your wallet may be feeling a bit the worse for wear. These things are expensive, and it’s hard to avoid thinking that they run out deliberately when you need them. The best remedy is to buy bulk, and to save your budget some stress while you’re at it. You’ll definitely be surprised how much better the prices are compared to retail. You can get bulk discount ink cartridges online at up to 70% cheaper.
Prices and budgets need to work together
Anyone who does a lot of printing, particularly professionals like graphic artists, CAD designers and architects, will know how expensive printing can be, particularly in high volumes, doing high quality prints. This is a major outlay, and it can be a real nuisance, particularly for freelancers and small design teams trying to make a living on contract jobs.
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