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.
Samsung Makes After-Market Printing Chips Obsolete
While many printer ink and toner cartridges have become interchangeable, no matter what printer your office uses, after-market printer chip providers have made a business out of helping you keep your printer current with modern technology. But with the release of a new printer, technology manufacturer Samsung seeks to make after-market printer chips obsolete.
The printer is known as the Samsung ML1640,1660, 1915 series. These models include a new feature know as “Stealthware,” designed to automatically activate new firmware features based on set time frames. This design hopes to help users stay current with modern print technology.
The Stealthware system can be tailored to fit with any printer platform and can be set to update due to an internal time clock, page count, calendar date and more.
As their printers age, some customers worry that page yields will suffer. Now, with automatically updating firmware, printers will stay relevant longer, causing these concerns to grow. Many office professionals don’t realize that printer cartridges are designed to cover only 5 percent per page. If you are printing a lot of pictures, graphics and large logos, you may use up ink cartridges faster than a printer used strictly for printing text documents. Customers concerned about page yields as their hardware ages should talk to their local printer ink specialist, bringing an example of a typical print project.
As technology makes printers last longer, business owners and workers should keep an eye on their printer performance to ensure that they are still getting the best out of their equipment.
Cheaper Laser Printers Have the Most Expensive Printer Cartridges
A few years back small to medium sized businesses preferred laser printer cartridges more than ink cartridges. Today the gap is becoming closer because there are many different choices available on the market and the prices of printers are becoming cheaper.
Before buying a cheap laser printer, you should calculate its ongoing costs. In most situations, you would end up paying a lot more because the refills are typically expensive. Manufacturing companies have been hiding the truth about the real cost of producing their laser printers. In reality, the cost of one unit of laser printer is not that cheap, but these companies belief that they will profit more on the sales of cartridges. Selling the printing devices with a dicey deal is just their marketing strategy to get more profits in the long term.
Many people are now aware that the cheaper a printing device is, the more expensive its refills would be. A leading brand like Hewlett Packard has reaped around $15 billion in profit from the sales of printer cartridges alone. This is because most businesses do a lot of printing on a daily basis so basically they will keep buying new cartridges.
Ink cartridges are relatively cheaper than the laser ones. Their printing capacity differs from one brand to the next. Overall, it’s up to you to decide but keep in mind that cheap laser printers are likely to have expensive cartridges.
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.
Australia Post Celebrates National Recycling Week By Repurposing Printer Cartridges As Pens
Australian parcel service Australia Post goes through a lot of ink cartridges, printing shipping labels and work orders for packages across the nation. But this year, the company hoped to make more from printer cartridges than a few extra deliveries. To celebrate National Recycling Week, Australia Post partnered with environmental non-profit Planet Ark to recycle used ink cartridges into pens.
The Enviroliner felt tip pen is made from more than 95 per cent of recycled plastics and inks, with one cartridge making two pens. Each person who donated a printer cartridge to the cause got to take the pens home as souvenirs, giving the ink and plastic new life.
Project organizers released a statement, saying the project was designed to combat e-waste; the disposal of technology items that may contain harmful chemicals and can harm the groundwater around landfills. Mobile phones, computers, tube televisions and printer ink can all add toxins like mercury and lead to the environment if not disposed of properly. Planet Ark’s campaign manager Brad Gray stated that one third of people still throw printer cartridges in their home trash.
“By making e-waste recycling so accessible Australia Post is helping to encourage more and more people to get involved,” said Mr. Gray.
Beyond just pens, printer and toner cartridges collected by the program will be used in a variety of ways. Some will be returned to their original manufacturers so they can be refilled and parts can be repurposed. The remaining cartridges will be converted into new products such as pens, park benches and rulers.
Photo printing and image management with your printer
Photo printing, as pro photographers know, is a potential minefield of quality issues. The technical side of printing needs some attention to detail. This is actually pretty straightforward when you know how, but the real risk is a series of trial and error prints that just waste time, paper and ink. You can get this right before you hit “Print”. You can also get very good deals on ink cartridges and laser toner for photo printing in Australia to cut down on the cost of your prints.
Setup and data issues
Depending on your camera and your printer software, you’ll need to get your photos set up for high quality. The trouble is that some photo software has its own ideas about quality. Older printers can’t always work with new software, either, another common problem. The name brand cameras are usually OK for all printers, but the proof is in the print, and that’s where the issues usually start.
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Stationery printing- Working with your letterheads and cards
Business stationery printing needs quality. It also needs realistic budgets, and minimum outlays. It’s possible to produce top quality in-house cards, letterheads and all your own stationery easily, with some help from your printer and good quality inks. There are also some tricks you can use with printers and scanners that can give you top photo quality. You really can get what you want. You can get top quality laser and inkjet printer cartridges for business print stationery in Australia with a click on your computer.
Stationery designs and issues in printing
Stationery, as those who’ve designed their own know, is a case of getting accurate reproduction. Business cards, letterheads, With Compliments slips, invoices, receipts, and basic logos all involve some footwork with their print setups.
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Major printer brands- Spot the savings on toners and cartridges
The top printer brands can produce brilliant print standards, but you really need to be on the lookout for savings. These things can cost big money, particularly for small business printing operations and those who must have top quality, like professional studios and graphic design businesses. Home users can also find themselves replacing their printer cartridges too often. Savings are easier to make than you might think.
These brands are the big names in ink and toners:
- Canon
- Samsung
- Brother
- Epson
- Lexmark
- Panasonic
- Sharp
- Xerox
- Konica
- NEC
- Toshiba
- Rico
- Dell
- Hewlett Packard
Hardcopy presentation printing- Do’s and Don’ts
Hardcopy presentation can be very hard work. The sheer number of possible glitches is enough to drive anyone to distraction. The only way to deal with these issues is to create a reliable hardcopy format that eliminates mistakes at the setup stage, and without the last minute panics. The added element is good quality, reliable printer cartridges, laser toner, and supplier support.
Setting up your hardcopy- the single stream approach
“The simpler the better” is the golden “do” here. Don’t use multiple formats. The last thing you need is print problems, when doing an important presentation. This can get tricky when doing reports, or presentations where there are multiple sources and types of data involved. Printers often advertise “Variable Data” printing services, so you can see it’s no minor issue, even for professionals.
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Desktop publishing- How to get best prints
Desktop publishing can mean working with anything, in any format. The minute you need a print, you’ve got quality issues. Your printer has to make sense of formatting and the end product has to be absolutely perfect. It can all be done well and easily, without aggravation, if you start from your printer. If you’re using standard laser toner or ink cartridges, you’ve already got half the problem solved.
Formats and printing- how to spot the problems before they become problems
Formats are a natural issue for desktop publishing. If you’re working with multiple formats, which is usually the case, you can find yourself wading through print issues with these things, particularly if you’ve got a range of variable data on the documents.
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