Wednesday, April 23, 2008

How to Tell If Cartridges You Bought Are Original

Buying replacement cartridges for you laser of inkjet printer can be a rocket science as there are lots of printing supplies of all sizes, colors and shapes. Even if there is only one cartridge you need to replace, visit local computer store and see how many options for replacement it offers. Original, compatible and remanufactured cartridges, refillable cartridges, toner and so on. Each of these options has its pros and cons, but it's subject of this post.

Today we suppose that of all the options you chose to buy original cartridges. They are said to be most reliable and provide high quality of printing with every printed page. Another well-know fact is that original cartridges are more expensive compared to other alternatives. When you give away you own money for a brand cartridge, I bet you have to be sure it's not a fake.

From two articles on TCD blog you will know how to identify original ink cartridges and toner cartridges (HP cartridges case study)

Thursday, April 3, 2008

TCD Blog Keeps On Getting Updated

You may have known from previous posts that scientists have adopted the inkjet printer for printing electric circuits, artificial bones, blood vessels and body organs. Yet, inkjet printing proves versatile technology for creating other non-imaging products.

A company named Konarka Technologies announced that it manufactured solar cells with an inkjet printing technology. Using the existing and very simple technologies of an office inkjet printer, Konarka has replaced ink with the solar cell material, and paper with a thin flexible sheet of plastic.

Cool, isn't it?

Here are some more futuristic technologies. Hewlett-Packard offered a peek into future printing technologies, introducing a new inkjet printer that prints thousands of pages per minute and ink that retains its shine even when exposed to extreme elements.

HP’s water-based Latex Ink has special formula that allows it to embed in a surface and become part of a media print. HP’s Latex Ink can withstand snow and even rain and is useful for large-format media used on billboards and outdoor signs.

Also, the company launched the Inkjet Web Press printer, which can print up to 2,600 A4-sized color pages a minute at as little as US$0.01 per color page.

Speaking of inkjet printers.

It is good to have them at hand to print you tax returns, a postcard to your friends or a receipt from cooking site. Unfortunately, sometime they just stop working. The most common problem with inkjet printers is clogged cartridge.

Of course, the best way to get rid of clogged jets is to prevent them. But if you have already got involved into this unpleasant situation, there is a good way to unclog your inkjet printer. Actually, this is a receipt you may try to print out before the printhead gets clogged.

Speaking of printheads.

Printer ink is definitely more capacious technology than, say, toner. Kyocera developed the world fastest and industry widest drop-on-demand inkjet printhead. The printhead can use both water-based pigment and UV inks and print on variety of media – from paper to fabric, film and plastic. Just like that.

To tell the truth, Kyocera printhead is not the only device that can print on virtually all media. A wide-format Solara ion inkjet printer introduced by Gerber. The printer can print on virtually any surface that is up 64 inches wide and up to 1 inch thick! You'll get more details on this printer, if visit TCD blog.

That's all for today. See you!

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Tons of New Information from The World of Printers on TCD blog

Hello again!

Today we'll continue to review last and most interesting updates on TCD blog.

Where did we stopped? Ah, the illegal yellow dots, ok.

I bet you or at least your friend or your friend's friend for sure have or had a HP Deskjet inkjet printer at home. The chances are this is a way too old model of Deskjet. Indeed, do you know how old these series of printers is?

Just in February HP celebrated 20th anniversary of Deskjet printers. The first model first saw the light of this world in 1988. Ever since then, millions of Deskjet printers have been released.

Let's move on. Have you ever faced the problem of choosing a printer for your home of office? Oh, you ARE having this problem... that's ok, there is an article on TCD blog that will tell you how to choose a printer for your office.

Many people now have two or more computers at home and you maybe one of those. As many other people, you have only one printer, but you’re not the only one who wants to use it. What you may do in this situation? One solution is to visit a local computer store and buy another printer. But I suggest that you save those $100-200 for something better and share your existing printer with your computers. It’s no rocket science and you can easily do it yourself.

How? Learn that from the article "Connecting a Printer to Several Computers." For connecting wireless read this post

As you can see, I announce mostly technology news and events that took place in printer world. Rarely do i mention a device, though there are some worth talking about.

One such device is DYMO DiskPainter. This is printer that 'paints' in CD and DVD disk surface (as well as on other disks of same size, I'm sure) using an interesting DYMO’s technology named RadialPrint that prints directly onto the CD while it is spinning. Obviously, the printer uses ink, not toner. By the way Dymo is the company that produces this printer.

You may have known that inkjet printers use different types of inks and I don't mean the colors. There are dye-based inks and there are pigment inks. "How are they different?" you may ask. This and many other things about inks you will learn from “Debunking the Myths of Digital Inks,” an article by Tony Martin for Digital Photo Techniques magazine.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Toner Cartridge Depot Blog Updated Again!

I"m so sorry I have not written a post for ages (only a couple of month, actually, but 'ages' sounds more significant).

So, the last post is followed by Xerox flash-fusing technology which is claimed to be “major technology breakthrough in high-speed color printing”. By flashing a Xenon light more than 2,000 times per second, Xerox color continuous feed printers fuse the toner much faster and achieve speeds of nearly 500 color pages per minute. Great speed, isn’t it?

Remember a study in Australia which revealed that laser printers emit ultra-fine particle (UFP) into air? Well, same study was conducted in Europe by Finnish Institute of Occupational Health. Guess what the results were? Right, laser printers are just as hazardous in Europe as they are in Australia.

If you don’t really care about UFP pollution, you may sit back and watch a video demonstration the insides of Zink paper – a paper that require no ink to produce images.

Meanwhile, prices for printer ink reached $1000, per barrel, of course. And some time after that, Ford decides to put printer into its cars

Let’s get back to Europe. “A European Union commissioner issued an official statement about the legality of printer tracking dot systems last month in response to a query from a member of the European Parliament. The commissioner states that no laws presently address the issue, but notes that it could possibly constitute a violation of the right to privacy guaranteed by the European Union’s Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.”

Bottom line: tiny yellow dots that a color printer leaves seem illegal. Like someone doubted that.

That’s not all, more update will follow next time. Visit this site or go directly to TCD official blog for latest news in printer industry.