Printing Depot

HP Inkjet Technology Delivers Dialysis

2008-10-24T04:42:00.000-07:00

Hewlett Packard has licensed Home Dialysis Plus (HD+) to use HP’s inkjet technology to mix water and concentrated dialysate, a mixture of chemicals used to remove toxins and deliver electrolytes to blood in human body.

HP states mixing the solution helps filter toxins over a longer period, and HP’s smart memory-chip technology will secure the correct dialysate prescription is being delivered consistently to conduct dialysis while the patient is at sleep.

The deal between the two companies came out of HP’s intellectual-property licensing program, and HD+ expects to get its machine onto the market by the end of 2010.

HP says there are many technologies available for licensing that lend themselves well to the health and life-sciences industry, and the company will continue to look for opportunities within a variety of markets so that people can further benefit from HP inventions.

Via TCD blog

Epson Introduces a Recyclable Printer

2008-10-24T04:35:00.000-07:00

Epson’s EC-01 inkjet printer is the top product in their new Environmental Vision 2050 initiative. Epson has set the following four key conditions in order to work towards achieving Environmental Vision 2050:

Reduction of CO₂ emissions by 90% across the entire product life cycle.
Inclusion of all products in the resource reuse and recycling loop.
Reduction of direct CO₂ emissions by 90%, and elimination of global warming gas emissions other than CO₂.

The printer is shipped in an unpainted recycled cardboard box, the manual is printed on recycled paper, and the included driver CD is stored within an envelope made of recycled paper. But what really sets this printer apart is that you don’t replace the ink: when the cartridge runs out, you replace the whole printer. Great, huh?

Via TCD blog

Computer Controlled Inkjet-Like Waterfall

2008-10-24T03:52:00.000-07:00

Below there’s a video of a waterfall that is controlled by a computer to “printing out” astonishing patterns and pictures. This waterfall is located in Canal City Hakata, a shopping and entertainment complex in Fukuoka, Japan.

As you can see from the video, the waterfall seems to function using same techniques as an inkjet printer. Basically a computer is controlling hundreds of nozzles to precisely deliver water drops so that they fall forming images or texts.

Printer For Ceramic Tiles

2008-09-25T06:47:00.000-07:00

Newtech SRL has announced KeraMagic, the first digital color printer to produce images on ceramic tiles.

The new printer is based on inkjet technology, incorporates grayscale Xaar 1001 inkjet printheads to carry out drop-on-demand jobs in a single pass

The KeraMagic is available is two configurations – the 350 mm width model and a 700 mm width model. It can print at up to 25m per minute at resolutions up to 360 dpi and with eight levels of grayscale.

The company says the KeraMagic can output a variety of fluids to produce tiles effectively in short-run volumes.

Newtech SRL will launch KeraMagic at Tecnargilla, which takes place in Rimini on 30 September to 4 October.

Via TCD blog

Universal Drivers Not So Universal

2008-09-25T06:31:00.000-07:00

Not so long ago, Xerox released a set of drivers designed to fit all printers - Mobile Express Driver. So did HP, except its set of drivers is called Universal Print Driver.

Now it is discovered that the two set of universal drivers are not so universal. In a working environment with a variety of different printers, Robert L. Mitchel at ComputerWorld.com. tested the two drivers sets. He found out that neither of them was a remedy for the faced printing problems. However, both tools are useful and one can make them play nicely together.

More on how these to drivers set are different learn from TCD blog.

Monochrome Printing Is Not Dead, Say Experts

2008-09-25T06:26:00.000-07:00

Today we can witness how more and more color laser printer become available at low price. Some are even approaching the prices of their monochrome counterparts. Does that mean black-and-white laser printer are about to extinct anytime soon?

On TCD blog you can find out what experts from major printer companies think about that.

Soy Bean Toner Cartridges

2008-09-25T06:05:00.000-07:00

It turns out the US currently uses over 100 million cartridges per year. To produce that amount of cartridges, 100 million pounds or 50,000 tons of oil must be processed. That means high-volume energy consumption and tons of landfill afterwards.

In an effort to reduce this tremendous amount of nature’s raw materials, PRC Technologies, a division of Print Recovery Concepts Inc., announced a real environmental breakthrough. PRC has developed a way to make toner powder out of soybeans.

The company says soy toner is absolutely harmless to the printers. Just as harmless as it is for humans

Via TCD blog

How Less Packaging Can Save You Money

2008-09-15T10:20:00.000-07:00

One-third of American garbage is packaging materials, according to the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington.

And there’s not necessarily a good reason for it. Many companies are simply following convention and haven’t looked into better ways to package their products.

Not only is minimal packaging better for the environment, it also costs less to produce. Companies can save a lot of money when they reduce packaging.

Printer cartridges add to the problem of overpackaging, too.

Learn how you can save money and contribute to a better environment with Toner Cartridge Depot.

Know What Yellow Dots Say About You

2008-07-22T09:49:00.000-07:00

A study done by Electronic Frontier Foundation finds that most color laser printers add an identifying code on every page you print. This code is actually microscopic yellow dots printed on each page in a grid pattern. Normally these dots are invisible to the naked eye and can only be seen using a blue LED light.

The information in the yellow dots varies, some have just the serial number of the printer and others also have the date printed. On the picture below you can see the date and time when page was printed and the serial number of the printer.

Originally the technology was implemented to help secret services track and find counterfeiter who use color laser printers to forge money and other valuable documents. But who know how seriously this can compromise our privacy.

Calibrating a Home Inkjet Printer

2008-07-22T08:39:00.000-07:00

You may have a history of photo printing with an inkjet, if so then you know that so when inks interact with paper, you can rarely expect good results at once (especially when they are made by different brands). But there’s something you can do about it — calibrate your printer.

TCD blog posted a good article on how to calibrate your inkjet printer at home.

If you are the kind of user who wants to get best of his photo printer, this step-by-step guide is just for you.

Blogged!

2008-06-30T01:37:00.000-07:00

I'm terribly proud to announce that this blog has been weighed, measured and scored 8. Blogged.com sent me a letter the other day saying had they reviewed my blog and given it an 8.0 score out of 10:

Dear Printing Depot author,

Our editors recently reviewed your blog and have given it an 8.0 score out of (10) in the Shopping category of Blogged.com.

This is quite an achievement!

We evaluated your blog based on the following criteria: Frequency of Updates, Relevance of Content, Site Design, and Writing Style.

After carefully reviewing each of these criteria, your site was given its 8.0 score.

We’ve also created Blogged.com score badges with your score prominently displayed. Simply visit your website’s summary page on Blogged.com:

Please accept my congratulations on a blog well-done!!

I'm very pleased with these 8 points as I didn't expect to be evaluated so high. Actually, I didn't expect to be evaluated at all, which makes it even more pleasant.

Hooray for me!

Make Your Prints Glow

2008-06-17T22:49:00.000-07:00

You can easily pimp your printer to produce images glowing in the dark. All it takes is a glow dusk, printer ink and a microwave oven. This video clearly shows what to do with what.

Makes me wanting to buy a cheap printer and try. Do you think it is possible to do same trick with laser toner?

17 Ways of Reducing Printing Costs

2008-06-17T22:42:00.000-07:00

TCD blog published a money-saving guide to those who think they spend way too much on printer and those who think there's no such thing as excessive costs management.

A Laser Printer That Sucks

2008-06-17T22:28:00.000-07:00

Did you know your laser printer may actually save you from infringing the DMCA. Yes, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that prohibits you downloading pirated movies and software.

How is that possible?

Guys from University of Washington examined BitTorrent file-sharing networks using specially designed BitTorrent clients to monitor the traffic on these networks. The researchers didn’t download any files, but somehow they received over 400 takedown requests - notices from the ISP to stop distributing that copyrighted content.

Funny thing is one of those requests was forwarded to a network laser printer implying that it was downloading something. A coincidental discovery that one may use it his favor, don't you think?

Inkjet Printers May Replace Offset Presses

2008-06-17T21:59:00.000-07:00

Want it or not, but the of all the printing technologies inkjets develop faster and wider. Inkjet printers have been successfully adapted for use in a variety of fields other than general printing of text and images. Today the inkjet technology achieved much greater speed of printing than it originally had.

Having matched laser printers, it is now threatening the king of speed print - offset press. At the Drupa 2008, a trade show dedicated exclusively to printers and printing technologies, major printer makers are showing new inkjet presses predicted to be the future of commercial printing.

This future is yet to come, but surely won't make us wait for itself for too long.

HP Innovations & New Injet Technologies

2008-06-04T03:39:00.000-07:00

I totally forgot to say last week a new article was published on TCD blog about HP innovations in printer ink, toner & media.

Today I'm reforming and telling you in timely manner another news. If you're keeping eye on what's going on in the printing industry, you may be interested to know that in the nearest future the inkjet printers are likely to supplant offset printing from it's pedestal of commercial printing king.

New inkjet presses being half as fast as their offset counterparts, offer almost same level of quality at 4 times lower price per page. Digital future is inevitable, guys :)

A printing depot that is not printing depot

2008-06-03T07:38:00.000-07:00

Today I analyzed visitor statistics, who comes from where and what keywords they used. It turns out there's another couple of printing depots (a link to only one ancient site, 'cause the other site is down). They have nothing to do with this blog, just like this blog has nothing to do with them. It's just a pure coincidence of the names.

It may look suspicious that I deny any connection between our sites, but it's not like that. It was a funny thing to discover, that' all. We are not along in the internet!

How to Understand What Your Inkjet Printer Tells You

2008-05-28T06:49:00.001-07:00

Just yesterday I wrote a post about what an printer's trying to say when it's flashing its indicators. For instance, when a printer's orange LED blinks 2 times, that generally means there's no paper detected in paper tray, or something is stuck in paper path and prevent paper from being supplied properly. As the whole issue only concerns inkjet printer, you won't find a word about toner, but you will learn what printer's blinking signals mean.

Knowing the signals is not enough, without knowing what to do about them. This kind of information I provided as well.

Another Good Use for a Photocopier

2008-05-13T23:52:00.000-07:00

No matter how bad things are, there's always a way out, you just need to use your brains just like the guy in this video. Run out of gift-wrapping paper? Make some yourself! Simply get printer paper and color toner.

Actually, you don't even have to unzip your pants, any material with a pattern relevant to your event will do.

Toner Cartridge Depot Has New Main Page

2008-05-07T04:33:00.000-07:00

Well, this is it, TCD got a new home page. In my opinion, it got better in terms of both design and usability. I hope our customers will have the same opinion :)

How to Tell If Cartridges You Bought Are Original

2008-04-23T06:51:00.000-07:00

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)

TCD Blog Keeps On Getting Updated

2008-04-03T07:15:00.000-07:00

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!

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

2008-04-02T04:36:00.000-07:00

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.

Toner Cartridge Depot Blog Updated Again!

2008-04-01T05:06:00.000-07:00

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.

Toner Cartridge Depot Blog Updated

2008-01-18T03:40:00.000-08:00

If you ever seen "X pages at 5% coverage" in a cartridge description and wondered how much these 5% really are, you can find the answer in new article. It gives the idea of how toner yield (or page yield) is calculated. You will see a spectacular example of what 5 percent coverage print looks like and download a sample page.

Also, you will learn that main advantages LED printing technology has of laser printing are

smaller and more reliable printing devices
no ozone when printing
higher imaging precision
information security

The first post with video is added showing that some printers can produce images of unlimited size.

Every one of us has questions he or she wants to have answers for. While most of those questions are quite specific ‘Will I pass this or not?’ others are rhetorical ones - ‘What the purpose of life?’, ‘What is love?’ or ‘How are you doing?’ There are also questions that at first glance seem specific, but turn out to be rhetorical under closer examination.

One such question is "why is printer ink so expensive?" is considered in another article.

All this. as well as announces of new printers and other posts you can find on TCD blog

How to Detect and Fix Problems with Laser Monochrome Printing.

2007-12-17T05:08:00.000-08:00

Greetings again!

I'm writing to let you know I just published final part of a big article titled "How to Detect and Fix Problems with Laser Monochrome Printing." If you ever asked 'What the heck?' seeing a printed page coming out all in stripes or just dirty? In the article you can find the solution to this and other problems with toner cartridges.

Toner Cartridge Depot blog updated

2007-11-27T05:11:00.000-08:00

Well, two more post on official TCD blog. The first tells about how inkjet printing technology is adopted into creating more efficient microchips and large-size displays. The other is about how a TV can be used to enhance the capabilities of the inkjet printer -- a new device from Epson and Philips.

Study Finds Consumers Overpay For Printer Ink Tremendously

2007-11-22T07:02:00.000-08:00

If you've been following our blog, or if you simply own an inkjet printer, you should be aware of how costly ink cartridges are. You can find how much we overpay for printer ink the answer in the new article on TCD blog. Regretfully, inks are still more expensive than toner in terms of pages printed per cartridge.

History of Inkjet Printers

2007-11-21T06:29:00.000-08:00

On the TCD official blog I posted the first part of a big article on history of inkjet printers:

In the early 1980s, introduction of the laser printer met that need. By eliminating the need for physical impact against a ribbon, laser printers achieved much higher speeds and were able to work in almost silence. As personal computers grew popular during the 1980s, laser printers became the only acceptable choice for “letter-quality” printing, regardless the cost of several thousand dollars.

However, the laser printer’s reign was eventually overtaken by a technology developed at the Hewlett-Packard. HP, along with Epson and Canon, can claim a substantial share of credit for the development of the modern inkjet, and we will consider the history of inkjets from the HP’s point of view.

Funny thing is, HP’s invention was not originally intended for personal computers, since when the project began in the late 1970s, there were no such things. Instead, HP was looking for a new printing mechanism for portable, battery-powered calculators, its most profitable consumer product.

As a responsible author, I did a research on the topic, from which a learned a lot of interesting facts about how inkjet technology as we know it came to existence.

Toner Cartridge Depot blog updated

2007-10-30T04:43:00.000-07:00

Toner Cartridge Depot blog updated with several new posts.

One is telling about new Epson printer producing trillions of colors:

The Photo R1900 implements a “groundbreaking” technology that allows for “smoother images and color control” coupled with UltraChrome™ Hi-Gloss2 Ink. The UltraChrome™ Hi-Gloss2, apart from common cyan, magenta and yellow inks, also features matte black, photo black, red, orange (replacement for blue) and gloss optimiser.

All in all, Epson Stylus Photo R1900 is said to produce 18,446,774 trillion colors. Such a tremendous amount of colors offers “a wider color gamut, natural skin tones and consistent color with a smooth gloss finish.”

In another article you will find out about the history of laser printers:

...originally it all began from an experiment on image transition. On October 22, 1938, when American inventor Chester Carlson together with German immigrant Otto Kornei first transferred an image from a glass microscope slide to a sheet of wax paper using method later called electrophotography.

Next post reveals what hazards laser printers may cause:

Canadian Broadcasting Company sponsored its own study on that issue. The research was conducted in three different locations in Winnipeg by placing particle monitors above printers in the offices. Basically, the results of this new study support those of the Australian study: laser printers do emit in large volumes ultra-fine particles that apparently originate from the use of toner.

Read these and other posts at Toner Cartridge Depot blog.

10 Reasons Not To Shop with Toner Cartridge Depot

2007-09-30T22:48:00.000-07:00

Toner Cartridge Depot official blog was updated with a new acticle by sincerely yours. In the article I reveal 10 reasons why shopping with Toner Cartridge Depot printing supplies store may be not for you. Here is one of them:

3. Toner Cartridges Depot offers an expanding assortment of printing
supplies
Having to make a selection from a wide range of cartridges and toner is often stressful too. You may spend a lot of time studying and comparing each item before making a decision, you may even lose your sleep! Why would any man of sense need such problems?

Make sure you are informed of all the reason!

Toner Cartridge Depot Starts Blog

2007-06-15T00:49:00.000-07:00

Greetings!

I got a terrific news to tell: Toner Cartridge Depot launches its official blog covering printing industry news, articles and announces. Since I'm going to take part in creating content for the official blog, my own blog will update now as often as it used to.

Toshiba Recycles Your Toner Right on the Spot

2007-06-09T00:37:00.000-07:00

If you own a laser printer and ever did an online shopping for printer toner cartridges, you, probably, noticed here and there a waste bottles being sold along with consumables. These very bottles are where unused tone is utilized when not applied to form image. That happens because of mechanism of laser printing is not perfect and yet to be optimized.

Toshiba intends to eliminate this embarrassing flaw. The company is implementing its recyclable toner technology into more MFP machines. The technology allows collecting waste toner that is not applied to the page and feeding it back into printer cartridge, so it can be used over again.

The technology is supposed to solve environmental problems caused by disposing of waste toner. On the other hand, it would increase cost-effectiveness of toner cartridge, since more pages per cartridge could be printed.

For now, the system works only with mono printers, however “it will take a bit longer to introduce it to colour machines as it needs a different mechanical approach, but ultimately we aim to introduce it there too,” says Jamie Mackenzie, Product Manager at Toshiba.

Are Printer Companies Chasing the Wrong Target?

2007-06-05T17:13:00.000-07:00

Lets us add a bit of financial analysis to our blog. It kind of stand of from what I usually port, but since it’s about printers and I studied economics at college, found it interesting. I promise I’ll try to keep it simple :)

When it comes to printer makers, it’s a well-known fact that most of them use ‘blade-razor’ marketing strategy to generate profit. That means they sell printer unit at the cheapest, even in the red, but make up the money by selling expensive consumables, i.e. ink and toner. So, at first look it may seem like the more printers you sell, the more profit you gain. Amount of printer sold defines the market share of a company.

However, Ed Crowley, a stock market analyst for SeekingAlpha, makes a point in his article that situation is a bit different. Actually, it’s completely different.

Each printer sold generates different income. Imagine a home printer making 50-100 pages a month, and a high-volume workgroup printer that can print up to 200,000 pages per month. The latter can be as much as hundred times more profitable than the former. Since every printer has a user, so there are more profitable users and less profitable ones.

For example, HP having the largest market share (selling more printers then any one else) of 45%, receives only 28% of income. At the same time, Ricoh with its 1% of market share generate 10% of income. Yes, if you see the absolute figure, HP get more, but Ricoh is more effective in terms of dollars per user.

QualityLogic's Tests Prove Reliability And Higher Yield of HP Inks

2007-06-04T03:31:00.000-07:00

Hewlett Packard is reported to announce results of a research study to compare how original HP ink cartridges rate against 13 most common ink cartridges refillers. The results of the test showed that

“original HP inkjet cartridges printed 57.5 percent more pages, on average, than the refill brands tested.”

Besides, HP cartridges proved to be more reliable:

“None of the Original HP inkjet cartridges failed during the test, whereas an average of one in five refilled brands was either dead-on-arrival or failed prematurely.”

All in all, HP cartridges 'won' refilled cartridges in every test.

The study was conducted by QualityLogic, one of the world largest and respected independent quality organizations. The funny thing is, HP recently argued results of a test conducted by that very independent quality organization, when QualityLogic tested Kodak inks. Can't wait for Kodak to strike back and question the results of HP ink cartridges study :)

Another 1,000 Pages In 1 Minute

2007-06-03T21:14:00.000-07:00

Recently, we have seen two similar technologies revolutionizing the speed of inkjet printing — HP’s Steamline and Silverbrook Memjet. The innovation factor was in creating a fixed printhead spanning the whole width of the page.

Two Israeli researchers The College of Judea and Samaria — Moshe and Nissim Einat — have developed a revolutionary printing technique called Jetrix. This technique take printing speeds even higher – up to 1,000 pages per minute — since it enables simultaneous high-speed printing of an entire page of text.

Jetrix is a mixture of Inkjet Technology and Liquid Crystal Technology. Inspired by LCDs that could instantly create an image with a screen-sized array of diodes, Moshe Einat started to wonder if the same idea could be applied to printing the whole page. Inspiration led to creation of a page-size matrix of printheads with multiple ink chambers.

These chambers are the key to the new technology. Each chamber is a tiny tank of ink connected to just a few nozzles and supplying only those nozzles. The chambers are not connected with one another, so the matrix of printheads can be created as large as the paper, without limit.

The built prototype can only print black and white, but Einat is sure the idea can be realized in full color too.

Yes, there are printer that can print as fast as 1,000 ppm, but they are room-sized. This new printing technology allows making printer more compact. We shall wait for the first full-working printer to appear.

HP Argues The Results of Kodak's Ink Test

2007-05-31T05:23:00.000-07:00

TechTalk blogger, Dean Takahashi, presents in his article an argument between HP and Kodak. The cause of the argument was the results of Quality Logic’s test proving that Kodak inks save customers 50% on everything they print. I wrote about this test not so long ago.

He lists a number of HP statements challenging the conditions and results of the test, as well as Kodak’s responses to those statements. I’ll quote one of them:

HP goes:

"QualityLogic’s test did not include all available HP supplies. For example, HP’s Photosmart C4180 offers a larger black supply (HP 95) than what was included in the test, which would have resulted in lower black cost-per-page for HP. What’s more, HP offers many different value pack options that further reduce HP’s cost-of-printing."

For that Kodak replies:

"Kodak chose to test the cartridges that ship with each printer because these are the cartridges that consumers are most likely to purchase. Therefore, the testing was based on individually purchased cartridges. It is also the most practical way to provide an apples-to-apples comparison.

Like HP, Kodak offers a discounted combo cartridge pack, delivering an even lower cost-of-ink and lower cost-per-page to consumers. While this would have provided even better cost-per-page results for Kodak, it would not have supported apples-to-apples comparative testing."

Seems like Kodak does have a weapon to conquer the ink cartridges market, however HP won’t to give up its market share easily.

Xerox Invisible Fluorescent Printing

2007-05-31T01:49:00.000-07:00

Group of Xerox scientists devised a new method for printing hidden fluorescent text using standard printers. The fluorescent text is only visible in ultraviolet light, at the same time it does not require fluorescent toner to print it.

This new method is side product of Xerox’s larger studies to put more security into digitally printed documents by making any element on the page-—such as lines, text, and images-—unique to the recipient. The scientists were playing with differential gloss in a toner to print a hologram-like image, when one of them, Reiner Eschbach, started to wonder if there was any chance to make fluorescent marks using regular toner.

Eschbach's group tried different toner combinations to achieve paper's fluorescence shining when exposed to ultraviolet light. They come to this after they realized most paper already contains fluorescent brightening agents added by manufacturers to make the paper look whiter.

According to the company, the new method of fluorescent printing allows adding more security to commonly printed materials such as checks, tickets, coupons, and other high-value documents.

Interview with HP Vice President Vyomesh Joshi

2007-05-30T02:23:00.000-07:00

PC Magazine published an interesting interview titled ‘We Could Ink Jet Anything’ with Vyomesh Joshi titled, executive vice president of HP's Imaging and Printing Group. Simply put, he is the one in charge of HP printer business.

He opens the conversation with a brief overview of how printer business in HP has changed.

“We are focusing on pages. From a page point of view, 48 trillion are printed a year. Now we measure our market share in pages, and we are less than 2 percent. When you start thinking about pages, we have a tremendous opportunity.”

Then he moves to the issue of printing less in the modern online world:

“In 1984 we were promised the paperless office. And in 2006 we are using ten times more paper.”

Also, Vyomesh Joshi tells about new imaging devices coming up, gives his prospect of view on the new implementations of inkjet technology, such as DNA sequencing, 3-D printing and competitors achievements.

As a person who is into printing, I had a great time reading the interview.

Print Greener, Print Cost-Effective, Print Smart

2007-05-29T04:08:00.000-07:00

In modern world of electronic communications people still have to do a lot with paper. Course projects, year reports, club flyers, advertisement brochures – all that required paper. In a known fact that paper is made of processed trees. Thus, the more pages is printed, the more trees are cut.

In effort to make printing more environment friendly, GreenPrint Technologies developed a software that would reduce amount paper waste in office printing. Recently launched in United Kingdom, GreenPrint Enterprise software highlights and removes unwanted pages before they are printed, creates PDF files as alternative for printing. Also, it gives a print overview, so users can easily decide what stays and what goes. Besides, the software has other options for ink and toner saving.

GreenPrint Enterprise incorporates a feature that reports how many trees were saved during the use of application. The company estimates that an organization employing 20,000 people could save GBP1.3 million annually, which equals 35.2 million pages or 3,911 trees.

GreenPrint Enterprise software is optionally accompanied with GreenPrint EverGreen Font. This font was specially “designed to allow more words to fit on each printed page without compromising readability. Compared with common fonts such as Arial, Times New Roman and Helvetica, EverGreen reduces paper use by 15-20%.”

Siemens T100 Teleprinter: Ancestor of Today's Network Printers

2007-05-29T01:29:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, there were neither inkjet nor laser printers. Networked printers, as we know them now, didn’t come to exist either. However, there was technology that allowed a printing task (actually only a text), to be performed by a device in a remote place.

The technology was telegraphy and the device was telex.

Developed in the middle of 19 century, by 1940’s telegraphy had become the most common type of connection between cities, countries, and even continents, so messages could be sent across the globe.

Telegraphic messages were received and printed out by the telex, a special kind of printer that produced a hard copy of a message. One of the most popular telexes was Siemens T100, a page printer that dates way back to the 1960’s. All of the UK military services and on the commercial telex system used Siemens T100 widely.

Wireless Mountable Printer

2007-05-24T02:07:00.000-07:00

A printer that need no cables and occupies no room on you desktop. Think it's impossible? Absolutely not. Designers at Ransmeier & Floyd developed a wireless printer that can be mounted on the wall. The printer has a frame that printed pictures fall into, which make it a decorative piece of interior design, not only a functional device. The only thing not clear is how this printer is powered. Nothing is said about this and picture shows no power cord. Some say the printer might be battery-powered.

Why Do We Pay More For Ink?

2007-05-16T06:23:00.000-07:00

Late in April, 2007, an authoritative review website TrustedReviews.com posted the results of one interesting test. They compared inks and paper made by third party manufacturers against those made by printer makers. The goal of the test was to determine if third-party inks and paper provide same level of quality as original manufacturers’.

The printers tested were multifunctional inkjet printers of major brands most common models used by home and small office users, namely Canon PIXMA MP600, Epson Stylus Photo RX640, HP OfficeJet 6310 and Lexmark X5470. The jury comprised of typical printer users rated printouts made of combinations of third-party and original inks and paper on the scale of 1 to 10, where 9 or 10 would be “a print you'd be happy to have as a record of a wedding or important birthday”, and scores below 5 for “prints you would be unlikely to keep because of their quality.”

The testing revealed several amazing facts, but the most important one is this:

The jury scored prints produced with third-party inks higher than those produced with manufacturer’s own products.

That means compatible cartridges of known can generally provide same quality, and in some cases, even better quality then OEM cartridges. I’m not talking about defective unknown brand cartridges or over-refilled cartridges with long-expired duty cycle. Just like everywhere, trust the brand that provide high quality of its products, in our case Cartridge World or InkTecShop.

But the judges are just simple printer users with no technical background, you may argue. Yes, that is true. However, they are exactly who buy ink cartridges, and hence, who pay money. So it’s up to simple users to decide what’s good for them, and them will finally choose what is more savvy

As you know, compatible cartridges cost 25% to 75% less than original cartridges. But I believe it’s vice verse - original cartridges are up to 75% more expensive. Think about this. It makes sense to assume that third-party producers also have research laboratories to devise ink formulation, just like printer brands. Both third-party and original makers have plants to produce cartridges somewhere in third-world country to make them cost-effective. So, where is the catch? Why such price difference?

There’s a good article by Marshall Brain, where he discusses the price of things. In particular, he compares an inkjet cartridge and a microwave oven and finds their prices somewhat equal (as of 2004). He goes on:

“So think about this: The microwave oven contains a microprocessor, the software for the microprocessor, a keypad/display for the microprocessor and a separate power supply for it. The microwave oven also contains a 700 watt Klystron to generate the microwaves, the waveguides for Klystron and the high-voltage power supply it needs. Then there is the door, the hinges, the latch, the safety interlocks on the latch, the light, all the internal fusing, the metal case, the interior, etc. There's also the process of getting UL listed and so on. A microwave oven weighs 30 pounds and once cost thousands of dollars. Mass production has dropped the price on microwaves significantly in the last decade or two.

By comparison, an ink jet cartridge is a piece of plastic, a couple of dozen jets, a little wiring and some ink. The total cost to manufacture is probably less than a dollar. Yet they sell for $38.99.”

When first appeared on the market 20 years ago, a microwave oven cost $1,000 or so. Over years, the price gradually slid down to, well, not $28.44, but $70 for sure, that is 15 times less. On the other hand, over the same 20 years of market presence inkjet cartridges price hardly half-dropped.

No matter how complex, heavy-patented and expensive a product is, once it’s placed on the consumer market, it’s doomed to become cheaper – technology advances, materials improve, and production becomes more effective. It’s just as natural for prices on goods to go down as for humans to age over time.

That does not seem to be the case with printer cartridges.

What is it? A conspiracy of printer makers? An ‘anti-customer’ marketing strategy? We’ll never know. Bad thing is we’ve been dealing with it for too long. Good thing is there is always an alternative – the compatibles.

3-D Printer Makes... Candies!

2007-05-11T02:19:00.000-07:00

—Daddy, I want a candy!
—Go print it yourself, sweety!
That kind of dialog you might expect to take place soon.

You must remember crazy inventors from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. They develop the idea of making fancy-looking food with modern printing technologies.

Their new invention, CandyFab 4000, is evolution of a 3-D printer with a hot-air gun mounted as a printerhead. CandyFab 4000 was hand-made and only cost $500 in parts plus labor. Overall cost of 3-D printer production is somewhat $1000, way cheaper than $5000 for DesktopFactory three-dimensional printer.

It uses same stack-of-layers technology to create three-dimensional objects. This time, they chose granulated sugar instead of toner to create candies of fancy shapes: a coil, a wooden screw and a polygonal.

Amazing is the cost of the “printouts”. For example, the wooden screw is 20 inches long and weighs about 2.5 pounds, however the total cost of used sugar is $0.93!

Kodak Inks Are Proved to Be Cost-Effective

2007-05-11T01:31:00.000-07:00

In February, 2007 Kodak released a new type of inks. The inks were claimed to make printout more durable (up to 100 years) and cost-effective (up to 50%). Recently, Kodak unveiled unveiled ink yield test results and cost-per-page analysis.

The tests were conducted by a side company, QualityLogic Inc. They compared Kodak 5300 All-in-One printer inks yield against that of 12 printers of other leading brands. Testing included printing of both black-and-white and color documents and photos.

Based on results of inks yield test, Kodak made its own analysis of ink cost per page, comparing cost of ink for all modes tested. The results of this analysis proved that Kodak multifunction printers could print more pages per $5 of ink every time.

A 1,350 Pages-Per-Minute Printer

2007-05-10T09:09:00.000-07:00

When I saw this number first, I couldn't believe this could be. April 17, 2007, Oce, a company producing printers for professional high-volume applications, announced a high-speed printer. New member of Oce VarioStream 9000 family can print at speed of up to 1,350 pages per minute in black-and-white, which is 22.5 pages per second!

With Oce VarioStream 9240 printer speed-or-quality dilemma is no longer relevant for the new device feature both, they say.

Just like all ultra high-volume printing devices, the printer is huge:

I never dealt with such devices in real life, and the fastest I heard of were about 200 pages per minute. I couldn't find anything on the construction of this printer, so I wonder how such speed of 1.350 ppm achieved. Probably, it has several printing units combines into one or something.

I can't imagine how much toner it consumes a month.

New Large-Format Color Printer by OKI

2007-05-08T02:21:00.000-07:00

Okidata announced C8800 Series printer, a digital color large-format printer producing up to 11x17 in. printouts in compact design.

The new printer feature greater media control and flexibility, it allows printing banners 11x 47.25 in. which fits fine for architectural renderings and engineering design documents.

The printer is fast; it uses printer toner, produces 26 pages per minute in color and 32 pages per minute in black-and-white at 1200x600 dpi resolution.

OKI C8800 Series printer is built using digital LED Technology and Single Pass Color Technology. The latter allows make products requiring fewer moving parts.

The estimated retail price of the C8800 Series starts at $2399. The printer will be available in North America in June 2007 through Okidata authorized providers.

Three Dimensions for Your Home

2007-05-08T01:19:00.000-07:00

If you ever dreamt of a device that would produce real objects, then your dream is coming true. Three-dimension printers have always been something large, expensive and available only to chosen ones. Until now.

Desktop Factory made 3-D printer smaller, cheaper and more affordable. The company will start selling its first printer for $4,995 this year, and price is expected to fall to $1,000 in next four years. So in the nearest future 3-D printer would be available to home users.

How does the printer actually work, you may ask. The plastic powder, an analogue of toner in regular printers, is dropped on and sticks to a heated roller, where it is fused with a light beam to make an image. Then image is rolled onto metal plate to form a layer. The plate moves down as more layers are stacked to make an object. When the object is created, the plate moves up to squeeze the layers under heat and fuse them. (Pictures taken from www.nytimes.com)

The printing method is yet to be improved, because the model makes objects with rather jagged edges and rather sandy finish that many do not find attractive, NY Times story tells. But there is demand that does not require high quality and cannot afford large printers.

The picture above shows what kind of object the new 3-D printer can create. They say more 3-D objects blueprints will be available later on the Internet for people to download and create.

"Gelly" Printers by Ricoh

2007-05-03T09:36:00.000-07:00

Ricoh UK introduced a new range of desktop printers using gel-based color-system. The new Ricoh Aficio GX3000, GX3050N and GX5050N have a high speed of printing, up to 30 pages per minute in monochrome and color. The speed could be compared to the speed of laser printers, but the price is more like that of inkjets.

Ricoh proprietary GelSprinter Technology uses pigment-based liquid gel that sits on the media surface, but not diffuses into it as inks do. The company says the printouts are fast to dry and waterproof, which makes a double-side printing possible. Besides, the printers feature Electrostatic Belt Feeding System that is supposed to hold paper firmly in place and prevent paper jams.

New printers use special gel cartridges of standard (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) color. One color cartridge yields 1,150 pages, while a black cartridge is enough to print 1,450 papers, as stated on Ricoh site. Priced £28.45 and £22.45 (approximately $57 and $45) for color and black cartridge, respectfully, these cartridges are somewhat in the middle between ink and laser printer cartridges, when it comes to yield/cost effectiveness.

We shall see if this gel technology proves to be viable.

How Would You Like Your Toast? – Printed!

2007-05-03T03:08:00.001-07:00

Many areas of human life have enjoyed the printing technologies – medicine, electronics and so on. However, as time goes by, printing finds new, absolutely unexpected areas of application. This time it all started with fun, when guys from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories used a hot-air gun to make images on a slice of toast.

Not satisfied with results of hand drawing, they decided to mount the hot-air gun to the carriage of a 3D printer they built for their previous project. Since toast printing does not require third dimension, Z-axis of the printer was disabled. With hot-air gun used as a printhead, they achieved a resolution of 10 dots per inch (2.5 mm pixel size).

Also, the printer was could make photo images on a toast, which required some additional adjusting (air flow rate, temperature, etc.) of printer hardware, actually the hot-air gun.

Below is a video of how toast is printed using digital toast imaging technology.

New Lexmark Multifucntions

2007-04-28T03:15:00.000-07:00

New Lexmark multifunction printers are designed for small and home offices. Lexmark X782e, X940e and X945e are more suitable for workgroups, while Lexmark X500n and X502n are optimized for personal use.

Lexmark X782e, X940e and X945e multifunctions feature proprietary eTask Interface based on touch-screen. As stated, the interface enables simplest operation of the devices, shorter training time and automation of routine. Lexmark claims the main areas of the new devices’ use to be retailing, banking, healthcare, administrative and educational institutions.
All devices use laser printer cartridges but with different print speed. Lexmark X782e produces 35 pages per minute (ppm) in color and 40 ppm in monochrome. Lexmark X940e is a bit slower – 30 and 40 ppm monochrome and color, respectfully. However, the most powerful is Lexmark X945e, a multifunction printing as fast as 40 full-color pages per minute and 45 black-and-white pages per minute.

Lexmark declares its desktop models Lexmark X500n and X502n, that can print, copy and scan color documents, to be the most cost effective devices in their class. Maximum performance is 8 ppm, when printing in color, and 31 ppm of monochrome printing. The models feature 35-sheet Automatic Document Feeder, and Lexmark X502n also can sent and receive faxes.

HP To Accept New Ink Cartridge System

2007-04-25T03:06:00.000-07:00

From my previous post (or maybe from some other source) you already know that inkjet cartridges market is estimated $32 billion. 21% of that market belongs to third-party companies that produce compatible generic cartridges and refills, and the number is growing, judging by success stories of refilling businesses I hear.

Cartridge refilling and remanufacturing enterprises are so successful because they offer customers a cheap and quality alternative to buying costly OEM supplies. Current business model of most inkjet printers makers is to sell cheap hardware, but expensive ink supplies; this is what they make money on. However, this is what customers don’t seem to like.

In effort to win back a share of that 21%, HP try a new approach. Hewlett Packard is changing the way of delivery of its ink cartridges: a new three color-coded categories and a lowered, two-level pricing system. Within 2007 year, HP will introduce inkjet printers designed to be used with new cartridge system.

Labeled with blue, green, and red color coding, standard, value, and specialty cartridges will be introduced in various retail stores as well as online, reports ChannelInsider.com. Besides, the new cartridges will contain a greater volume of ink. All this is to offer customers “a simplified shopping experience, more choice, and greater value”, the company said.

Seems like, first, HP recognized the fact that every one has different printing needs, second, it feel threatened by third-party cartridges manufacturers, that sell HP-compatible ink cartridges for much less.

Lexmark Expands Its Return Program

2007-04-23T11:16:00.000-07:00

Like any printer manufacturer of sound mind, Lexmark, on one hand, wants its customers to buy original cartridges for Lexmark inkjet printers. On the other hand, the company wants to keep away cartridge ink remanufacturers and refillers.

Along with new wireless printers announced last week, Lexmark expands its Return Program on original ink cartridges compatible with those printers, Kentucy.com reports. Lexmark offers a $4 discount for every cartridge customers would mail back to and not refill elsewhere. If one tries to refill the Lexmark cartridge and then insert it again, a chip on the cartridge will disable it.

This is Lexmark’s attempt to fight remanufacturers and refillers in a battle for a share of printer ink market. According to the article, Lyra Research, a printer industry tracker, estimated inkjet cartridges market for $32 billion in 2006. Remanufacturers and refillers had about 21 percent of the market.

From A Comment To A Post

2007-04-23T09:25:00.000-07:00

This post was initially meant to be a comment to this post I occasionally came across. The guy’s a designer and an inkjet owner facing the problem of expensive cartridges for his Epson. I found his blog occasionally and was already writing a reply to the post, when realized it’s more like a separate story, not just a comment.

I'm not a designer, though now I do print photos and color graphics sometimes. I also faced the need for color calibration to get better results when I bought my color inkjet printer. It was Canon Pixma i1500. Purchased mainly for printing text, it proved produce photos of decent quality. Being a person who delves into details, I wanted to get best out of my printer. So I tried to find the best way to produce fine quality photos at reasonable cost. ‘Reasonable cost’ didn’t only mean money, it was also amount of efforts I have to put in to get that best results.

I tried different color profiles and different photo papers. Eventually, super-duper photo quality (if you ever get this from a $60 inkjet - that's how much it cost year and a half ago) I was aiming for was compromised for simplicity – I settled for automatic presets. It seemed sensible to me that Canon digital camera and Canon printer should work well together without me jumping around and doing Woodoo magic, and it worked out. I used and still use Lomond Super Glossy Paper, by the way.

Before my Canon inkjet, I used to have an Epson one. The reason I switched to Canon was cheaper OEM cartridges, since firstly I didn’t plan to print a lot, paying extra $5 for brand name was not a problem. However, over time printing volumes increased, partly with the discovery of decent photo printing ability. And when my family began using the printer, too, the extra $5 started making difference to me.

I went to the nearest printer cartridge outlet. Along with original supplies, they sell compatible and refillable cartridges. The difference between the two, they told me, is that refillable cartridges can be refilled with ink many times. Well, actually other cartridges can be refilled too, but they are not very much designed for that, as far as I could get.

I bought black and color cartridges by Sky Horse, and they cost me only $4.5 and $5.5, respectively. At home, I only had color cartridge depleted, so I changed it and reset ink level counter. Then I printed a test color page (little graphics, mainly text), which was OK. However, to be 100% sure it’s OK, I printed a 4x6-inch photo of food and flowers which means lots of small details, variety of colors.

I have absolutely no illusions about this being a professional super-color-match-whatever test. But I was completely fine with what I got. So, I decided to stick with refillables, they provide the quality level I require and they don’t cost much.

Now that I found a cheap source of ink, later I plan on upgrading my printer, probably to an inkjet multifunctional. More and more often I need copying option and my printing volumes are not that large to buy a laser one.

Silver Filled Inkjet Printer Produces Electric Circuits

2007-04-20T01:22:00.000-07:00

Guys from the University of Leeds found another way to use an inkjet printer – to create electric circuits.

During experiment, student Seyed Bidoki filled an HP inkjet printer with solution of silver salt and ascorbic acid, that is Vitamin C. This combination proved to be the most successful of all and included water.

"We wanted to be able to use a totally water-soluble base," said team member and chemist Matthew Clark. "That allows for much more environmentally friendly processes."

Then they printed different circuits on variety of media – paper, cotton, acetate, and even transparent film, and it worked out good. To improve conductivity, patterns are printer two or three times.

(taken from www.newscientisttech.com)

The developers say this inkjet technology has long way to go to be accepted for industrial scale production, but it does make new kind of devices possible.

This April is rich in alternative inkjet printer use. Just the other inkjet technology was used in medicine, bio engineering, nano technology research and other fields of human activities

Inkjet Printer Creates Body Organs

2007-04-19T03:41:00.000-07:00

A news that coincides with one of my previous posts, where I reported use of inkjet printers for creating artificial bones. Scientists at Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine are using inkjet printers to create organs and tissues, that’s something that could change the very way of studying tissue engineering.

(picture from www.newscientist.com)

Regular ink cartridges available almost everywhere are emptied, cleaned and filled with the cells needed to create the organ. Then, an inkjet printer prints these cells into a substance resembling human tissues. Printed layer by layer, cells form the required shape of muscle or organ.

Adopting inkjet printers for the need of tissue engineering resulted in more precise, accurate, fast and, most importantly, controlled creation of biomaterials.

It seems to me that inkjet technology for today’s science is like an invention of the wheel for our ancestors – it’s spread far over the area it was designed for.

New HP Deskjet Printers

2007-04-19T01:56:00.000-07:00

HP has updated its line of Deskjet printers. HP Deskjet D2460, HP Deskjet D4260 and HP Deskjet F4180 All-in-One are designed for home and small and medium businesses and to allow (oh my God!) printing business documents. Apart from printing, the printers also include a bunch of other features.

The D2460 prints at speeds of up to 20 pages per minute in black and 14 pages per minute in color. It can amazingly produce 4x6 in. borderless photos at 4800 dpi resolution, and if you run out of ink, the printer will tell you so.

Deskjet D4260 is more sophisticated and kindly allows users to share, save and print photos simply by pressing HP Photosmart Essential button. The printer comes packed with HP Photosmart Real Life Technologies to help remove red-eyes effect, etc., and features HP Smart Web Printing for neat printing of web pages. D4260 is also faster — churn out 30 ppm in black and up to 23 ppm in color.

HP Deskjet F4180 All-in-One has the features of the two Deskjets, at the same time it allows copying, scanning at 1200 x 2400 dpi resolution and 48-bit color.

Inkjet Printing and Nano Technology

2007-04-18T12:39:00.000-07:00

Inkjet printing started being used in nano technologies. Maren Roman, a scientist from Virginia Tech, has been taking a research on nanocrystals, and the discovery she made may lead to a new generation of vaccines and better computer printer ink.

Roman was using an inkjet printer to place the crystals. This way is more accurate, due to printer’s precision, and safe. Nanoncrystals are extremely hard to operate, because of their size, and are usually converted into powder for handling. Being a powder, nanocrystals may be very hazardous if inhaled. So, inkjet printer provides a safe way to operate them.

First thing to come up with me is that original ink manufacturers may very well use this innovation. First, to protect their ink formulas from being reproduced; second, to prevent use of compatible inks with printers. Am I being a paranoid already? :)

Do You Know HP?

2007-04-18T01:54:00.000-07:00

Every one of us who have some knowledge of computer peripherals, know what HP stands for. Every time you think of a printer, you probably recall Hewlett Packard. Well, for some of us it’s Epson or Canon, but that’s not the point. The thing is, HP is well-known company.

One guy described his experience of searching for Hewlett Packard stand at London Book Fair. "Youlit Packet...?" a staff member asked when the guy was trying to find his way. Yes. They are still there, people who haven’t heard of HP or HP toner cartridges.

5 New Inkjet Printers by Lexmark

2007-04-17T23:58:00.000-07:00

Lexmark announced an upcoming release of five new inkjet printers, three of them feature wireless capabilities.

Lexmark X4550 is a wireless multifunction printer designed to home and office use. The printer is able to print at speeds up to 26 ppm in monochrome black and 18 ppm in color. X4550 allows printing borderless pictures directly from memory cards, flash drives and digital cameras supporting PictureBridge Technology. Also, it makes copies as fast as 17 ppm in black-and-white and 11 ppm in color.

Another wireless color printer announced is Lexmark Z1420 capable of printing borderless photos of up to 8.5x11 in., and speeding up to 24 ppm in black and 18 ppm in color.
The new Lexmark X3550 color multifunction combines inkjet printer, copier and scanner in one unit, and features wireless option. It prints 24 ppm in black and 17 ppm in color. The device comes packed with Imaging Studio software for editing and applying various photo effects.

Next are X2500 color All-In-One and the Z1300 single-function printer. Lexmark X2500 All-In-One printer allows printing, scanning and one-touch copying, as well as making borderless 4x6 in. and 5x7 in. photos. Device prints at speeds of up to 22 ppm and 16 ppm, in black and color, accordingly.
Lexmark Z1300 single-function printer is created for home users and prints at speeds of up to 22 and 16 ppm for monochrome and color, respectively. It also allows users to print 4x6 in. and 5x7 in. borderless photos.

Lexmark’s X4550, X3550, X2500, Z1420 are priced at $129.99, $79.99, $59.99 and $79.99. Lexmark Z1300 is priced under $25.

HP Goes Wide

2007-04-17T01:50:00.001-07:00

After drawing much attention to CM8050 and CM8060 high-end multifunction printers, HP goes further with the Edgeline Technology.
The company introduced a wide-format printer DesignJet T1100, addressing the need of technical users such as architects, engineers and geologists. DesignJet T1100 uses same printheads as CM8060, but instead of having multiple printheads spanning the whole width, it prints a 1-inch band along the page.

The printer is capable of making line as thin as 0.04mm with an accuracy of 0.1%, compared to 0.2% of industry average. Also, DesignJet T1100 uses special matte black, which provide a better match with 4-color inks, and gray inks for smother gradients.

As usual, the print speed depends on printing task and paper quality. HP DesignJet T1100 produces a plain A1 page in 35 seconds in draft mode, 2.8 square meters per hour in best quality on glossy paper.

The printer features a fast controller that processes files independently from the computer.

Inkjet To the Bone

2007-04-16T04:27:00.000-07:00

There is another implementation of inkjet technology, now it helps create artificial bones. With a modified inkjet printer, scientists can produce perfect ‘hard copies’ of damaged bones to be inserted into the body to help it revive.

“The “paper” in our printer is a thin bed of cement-like powder. The inkjets spray the cement with an acid which reacts with it and goes hard. That deals with one layer. Then new layers of fresh powder are sprayed on top, and the layers build up to the shape we need", says Professor Jake Barralet of McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

The printer itself is as big as three cabinets and can produce a typical bone in 10 minutes.

Now scientists are looking for a way to create artificial skin with use of inkjet technology.

Xerox Sets New Energy Saving Record

2007-04-16T02:24:00.000-07:00

Energy saving has become important not only in development of PC, but also peripherals, including printers and multifunctions. So it comes as no surprise that Xerox claims more than half of its products to be compatible with new ENERGY STAR specifications, which became effective only on April, 1.

The new ENERGY STAR version has a distinctive feature from the previous. Before now, energy consumption specifications only applied to ‘sleeping’ and energy saving modes of copiers, printer and MFPs. This time, a new index – TEC (Typical Electricity Consumption) – is designed to indicate how much energy a device consumes during an average working week.

Meeting ENERGY STAR requirements for Xerox seems easier that for other manufacturers, because Xerox has been partner of the specification developers since the beginning of 90s. Two year ago, Xerox launched a makeover of its laser printing components in effort to reduce energy consumption. The company has succeeded to lower level of energy consumption to 25% compared to previous models.

In part, this achievement became available due to new toner formulation. First, the new toner requires lower temperature to melt and, second, is made of smaller toner particles. All that reduces total printer toner volume and, in turn, energy consumption.

A Cat Against An Inkjet

2007-04-13T01:51:00.001-07:00

Let's have a break from serious new and watch a funny video of how a cat battles an HP Deskjet printer.

Another Use of An Inkjet Printer

2007-04-12T09:14:00.000-07:00

Epson is steadily expanding inkjet printing into different fields of application. One such field is textile industry. Epson already cooperates with Italian company Robustelli on production of large-size textile printers based on Epson’s Micro Piezo inkjet technology.

Next area where Epson plans to use inkjet printers is akin to textile printing – a production of wallpapers and tiles.

Another thing was truly amazing to me. I never thought an inkjet technology could be used in production of in the manufacturing of LCD panels. LCD panels rely on a grid of RGB color filters each of them make up a tiny tri-colored pixel in the entire panel.

Currently, production of these color filter panels involves a three-step process, where each step requires laying down a grid of one color, followed by laying down the next color and so on. To reduce the steps required, Epson worked together with Sharp Corporation to create the first inkjet-based color filter printer ever which prints all three colors simultaneously.

Next innovation to follow is a printable TV content. Epson has been working with TV makers and stations to develop such service. Imagine you’re watching a cooking show, pretty usual, huh? But! Soon you’ll be able to print out the recipes given! Of course, it’d require a printer connected to your TV-set, likely via USB.

Currently, Epson is promoting this innovation with Japanese TV stations.

Well, seems like we are entering an era of new types of multifunction – first, printer showing video, now TVs printing text. Can’t wait to see what’s coming up.

New HP Printers. Now With Video.

2007-04-12T03:08:00.000-07:00

HP released two new high-end color multifunction printers - CM8060 and CM8050. Based on Scalable Printing Technology that cost HP $1.4 billion of investments, printers utilize HP Edgeline Technology to merely spit out pages. The printers are the fastest among HP top models: CM8060 can print 60 and 50 pages per minute in monochrome and color, respectively. The CM8050 can reach speeds of 50 ppm in back-and-white and 40 ppm in color.

But what really interesting in these printers is that they have an unusual user help system. HP added a bunch of self-help feature like step-by-step instruction on control panel and even live-action videos. All this designed to help end user fix occurring problems with printer on their own.

For example, if paper is jammed in CM8060 and CM8050, AutoNav self-help tool will play a video showing the location of jam and giving instruction on how to remove it. Those videos are said to be very specific and to address the exact problem, as opposed to giving general help.

HP did lots of marketing research on printer user interface and it turned out that some changes to make it easy to use are required. HP believes the printer to produce pages 30% more cost effective the average in industry. They also hope the new printers self-help features help reduce volume of call to technical support and minimize end-user training.

A really nice move by HP. First, they will help users indeed. Second, we are, probably, witnessing how a new entertainment market is born. How long has it been since nobody really believed watching video in mobile phone would come true? :) You can also search for HP toner cartridge you need, and buy it for your printer.

Smallest A3 Color Laser Printer

2007-04-10T10:20:00.000-07:00

Another smallest color printer this time it’s A3, this time by it’s OKI. The new C8600n being actually large (485 x 556 x 345 mm.), it is relatively small compared to other printers of the same class.

OKI C8600n uses a single-pass digital LED technology; this allows for a smoother paper pass during printing and less paper jams.

The printer has a built-in LCD screen and six navigation buttons to access the printer's functions.

Equipped with an USB 2.0 port, the printer is network-ready as well and wields 128 MB of RAM.

OKI C8600n supports 1,200 x 600dpi resolution and prints with toner as fast as 32 ppm in monochrome and 26 ppm in color for A4-sized documents. A3-sized documents come out at speed of 17 and 15 in black and color respectively. It’s also capable of printing up to 1.2-meter long A3 banners.

Epson Leaves Customers with No Choice

2007-04-10T09:59:00.000-07:00

The other day Epson won another trial against third-party manufacturers that produce compatible ink cartridges for Epson printers. Epson sued a list of defendants for patent infringement based on two patents: 7,008,053 and 7,011,397 (the first patent describes the cartridge, the other one deals with ink flow method). The judge ruled that 24 companies did violate Epson’s patents and banned they from importing and selling cartridges in US.

Filing the complaint with the US International Trade Commission in February of 2006, Epson accused side ink cartridge manufacturers of their products coming close to Epson’s design. Since then, many companies from Germany, Hong Kong, Korea and US decided to settle, not to fight, and stop importing aftermarket ink cartridges for Epson's printers.

Sure, the Epson reps claim they pursue unfair competition, and that they will take whatever actions necessary to protect Epson’s patents, blah-blah-blah, and Epson has been successful in its efforts to do so. Business model of inkjet printer manufacturers has long been selling cheap printers and making profit on original cartridges, it is make sense to keep the third party companies away from consumables market, since printer ink is a $32 billion market worldwide.

Given all that, no doubt Epson’s going to be persistent in taking away compatible ink cartridges manufacturers. So, soon we may have no choice but to use only costly original inks for Epson printers.

Network Printer Can Cost You Job or Business

2007-04-09T02:43:00.000-07:00

Of course, not the printer itself, but what you might leave on its tray. According to recent research made by Lexmark, 64% of European office workers admit to having left or found a confidential document on the network printer at least once. When asked about personal consequences of such an event, people name damaged image or reputation or even being fired.

A document left on a printer tray may cause security risk amounted to €100,000 or more in companies employing 500 workers or more. Amazingly, in smaller companies hiring less than 50 people, every fifth employee estimates the risk to excess €100,000, which can destroy a small business.

In event of this, Lexmark has developed a number of solutions to help businesses protect confidential and sensitive documents. For instance, Lexmark’s Confidential Print feature requires employees to enter a PIN number to retrieve a document from the printer. This can significantly increase document security.

So, folks, always remember to take your printouts from printer’s tray, if you don’t want to have your business ruined or be fired :)

Web Friendly Printer by HP

2007-04-09T02:07:00.000-07:00

If you ever tried printing a random web page, you probably know that what you get is far from original. There are stripes of white space, images chopped in two, text cut from one side, and so on. That’s annoying. On the other hand, with the development of Internet era people tend to print less, partially because of such web-hostile printer behavior.

Hewlett Packard is reported to address this problem. They have numbers showing that a good half of the materials printed at home is from Internet, while computer software generates only 20 percent of printing. Internet is infested with blogs and pictures galleries, which can spur the demand for printing, provide printers are web friendly.

In effort to stimulate home printing, HP resorted to help of a side company, Tabblo, a developer of Web-based software. The software creates templates that reorganize the photos and text blocks on a Web page to fit standard sizes of paper. HP wants to make this software a general standard, like Flash or Java. With such printing engine of the Web, HP will help all printer companies, but being the industry leader, it will surely benefit the most.

Xerox Introduces Three Printers and Two MFPs

2007-04-06T00:16:00.000-07:00

Xerox introduced several new models of color laser printers and multifunctions. This is actually an update of the whole color print line for small and middle businesses. One of the new products is built on Solid Ink Technology. The very junior model, Phaser 6110MFP, combines printer, copier, scanner and fax. This model features rather compact dimensions (18.36x16.99x19.1 in.)

Phaser 6110MFP prints as fast as 16 pages per minute in monochrome and 4 pages per minute in color. It has an USB-port for direct print from flash-drives; besides the printer supports PictBridge Technology.

Next model Phaser 6115MFP demonstrates a faster speed of 20 ppm in black and white, and 5 ppm in color using printer toner. Phaser 6115MFP comes equipped with a duplex unit for two-side printing. Just like Phaser 6110MFP, this model has an Ethernet adapter hence can be used as network printer. Each of the two multifunctions has 128 MB of RAM onboard.

Among the new lasers, Phaser 6180 is the junior. It supports 600x600 dpi resolution and prints 20 ppm in color and 25 ppm in monochrome. The printer comes in two configurations: with a duplex unit and without one. Both configurations are built on 400 MHz processor, have 128 MB of RAM and a networking adapter.

One of the most efficient Xerox models, Phaser 6360, speeds up to 40 pages per minute in both color and black and white print. Maximum monthly duty cycle makes up 100,000 pages. A Risc Power PC 1 GHz processor takes only 9 and 6 seconds to produce a color and monochrome print, accordingly. The printer comes packed with specialty software that allows network administrators configure and copy settings.

The last one of the new models, Phaser 8560, implements Solid Ink Technology. Phaser 8560’s speed is 30 color pages per minute, a first-page-out time – 5 seconds. Supported resolution makes up 2400 dpi. Both Phaser 8560 and Phaser 6360 support a feature that allows printing in black even when color cartridges are depleted.

How Toner Is Used in Printers

2007-04-02T00:07:00.000-07:00

Surfing the net today, I came cross a thread where they discussed whether a laser printer uses equal amount of toner regardless of each print density, or not. That probably happens in laser printer cartridges with magnetized toner pickup rod, but not likely. The truth is the printer uses toner according to actual print density. And the amount of pages that can be printed is calculated based on an average of 15% print density of an 8 x 11 inch paper. Also, it seems like laser printers and photocopiers using toner all have recovery mechanisms which transfers unused toner back into the reservoir.

The Smallest Color MFP by Samsung

2007-03-27T05:05:00.000-07:00

For CeBIT Exhibition that ended the other day, Samsung prepared quite a few new products. One of them is a Samsung CLX-2160 multifunction printer. The company claims this combination of printer, copier and scanner to be the smallest color laser device of a kind.

The device measures 43.1 х 35.3 х 33.3 cm and is capable of printing up to 16 pages per minute in monochrome and 4 pages per minute in color.

Samsung CLX-2160 supports resolution of 2400 x 600 dpi. The multifunction comes equipped with 128 MB RAM and USB 2.0 interface. If also features a direct print from USB Mass Storage Device and scanning with saving to such device.

Other features include 150-sheet input tray and 4 separate laser printer cartridges with estimated capacity of 1000 pages for a color toner cartridge and 2000 pages for a black one.

New HP Printer Eases Print and Preprint

2007-03-23T04:57:00.000-07:00

Hewlett Packard announced a new wide-format photo printer Designjet Z3100ps GP. This model extends the model range of HP Designjet Z professional photo printers and feature easy integration into designing and publishing process. Aside from color management system, a property of all Z series printers, HP Designjet Z3100ps GP implement new HP DreamColor Technology. This technology is actually a complex of means of color management, providing accuracy and stability of color rendering for various digital devices.

The new model of HP Designjet Z series is firstly designed for design offices, marketing agencies, preprint offices and printing-works. New raster processor Adobe PS3/PDF features high usability and performance, while HP Advanced Profiling Solution with display calibration system allows experiment print on various media.

The built-in spectrophotometer based on X-Rite i1 Colour Technology automatically analyzes colors, calibrates them and instantly creates ICC-profiles. This drastically boosts print process of multicolor mock-ups and 24” and 44” color tests.

A free HP ProPrint module for Adobe Photoshop enables to achieve required colors at first try. This module is developed for Adobe Photoshop CS2 and is compatible with all HP Designjet Z series professional photo printers.

HP Designjet Z3100ps GP uses HP Vivera pigment inks 12-color print system.

Designed for workgroups, HP Designjet Z3100ps GP has a built-in web-server that allows task and queue management for maximum performance. The server is capable of processing task in multi-user environment due to 256 МB of RAM and 10 GB of flash memory.

Search for HP toner cartridges at Toner Cartridge Depot.com

60 Pages Per Minute Inkjet Printer

2007-03-20T22:51:00.000-07:00

An Australian company Silverbrook Research announced a technology called Memjet it’s been working on for a decade. The technology required to over 1400 patents.

The developer asserts the innovation will enable a jet print speed unheard of before – 60 pages per minute in color.

In printers supporting Memjet Technology, the printhead that span the width of an A4 page. First such printers are going to be quite affordable – around $200, and the ink price is good too – less then $20 for 50 ml.

Technical specifications for Memjet Technology are expected the soonest (currently, they charge around $3000 for a detailed report on implemented technologies). You can view a video demonstrating the speed of a prototype built on the new technology.

Truth to be told, I see it as as logical continuation for the previous post. This is a great idea to make a printhead as wide as a sheet of paper to print on. I just wonder why it took 10 years and millions of dollars for the idea to emerge.

Best of Laser and Inkjet Printing by HP

2007-03-04T23:33:00.000-08:00

Hewlett Packard has developed a unique Edgeline and Scalable Printing Technologies for high-speed quality high-volume printing at low running costs.

The development has taken $1.4 billion and over 4 years of work. The goal of the research was to create single printing mechanism using advantages of both laser and jet HP technologies. As a result, the developed Edgeline technology has considerably increased the speed of printing and it’s outstanding quality.

The HP engineers have managed to combine best features of inkjet and laser printing: high speed, quality of text and graphics, low print cost per page and the lowest general running costs.

Edgeline Technology is one of a kind – printheads are positioned sheet-wide, so the only thing that moves during printing is paper. The speed increase has been made due to linear positioning of big fixed printheads – inks pour on paper sheet-wide while the sheet passes under printheads. That results in accurate ink application and maximum print speed.

The devices built on this technology use Vivera inks to provide highest print quality even on plain paper. Unlike jet technology, inks don’t diffuse into paper, but are applied on its surface and fixed with fixing agent to form a thin film. As a result, printouts come out dry even at high speed.

HP Edgeline Technology is developed for high-volume printing systems used in commercial print, industrial and office large-volume print. First products built on Edgeline technology are expected to appear the soonest.

Portable And Smart Sony PictureStation DPP-FP70 and DPP-FP90

2007-02-28T21:08:00.000-08:00

Sony introduces two compact portable photo printers producing pictures for less than a minute.

Sony PictureStation DPP-FP70 and DPP-FP90 have a carrying handle and a built-in display (2.5 inches for DPP-FP70 and 3.6 inches for DPP-FP90) to view and edit photos. The new products are based on Sony Bionz image processor that allows printing 4x6 in. photos for 45 seconds. Despite recently Sony has started to favor other flash-memory formats, the photo printers are only equipped with Memory Stick slot (Pro/Duo are available through adapter).

DPP-FP70 and DPP-FP90 provide users with functions of Auto Touch-up for white balance correction, sharpness adjustment and ‘red eyes’ effect removal. There are options for creation of congratulatory inscriptions and postcards. Those who want to use the portable printers to produce printouts, have a choice of six filter options (color filters, lighting filters, sepia, negative and fish-eye filters)

DPP-FP70 and DPP-FP90 are compatible with most of digital cameras supporting PictBridge. However, the press release notes the printers are optimized for use with Sony Cyber-shot и Alpha D-SLR cameras. The printers use sublimation printing technology; the printouts are laminated with SuperCoat 2 coating. Estimated cost of one printout is 29 cent.

Canon PIXMA iP90v: Printer For Mobile Profi

2007-02-27T01:27:00.000-08:00

Canon has expanded its range of portable photo printers with new model PIXMA iP90v.

This device is positioned as a solution for mobile professionals. The printhead has 1088 nozzles that enables a droplet size of 2 picalitres and resolution of 4800 x 1200 dpi.

PIXMA iP90v can print borderless images of up to A4 size. Maximum speed reaches 12 pages pre minute in color and 16 pages per minute in black and white. It takes 51 seconds to produce a 4x6 in. sized photo at best quality settings.

Composite Black Mode allows printing monochrome pictures even when black cartridge is dry empty, due to color ink mixture.

The printer supports PictBridge technology through built-in infrared port or optional Bluetooth-adapter. Optional Li-Ion battery should suffice to produce around 450 prints.

Recommended price for Canon PIXMA iP90v is $250.

Search for Canon Ink Cartridges at TonerCartridgeDepot.com

Multifunction Printer In Your Mobile

2007-02-12T22:50:00.000-08:00

Quite unusual device was presented by Possio. Its MFP called GRETA combines mobile phone, scanner, copier, fax and printer. The device equipped with a Siemens GSM module, same as in MC55 и MC56 mobiles, and supports GSM-850/1800/1900 ranges.

Scanning and printing requires PC connection via USB. This multifunction uses thermal paper, just like faxes. One roll is enough for 50 prints of A4 size.

GRETA uses a Ni-MH battery as power source. The dimensions are 290х150х50 mm; weight is less then a kilo. No information on prices and market release date available so far.

Kodak Rocks Photo Print: Cheaper Inks and 100 Years of Prints Endurance

2007-02-07T21:30:00.000-08:00

Kodak made a big announcement of its first for last 5 years full-format printers (the company did release compact photo-printers). This announcement could have been unnoticed, if not the declared efficiency of the printers.

The thing is, the inks used in these printers have quite outstanding features.

First, Kodak guarantees the endurance of printouts to be 100 years. Most photos printed on modern inkjet printers have average endurance of 15 years.

Second, a 4x6-inch print will cost only 10 cent (obviously, we’re talking about the cots of inks only), which is two times cheaper than that of HP, Epson or Canon. For monochrome print the cost will be 3 cent per print.

A black ink cartridge will come to $10, while a 5-color cartridge is priced at $15.

ISO Suggests New Method for Assessing Print Cost

2007-02-07T20:59:00.000-08:00

Until recently, no one actual knew how much a single print costs. Every manufacturer has it’s own methods of measure, and information customers had was often far from real state of affairs.

It was in December 2002, that Office of Fair Trading (OFT) addressed the major manufacturers – Epson, Canon, HP and Lexmark – so that they developed a unified technique for assessing ink consumption, printer toner yield, etc.

Currently, the cost of consumables is several times of the printer, during its lifespan. Moreover, the manufacturers not always fully fill a printer cartridge with toner, so that a customer was quicker to come for the next one.

OFT affords resulted in new technique of assessment developed by International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in cooperation with mentioned above brands. The technique provides for compulsory testing

under standardized temperature
on several type of paper
several units of same printer model
with several sets of cartridges

ISO suggests that manufacturers use this technique starting from now, despite it’s now approved as a standard so far. However, only HP and Epson have applied the technique, Lexmark is planning to do so at the end of this month. Canon has not yet responded to ISO recommendations and is using its own methods.

New 3D-printer Produces More Durable and Detailed Models

2007-02-01T04:09:00.000-08:00

The other day, Dimension 3D Printing Group, a division of Stratasys, introduced a new device for fast 3D-prototypes production - Dimension Elite 3D Printer. “Volumetric printer” Dimension Elite is an addition to existing range of table plants by Dimension 3D Printing Group, which include Dimension 1200 (two models) and Dimension 768 (two models also). Thus, the Dimension family has total of 5 models.

Dimension Elite 3D Printer enables engineers and designers to get models of enhanced detailing and higher quality surface processing, more durable and functional than ever before. The maximum dimensions of processing model are around 20x20x30 cm. The construction material is ABSplus, an advanced modification of ABS. ABSplus allows creating models that are 40% more resistant to mechanical action. The new product is priced at $32,900.

Inkless Printer Inside Your Mobile or Camera

2007-01-31T00:14:00.000-08:00

ZINK Imaging is up to finish off all mobiles and other gadgets owners. We hardly managed to get used to a digital camera in every mobile phone, when ZINK is getting another surprise – built-in color printer for mobiles.

The soonest, the company expects to present an authentic printing technology, using no inks, cartridges or printing ribbons. The patented development included in exposition of the company at DEMO 07, revolutionary changes the very concept of printing – the image on paper appears “without a single drop of ink.”

The answer is simple. It’s all about special paper ZINK. The paper already has and is expected to receive all-in-all 100 patents. Dry crystals of colouring agent are incorporated in structure of paper and activated with warmth, emitted by printhead of the printer. The crystals are hued forming a “high-quality, long-lasting, durable and inexpensive image.”

Mobile gadgets have been selected as initial field of implementation of the technology. Later during this year, partners of ZINK Imaging are release first products using the technology. It’s expected that they would bring the color printing where we couldn’t even imagine before – pocket digital cameras and mobile phones.

New OKI Monocrome Printers For Workgroups

2007-01-29T01:29:00.000-08:00

Oki Data Corporation, the owner of OKI Printing Solutions brand producing printing devices, introduced two new monochrome printers – B4400 and B4600. The printers are designed for small workgroups and offices.

The manufacturer claims high quality and reliability to be the advantages of B440 and B4600. According to the company’s estimations, these printers’ monthly duty cycle two times exceeds of competing solutions and equals 40,000 pages. Having inherited the compact size, the new printing devices evolutionally replace B4250 и B4350 (presented on the picture) models.

The declared print speed is 27 pages per minute. First page print time is 6 seconds.

The estimated price of B4400 and B4600 is $229 and $299 accordingly. The printers are expected on North American market in February.

Search for Okidata Toner Cartridges at TonerCartridgeDepot.com

Lexmark X9350 – MFP for Home and Small Business

2007-01-21T21:30:00.000-08:00

The model range of Lexmark multifunction printers for home ans small businesses has been recently updated with a new model – Lexmark X9350. The new product features duplex printing and biult-in wireless network adapter. Lexmark X9350 uses Evercolor 2 inks to provide high quality and endurance of outprints. Given the photos printed on PerfectFinish Photo Paper, the manufacturer claims the photos to last up to 100 years in frames and up to 200 years in album.

Other features of Lexmark X9350 model:

150-sheet paper tray
Multipage copying and fax sending via 50-sheet ADF
2.4-inch LED color display
48-bit scanner
4800х1200 dpi resolution
Borderless 4x6 in. photo printing
Priting photos from mobile phones via bluetooth (bluetooth adapter required)
Direct photo printing from flash-cards, digital cameras supporting PictBridge technology, and flash-drives
Copying speed in black-and-white and color – 27 and 26 pages per minute, accordingly.

Recommended price in the US is $279.

Search for Lexmark inkjet cartridges for all-in-one printers at TonerCartridgeDepot.com

Epson Stylus Photo 1400: Printing A3+ Photos

2007-01-21T20:42:00.000-08:00

Epson introduced a new photoprinter Stylus Photo 1400, designed, as the manufacturer states, for those in love with photography. The new printer produces 4 x 6 in. to A3+ outprints at 5760 х 1440 dpi resolution.

The model uses six separate cartridges for more effective use of inks. Proprietary Advanced Variable Sized Droplet Technology (Advanced VSDT) allows ajusting ink droplet size depending on printing image. The minimal size of ink droplet is 1,5 picolitre.

Stylus Photo 1400 features CD and DVD printing, supports direct printing from digital cameras over USB using PictBridge technology.

The printer appears on European market next month. The expected price of 399 euros seems reasonable for such solution.

Search for Epson ink cartridges at TonerCartridgeDepot.com