Other ways to print

Posted in: Printers, blog by Jack on 18 August 2010 | View Comments

Most of the time when we discuss “printing” we are talking about a traditional computer-printer setup; the printer connected to the computer with a parallel or USB cable and print jobs sent from a word processor or image application to the printer.

But did you know there are other ways to print?

Many modern printers are being sold with wireless capabilities. Used to be if you wanted to connect your printer to your wireless network you had to buy and configure a print server, one of the most frustrating and problematic pieces of technology released to the public. When I worked on the help desk of a major networking hardware manufacturer we used to hate receiving calls about print servers. Not very many home users saw the need for print servers, most were sold to businesses. The difficulty with configuring them and getting them to stay connected to the network made them unpopular.

This was before the wireless device revolution we’re now experiencing. Now your cell phone can connect to your wireless network, you can connect external storage devices, MP3 players, cameras, iPads and the list goes on and increases almost daily. Eventually all of our electronic devices will be able to network together and send data from one device to another.

A printer that’s a part of a wireless network can receive print jobs from any other device on the network. My camera can send an image to be printed. I can print out the webpage I’m reading on my wireless laptop. You no longer have to be sitting in front of your computer at a desk in order to print.

There are even wireless printers that, by means of a modified browser, allow you to surf and print directly from the internet, no computer required.

Another technology that has become nearly ubiquitous in cell phones and other personal electronic devices is Bluetooth. Bluetooth is a wireless technology with a shorter range than the 802.11 b/g/n routers most of us have, generally 30 feet as opposed to the average 300 feet of 802.11 wireless devices. Bluetooth is ideal for sending data to another device quickly and securely. Bluetooth in a printer is less beneficial than is wireless since the distance is more limited by Bluetooth. In some homes and offices you could easily be too far from the printer for it to connect.

There’s also been an increase in the number of ethernet-networked printers. These printers are connected to your network’s router with a standard ethernet cable like the one connected to your computer. Connecting to the printer by ethernet cable instead of making a wireless connection requires more cables running everywhere.

Finally, did you know you can “print” without even owning a printer?

Most word processing applications offer a means to “print to file” instead of sending a print job to a printer. This option is a bit different than simply saving a document. By printing to file you are saving a copy of your document as it would appear if printed out. Some applications also allow you to “print” your document to a file in PDF format.

Some people believe they need to print out every interesting thing they get in email or see on the web. You could save paper and ink by printing instead to a folder on your computer or external storage device.

PostScript printers

Posted in: Printers, blog by Jack on 22 July 2010 | View Comments

I had a customer the other day who was receiving some documents from an employer  and the employer required that she have a PostScript printer installed on her computer. She was not familiar with Post Script printers and had no idea if she had one or not.

First, there’s an easy way to check if your computer has a PostScript printer installed. Most all programs install a PostScript printer to the same place on your computer that any other printer will show. So just navigate to the Start menu in Windows (System Preferences on Mac OS X) and then click on Printers & Faxes (Print & Fax on Mac OS X). In this section you may find virtual printers created by desktop publishing applications like Microsoft Word and PDF printers. This is also where a PostScript printer will show up if one is installed on your system.

For a brief overview of just what a PostScript printer is let me quote from About.com:

Simply put, PostScript is a programming or page description language. It is a way of describing what a page should look like. Another such page description language is PCL (printer control language) found in HP printers. For the differences between PostScript and PCL see PS and PCL Comparisions.

Printers print dots. How these dots (raster images) are arranged on the page determines what you see, how the page looks. A printer uses an interpreter (printer driver) to translate digital documents created by your software into a raster image that the printer can print.

Some types of documents such as those created by graphic designers and desktop publishers, contain an intricate combination of fonts and graphics that are best described using PostScript. The PostScript language and a PostScript printer driver then tell the printer how to print that document. PostScript is generally device-independent, that is, if you create a PostScript file it will print pretty much the same on any PostScript device.

Do you need a PostScript printer? Click on over to About.com and find out.

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Do you get crashes when printing in Leopard (OS X 10.5)?

Posted in: Printers, blog by Jack on 30 May 2010 | View Comments

If so, here’s one possible cause and solution from the excellent macosxhints.com website, posted by Tom Neale:

Several models of HP LaserJet printer are known to crash or hang when certain documents are printed from 10.5/Leopard machines. The culprit may be a bad or corrupted font, in particular, version 6 of the Papyrus font. In short: replace the font file with one from a 10.4 installation to stop the printer crashes.

The longer version: I have a Color Laserjet 3800n and also a 2430dtn that crash any time a document that uses the Papyrus font is printed from a machine running Mac OS 10.5.x. They display an Error 49.4 C02 code and the printer must be powered cycled to clear the problem. HP lists this code as ‘A critical firmware error has occurred;’ not particularly useful or informative. The same problem did not occur when printing from 10.4.x machines.

This all led me to look at the font itself. The file always passes the verification tests in Font Book; there is nothing overtly wrong with it. But, it clearly does not get along well with these HP Laserjet printers. The version of the font installed on a 10.5 system is is 6.0d6e1. It contains both Regular and Condensed versions of the font.

I went hunting for a different version of the Papyrus.dfont file and found one on a 10.4.11 machine. It is version 4.0d1e1 and contains only Regular, not Condensed. Replacing the newer font with the older one in the /Library/Fonts folder allowed me to successfully print documents using the Papyrus font. This has fixed the printer crashing problem for me.

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5 things to keep in mind when buying a new printer

Posted in: Printers, blog by Jack on 29 April 2010 | View Comments

There is no fixed season for new printer purchasing. Printer manufacturers don’t have any particular time of year set aside to introduce their new models. Some manufacturers introduce a new printer once a year, others bring out several new models a year. The decision to buy a new printer is going to be based on your needs and the condition of your current printer. From what we’ve seen, the average life expectancy of a new inkjet printer is about 2 years. Since inkjet printers are not made to be repaired, if your inkjet printer breaks you really have no alternative but to replace it (and recycle your broken printer). Laserjet printers are designed with repair in mind and replacement parts are usually available. But these days the cost of parts and labor can exceed the value of the printer. In those cases replacing the printer may be a better decision financially than repairing your broken machine. We would generally advise a customer to reuse their old machine, but with an appreciation of financial reality, we understand that doesn’t always make the best fiscal sense. Still, we encourage anyone replacing their current printer to find a way to recycle it rather than throwing it in the trash.

So you’ve decided it’s time to but a new printer. Here are some questions to ask yourself before you commit to a specific model or brand.

1. What type of printing will the new printer be doing as its primary task?

This is the most important question of any you need to consider before deciding which printer to buy.

Will you be printing photographs or color copies? Then unless you are willing to spend a few hundred dollars for a color laser printer you’ll be looking for an inkjet printer. Inkjets produce the best color prints for a reasonable price per page. If you only intend to print out documents and forms and have no need for color printing, then you should consider the various models of personal laserjet printers being marketed today. These are smaller than the typical office laserjet and while the single cartridge may set you back $40 or more, that cartridge will produce, on average, ten times more pages than an inkjet cartridge, so your cost-per-page is a tenth of that printing with ink.

2. How often will you be printing?

If you print something at least every couple of weeks then either an inkjet or laserjet will be useful to you. However, if you’re only going to use your printer for a few weeks every year you’d be better off considering only a laserjet. Laser printers use powdered toner which isn’t subject to drying or evaporating. You can leave a laser printer alone for 3 months, come back and run a perfect print. That isn’t going to happen with the majority of inkjet printers. Laserjet printers are subject to humidity, though. The toner in a laser cartridge kept in a humid atmosphere will clump up and be unavailable for printing. This can be remedied by gently shaking or rocking the cartridge back and forth to break up the toner clumps. At worst clumped up toner is a waste; toner clumps cannot damage your printer. Ink cartridges left too long without being used will most likely form hard blocks of dried ink on the printhead. This can sometimes be cleared up but most often requires replacing the cartridge.

3. Is printing vitally important to you or something you only do once in a while?

The more important printing is to you, the more attention you should pay to all the capabilities of your next printer. If you do a great deal of printing, you want to minimize costs as much as possible while ensuring the highest quality of output available. You’ll want to purchase your printer from a retailer who offers a solid warranty and good service-after-the-sale. If printing is a casual practice and you don’t need all the bells-and-whistles of a high-end printer, watch for sales at the big box electronics retail stores and even scout out your local thrift stores. Older printers and discontinued models may meet your needs and save you quite a bit of money.

4. Where will your printer be located and how many computers will be using the printer?

One of the capabilities being built-in to newer printers, both ink and laser, is wireless connectivity. Previously, if you wanted to connect your printer to a wireless network, you had to purchase a separate print server, a nasty piece of hardware that usually proved difficult to configure and nearly impossible to use without problems. I used to work for D-Link on the help desk, and I’d say the most difficult calls we had to handle dealt with print servers. No one is happier to see the end of these devices. Printers with built-in wireless capabilities are simple to set up and deploy. It’s not much harder than adding another computer to your network. A wireless-capable networked printer is available to any computer within range of the router. You could have your printer in one office and send print jobs to it from any other office in your business or any room in your house.

Another alternative is a wired network printer. Many newer laser printers have an ethernet card built-in to the chassis and can be added to your network by simply connecting a standard RJ-45 ethernet cable from the router to the printer. This means that the printer will need to be located within cable length of the router, usually 6-15′.

One advantage to a wired printer is security. If for any reason you are sending print jobs to the printer that should be kept secure from possibly being intercepted by an unauthorized 3rd party, you’ll want to have a wired connection to the router for both your computer and printer. Any data sent wirelessly to a router or printer can be compromised by being intercepted en route. For the average user this isn’t much of a concern. But if you deal with sensitive data or any information that shouldn’t be exposed to the risk of interception, it’s something to keep in mind.

5. What is going to be the cost of consumables?

The initial cost of the printer is not the only expense you’ll be incurring over the lifetime of your printer. You need to factor in the cost of consumables, primarily ink/toner and paper, as well. With each new generation of printer the manufacturers are shrinking the volume of ink and toner in their cartridges. This makes sense when you consider they make little or no profit off the sales of the printer but instead have chosen to make most of their profit from the sales of cartridges. To increase profits they need to make you buy cartridges more frequently. This is most easily accomplished by reducing the amount of ink and toner in the cartridges so you’ll have to replace them more often. It’s true they have also reduced the price of many of their newest cartridges, but the price reduction doesn’t always reflect the amount of toner or ink in the cartridge. Your new cartridge may cost $2 less than the ones you used to buy, but you’re often only getting half the ink that was in those older cartridges.

While we can’t help you reduce the cost of the paper you buy for your printer, we can help you control the cost of ink and/or laser cartridges. On average remanufactured cartridges from CW San Diego cost from 30-45% less than the manufacturer’s suggested retail price of original cartridges. Our cartridges are filled with quality ink and toner manufactured for your specific printer, and all of our products are guaranteed for the life of the cartridge. We offer you a no-risk way to reduce the cost of ink and toner cartridges.

We encourage our customers to call us before and even while they shop for a new printer. We can let you know our prices for the cartridges required for your new printer, allowing you to make an informed decision about which printer best meets your needs.

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Solving hardware issues with software (drivers)

Posted in: Printers, blog by Jack on 16 April 2010 | View Comments

One practice we frequently employed on help desks was to insist that the caller first go and download and install the latest driver for their hardware before we attempted to troubleshoot their issue.

This wasn’t done to get them off the phone. It was a valid attempt to solve their issue.

The disk that comes with your printer was most likely created months before your printer was packaged and sent to the retail store where you bought it. By the time you go to install the drivers on the disk into your computer they could be over a year old. During that year other owners reported issues they had to the printer manufacturer, the manufacturer’s engineers re-wrote the drivers to correct those problems, and the manufacturer made these updated drivers available on their website. Windows 7′s recent release will also have caused new drivers to be written in order for your printer to work with this new operating system.

This is why we recommend that when you encounter odd behavior or other issues with your printer, before you do anything else in an attempt to fix those issues, go to the manufacturer’s website, look for the Support section and download and install the latest drivers for your printer and operating system. That alone may very well solve your problems.

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Printer Shopping Tips from MacWorld

Posted in: Printers, blog by Jack on 29 March 2010 | View Comments

Every month it seems printer manufacturers are pushing new models with additional features (and smaller ink supplies) onto the shelves of local office supply and big-box retail stores. Every week we get calls from our customers asking for suggestions as to which printer to buy; which printer has the cheapest cartridges, which one most easily connects to a home or small business wireless network, which printer best meets their printing needs.

Our basic advice has always been to get the printer that does what you need a printer to do and avoid buying one that offers additional functions that you have no use for. For example, if you don’t plan on adding this printer to a SOHO wireless network, save money and don’t buy one with wireless capabilities.

MacWorld recently published an article with their suggestions for printer buyers.

If you’re about to go shopping for a printer, whether in person or online, keep the following tips in mind.

• Set your budget
• Decide on must-have features
• Know your ink and toner costs

They break down printer price-points:

What to expect for your money

• $40 to $80: Curb your expectations.
• $80 to $100: Basic functionality.
• $150: Adequate or better.
• $250: Midrange inkjets and monochrome lasers.
• $400: The best inkjets and bare-bones color lasers.
• $500: Basic color lasers and better monochrome lasers.
• $700 to $800: The sweet spot for lasers.
• $1000 or more: First class all the way.

They end up with advice with which we absolutely agree.

Ink and toner costs

The money you pay for any printer doesn’t stop with the hardware purchase; you also have to consider the ongoing costs for replacing the ink or toner supplies. For many inkjet printers, in particular, the cost of replacement cartridges can quickly outstrip the initial cost of the printer. Don’t be tempted by a printer’s features without also checking on its cost of consumables.

(Source-MacWorld)

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When you click on “Print”…

Posted in: Printers, blog by Jack on 2 March 2010 | View Comments

When you click on a button to print, there is a sequence of events that take place:

1. The software application you are using sends the data to be printed to the printer driver.
2. The driver translates the data into a format that the printer can understand and checks to see that the printer is online and available to print.
3. The data is sent by the driver from the computer to the printer via the connection interface (parallel, USB, etc.).
4. The printer receives the data from the computer. It stores a certain amount of data in a buffer. The buffer can range from 512 KB random access memory (RAM) to 16 MB RAM, depending on the model. Buffers are useful because they allow the computer to finish with the printing process quickly, instead of having to wait for the actual page to print. A large buffer can hold a complex document or several basic documents.
5. If the printer has been idle for a period of time, it will normally go through a short clean cycle to make sure that the print head(s) are clean. Once the clean cycle is complete, the printer is ready to begin printing.
6. The control circuitry activates the paper feed stepper motor. This engages the rollers, which feed a sheet of paper from the paper tray/feeder into the printer. A small trigger mechanism in the tray/feeder is depressed when there is paper in the tray or feeder. If the trigger is not depressed, the printer lights up the “Out of Paper” LED and sends an alert to the computer.
7. Once the paper is fed into the printer and positioned at the start of the page, the print head stepper motor uses the belt to move the print head assembly across the page. The motor pauses for the merest fraction of a second each time that the print head sprays dots of ink on the page and then moves a tiny bit before stopping again. This stepping happens so fast that it seems like a continuous motion.
8. Multiple dots are made at each stop. It sprays the CMYK colors in precise amounts to make any other color imaginable.
9. At the end of each complete pass, the paper feed stepper motor advances the paper a fraction of an inch. Depending on the inkjet model, the print head is reset to the beginning side of the page, or, in most cases, simply reverses direction and begins to move back across the page as it prints.
10. This process continues until the page is printed. The time it takes to print a page can vary widely from printer to printer. It will also vary based on the complexity of the page and size of any images on the page. For example, a printer may be able to print 16 pages per minute (PPM) of black text but take a couple of minutes to print one, full-color, page-sized image.
11. Once the printing is complete, the print head is parked. The paper feed stepper motor spins the rollers to finish pushing the completed page into the output tray. Most printers today use inks that are very fast-drying, so that you can immediately pick up the sheet without smudging it.

(Courtesy of How Stuff Works)

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Old printer, new computer

Posted in: Printers, blog by Jack on 27 August 2009 | View Comments

If you’ve recently purchased a new computer you may have noticed that many manufacturers no longer install serial port or parallel port connectors. The hardware that requires these connectors is now several years old and has, in most cases, been replaced by USB connectors.

Older printers generally connected with a parallel connector. These cables and connectors only allowed for data transfer speeds of 50 kB/sec to 150 kB/sec. Compare this to the newest USB 2.0 standard which allows for transfer speeds of 480 Mbits/sec. The huge increase in speed is why most manufacturers have abandoned parallel ports and replaced them with multiple USB ports.

Another reason is the fact that many electronic devices today connect via USB. Cameras, scanners, cell phones; many peripheral devices connect with USB cables. It makes more sense from a manufacturing viewpoint to include multiple ports of a kind that can be used by many devices as opposed to making room for a port that only one or two devices still use.

So if you buy a computer today, whether laptop or desktop, it most likely will sport several USB 2.0 ports and no parallel or serial port.

But let’s say you have an older printer that still works, has a large ink supply and it’s a printer you’ve become accustomed to, but one that only has a parallel port connector. Does the fact your new computer has no parallel port connector mean that you have to go out and buy a new printer?

Not at all.

There are adapter cables available that have a standard USB plug on one end and a parallel connector on the other. These will let you connect your parallel port printer to any computer with an available USB port.

There is a downside to this. When combining standards, in this case USB and parallel, devices default to the speed of the slowest device. So while these cables offer the convenience of connecting a parallel port printer to a USB port, the data transfer speed will equal that of a parallel port connection. You won’t get USB 2.0 speeds with this connector. But in most cases the difference in speed won’t be noticeable to the average user. There will be a longer delay between sending a print job to the printer and the start of actual printing than you would get with a USB printer, but the delay shouldn’t be more than a few seconds longer.

To find these cables, search Google for “USB to parallel cable” or check with your local electronics store. They can cost anywhere from $13 to $90 depending on length, connector type and retailer.

When you buy a new printer, make sure it’s going to last

Posted in: Printers, blog by Jack on 10 August 2009 | View Comments

Jack Dunning, publisher of ComputorEdge Magazine, has posted an opinion piece intended for those of you who may be in the market for a new printer. He offers some valid points to consider. I encourage you to read the full article before you buy your next printer. Consider your present and future needs and buy a printer that can accomplish the tasks you want to perform without offering you functions you don’t need or want.

Printer manufacturers are motivated to build cheap printers because of the follow-on sales of printer ink and toner. Each manufacturer has its own proprietary inking/toner system that keeps its customers coming back for more. There are alternatives for refilling ink and toner cartridges, but there are still enough people who prefer to buy the HP or Epson label that it keeps these companies doing very well in the sale of printer supplies. If it weren’t for the ink and toner sales, printer manufacturers would be hard-pressed to provide such sophisticated equipment for such a low price.

If you’re in the market for a new printer, it may be worth the time to evaluate what you need—although it’s hard to make that argument when you can always get another printer for next to nothing. When I buy a new printer, I want it to last a long time. There are some key issues involved in the printer decision.

Inkjet Versus Laser

There are two basic types of printers on today’s market: inkjet printers and laser printers. Inkjet printers use inks (at least four or more colors) to generate high-quality full-color output. They are generally less expensive and slower than laser printers, and not built for high quantities of printing. The quality and reasonable price make inkjet printers desirable for most home uses.

Unless you do a great deal of printing (usually in an office environment), you may be best off buying an inkjet printer. The inkjet will give you more quality options, such as printing high-resolution photo images. Color laser printers are available, but they are a little more expensive ($300 and up), and the print quality does not compete with inkjet printers.

Laser printers use toner (similar to copiers) rather than ink. There are two reasons to prefer the laser printer for volume work. The first is speed. Laser printers are capable of greater speed (15 to 20 pages per minute). Inkjet printers claim similar speeds, but the reality is that when better-quality work is produced, the inkjets slow to a crawl.

The second reason for preferring a laser printer is because the per-copy cost will be much lower than that of an inkjet. While laser printers are more expensive than inkjets, they are very economical for high-volume output. Although toner cartridges cost more than ink, the number of copies generated by one toner cartridge makes the per-copy cost much lower.

The real question to ask before deciding between inkjet and laser printers is, how much printing are you going to do and at what quality level? Many people need to print only the occasional document or make a copy. If this is the case, then an inkjet will certainly suffice while offering quality output.

Make It a Network Printer

If you don’t have a network at home, then you will probably have no reason to network your printer. However, all you need is one more computer coming into your home (possibly a relative’s laptop), and you’ll find that they want to use your printer/scanner. You can share a printer attached to your computer over a network, but it’s much more convenient to share a network printer. As mentioned in network article “Cool Things to Do With Your Home Network,” you may suddenly find that you have a home network.

On a network, the printer can be used by any member of the network without a printer-host computer being powered up. The network printer can be placed anywhere in the house that’s convenient to the network. If you attach a printer to a computer with the USB port, your printer location will be limited by the USB cable length.

For these reasons, I look for a printer with network capabilities. Many printers come only with the USB port for hooking up directly to your computer. It’s true that if you hook up the printer directly to your computer you can share it over a network, but there may be a time in the future when an Ethernet (wired) or Wi-Fi (wireless) networked printer will come in handy. While printers with either the hardwired Ethernet connection and/or the 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi (wireless) may cost a little more, for me, the options are worth it.

People use their printers for a long time. The technology of scanning and printing does not change so rapidly that frequent replacement of printers is required. Spending a little more now to get either the Ethernet or Wi-Fi network capabilities (I would get both) could save you a couple of years down the road. Be sure to check the specifications on the printer. Many printers come only with a USB port for connecting to a computer. You should see the proper terminology for networking in the specification: Ethernet for cable connection and 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi for wireless.

If you decide to save a little money and get a USB-only printer, you can always add a print server (Ethernet or Wi-Fi) when you want to network the printer. A print server is a device that will make the printer network-capable.

When looking at printers, there are three major decisions and one option. Whether you pick an inkjet or laser printer depends on how much you will print and what quality output you need—inkjet for quality and laser for quantity. Getting a printer with a scanner is almost not a decision anymore, since most printers come with scanners—and they should. Even if you don’t need it now, I recommend that you get a printer that you can put on a network. A built-in fax machine is needed only if you interact with other fax machines on a daily basis. Otherwise, there are easier ways to send a fax without a fax machine.

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World’s first web-connected printer

Posted in: Printers, blog by Jack on 22 June 2009 | View Comments

Looking to make the wild and not-entirely-wondrous world of printers exciting for the first time in decades, HP has just unveiled the “world’s first web-connected printer.” If you’re wondering how it plans on accomplishing such an impossible mission, let us just say this: the Photosmart Premium is going the way of the widget. Up on the 4.33-inch front panel is Touchsmart Web, a touchscreen interface with several bundled, online apps to accommodate usual paper-friendly tasks such as printing Google maps, tickets from Fandango, coupons, recipes, Sudoku, etc. There’s even a full-on HD Apps Studio just in case downloading new apps on one’s printer really becomes the new hotness. The API’s being made open for the entire realm of developers, but we have to wonder what kind of interest we’ll see here. Pricing is set for $399…

HP Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart Web is the world’s first Web connected home
printer. Powered by touch and empowered by the Web, this sleek device provides quick,
simple touchscreen access to important, useful and personal online content.(1) With the
largest LCD touchscreen of any all-in-one inkjet printer (4.33-inches), the HP TouchSmart
Web control panel conveniently connects users to the Web via pre-loaded HP apps.
Part of an entirely new Web-based printing platform, these apps enable easy printing of
maps, coupons, movie tickets, recipes and more from partners including Google,
DreamWorks Animation, Fandango and Coupons.com, among others.

Users can also connect to Snapfish and directly from the HP Photosmart Premium with
TouchSmart Web, which saves time and enables customers to archive or print photos
from the site like never before… just touch, print and go. People additionally can
access projects from the HP Creative Studio.

A versatile printing solution with print, fax, copy and scan functionality, the HP
Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart Web is perfect for multi-tasking households –
meeting all their high-quality home printing needs in one premium product, from laserquality
text to lab-quality photos. With a full range of wired and wireless connectivity
options, this printer provides the freedom and flexibility to print directly from Wi-Fi
enabled PCs, Bluetooth®-enabled devices, the iPhone™ and the iPod touch™ using HP
iPrint Photo. Expected to be available for purchase September 2009 in North America.

Click over to Engadget for a full rundown on the capabilities of the HP Photosmart Premium.

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