Ink | Computers and Technology

Get The Colors You Want Without The Costs

We all love to hate printers. In the greater picture of things, printers seem like they were invented by someone that hates us, since they seem to have so many ways to break down or have things go wrong. Almost all of us have had to deal with having the paper jam into the printer or something else going wrong with the printer that causes you to spend hours curing to the heavens and trying to figure out why electronic devices can’t just work the way that they’re supposed to work without all of the hassle that usually comes with them.

Printers, though, seem to take the brunt of our angst, often because it is so easy for them to have problems. Many other electronic products have their inner workings entirely encased and are less vulnerable to mishaps. Printers, however, are totally interactive, in that the paper must move THROUGH them to function, with a variety of opportunities for problems to arise. How can you get your printer to translate the brightness and colors that you see on your screen perfectly to the paper?

Good Printer

The first thing to ensure is that you have a good printer. This doesn’t indicate that you need the latest and greatest printing technology-indeed, many people acknowledge that the most reliable printers are ones that have been around for a while and proven themselves as investments of worth. The manufacturers have had time to figure out all the bugs and glitches and eliminate them, letting you work with a high-quality piece of electronics that has been tried and tested, and probably won’t cost as much either.

Good Ink

Getting good ink is also important. That said, though, you don’t have to choose brand name products just to get the look that you want. Printer companies make nearly half of their profits from their ink cartridges, so it’s in their best interest to convince you that more expensive ink is better. A remanufactured cartridge is ideal, because you can get it at a significant expense-cut without sacrificing any quality. What’s more is that choosing remanufactured options means you’re saving the environment while still getting the print quality you want.

Good Paper

Often misunderstood is the impact that paper has on your printing. Cheap printer paper may be fine for the occasional school report or a printed out email, but if you’re looking for bright, vibrant colors, it is best to get paper that is a bit more expensive. This heavier paper often goes through the printer better and allows the small dots, which are what the ink printer uses to make words and images, spread together, providing a much more seamless and vibrant look.A good visual editing program on your computer is also a good idea. You wnat to be able to use a high aspect ratio when editing your images and be able to manipulate the photo with no loss of quality when you print it.

Remember to tie it all together: good printing is at the intersection of quality paper, ink, and a printer. That combination will provide you with the type of high quality printing you’re searching for. For great deals on high quality printer ink cartridge supply, try 123inkjets.com

What To Do With Old Ink Cartridges

Glass products, cardboard, plastic and aluminum are a few things that are being recycled in this new environmentally conscious age. Ink cartridges is a another option for you to look into. You can now turn in your used ink or toner cartridges at a participating store or online for a cash reward or store credit. Here’s how to do it:

First, take out the used-up ink or toner cartridge. Make sure you follow the instructions in the manual or on the printer for safe and efficient removal.

An ink cartridge or donation program is your next goal, and one shouldn’t hard to find, since many companies and institutions are creating them, not to mention a number of online businesses. You can choose the one most spatially convenient to you or just go online. $4 for a printer cartridge and $7 for a toner cartridge is around what you can expect to receive as a reward.Some people will want to box them and ship them together to save on handling fees. If you are an employee at a large office or company, this might be your best bet. Others will prefer to immediately refuse or refill them, and bring them in as soon as they go dry.

The office superstores may also be able to refill the ink or toner and then sell it back to you at a lower cost than buying a new one. Keep in mind, the cartridge actually has to be drilled into to be refilled and increases the risk of cartridge failure or error. Refilled cartridges also sometimes void the warranty on certain models of printers-somethign you should check before you decide to use a re-fill.

Finally, you need to replace the cartridge. Go ahead and get it into place, if you’ve already refilled it at your donation location. If you want to buy a new cartridge entirely, I would suggest 4inkjets.com. They generally have reasonable prices for cheap ink cartridges.

Recyling used ink cartridges, as you can see, is a snap! This gives you the ability to maximize efficiency, cut costs, and watch out for the environment at the same time!

Shave Down Expenses With Monochrome Printing

Every day we print off pages in with color ink without regard for the results. Every day, we waste money on color ink that could have been black and white. Every day, we can reduce our company or home’s expenses by using the black and white print setting.

Generally, printers will have a setting that can be enabled in the print settings. When it’s time to print, check your print options for something indicating ‘advanced properties’. Under this tab, look for an option called ‘monochrome’, ‘economode’ or ‘grayscale’. This enables the printer to treat the color images you are printing as B&W images and use the black ink reservoir instead of the color reservoir. Because color is not necessary for their comprehension, this is perfect for printing instructions, recipes, or directions.

Also remember, when you have a web document, sometimes it looks like it’s in monochrome already, but it’s actually a dark blue, green or purple. Just in case, it’s good practice to set the color images to print in B&W.

This saves the color ink for the color ink printing that really needs color and ensures that the next time you have to replace an ink cartridge, it’s a B&W ink cartridge instead of a Color one. The value of the ink saved can be very significant. For example, on 4inkjet.com, the replacement ink cartridge for my Canon Pixma MX310 will be $18.99 for the B&W cartridge and $24.99 for the Color cartridge, an immediate $6 savings. If I print quite a bit, the expenses associated with constantly replacing B&W cartridges over one annum versus color might be large.

For an office-quality laserjet printer, the cut in ink usage may be even more significant. For example, black laser toner replacement cartridges for the Xerox Phaser 8860 will run $144.99 on 4inkjets.com, while replacing the three color components will sum up to $164.97, an almost $20 savings.

Make sure you and everyone in your office knows how to choose the B&W option when it comes to printing, and you’ll be cutting down on ink costs in no time.

I like 4inkjets.com for all my cheap ink cartridges needs.

Cut Expenses, Change Font?

These days, as small businesses and offices continue to cut expenses wherever they can, the print and copyroom sometimes seems like it has become an unbearable expense. Some implement the usual office-wide strategies of double-sided printing and secure login codes to use the printer. Other offices have gone into more drastic areas, implementing a paper-free office or equipping every employee with a portable USB drive. Here’s a much simpler solution: change your font and save up to 31% on ink costs. Wow, really??

The most popular font type these days is Arial. A study conducted by blog.printer.com, however, deduces that it’s certainly not the most economical. To set up a strict control situation, they compared 10 different fonts over the exact same test situations. The printer habits of both home users and business users were mimicked, with the Canon Pixma MP210 and the Brother HL-2140 as representative printers, respectively.

Identical pages were printed in all 10 fonts. The documents were turned into .pdf documents and scanned by the application Apfill, which calculated the total ink coverage of each page.

In the end, the total ink coverage for each font given identical text was compared, and a clear winner was established, one that used the absolute least amount of ink. This reduction is ink usage translates into roughly a $20 savings per year for an average home user printing 25 pages/week versus using Arial. Century Gothic would save the average business user (approximated to print around 250 pages/week) an estimated $80/year.

Keep in mind, many businesses have more than one printer, or print far more than 250 pages/week. For these businesses, the savings could be astronomical.

So which font came out on top?? Which text uses the least ink while maintaining a professional level of readability?

Without further ado, I reveal to you the #1 cost-effective font as….Century Gothic. Verdana came in at #5 and Times New Roman was #3, to give an idea of comparison. Arial itself was ranked #6 in the list of 10 fonts tested for ink usage.

Perhaps this is a method that would work in your company or small business to lower costs. Just change the font.

Check out the rest of the blog.printer.com article on their website, where you can see numbers and rankings for all ten of the tested fonts.

Try 4inkjets.com for great deals on cheap ink cartridges.

Features And Review Of The Canon MX310

For a graduation present, I received a Canon Pixma MX310 All-In-One a few years ago. I’ve used it for a few years now, and would like to share my take on the quality and features of the product and provide some kind of final verdict.

The MX310 handles printing, scanning, copying and faxing. I have used all the features rather extensively except for the fax component. I will talk about each feature individually and then discuss a few other printer considerations.

Printing with the MX310 is a snap. Within minutes of opening the box, I was able to connect everything and print a test document, thanks in part to the comprehensive installation software and user manual. Printing is reasonably fast and doesn’t seem as prone to jams as other printers on the market. The ink usage is fairly high, unfortunately, and the cartridges cannot be refilled, but replacement ink is modestly priced and can be found online for as little as $22 at a reputable dealer like 4inkjets. For the tech geeks, it prints up to 600×600 dpi in monochrome at 22 pages/minute and 4800×1200 dpi in color at 17 pages/minute.

Copying is also easy. The ADF (Automatic Document Feeder) is reliable and holds up to 30 pages comfortably.. As would be expected from the quality Canon brandname, the copies and very crisp and clear. The copying of photos to high-quality photo paper results in photos that are almost impossible to pick out from professionally-developed stills.

The scanner is also a quality tool. The scanning feature, however, has always given me cause for an issue. I have a lot of trouble getting the printer into scan mode. It will generally take several attemps of pressing the ’scan’ button before the machine ambles into the scan function. After the scanning is complete, the quality, however, is great.

I don’t know much about the fax. From what I’ve seen online, opinions vary. The 20-number phone number storage capacity is appreciated, but the lack of options is picked at. I would really suggest you try elsewhere for information about the fax’s specific capabilities.

The largest complaint I have with the printer is its awkwardly large size. The thing is huge. It sprawls over half of my desk! Not even my laptop fits on the desk if the printer is in place. The printer also makes a lot of noise. The printer indicates its ready for an ink refill, however, when there are still 30-40 pages left in the cartridge. It’s not very eco-friendly, and I hope it wasn’t intentional on Canon’s part.

Pros: Quality prints, efficient functioning.

Cons: High ink usage, inability to refill ink, unwieldly wize.

My final rating is 3 stars out of 5. Even given the higher productivity, the negative features of large ink consumption and physical size are really unfortunate. It’s a good printer, but I will be looking for smaller, more efficient models when I buy my own.

Try 4inkjets.com for great deals on cheap ink cartridges.

Ways To Cut Down On Printing Expenses

Do you wish you could lower expenses for your small business in the copyroom? You might want to take a look at some of these cost-saving tips in the copying room that can help lower expenses and boost the bottom line in your company.

1. Try to ensure that everyone in the company is aware of all the different print settings and abilities. Ensure they are familiar with how to change font sizes and margins, make double-sided documents and copies, and how to just print a selection or a certain page instead of a full document. When color isn’t necessary for the document’s meaning, encourage and demonstrate use of the ‘print color in black and white’ feature found in the print settings. Black ink is much cheaper than color ink.

2. Before wasting paper and ink on a document with errors, proofread your work and use the print preview feature to check for errors that can easily be remedied.

3. Consider investing in a laser printer instead of an inkjet printer. The laserjet is more cost-effective, printing at 1-3 cents per page, whereas the inkjet can cost 4-12 cents per page. You’ll pay more for a Laserjet, but then the savings will add up as your company saves money on every individual piece of paper printed.

4. Your officemates should be made aware of the option on webpages to view a printer-friendly version of the document when seeking to print a web page. There are often fewer or no pictures on these pages, so the total printing cost will be lower.

5. When replacing ink for inkjet printers, remember that you can get great discounts online by buying ink refills or ordering from a discount seller like 4inkjets for cheap ink cartridges.

6. Electronic copies via email should be employed as often as possible instead of printing papers for inter-office use. Utilize tools like flash drives to store files instead of hard copies.

Using these tips in your office will probably see slow results at first, but if everyone works together, the cost savings and overall green effect will have a very positive impact.

Which Printer Is Right For Which Person?

A crucial machine for everyone today is a reliable printer. A printer is something absolutely everyone needs. Choosing the right printer for you can be a daunting task, given the options? Let’s take a look at the options available for you:

Business User

If you plan on a buying a printer for your small business, or maybe you’ve been tasked with purchasing a printer for your large company, a multifunction all-in-one printer is your best bet. A standard all-in-one should be able to do far more than just print and save valuable workspace by combining the copier, scanner, printer and fax machine into one. They start at about $100 for smaller ones (like my Canon MX310) and can run into hundreds of dollars for larger workhorses capable of hundreds of pages in just minutes. Large corporations will want to look into network laser printers.

Travelers

Travelers should look into battery-powered superlight portable printing option. Their positive features include their light weight, small size, and for many, the potential to plug into a car’s ciagarette lighter. Some also support wireless printing from a cell phone and generally weigh less than 5 lbs.

Primarily Home-based

Home users demand a variety of functions out of their printers, but probably not very demanding tasks. Jobs probably include printing off a last-minute book-report for school or a photograph for Grandma. Therefore, printers intended for home use are ideally both hardworking and inexpensive. I think a personal Inkjet printer is a good choice. Inkjets are a little slower than their more recent siblings, the laswerjets, but they will be well up to the tasks presented by a home user. Inkjet printers will cost usually no more $100 and a replacement ink cartridge can run as little as $10 and as much as $40, depending on what you need. I really like 4inkjets for great deals on cheap ink cartridges.

College Students, Aspiring Novelists

With more intense usage of the printer, such as that demanded by college students writing final essays or an author cranking out hundreds of pages a day, an Inkjet becomes too slow and expensive to be a reasonable choice. This is a good time for a Laserjet printer. The printer itself will cost more, but the savings in ink will eventually add up (important for both college students AND authors). Expect to pay around $200 for a Laserjet printer, although deals and promotions are not uncommon.

How To Find A Canon Printer Replacement Ink Cartridge

Out of ink and need a refill? More importantly, you want to find cheap ink cartridges? Here’s how you’re going to do it.

1. You should figure out exactly which printer you own so you know the proper replacement ink you need and the place place to buy a cheap ink cartridge. As far as printer ink is concerned, ‘one size fits all’ is a really bad rule of thumb. An HP printer will have a very different replacement cartridge compared to a Canon printer and even different Canon printers will have a different size and shape to their respective ink cartridges. The type of printer and model number will probably be directly on it. For example, I own a Canon MX310.

2.Ascertain the best method of opening up and removing the ink cartridges. To open the print catrdige replacement bay, just press the button which is usually located on the right side of a Canon printer, or press some kind of lever and it should pop right open.Checking the owner’s manual is also a possibility. If you don’t have the manual, or lost/threw it away, just search online for a copy of it. You might want to search for something like ‘manual for Canon MX310 Printer’ and get an online version of the operating manual so you can find out the correct method on YOUR printer for changing out the ink cartridges.

3.Gently pull out the used-up ink cartridge or cartridges.. If the black ink is out, the color cartridge may still be good, so make sure which ones you have to replace. Take care not to get ink on your hands.

4.Make sure you secure a trusted vendor of replacement cheap ink cartridges. They are available at places like Best Buy or even Walmart, but you’re probably gonna pay more at retailers like that. I’ll give you a link to the place I usually buy my ink cartridges from in a little bit-they’re really good and I’ve never had a problem with them! J

5.The next step is to wait for your ordered ink cartridges to arrive in the mail and unwrap them from their packaging and the piece of tape covering the ink cartridge itself. Hold them in the correct position and put them where the old cartridges were. It will slide in easily and fasten with a slight click. There should be a picture guide for you in your manual or on the printer itself.

5.After closing the printer cover, the printer should automatically print a test page using the replacement cheap ink cartridges. This page may come out automatically.

Congratulations! You’re pretty much done at this point with changing out the used-up catridge and installing a new cheap ink cartridge. (That’s the link in the blue above to the site I use, btw.)

What To Know About The HP Color LaserJet 2550n Printer Using HP Color LaserJet 2550n MFP Toner Cartridge

The HP Color LaserJet 2550n printer using Color LaserJet 2550n printer toners is a nicely-priced workgroup laser jet printer that seems to have been designed to fit a certain niche for Hewlett-Packard, namely that of an inexpensive, easily-maintainable workgroup printer that can be joined to a small workgroup with little fuss. It can be found at a nice price, both used and refurbished, at a number of sites as well.

When it comes to an HP color and black and white printer that delivers printed output at a decent speed (up to 20 pages per minute in black-and-white), the LaserJet 2550n seems well suited to living up to that role. Color output, on a page per minute basis, comes out at about 4 pages. It’s obvious, then, that the printer will be used more for regular black and white duties than for regular color print tasks.

There will be little to complain about when it comes to the quality of this model’s print output, because every page will come out looking nice and sharp thanks to HP 2550n toner cartridges. This is because of its standard 600 dots per inch resolution, which is more than enough for the business needs of the workgroup to which it will be joined. Hewlett-Packard included one of its image enhancement technology programs to help keep everything looking good at all times.

There are several different ways to connect the 2550n to a networked workgroup, including by traditional parallel port as well as USB 2.0 and even a nice Ethernet 10/100 Base-TX port. All of this versatility means that the company IT specialist will have little to no difficulty in taking the printer and quickly interfacing it with a new or existing workgroup. This factor has helped make the printer a favorite among IT specialists.

There’s 64 MB of RAM standard with the LaserJet 2550n and that can be upgraded to a full 192 MB of RAM with little trouble. It’s always advised, though, to carefully check the print needs of the workgroup a printer will be connected to in order to find just the right amount of memory without having to expend additional resources for memory that might not be needed. Everything is controlled by a well-working 264 MHz processor, by the way.

The 2550n can also carry up to 375 sheets in standard configuration and with standard paper trays. In total, it can handle 875 sheets with optional paper trays. It’s also a nicely durable printer and comes with a rating of 30,000 pages per month for a duty cycle. Hewlett-Packard recommends usage rates between 1,000 and 4,000 pages per month, though, so keep that in mind when it comes to making a decision about the printer.

The printer makes use of 4 different printer cartridges (black, magenta, cyan and yellow) and it’s even certified to run on a Windows Vista operating system. It can make use of a variety of different operating systems, including many Windows, as well as Mac and Linux/Unix, platforms. It’s a very versatile printer in many aspects, it must be said.

All of these characteristics combine to make the HP Color LaserJet 2550n printer a nice value-priced business and workgroup machine that is sure to appeal. This is also because a refurbished unit can be found for around $350, while good-quality used versions with lots of life left in them go for about $250. This was a popular printer for Hewlett-Packard, which also means that plenty of parts and other accessories will be quite common.

Using an online retailer for you Color LaserJet 2550n replacement toner completely eliminates the worry about finding any type of HP toner. Quickly and easily search for your toner and find the exceptional value this method offers.

A Review Of The HP Color LaserJet 5500n Printer And Its Capabilities

Appreciating the HP Color LaserJet 5500n printer and its capabilities is easy enough to do after learning a bit about this very durable LaserJet model. It is generally meant for medium or large workgroups and for color print jobs or documents as well as black-and-white tasks using HP Color LaserJet 5500n printer toners. It does all of this with extreme competence and also features good print speeds for a color model along with a good price that a business is sure to appreciate.

Hewlett-Packard has made this printer to be able to put out around 21 pages per minute of product in both black and white and color with HP bulk toner. This is a notable achievement, considering that color print jobs usually take a bit longer and many other models. Total print task time, from the second the job is selected, takes about 18 seconds. It can get going from cold start up in about two minutes, which is also very nice.

There is a 400 Hz processor installed in this printer, meaning that it will be able to handle even the largest of print tasks from multiple members in the workgroup with little trouble. With a 120,000 sheet per month printing capacity, it is also extremely durable printer and will need very little maintenance or upkeep, for the most part.

As far as the quality of the print jobs in both color and black-and-white, this Hewlett-Packard features a standard 600 dpi resolution. Sheets emerging will be clean and sharp, in other words. There are two paper trays that come standard with the 5500n printer, and it can be upgraded to four paper trays, giving it the ability to store up to 1600 sheets (600 sheet capacity is standard).

It is also able to hold 20 envelopes, though it doesn’t come standard with an envelope feeder. Still, this will be no problem as it is very easy to feed in an envelope whenever the need arises. Being as this is pretty much the base model printer in the 5500 series (the only difference in this model is that it includes an internal print server for the proprietary 10/100 Base-TX Ethernet input port), it should come as no surprise that there isn’t a duplex printing capability.

Standard internal memory capacity is a more-than-acceptable 96 MB, with the capability to be upgraded to a full 416 MB. There is also the capability of installing an optional 10 GB hard disk, though it is hard to conceive of any print job or storage need for one of these networked printers that would require that much capacity.

In terms of operating systems that this Hewlett-Packard can accommodate, most Windows-based operating systems can be integrated quite easily as well as a great many Mac OS systems. This isn’t always possible with an HP, though it most certainly is with this particular model. Weighing about 133 pounds, it won’t be easy to move about, but that also shouldn’t be an issue. There are four cartridges and a one-year service warranty that come standard.

Taken in total, the HP Color LaserJet 5500n printer offers quite a few features, including very nice functionality and durability for a typical price of around $1300 before any discounts. Medium or large workgroups seem to benefit most from the use of this printer, which can handle about 21 pages per minute of output in both black and white and color. When it comes time to change your printer toner cartridge, take a look online. Most dealers that offer HP cartridge have cheaper prices than in stores. You will need to specifically buy HP Color LaserJet 5500n laser toner. Wherever you decide to purchase, just make sure you keep enough on hand to always meet your printing needs.

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