Printers

[Direhit]

Q: I want to buy an inkjet printer, but don't know what to get?

A: In general, inkjet printers will cost significantly less than laser printers. You can actually find decent inkjet printers for about 65-70 dollars, and these can produce decent quality text and graphics, both black and color.

Inkjet printers vary in quality and features. The better ones will have separate cartridges for Black, Cyan, Yellow, and Magenta. This way, if you run out of one color, you need only replace that particular color.

The lower to midrange inkjet printers will have a separate black and color cartridge that holds all three (CYM) colors. Thus, if one color runs out, then the color cartridge must be replaced entirely, if one wants full color.

The cheapest inkjet printers have only one cartridge, that contains Cyan, Yellow, and Magenta. To emulate black, they use a heavy spray of all three colors. Very inefficient, and you have to replace the ink cartridges on a regular basis. Do not waste your money on these.

Overall, the less expensive inkjet printers will get less total printing out of the ink cartridges than the more expensive ones.

Note, that the ink cartridges (black) often cost the same for both the lower and higher priced printers, so after that first cartridge, you really haven't saved any money by going with the cheaper printer!

[Direhit]

Q: OK, then what about laser printers? They seem a lot more expensive. What advantages do they offer?

A: Laser printers basically use light emitting diodes / laser diodes to ionize the paper, and force toner (not ink) to adhere to it. Because they aren't using ink, they will produce text and graphics that do not have nearly as much smudging as things printed on an inkjet printer.

Laser printers do cost more than inkjet printers. Typically, they start a bit under 100 dollars for some very basic black and white models, and color laser printers can run you from the upper 100's for a personal-sized color laser printer, all the way to the thousands of dollars, depending on your needs.

The consumables used by laser printers, though, will be less costly overall. Even though a toner cartridge will cost twice as much as an inkjet cartridge, it will last significantly longer than any inkjet cartridge. Figure on a toner cartridge lasting at least 2000 pages, while an inkjet cartridge will have a very small fraction of that lifetime.

[Direhit]

Q: How does one rate the resolution of a printer?

A: Printers are rated in dpi (dots per inch), which is a general measure of how sharp of an image they can produce. The more dpi, the better the image.

It's generally a consistent thing, when an inkjet printer resolution is compared to other inkjet printers, and when a laser printer is compared to another laser printer. Because of the very nature of inkjets and laser printers, though, it is not really a fair comparison to compare an inkjet's resolution to a laser printer's resolution.

As a rule of thumb, you shouldn't settle for anything less than 600 dpi, whether inkjet or laser, especially since only a handful of shoddy printers available today use anything less than that resolution.

[Direhit]

Q: What about the interfaces that are used by printers?

A: For home PC's, there are two interfaces that are the most commonly used, the USB port, and the parallel port.

USB port: Universal Serial Bus. Offers decent speed, and easy to attach / remove devices. Try to use this port, if at all possible.

Parallel port: Much slower interface. It's use as a legacy device is pretty much used up by now, although most printers still support this interface.

Parallel ports can run in three modes, SPP, EPP, and ECP.

SPP basically uses a unidirectional mode, and is the slowest, but most compatible.

EPP uses a bidirectional mode. This is significantly faster than SPP, and still maintains good compatibility with most printers.

ECP also uses bidirectional mode, but also employs additional hardware for handshaking signals. Overall, the top speed will be the same as EPP mode, but because ECP uses DMA, the access time is significantly faster.

If you want to use EPP or ECP mode, you will probably have to buy an IEEE-1284 compliant printer cable, which costs a bit more than a standard parallel port printer cable. Just look for the IEEE-1284 designation, as most people won't know heads or tails on this matter.

[Direhit]

Q: I want to print out the best color graphics possible. Should I get a color laser, an inkjet printer, or a dye sublimation printer?

A: If you are willing to spend the $$$ needed for such a setup, then you probably already know what you want. My opinion on this matter (and this is just MY opinion):

The color inkjet will be the cheapest to setup. A high quality color inkjet printer (around $125) when combined with premium glossy paper, will give you some pretty nice images that are going to be quite accurate in terms of color. The major drawback here, is that the consumables (ink cartridges and premium paper) will be the most expensive in the long term.

Another disadvantage, is that sometimes, images printed out using a color inkjet can be prone to smearing while they are drying. Advances in premium paper technology, as well as better inks (such as Epson's Durabrite inks) have reduced this significantly, though.

A color laser printer will be your most economical choice here. Today, you can get excellent color laser printers for around the 300 dollar mark, such as Hewlett-Packard's 2600 series, that will give you sharp colors, and virtually no smearing. Personal color laser printers are even cheaper, with many costing in the upper 100's. With this being said, it simply makes no sense to waste money on an inkjet printer, unless you have a specific need for an inkjet printer.

A dye sublimation printer generally gives you the deepest colors, and in theory, are supposed to give you the best images. While the average dye sub printer will give you better quality than the average inkjet or laser printer, the cost of consumables is also quite high, since images are generally printed on proprietary papers. The advantage here, though, is that the images do not bleed or run, and are ready to handle without fear of smudging. The cost of a dye sub printer will generally start at $1000, and the cost of consumables will make this the most expensive option in the long run as well.

I would only recommend dye sublimation printers in the cases where someone has so discerning of an eye, that he actually needs the deepest colors. For 99.99% of the people out there, though, dye sub printers will not be worth the hassle and cost.


Do take note, however, that whenever you buy a new printer, the ink or toner cartridges are going to be only half full.

[Direhit]

Q: What about dot matrix printers? Should I get one if I'm on a budget?

A: It all depends on your needs / wants. Surprisingly, there are still quite a few businesses that still use dot matrix printers just for typing up simple text-only invoices. The ink tends not to smudge, and dries quicker than inkjet ink.

There are some things you must consider, though:

1) Is it a 9 pin, or a 24 pin printer? 9 pin printers are OK for just average text printing, and can get you near-letter quality (NLQ). 24 pin printers will give you letter quality (LQ), and sharp text. 24 pin printers will cost more, while 9 pin printers tend to be a bit more durable.

2) Are you going to be able to find ribbons for your printer? Many manufacturers have discontinued all ribbon production. While some third party manufacturers still make the ink ribbons for dot matrix printers, you never know when they will discontinue things.

3) Does your printer need a special cable? Many dot matrix printers cannot be used with the newer IEEE1284-compliant cables.

Overall, if you want dirt-cheap printing, and do not want to spend the money for a laser printer, and IF you can find a good quality dot matrix printer, then perhaps it might be worth your while to snag one.

However, in the long run, the noise generated by these clunkers will probably drive you to toss it out the window.

[Direhit]

Q: My ink cartridges are only lightly used, but I'm not getting much ink output here. Everything either looks faint, or there are colors, or even whole areas missing.

A: First, check to make sure that you are using at least a fairly decent output quality, otherwise your printer might be using draft mode, which will use colors sparingly.

If you are sure it's not the software, then check the ink cartridges, especially around the gold plated contact leads. If there's some buildup, take a cotton sqab soaked in some rubbing alcohol, and clean it off.

If you are still not getting any ink output (or a highly reduced amount), then it's probably time to clean the print heads (refer to your manual on how to do this).

[Direhit]

Q: I have a chance to buy a HP Color Deskjet 2500C inkjet printer for a low price. Should I go ahead with it? It produces some very nice pictures.

A: Normally, I would not recommend that the average user get one.

If you are going to be entirely using up the color ink cartridges (it has four separate ink cartridges), with a fairly high volume, then you should be able to get your money's worth for the consumables, but the cost of the consumables is ridiculously high, especially when compared to HP's entry level color laser printer.

The Deskjet 2500C series also uses ink cartridges that are hard-coded with an expiration date. You will not be able to use these cartridges after a certain date, and most of the time, you'll end up throwing away cartidges that would have been otherwise perfectly good.

If someone's offering one to you for a very low price, and if you have no intentions on keeping it, then go ahead. Otherwise, forget about it, and save up for a color laser printer that won't kill you on the cost of consumables.

[Direhit]

Q: I want to make some high contrast images on my inkjet printer, using "regular" (non-glossy or non-semi-glossy) paper. Are there any particular brands of paper that can help give maximum contrast?

A: Yes. Many paper manufacturers make "Ultra Bright" or "Ultra White" paper, and that this paper has undergone extra treatments to give the whitest background possible.

At this time, my recommendations are Hewlett-Packard's Bright White Injet Paper (usually 9 bucks / 500 sheets from Staples or other such places), and Kodak's Bright White Inkjet paper (similar price). They work very well with color laser printers as well.

[Direhit]

Q: Whenever I print, there are crooked lines being printed, even though they're supposed to be straight. I don't see this problem on other printers.

A: Most likely, you are attempting to print in draft mode. Go to your printer settings and increase the quality of the print output.

[Direhit]

Q: How would I setup a printer that has a network card built-in?

A: The first thing to do is to find out what the factory default settings are for the following:

IP address
Netmask (subnet)
UAA (also known as MSB or Canonical) number

Your manual should explain how to print out these settings from the printer itself. You can generally either use the IP configuration software that came with the printer, to connect and configure, and then enter the new IP address that you gave it, in your browser window.