27 April 2009 | Uncategorized | bob

Most people don’t realize that cats and printers go together like peanut butter and jelly. Some printers have been known to forge deep and lasting bonds with their feline friends:

Many cats are experts at repairing troublesome printer problems. This one certainly seems to have the right idea:

However, I think enlisting the services of this cat will likely void your warranty:

It may take time for your cat and printer to warm up to each other:

But once printer and cat have bonded, you’ll find your feline a great help when it comes to handling your precious documents and printouts:

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20 April 2009 | Uncategorized | bob

The approach of Earth Day is another reminder that we all should do what we can to conserve. Saving ink by choosing a more efficient font is a good start, but it’s only the beginning. Here are five more ways you can green your printer.

1. Put it on a surge protector. Even when your printer is turned off, it’s still sucking a tiny amount of electricity off the grid. Turning off the surge protector is just like unplugging your printer as far as the power company is concerned. Also, it just makes sense to have your valuable electronics protected by a surge protector.

2. Don’t print unless you really need to. Use email and online faxing instead of paper whenever possible. The average American office worker goes through 10,000 sheets of paper each year, and those 10,000 sheets take more than a single tree to produce. That’s one tree for each of us, which adds up to a pretty big forest. Only take what you need.

3. And recycle what you do use. Recycling paper is easy. Most towns and cities now have a service which collects paper, aluminum, and plastic for recycling. Find out where the nearest drop-off point is to your office. They may make pickups right at your front door, or in a special bin near your dumpster. You can also use recycled paper, allowing you to recycle on both ends of the print job.

4. When beauty and quality aren’t required, take advantage of “draft” modes and black-and-white printing. This will extend the life of your ink and toner. You can usually find these options by pressing the “Properties” button in the upper right of the window the pops up when you click your printing icon.

5. Use both sides of every page. Some things, like fliers and posters meant to go on walls, really can only use one side of the page. But for almost everything else, printing on the back of the page is perfectly viable. If your printer has an option for it, take advantage of it and cut the amount of paper you use in half.

The great thing about conserving is that it’s not just good for the environment. All of these suggestions will also save you money by cutting down on your printers’ costs of ownership. Being conservation minded is best when it puts more green in your wallet as well as outside your window.

Photo credits: René Ehrhardt, netlancer2006

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13 April 2009 | Uncategorized | bob

Did you realize you can actually cut printing costs just by choosing another font? Even with everyone looking for new ways to save money, it’s doubtful most people have considered the font they use for letters, reports, and notices, but you can actually save 31% on your ink cartridge costs just by picking the right font.

Printer.com recently put this notion to the test using two popular printers. The Canon Pixma MP 210 was picked to simulate the printing of private users while the Brother HL-2140 laser printer was used to test business use. Both printers were left at their default settings (600 by 600 dpi). Changing only the font resulted in saving between $20 and $80 per year.

Arial, reigning as the most popular font, was used as the “zero” measurement, against which nine other fonts were tested. The clear winner was Century Gothic, which returned 31% savings in both printers. For the average private user, printing approximately 25 pages per week, this will easily generate a net reduction of $20 in a year. A business-user, printing approximately 250 pages per week, could save $80. If your organization uses multiple printers, you can save hundreds of dollars per year doing nothing more than picking a more economical font.

Century Gothic is a modern font that comes standard with MS Windows. Surprisingly, it even beat Ecofont which was specifically designed with efficiency and cost in mind. For those who require a more “traditional” look, Times New Roman provides a good balance between style and savings.

Details of the research:

• 10 frequently used fonts were selected.

• The font size (10 or 11) is relative. Font size was chosen in such a way that the page filling for all fonts in the model letter was virtually the same.

• To determine the coverage, the model letter is saved as PDF file. This PDF is calculated by the software Apfill, which calculates the coverage of the specific font.

• To determine the cost of a private user per year, the inkjet printer “Canon Pixma MP 210” was used with 25 printed pages per week.

• To determine the cost of a small-business user per year, the laser printer “Brother HL-2140” was used with 250 printed pages per week.

• Both Canon and Brother publish the number of printed pages with a coverage of 5%. Through interpolation, the costs have been calculated for other coverage rates if the sample letter would be printed with other fonts.

• For the Canon printer, calculations are based upon a black cartridge PG-40 with a retail value of roughly $17 In case of the Brother printer calculations are based upon a black cartridge with a retail value of $30.

Photo credit: borman818

>> Listen to an NPR report about the U of Wisconsin’s switch to Century Schoolbook (2 minutes)

Disclaimer.
The values of the Printer.com research are approximate values that are based on the model letter. Actual situations can be different. Printer.com makes no warranties or representations whatsoever with regard to any product, information or calculation provided or offered by any manufacturer, e-store or merchant; and you hereby expressly acknowledge that any reliance on any representations and warranties, whether provided in writing or otherwise, provided by any e-Store, merchant, vendor or manufacturer will be at your own risk.

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06 April 2009 | Uncategorized | bob

It continues to astound us how expensive it can be to own a printer. Over the life of a printer, the owner can expect to pay many times the original purchase price to keep it supplied with ink or toner cartridges. This isn’t news to anyone—we have long known that the ink and toner printer supply business was extremely profitable for printer manufacturers like HP, Epson and Canon. Most people just assume that’s the way it is, was and will be forever.

That is, until now. With their line of ESP printers, Kodak claims to tackle the costs of ownership head-on. Beginning this week, the company is rolling out a new advertising campaign that attacks the high price of printer ink. We thought it would be interesting to see if those claims hold up to closer scrutiny.

Printer.com just happens to have an excellent tool for checking. Using our extensive printer and cartridge database, our test compared costs assuming an expected black and white output of 50 pages and 25 color pages per week on photo quality printers over a span of five years. This is fairly standard usage for at home.

The cost of ownership is clearly less expensive for the Kodak line of printers by a significant margin. We found the average cost of ownership over five years for Kodak printers to be only $616, a mere 550% of the purchase price of the ESP 3. That might seem like a lot– until you look at the competition. The first non-Kodak printer on our list, the Canon Pixma MP 530, will cost $779 in ink cartridges over five years, which is a whopping 842% of the purchase price of the printer. Brother’s MFC 5890 CN does a bit better, with ink costing only a bit over 500% of the purchase price of the printer. On the surface, that appears more affordable than the Kodak products, but the Brother ink and printer costs combined over five years still cost 23% more than the Kodak printer and cartridges.

All these comparisons assume the usage of the printer we mentioned earlier. If you do a lot more color printing, the efficiencies of the Kodak printers start to pull even further ahead of the competition. From Printer.com’s perspective, Kodak steals the show on ownership costs, and their bold claims seem to be confirmed. The gauntlet has been tossed down, and it will be interesting to see how the competition responds.

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