Unfortunately, connecting those dots isn’t always so easy. That’s because the printer market is rife with conventional wisdom that isn’t always wise at all. Here are a few of the most common printer myths and my take on whether or not they’re really true.
Inkjets do a bad job with text
Not true. Most inkjets print perfectly legible text. But for documents the public will see—such as resumes and brochures—it’s hard to beat the clean and sharp characters produced by a laser.
The problem is technical: If you spray a liquid (such as ink) on a porous surface (such as plain paper), that ink is going to bleed into areas where it shouldn’t, making for less-than-optimal text and other fine lines.
If you had unlimited space and money, you would buy a laser for text and an inkjet for photos. Most of us, however, live in the real world and have to choose one or the other. If you like to print photos at home, that choice will most likely be an inkjet printer.
To help get the best possible text out of your inkjet, try using better quality paper. Many companies sell presentation papers for their inkjets that allow less ink-bleeding. Also, make sure to check that your printer driver is set for best results-high or fine quality—and that proper paper type is selected.
Image quality from multifunctions is poor.
Not really true. Because they combing printing, scanning, copying and (sometimes) faxing into one machine, multifunction printers have become wildly popular. But do you sacrifice quality for convenience? Probably not.
These all-in-one devices are often built on the same print engines as stand-alone printers. Some, in fact, look like the vendor just glued a scanner on top of a standard ink-jet. In such multifunctions, print quality is identical to the stand-alone version of the printer.
The only catch is that manufacturers don’t make multifunction versions of their highest quality printers. High-end printers used for fine art and archival prints can use specialized inks and print on a wide variety of papers. So, for example, Epson’s Stylus Photo ink jet printers can cost as much as $800; the Stylus Pro models start at $1300. Yet Epson’s highest end multifunction—the Artisan 810 All -in-one Printer—costs as little as $200 (Best Current Price). Its output will clearly not be in the same league as that of the Stylus Photo or the Stylus Pro
You need an Airport base station to share a printer.
Not true. Plugging your printer directly into the USB port on an Airport base station () is a convenient way to share a non-networked printer—but it isn’t the only way. Many printers, even those on the low end, now offer both wired and wireless Ethernet printing options. But the easiest way to share your USB printer over your local network is to enable printer sharing in the Print and Fax System Preferences. Once that’s setup, other computers on your network can see your shared printer via Bonjour in their Print and Fax System Preference.
Lasers are hazardous to your health.
Possibly true. A study published by the Queensland University of Technology several years ago found that laser printers emit tiny particles into the air. The resulting particulate pollution is comparable, under certain conditions, to the air near a busy road. Emissions rates were found to vary by the vendor and the age of the printer. Follow-up research indicated that those emissions have something to do with the paper being heated inside the printer, before the toner is applied.
In theory, those ultrafine particles emitted by lasers could have the same kinds of health effects as other small particles—such as those in cigarette smoke or polluted air. But those health hazards have not yet been definitively established. In the meantime, researchers recommend moving printers—particularly those that get heavy use—away from areas where people sit; wherever you put your laser, it should be well-ventilated areas.
Your printer is spying on you.
Possibly true. The Electronic Frontier Foundation maintains a list of color laser printers that, it says, lay down light yellow code-patterns on every print; the dots are viewable in blue light or under magnification. These codes were developed to help the federal government track down criminals who were printing counterfeit cash. But the EFF fears that the codes could also be used to track and monitor anyone who uses those printers. Monochrome laser printers and inkjets don’t appear to leave such markings.
The global market for printers, copiers and multifunctional products (MFPs) declined by a fifth in the first half of 2009 to 51.3 million units sold, according to analyst Gartner.
The reasons behind the fall were “weak demand as both businesses and consumers reduced spending and the drop in shipments was also impacted by tighter inventory controls in order to minimise inventory levels in the channels,” said Gartner senior research analyst Lai-Ling Lam.
The situation was further exacerbated by “shortages of popular low-end inkjets and page printers to home, small businesses, and small and medium businesses,” added Lam.
Worst hit was market leader HP, where growth declined 26.4 per cent from the first half of 2008, a drop of nearly 7,400,000 units. Number two Canon only experienced a 9.6 per cent decline, shipping just over a million units less. The upshot was HP losing 3.4 percentage points market share, while Canon gained 2.2 percentage points.
All regions were hit by the fall, with the emerging markets of Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Latin America being worst affected, showing declines of 41.8 per cent, 28 per cent and 22.9 per cent respectively.
Consumer inkjet products were not the primary reason behind the overall decline, even though they recorded a 17.3 per cent decline. The primary source of the decline was highlighted as office printing systems, which dropped 24.5 per cent.
Lam warned printer vendors that the global downturn could affect buyers’ print strategies in the long term as well. “In this tough economic environment, businesses are delaying or eliminating purchases of new equipment altogether. The global downturn has also forced them to review their printing needs,” she said.
Lam does not expect the market to recover before 2010.
Xerox is launching a new version of its high-end multifunction copiers that use solid blocks of ink — a cheaper and greener printing solution than ink toner.
The new ColorQube 9200 multifunction copiers are different in that they melt solid blocks of ink that don’t have to be housed in costly and wasteful cartridges. Xerox claims the machines cut printing costs by 62 percent and eliminate 90 percent of the waste of similar copiers.
These $23,500 machines are the heavy-duty hallway copier/printers that corporations pay for on a monthly basis — a business which is heart and center of Xerox’s corporate focus. If Xerox can pump new life into this business with solid ink, it will live up to its long-term goal of being an innovator in copiers. And this solution is so clever it just might make its way into every part of the printing business — including the laser printers or inkjets in offices and homes.
The technology dates as far back as 1991, and we wrote about it last year after our visit to Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center. Xerox hasn’t been extremely aggressive with solid ink, using it in a couple of desktop printers until now. But now the copier giant says it can move the technology upscale to its main business of big office copiers.
The machines use four kinds of ink and you can load six chunks of solid ink into them. It printer has a print head that substantially increases the flow of ink by packing 900 ink nozzles into a print head, with four print heads per printer. Each nozzle is only 37.5 microns wide, smaller than the typical 100-micron width of a human hair. All told, there are 3,000 print heads per printer, allowing it to put more ink drops on a page in a minute than there are people on earth.
The ColorQube 9200 machines can print 85 pages per minute. That speed is a breakthrough in performance and it’s one of the reasons Xerox spent so much time on the project, said Steve Korol, (above, left) manager of the advanced development group in Wilsonville, Ore. His group spent five years developing the machine and building the business. One of the things it had to do was build a $24 million solid-ink factory in Oregon.
The ink is a solid block at room temperature. The printer melts the ink and then jets it onto a drum. The drum rolls around once before printing an image on paper. The ink, a polymeric resin, feels like crayon to the touch. The process is analogous to offset printing, which is used to create newspapers and magazines. There is no water to dry or solvent to evaporate, making it cheaper to use, and far more eco-friendly. A single block of ink can be used to print 9,250 pages.
A traditional laser toner-based multifunction copier — the Canon iR5180 multifunction copier — creates 815 pounds of waste over its lifetime, while the ColorQube machine produces 88 pounds of waste, or about 90 percent less, said James Rise (pictured, right), vice president and general manager of the Xerox solid ink division.
The printer uses sensors and image processing algorithms to calibrate the image before it is printed. It also cuts energy use by 10 percent by powering down the device when it’s not in use. A patented vacuum system, only 17 thousandths of an inch wide, removes tiny paper dust particles.
Vendors sell these machines to corporations for a one-time fee, plus printing costs. Xerox is charging about the same price as many others on the market. But the initial price is typically only part of the cost of a machine like this. On monthly basis, vendors also charge extra fees on a per page basis. For heavy color pages, Xerox will charge 8 cents a page. For light color, it will be more like a penny a page, which is the typical price for black and white copies. Rise says that’s cheaper than rivals.
It will be interesting to see if Xerox’s solid-ink printers can help Xerox gain market share in multifunction copiers. But I’d also like to see if it can shake up Hewlett-Packard’s printing empire in laser printers and inkjet printers. Xerox has shown a prototype of a solid-ink printer that could challenge the highest end offset printing presses. That represents a push into the high end. But everyday consumers ought to be able to choose this environmentally friendly technology. Still, it’s nice to see innovation in the old-fashioned imaging market, where outsiders such as Zink Imaging have stirred things up with inkless printers.
Xerox needs this printer to help the bottom line. The Norwalk, Conn., company lowered its targets for net income for the fiscal year, predicting it would have net income of 50 cents to 55 cents a share. That is half of last year’s $1.10 per share net income.
But Xerox is still profitable. In the first quarter, it reported net income of $42 million, or five cents a share. That’s pretty good compared with last year’s loss of $235 million, or 27 cents a share (a lawsuit settlement hurt earnings a year ago). Revenue was $3.55 billion, down from $4.34 billion.
May 31, 201Imaging solutions provider Eastman Kodak Company and OfficeMax , a provider of B2B office products solutions, said on Friday that OfficeMax is now offering KODAK AiO Inkjet printers and inks, including the new KODAK ESP Office 6150 All-in-One Printer, in nearly 900 retail locations throughout the US.
The printers and inks are also available via OfficeMax’s online store.
The agreement, financial details of which were not disclosed, marks the first time that OfficeMax will carry KODAK AiO Printers, which are claimed to offer the lowest total ink replacement cost in the industry.OfficeMax is currently offering three models of KODAK AiO Inkjet Printer: the KODAK ESP 5250 Printer, KODAK ESP Office 6150 Printer and KODAK ESP 7250 Printer.The new agreement means that OfficeMax stores now offer the complete Kodak home printing solution, including printers, ink and photo paper.
MaxPerks members can earn $3 in rewards for each qualifying† visibly undamaged HP, Dell, Lexmark, Brother, Epson, Samsung, Kodak, Sharp or Canon ink or toner cartridges dropped off in an OfficeMax store location. Simply present your MaxPerks ID when submitting cartridges to ensure you receive credit and your rewards will be issued in the next statement cycle along with any other MaxPerks rewards you may have earned during the same period. You can earn up to $60 in rewards per calendar month per member (from 20 ink or toner cartridges). While there is no limit to the number or brand of ink/toner cartridges you may recycle, you will only receive rewards for the qualifying† items and limited quantity noted, and the total amount of your recycling rewards issued cannot exceed your total qualified* purchase amount in your MaxPerks account.