Tips For Buying A Printer
If your printer occasionally makes a banging noise try cleaning off the carriage rail with a dust free cloth. This is the metal rail that the carriage
rides back and forth on. Use a small dot of 3-n-1 household oil and rub it
on the rail with your finger. Not too much oil, a little goes a long way.
-----
Read your printer manual. It's amazing how many people buy inkjet printers
but never take the time to read the manual. It might surprise you how much
you don't know about your printer. Newer printers have bells and whistles that you might want to talk advantage of if you knew they existed.
-----
Inkjet printers are slow enough. Try and help speed them up where you can. Defragging your hard drive can actually speed up printing. Use full
optimization during the defrag process. Use the IEEE-1284 compliant printer
cable with the newer printers. Also make sure you have at least 16 meg of free RAM on your computer.
-----
Tips For Buying A Printer
by Barry Shultz
So you're ready to buy a new printer but don't know where to start. I've put together some tips to take some of the pain out of it.
The easiest research in the beginning is right at your finger tips. There are
some outstanding web sites on the internet with printer reviews. Look at some or all of these web sites:
CNET (My favorite)
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-7604_7-1016838-1.html?tag=buy
ZDNet
http://www.zdnet.com/products/filter/guide/0,7267,1500123,00.html
PCWorld
http://www.pcworld.com/resource/browse/0,cat,92,sortIdx,1,00.asp
Tom's Hardware Guide
http://www6.tomshardware.com/consumer/index.html
Now once you've narrowed your list down somewhat it's time to go see them in action. Stores like Best Buy, Staples, Office Max and other office
supply and computer stores have display models that you can use to see the features up close and most importantly see the output and print quality.
Some printers are noisy, some are slow and others vibrate and clunk and those that are prone to paper jams.
Here are some questions that you should be asking the salesperson.
Do I need special photo inks to get the best quality for this printer? If yes,
then it means that the printer does not come with the best quality inks. A
great printer does not need top of the line inks to make a good print.
Can I see the best possible quality that this printer can make using regular plain paper? The laminated samples shown to you are printed
using the best settings on the best photo quality paper. Laminating them makes them look even better. Lets see what it can do using regular
paper. Ask to be shown how to change the driver settings to obtain the best settings. The procedure can be totally different, and difficult
on some printers.
How many pages can you get from the cartridge? You will need this information to calculate your cost per page. Also ask what percentage of
page fill it is based on. The norm is 5% but 8% - 10% is more realistic in
the real world and it can be up to 30% - 70% for color printing.
What is the longevity of the inks?
All inks fade but you should be able to get several years out of a print if
it is stored properly and printed on the proper media. Some boast as high as 50 years. Lord knows how they can prove that.
Does the ink smear?
Inks should be fast drying. Have the salesperson print a page and then run
your finger over it. A cheap ink will smear right after printing.
Are 3rd party cartridges and refill kits available for this printer? Since the
cartridges may cost more than the printer to replace this is an important question.
Here is something else to consider. Refurbished printers cost much less and carry the full manufacturers warranty. Check the manufacturers web
site for refurbished printers. Most of them sell these. Also check out refurbdepot.com.
----
Till next time.
Happy printing
Barry Shultz
Atlascopy, Inc.
PO Box 1292
Dover, DE. 19904
http://atlascopy.com
You may freely distribute this article as long as you include the following at the end of the article with the URL hard linked exactly as it is on this web page.
Barry Shultz is the author of Atlascopy News, and President of Atlascopy,
Inc. Atlascopy specializes in
affordable alternatives to the high cost of printer supplies. Sign up for
the Atlascopy Newsletter and get 10% coupons every week in your email. http://atlascopy.com/signup_new.htm
Go to Atlascopy to save a bundle on your printer and refilling supplies.
http://atlascopy.com
Can't find what you're looking for? Try searching Google!
|
