BORING HOLIDAYS FOR THE CHILDREN? COMPUTER DRAWING IS THE ANSWER

  

 

"Mummy - I'm bored!" The school holidays are happening, but the children have nothing to do.

If you have a computer, and a printer with colour cartridges, then there is a solution.
You might have to learn this free drawing application yourself to show the kids how, but the free time to do other things will justify your return many times over. Happy children means a happy home.
This game is simply called 'Drawing for Children', (click on this link to go to the web page) and it's easy to instal. Did I mention that it's free? It works like a kiddies' photoshop, but oh so simple to use. Just be ready for their printed portrait of you.

Not only does it help further familiarize your children with computer usage, but it also feeds their creative abilities, and it makes them think, and enjoy.  And its something you can share with them.


We thank our sponsers at ABC Printsupplies along with other suppliers for providing this information.  

WHY PRINTERS ARE IMPORTANT TO HOME USERS

     

There are so many ways to get the most of your printer use at home - here are some of them. Often home users rarely use their printer, perhaps because they aren't aware of the many print benefits they can get. Following are various uses that you might not have thought of: 1.      Forms.   Many webpages have forms option on their sidebar at no cost. A good example is a Statue of Declaration form 2.      Tickets.  You want to go to that new movie that is on in town, or your sporting team has a big home game coming up Saturday week, and you want some tickets. The internet not only allows you to select where in the  theatre/stadium etc you can choose to sit, but allows you to print your tickets on the spot 3.        Photos.  You get a virus in your hard disk drive and you havn't backed up to a removable drive. The real heartache occurs when you realize that you have not printed those special family photos. The quality of printers and inks/toners today, along with glossy photo quality paper, enables you to produce great quality photos for your album. 4.        Children's Games, Drawings & Keepsakes.  Children on holidays need to be kept occupied, but 3 children do not go into one computer. What to do? Print-out games that they will enjoy doing on paper. Or when they do a computer drawing, it's a masterpiece of course, and must be put up on the wall in the bedroom - imagine if there was no printer! 5.       Recipes.  You want a recipe for Thai Chicken, as your partner is bringing home the boss who apparently has a real penchant for it. You find just what you are after on the internet. So if you don't have a printer, you have to either write it own, or keep referring to the monitor which of course has gone into stand-by mode.....aaaagh. Printing it gives you quick, easy reference, plus you store it away in your recipe book for next time after the boss says it was the best he's ever had. There are numerous other uses for the home computer printer. So make sure you have a spare printer cartridge available as well, or the children will never forgive you, even Ben at 18, who needs a map printout to get to his new girl friend's place. We thank our sponsers at ABC Printsupplies along with other suppliers for providing this information.

CARTRIDGE FAILURE OR PRINTER PROBLEM?

 

Getting poor quality print outs from your inkjet/toner printer? Is it the cartridge or  printer maintenance to blame?

Are you seeing smudges on the paper, colours mixing, or missing sections? Then it could pay you to have a look at the maintenance of your printer,
Here are some things you should regularly do to maintain good printer quality:
 – Use your inkjet printer regularly
When  your printer is left unused for long stretches of time, the ink in the print head and nozzles can dry and cause printing flaws such as jagged lines and incorrect colors. To prevent this,  use your printer frequently, even if just a page of printing.
– Perform nozzle checks
If you leave your printer unused for a long period of time, you should perform a nozzle check before you use it again. This will make sure your printer prints normally. The nozzle check can often be run thorough your printer’s utility function. Look at your printer’s user manual for specific directions.
 – Clean the print heads
If your nozzle is clogged, cleaning the print heads should fix any poor print quality issues. Cleaning utilities come with your printer drivers. Some printers even have a print head cleaning button on their control panel. Your printer’s user manual will have specific directions.
– Align the print heads
If your printouts have vertical lines or horizontal bands this generally means that your print head needs to be aligned. This utility can be found with your printer drivers or in your printer control panel. When you align the print heads, the printer will print a pattern on a piece of paper. You then follow prompts from your printer to adjust the pattern. Specific information for performing a print head alignment can be found in your printer’s user manual.
– Replace your inkjet cartridges
Flawed printouts can often be caused by cartridges that are low on ink. Your printer will prompt you when a black or color cartridge reaches a certain level of ink. Printer manufactures say you should replace your cartridge when you receive this warning because print quality will suffer if you don’t. When replacing your printer cartridges, be sure your purchase the correct replacement cartridge ( check the printer models on the cartridge box or from the web page) and install it as the supplied instructions or your printer’s user manual directs. Incorrect installation can cause more flawed printouts.
 – Turn your printer off (the correct way)
Leaving your inkjet printer on for extended periods of time can cause clogged nozzles and flawed printouts. After you finish using your printer for the day you should turn it off using the printer’s own power button. In most printers, the power button initiates a process that seals the print head from outside air, preventing clogged nozzles. If you unplug your printer, or turn it off using a power strip, the print head sealing function may not run.

Alternatively, to check your cartridge, insert an alternative one, if it prints well, then contact your supplier to replace the malfunctioning one. But remember, cartridges don't last forever - if it is over 3 months since you've received it, or experienced abnormal temperature conditions, then discard it as the supplier is unlikely to offer replacement.

We thank our sponsers at ABC Printsupplies along with other suppliers for providing this information. 

TIME FOR A NEW PRINTER, WHAT SHOULD YOU GET?

 

 

The questions you should ask yourself before making a decision on the best printer for your usage.

 

There are many features and options available to you when buying a new printer, that if answered correctly, should enable you to buy the most suitable printer to your needs. And not necessarily the most expensive.

So ask yourself these questions:

• What category of printer is required? There are three categories to chose from:

     1) General Purpose or Special Purpose – The vast majority of printers on the market are general purpose (they are good for doing a little bit of everything). Special purpose printers are designed to do specific things (photo printing, document printing, label printing). Figure out what purpose you need your printer to serve.

     2) Home Use or Office Use – Where will you be using your printer? Home use printers are more likely to print photos. Office users will focus on printing text. Maybe you are a home office user. If so, geta multifunction printer.

     3) Laser Printer or Inkjet Printer -  Laser printers are designed for text heavy printing. Inkjet printers are better for photos and graphics. What you print will determine what you need.

•   Do you need to print in color?  
    If the answer is yes, you are probably leaning toward an inkjet printer. If you answer no, then find yourself a laser printer.
•  Do you need a single function or multifunction printer  (MFC or MFP)?    
   If all you want to do is print, go with a single function printer. If you would like the option to make copies, scan documents/images and fax, you are going to need a multifunction printer.                                                                                                                                                                                       
• What kind of print quality do you need?       
  Print quality differs by the type of printer. Check the print quality for text, graphics, and photos separately. Just because a printer prints high quality text does not mean it will print high quality graphics and photos. Find a printer that produces high quality results for what you print.
•  How much speed do you need?    
  If you are the sole user and you typically print 1-2 pages at a time, you probably don’t need a printer with a lot of speed. If you are printing individual documents with many pages, or share the printer with a number of people, you are going to want a printer with a high print speed.

• How much do you print?    
  Make sure you check the printer’s monthly duty cycle.The duty cycle the manufacturers recommended number of pages you should print each month. Each printer has a different duty cycle. Printing in excess of this number may cause your printer to wear out faster.

• How are you going to connect?     
  In addition to USB ports, most printers now allow you to connect via an Ethernet connection or Wireless connection. The advantage of Ethernet and Wireless is that they allow you to add your printer to your home network. You can link all your computers to a single printer. 

•  How much does it cost?    
  Be sure to check the total cost of ownership for any printer you are thinking about purchasing. You’ll pay a certain amount for the printer when you buy it, but remember you are going to need to buy cartridges in order to continue to use it. To get the total cost of ownership, calculate the cost per year for each kind of output (monochrome, color document, photo) by multiplying the cost per page for that kind of output by the number of those pages you print per year. Add the three amounts together to get the total cost per year. Then multiply that by the number of years you expect to own the printer, and add the initial cost of the printer. Compare the total cost of ownership figures between printers to find out which printer will be cheapest in the long run. More on this at a previous article.
  
  
  Additional information on what printer to get can be seen on a video from PC World
  
  
  We thank our sponsers at ABC Printsupplies along with other suppliers for providing this information. 

HOW TO DISPOSE OF USED PRINTER CARTRIDGES

 

 How do you get rid of those used printer cartridges in an environmentally friendly way (e-waste recycling)? 

This is becoming a more vexing problem for business and householders as they dispose of MANY MILLIONS of printer cartridges each year - mostly ending up in land fills with long term environmental issues (scary for future generations - bequeathing them a dump). Plastic is a material that nature finds particularly difficult to decompose taking an extremely long period of time. so alternative uses need to be found for them.

One alternative use is remanufacturing of the cartridges, and this is becoming more evident with companies turning profitability from reproducing high quality toner & printer cartridges.

Another alternative use is to break down the cartridges, using the componentry in other industries.

But where can you dispose of the cartridges?

The good news is that organisations are putting their clout behind solving this problem. They call it e-waste recycling and it makes a lot of sense. Look up keywords like 'recycling printer cartridges' or 'printer cartridge collection'on your favourite search engine site ( Google, Yahoo, Bing etc.)

To help the environment in another way, especially if you are a business, create a disposal box on your premises, and only take it to a disposal centre when it is full. That way you are not using as much fuel in transportation - and fossil fuel consumption creates carbon emissions. 

We welcome other parties using this article to spread the good word. 

We thank our sponsers at ABC Printsupplies along with other suppliers for providing this information. 

THE REAL COST OF YOUR PRINTER PURCHASE

You're buying a new printer and you want to know what gives you the best bang for your buck.

 

 

Taking away factors such as print speed, and quality of print ( for genuine recognized brands, are nearly always high ), which can otherwise be important considerations for you, the most important consideration in purchasing a printer is its total cost i.e. price plus running costs over a period of its lifetime, say 3 years. 

Running costs do matter, and a printer with a lower cost per page isn't necessarily going to be cheaper in the longer term. To find out which printer is the best buy, you need to compute the total cost of printing over the printer's lifetime.

In undertaking your comparisons, make sure that the printer cartridge usage yields you use are from reliable suppliers where the yields are measured in terms of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

Remember that cartridge prices are irrelevant unless you also know how many pages the cartridge will print. Focus on the cost per page, not the cost per cartridge. Estimate the number of pages you print per month, both in monochrome (black), and in colour. In printer usage colour also uses the black cartridge.  

Following is a table that will assist you in determining what total printer costa are to you:

 

PRINTER	PRICE	COST PER PAGE		RUNNING COSTS PER MONTH		TOTAL COST PER MONTH	3-YEAR RUNNING COSTS	TOTAL 3-YEAR COST
		MONO	COLOUR	MONO	COLOUR

We thank our sponsers at ABC Printsupplies along with other suppliers for providing this information. 

CALIBRATING PRINTERS BY BROTHER

How to Prevent Print Defects in DCP9040CN, DCP9042CDN, HL4040CN, HL4050CDN, MFC9440CN, MFC9450CDN, and MFC9840CDW printers by Brother

PROBLEM
Due to variations in temperature and humidity, any newly installed cartridge (TN-150, TN155) in the  Brother DCP9040CN, DCP9042CDN, HL4040CN, HL4050CDN, MFC9440CN, MFC9450CDN, and MFC9840CDW printers, whether new OEM (original equipment manufacture) or remanufactured, can produce density defects if the printer is not calibrated.


Failure to calibrate after cartridge installation can result in light print or over saturated dark print caused by colours not being properly matched. Dumping can be caused by over saturation or by over development of toner.


SOLUTION




To achieve optimal colour density for each colour it is recommended that a manual calibration be performed on the printer at the time of cartridge installation.
To manually calibrate:

1.  Press the + or - key to choose Colour Correction, Press OK,
2.  Press OK when printer window displays Colour Correction.
3.  Press OK when printer window displays Colour Calibration. Then calibrate.
4.  Press OK again when printer window displays Calibrate OK?

In the event that your manual calibration is unsatisfactory, undo by resetting the parameters to factory settings and then repeat manual calibration.

1. Press the + or - key to choose Colour correction. Press OK.
2. Press OK when printer window displays colour correction. Colour Calibration 
3. Press the + or - key rto choose Reset. Press OK  when the printer window displays  Colour Calibration Reset.
4. Press OK again  when the printer window displays Reset OK? 
   

We thank our sponsers at ABC Printsupplies along with other suppliers for providing this information. 

posted by Tony Cotton

PRINTER CARTRIDGE COLOURS

What's in a colour you say


If you are into printing, at home or work-wise, then everything. So what are they?
There are four colours used by printers - black, cyan, magenta, & yellow. They can be either ink or toner. Some printers will offer additional colours e.g. red, green, photo black etc, but of the four colours first mentioned, they can combine to form any other colour.
BLACK
The black colour can be defined as the absence of all other colours. The reason that something seems to be black to the eye is that no visible colours are reflected back.
Black can be printed by combining 100% of the three other colours, Cyan, Magenta & Yellowcolours (in which case a black cartridge is not needed). In fact with many printers, if your black expires, the colours will automatically take over to print in black, which is an expensive way to print as they normally are far more costly than the black. Also producing black by combining colours has its drawbacks & can create a colour closer to a brown or gray.
CYAN
Cyan is also called process blue and is one of the subtractive primary colours used in the C,MY9K) colour model. The Cyan colour is predominantly blue with some green in it.
MAGENTA
Magenta is also called process red and like Cyan is one of the subtractive colours used. The magenta colour is greenless and is predominantly redwith some blue in it.
YELLOW
Yellow is one of the subtractive primary colours used in the CMY, and CMYK colour models. The yellow colour is blueless meaning that it absorbs all wavelengths of blue from light.


The cyan, magenta , and yellow individually are normally inserted as a cartidege into the printer, or as a combined cartridge of cyan, magenta & yellow. They never form a combination with the black.

We thank our sponsers at ABC Printsupplies along with other suppliers for providing this information. 

SOME REASONS WHY YOUR PRINTER CARTRIDGE IS NOT WORKING PROPERLY

Clues to get better performance
Sometimes, your printer just won't print properly. You press the 'print' button and your report printout is not very clear. The printout, in fact, is faded, as though you are running out of ink/toner.
But you know the cartridge is nearly full - you only used it last month to print out that recipe.
So you think it is defective.
Before you phone the supplier to demand a replacement/refund, it could pay you to check the printer head. The chances are it is clogged with dried ink/toner or dust. The problem is solved by cleaning the head of the printer. Find your printer manual on how to do this, along with other troubleshooting hints if the printer is not performing.
You find that you are not printing even though the printer screen advises you have a percentage still to use. There is in the cartridge residual ink/toner. Like toothpaste in a tube it can't be accessed. This combined with toner dust (toner remains) will effect the reading on your printer so as you think you have say 20% usage remaining but in reality you are out of ink/toner.


Another reason your printer is not printing properly (or suddenly at all after just recently installing it) is that you might not have removed the seal or tab protecting the ink from dispersing during travel.
The manufacturer will allow a minimum of usage for test purposes without the seal/tab being removed, which falsely lets you believe the cartridge is operational.


And if you think that the quality of the print is inferior, check the printer settings. For example in Microsoft Windows under print preferences you have different print quality choices including high, standard, fast, & custom. If the setting is on 'fast' you won't have the same quality of print as 'high'.


We thank our sponsers at ABC Printsupplies along with other suppliers for providing this information. 

INK & TONER CARTRIDGES - WHAT ARE THEY?

Printer cartridges come in different shapes & sizes, but all have a common purpose.
And that purpose is to store a substance (ink or toner powder), which is supplies on demand to the computer with which the cartridge is coupled. Think of a baby (printer) & a mother (cartridge), supplying milk (ink, toner) on demand.


INK CARTRIDGES

Inkjet (Ink) cartridges vary in size & shape, from the size of a matchbox to a DVD cover.
They can vary in what quantity they contain from 2.5ml for the Canon BCI11BK Black cartridge to 330ml for the Canon  BCI1431BK Wide Format cartridge, although the majority are in the 14 to 18 ml range.


TONER CARTRIDGES

Toner (laser) cartridges are more usually expressed in pages of yield and vary between say a minimum of 1,000 pages for the Dell 592-11451 cyan cartridge to a massive 47,000 pages for the Canon TG29, GPR19 copier cartridge.


The toner printer cartridges normally have greater capacity than the Inkjet cartridges and are more office accentuated while the latter is more often for home usage.
Many offices though do use Ink cartridges, especially smaller businesses.


We thank our sponsers at ABC Printsupplies along with other suppliers for providing this information. 

HOW TO MAXIMIZE PRINTER CARTRIDGE USAGE

 Do you want to get the most usage from your printer cartridge?

There are ways to get more ink or toner yield from printer cartridges, whether genuine , remanufactured , or compatible.

So save money buying print cartridges by following these handy tips:

1) When the cartridge appears to have expired, take it out & give it a firm, but not too vigorous shake, say half a dozen times, reinstal it and you could further usage.

2) Purchase more than one cartridge at a time if via the internet, involving couriers, and save on delivery costs. Most supplers will only charge a one-time fee (incl. ABC Print Supplies).

3) If you do have cartridges in storage, then on a regular basis (say monthly).., shake them in their packaging (NOTE: Do not open the packaging until you use them).

4) If you don't need colour for your printing, although you have coloured cartidges installed, then use grayscale in the print instructions & leave this mode as default.

And don't forget, yield is approximately 5% of an A4 page (roughly a normal paragraph). Check out our previous blog post on yields @ http://inksupplyguy.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/page-yield-and-performance.html

We thank our sponsers at ABC Printsupplies along with other suppliers for providing this information.