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 Printing Tips and Articles

Inkjet or Laser Printer... A frequently asked question?
Article date 12/11/2007

Depending on how long it's been since you bought your last printer, shopping for a
new one may send you into a kind of reverse sticker shock—the shock being how
much printer you can get for the price.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2123877,00.asp

Inkjet Printers Buying Guide

With the profusion of printer models available in the market, buying the right one to suit your requirements and budget is no easy task. Whether you're printing high-quality family photos, creating professional proofs for clients, or quickly churning out draft text and graphics, everyone, it seems, needs a printer.

Why choose an inkjet over a laser printer?

The first step when you purchase a printer is deciding on whether a laser or inkjet model will be more suitable for your printing needs.

www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;1950419218

What's an inkjet?

The concept behind inkjets will be familiar to most readers: ink gets squirted out of nozzles located within the printhead, which distribute the ink across the page as it is fed through the printer.

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Printer specifications

There are several key specifications which consumers can use to differentiate between inkjet printers.

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Which inkjet model is right for me?

Inkjet printers range from around $150 for an entry-level product (home) up to $900 for a state-of-the-art photo printer.

www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;1950419218;pp;3#whichinkjetmodelisrightforme

Photo printers

The massive increase in the number of digital images being taken, coupled with the ease of use and simplicity of models now being released, is propelling photo printers into the mainstream printer market.

www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;1950419218;pp;3#photoprinters

Multifunction devices

Another option which small to medium business users may want to consider in preference to a stand-alone inkjet or laser printer is a multifunction device.

www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;1950419218;pp;3#multifunctiondevices

Other considerations: Printer consumables

The biggest contributor to the running costs of an inkjet printer is the replacement of consumables.

www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;1950419218;pp;4#otherconsiderationsprinterconsumables

Printer driver

The printer driver is important when choosing a printer for two reasons: it acts as the interface software between your PC and the printer, and it is the access point that allows you to control the media stock and print quality from your desktop.

www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;1950419218;pp;5#printerdriver

Overview of types of inkjet printers

Home Printers

Also known as entry-level printers, these units are highlighted by their simplistic feature sets and sparse controls. They are easy to install and use, and are perfect for printing documents and Web pages. If you want to print the occasional photograph, they will also indulge you: however, their quality - while being sharp and still very impressive - will not be as stellar as that of a dedicated photo printer.

www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;1950419218;pp;5#overviewoftypesofinkjetprinters

How to buy a printer

The Big Picture

For most people, choosing a printer entails balancing price, speed, and print quality. But as models improve, manufacturers differentiate them in other ways. Inkjet printers, along with digital cameras, are changing the way we print photographs. When loaded with special photo inks and paper, inkjet printers are one of the best options for transforming a digital image into a photograph.

pcworld.com/article/id,125651-page,2-c,printers/article.html#

Inkjet & Photo Printers Buying Guide

With the profusion of printer models available in the market, buying the right one to suit your requirements and budget is no easy task. Whether you're printing high-quality family photos, creating professional proofs for clients, or quickly churning out draft text and graphics, everyone, it seems, needs a printer.The purpose of this buying guide is to help you decipher information about inkjet printers and make your choice an easier one.

http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;1950419218

Online Extra: PC Magazine Guide to Digital Photography

Having photographs of memorable moments and people you love is wonderful. But getting them should be part of the joy and adventure. And with digital photography, it is. Now that we have the ability to immediately see and share pictures when we take them; photographs have gone beyond the way we record our life, becoming part of the experience and not just reminders of it.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1647274,00.asp

The Essential Buying Guide: Photo Printers

By M. David Stone
October 5, 2004
The best photos these days are digital—not because they're better quality, but because they can go everywhere. And once you have e-mailed them around, shared them online, or put them in a slide show, you print them. Whether they end up on your mantelpiece, on your refrigerator, or tucked neatly away in a photo album, you want them to look like the real thing. Now that printers can finally produce true photo quality, you can print your precious memories with confidence.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1647136,00.asp

Personal Printers: The Essential Buying Guide

By M. David Stone
May 18, 2004
Buying a personal printer today involves making not one choice but several in an increasingly crowded market. Prices range from under $100 to over $1,000. You can buy a standard printer, a dedicated photo printer, or an all-in-one (also called a multifunction printer). Then there's the choice of technology: ink jet or laser, monochrome or color. And personal printers aren't even necessarily personal: Some are more office-oriented, with network connections built in.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1656534,00.asp

Printing in Black, Revisited

By M. David Stone

In the item "Printing in Black", we mentioned that most ink jets can't use their black ink on glossy paper. One reader insisted that no printer he has seen has to mix colors to print black, except for three-color printers that don't have black ink. We thought it would be useful to look at this issue in just a little more depth.

 http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1722379,00.asp

Cropping for printing

By Les Freed
When it comes to printing, digital photographers face a hurdle that has challenged film photographers over the years: the aspect ratio. A 35-mm negative has an aspect ratio of 1.5:1, the same as the popular 4-by-6 print. But many digital cameras use image sensors with a 1.33:1 (or 4:3) aspect ratio. Popular print sizes 8-by-10 and 5-by-7 have ratios of 1.25:1 and 1.4:1

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1023211,00.asp

 

Printing Utilities

By Matthew P. Graven
If you've ever wanted to lay out a document so that it prints four pages per sheet, or if you've spent hours trying to print a large Microsoft Word document as a booklet, then you've probably noticed that most applications and printer drivers don't offer enough print options. Typically, outputting only a selected portion of a page, printing on both sides of a sheet of paper, or printing multiple pages per side is a frustrating process of trial and error. Here are two utilities that make such tasks a lot easier.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1096691,00.asp

Aimee's photo-printing checklist

Making predictable prints is one of the biggest headaches in digital photography. I often hear digital photographers complain that while their pictures look great onscreen, their prints just don't come out the same.

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6501_7-5570902.html

Who You Are

From Barbara Krasnoff,

You're trying to enjoy our technological society -- but without blowing the family budget. You've just bought a new digital camera and you want to be able to print out occasional family pictures and pass them around at parties; however, for really good portraits, you’re willing to take your digital photos to a professional. Meanwhile, your 10-year-old wants to publish a newsletter for her class, your husband is planning to sell the car and wants to print up some posters, and you are finishing a report for work tomorrow.

From Barbara Krasnoff,

Your 12-year-old has created a newsletter for her class, and wants to print out pages from her favorite blogs – all in full color. Ink cartridges for your printer are expensive, but you don't want to limit her creativity.

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