Printing is still an important part of any business, regardless the natural for business desire to slash the costs by printing less. Printing is still not a technology “green” enough for the adepts of paperless office, but it has greatly improved in recent years.

For instance, Xerox, apart from the laser and inkjet printer printers, has been actively promoting its solid ink technology as more “environmentally-friendly” with a “reduced carbon footprint.”

Actually, the mother of solid ink technology was in 1991 the Tektronix that developed it as a printing technology for office use. 9 years later, in 2000, Xerox acquired the Tektronix and added it as a brand line together with other lines of its printing products.

So, here is what you may want to know about solid inks. (more…)

“Inkjet prints cannot be recycled for new newsprint or copying paper just as old newspapers or magazines,” claims INGEDE, International Association of the Deinking Industry.

It turns out, the recycling process doesn’t remove the ink from inkjet prints; the new paper comes out shaded. The recycling paper mills can still cope with single inkjet prints from households or offices. But what printer manufacturers plan to introduce at the “Drupa” fair, the world’s largest printing and paper exhibition, jeopardizes the paper recycling cycle: Direct mail or newspapers printed with inkjet are like a sponge full of ink – and even in small amounts of such printed products can cause the graphic paper recycling to collapse.

For a couple of years INGEDE has been trying to solve this problem together with printer manufacturers and other members of the paper chain, but futile. Quite the opposite – those printer manufacturers focused on excellent recyclable dry toners now also offer inkjet systems for high volumes.

The association believes that publishers and mailing designers need to be informed, as even a single publisher investing in this kind of equipment could severely harm paper recycling all over Europe. INGEDE plans an intensive information campaign in the forefront of the “Drupa” fair. Clearly, inkjet printed news and direct mail do not fit into the higher-grade paper recycling system. That is why possibly this kind of printed products have to be clearly visible marked as “not recyclable”.

The dry toner performs very well in the paper recycling process that originally has been developed for the removal of offset and gravure inks. A series of tests by different European research institutes on behalf of INGEDE has confirmed these findings.

For those of us who are environmentally conscious, all the above means we’d better stick to laser printers, if we want to be greener.

Today’s business world is more demanding for ability to conduct business almost anywhere. As a mobile professional, you may find it handy to print on-the-go, and Canon gives you this opportunity.

The new PIXMA iP100 Mobile Printer from Canon U.S.A, successfully addresses printing needs on-the-go and delivers text and graphics for printing a business presentation or a contract. It prints borderless color photos from the car or even at the beach. This printer has increased color resolution and is faster than previous models. The lightweight Canon PIXMA iP100 Mobile Printer fits easily onto a desk or into a case making it the perfect laptop companion for business or personal travel.

The PIXMA iP100 Mobile Printer’s new design includes increased color resolution to a maximum 9600 x 2400 dpi, one picoliter droplet size (the first-ever mobile printer to have a minimum), and increased print speed. Additionally, the printer will use 2 black inks, one a pigment-based black ink for text and another for printing photos. The total volume of the pigment black ink tank has been increased by 50%.

The Canon PIXMA iP100 is the first mobile printer to have Auto Image Fix technology. With a laptop, this technology automatically recognizes the scenes in photographs and optimizes printing settings according to the scene type, such as Portrait, Scenery, Snapshot, etc.

With print speeds of up to 20 pages-per-minute for black and up to 14 ppm for color, this printer can deliver projects faster than previous models. The PictBridge port allows printing 4-x 6 inch to 8-x 10 inch and legal size pictures from a compatible digital camera or DV camcorder without a computer.

The PIXMA iP100 Mobile Printer features a standard USB 2.0 Hi-Speed connection. Besides, business professionals have the option to print wirelessly from the built-in IrDA port or from select Bluetooth enabled cellular phones and computers with the new optional user installable Bluetooth Unit BU-30 (not included).

Canon offers the optional LK-62 Lithium Ion battery that last enough to make 290 pages per three-hour charge. Also, Mobile professionals will benefit from the optional Automobile Power Unit to power their PIXMA iP100 Mobile Printer directly through a car power socket.

The iP100 Mobile Printer is available for $249.99. The LK-62 battery costs an additional $99.99, and a compatible Automobile Power Unit (PU-200U) sells for $89.99.

Previously we have established that original HP ink cartridges have at least 2 levels of protection: genuine labels and “best before” dates. How about the toner cartridges?

Monochrome laser is the most common printing technology for offices. According to HP, replacement of a toner cartridges renews 2/3 of the whole printing mechanism. So it’s worth making sure the cartridge you buy is not a freud.

For demonstration purposes we used HP Q2612A and C7115T toner cartridges. Here are several signs to tell you the cartridge you hold is a genuine HP toner cartridge:

• specific location of the hologram label
• air-proof package of the cartridge inside the box
• protective tape in cartridge
• production codes on the cartidge casing and on the box

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