Printer Industry Blog » design

“See What You Print” Printer Concept

Stan Retner — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 14:23:51 +0000

You are probably familiar with the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) acronym, which stands for a property of programs to display an image that is close to the final result, whether it’s printed text or Web page. It seems like now the term can apply to printers as design studio Artefact introduced the concept of printer See What You Print or SWYP.

Unlike most modern printers, this model is a fully autonomous device with a large touch screen and computer platform. User prints out any material, the source of which can be a full-pledged personal computer, laptop or desktop, mobile device, smartphone or tablet. However, before actual printing user can edit the image with the simple image editor.

Since the display size of the printer corresponds to A4 paper size, the user sees the actual image that will be printed out. To start printing you only need to touch and slide down with your finger on the screen. Worth mentioning is the ink level indicator: when cartridges run low on ink, the image on the screen fades unevenly, once again confirming the main idea of the concept — “You see what you print.”

Wax-On The Very Compact Printer

Stan Retner — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 18:19:33 +0000

Chances are Wax-On printer becomes the most simple product of its kind. And it will, when transformed from a concept to a serial device. The author of this development, designer Faris Elmasu, believes the main advantage of this printer is the use technology of solid or thermoplastic wax-based dyes.

This technology really has many advantages over traditional ink printers. Maintenance of such office equipment does not cause virtually no hassle, even cartridges are replaced in one step, leaving no residue on hands and clothes. The original design of the printer is worth noting for being positioned vertically and having a slim build. A device like this would look cool on anyone’s table. Wax-On looks obviously nicer than all modern printers.

The Compact, the Stylish And the Sexy

Stan Retner — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 10:23:02 +0000

Now, let’s get back from the world of innovation technologies to printer maker releases.

The Compact

HP unveiled a new flagship device to update the Photosmart series of compact printers – Photosmart A826 Home Photo Center. No need to say the new printers are designed to make your home printing experience easy and fun, that’s what all compact printers are for.

What makes Photosmart A826 special among the likes is a huge, 7-inch color touch-screen specially to edit photos by applying such effects as removal of red-eye, slimming, black-and-white and sepia, and solarization.

The printer can produce 4×6 and 5×7 prints, as well as panoramic pictures as wide as 4×12 inches. The new model uses three-color Vivera dye-based ink cartridges that allow for maximum print resolution of 4800×1200 dpi. The A826 will be available in September 2007 for $249.

The Stylish

On its part, Canon also introduces fancy-looking device. The new Pixma MP145 is an all-in-one inkjet printer designed for home and office use.

The printer incorporates Canon proprietary FINE printheads, which according to the company can produce borderless 4-inch x 6-inch photos within just 60 seconds. The printheads inject ink droplets as small as 2 picolitres to achieve resolution of 4800 x 1200 dpi in color.

Canon Pixma MP145 features printing speeds of 20 ppm for monochrome and 15 ppm for color. Copying speed is virtually the same — 19 ppm for monochrome and 15 ppm for color copies. The printer’s scanner (as funny as it sounds) employs a CIS sensor that provides optical scanning resolution of up to 600 x 1200 dpi.

If you consider the design of the new Pixma MP145, you will notice that the model uses unusual for Canon inkjets color scheme. White case and black interface panel give this printer a look similar to that of Apple gadgets. By the way, the Pixma MP145 is compatible with Macintosh machines, take a note of that.

The Sexy

What kind of image appears in your mind when you hear the phrase “laser printer”? Usually, that’s something clumsy, craggy and made of gray plastic. But not necessarily so. Samsung introduced two printers that stand out from ruck of printing devices.

“The world’s slimmest monochrome laser printer, ML-1630, and multifunctional printer, SCX-4500, blazes a new trail for the global printer industry beyond functional competitions and opens a design-centric printer era,” states the subhead of Samsung’s press release.

Indeed, printers are different from what I have seen before, speaking in terms of design. High-glossy black ‘grand-piano’ finish, previously common in Samsung’s MP3-players and TVs, gives the devices a very distinct look.

Meanwhile, unlike the design the technical characteristics are pretty common. Samsung ML-1630 feature 600 dpi, 16 ppm, 15 second wake-up time, 8MB cache and USB 2 connectors. The multifunction Samsung SCX-4500 needs Samsung toner cartridges, has functions of copier (same specifications as for printer) and scanner of 600 x 2,400 dpi maximum optical resolution.

No information on price is available yet, however I expect it to be somewhat above average for the sexy design. If you want to spice up the look of your working place, these printers are definitely worth spending some extra money on.

New Stylish Roller Printer

Stan Retner — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 12:10:59 +0000

Have you lived long enoigh to remember how roller printer looked like? Now forget it, because here comes a roller printer you’ve never seen before!

Jin Woo Han, a product designer from South Korea, realized his vision of a roller printer. The device is capable of printing on extremely long lengths of paper, so you can make banner and panoramic pictures at home. The printer has a built-in cutter to produce regular sized (A4 and A3) pages.

The printer exist only as as 3-d concept model and not available anywhere, but when and if released as a commercial product, it would be a gadget attractive enough to compete with iPods and iPhones. See for youself: