Buyers Laboratory Inc. (BLI), “the office equipment industry’s leading independent authority and provider of competitive intelligence, testing and reviews on multifunction (MFP), copier, printer and fax products”. BLI semi-annually present its “Pick” award to the products that perform the best in their respective categories throughout BLI’s in-depth lab test.

During the test, BLI evaluates all critical performance areas, including reliability, image quality, productivity, print drivers, feedback to workstations, administrative utilities, ease of use, network setup, toner yield, cost of ownership and more.

HP Selected in Three Color Printer Categories

The HP Color LaserJet CP6015dn received a BLI “Pick” award in the large workgroup color printer category, while the multifunction printer based on the same engine, the Color LaserJet CM6040f, was recognized in the printer MFP category. “The CP6015dn and the CM6040f offer users dark text, smooth lines and good color output at a competitive price,” said BLI Senior Test Technician Tony Maceri. “And with HP’s standard security features and extensive color access controls, business users have multiple options to control the output devices on their networks.”

Meanwhile, Oce, a global leader in digital document management and delivery solutions was recently awarded four Spring 2008 “Pick of the Year” awards from BLI, too.

Three Oce color devices, the Oce cm4521, Oce cm5520 and Oce cm6520, won “Outstanding Segment 4 Business Color MFP” Pick of the Year awards; the Oce im4512 achieved the “Outstanding Segment 4 Monochrome MFP” Pick of the Year award. “We are honored to receive the level of prestige given to our devices by being awarded these ‘Picks’,” said Tom O’Neill, Director Product Marketing, Oce North America, Document Printing Systems. “BLI’s testing criteria and opinions are highly respected and winning these Segment 4 awards really shows our devices are in a class of their own.”

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Using your photo printer to the fullest does not require expensive equipment. This is a step-by-step guide for those who want to calibrate his photo printer at home.

Ink + paper = something unexpected

You should know that ink is either a solution of coloring agents or a water suspense of solid color particles. And paper is some porous surface with certain roughness, own whiteness, thickness and reflecting power.

So when ink meets paper, rarely something good comes out of it (especially when they are made by different brands) under default printing settings: the results of this interaction are often hard to predict. Bu there’s something you can do about it.

(more…)

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In today’s world you cannot save yourself from printing, but you can save on printing. Here you will some useful tips how to cut your printing costs.

Can you imagine what the business world would be like without printing? No newspapers, no contracts, no bonds, no checks, no paper money, no maps. This list is almost endless. You would end up with very same list if try to think of a world without paper. Today printers and paper come side by side.

The emerging technologies have long promised to deliver us from printing and use of paper. In 1975, Business Week magazine predicted by now we’d have a paperless office. But do we? The development of the internet and electronic documents was expected to force out the printed pages. So is the invention of electronic paper. But today businesses still print between 2.5 and 2.8 trillion pages worldwide and this number is expected to grow within next 10 years.

In today’s world you cannot save yourself from printing, but you can save on printing. Here you will learn how to cut your printing costs. These money saving tips are generally oriented to home users and small and midsize offices. However, everyone who’s looking for an efficient printing would find these tips useful.

OK, let’s get straight to the point. (more…)

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Nowadays, large offset presses, costing several million dollars apiece, dominate printing business that is estimated for $418 billion a year. Most of the offset presses sold in the world are produced by Xerox.

This state of affairs is likely to change with the introduction of the new inkjet technologies. And the success of new technologies means troubles for Xerox and more business for major makers of inkjet printers like Hewlett-Packard, Eastman Kodak and others.

The introduced inkjet presses, priced as much as $2.5 million per unit, are more expensive than the half a million dollar Xerox machines, but cost less per page. For instance, inkjet machines produce a page for 1 cent, versus about 4 cents for the Xerox’s laser technology. Just like with desktop printers, the digital printer makers expect to make their profits by selling ink.

So far offset printers produces 95% of all printed pages worldwide. Digital presses account for only 2% of offset pages, or $US8 billion annually. However, inkjet makers expect that share to triple in the next 3-4 years as quality and speed of digital printing improve. But even today inkjet makers are sure with their technology digital printing is competitive in price and quality with offset printing.

At the Drupa trade show world’s printer makers are showing new inkjet presses predicted to be the future of commercial printing.

Kodak will demonstrate its Stream inkjet technology that can print at a speed of 150 meters a minute, about half the speed of traditional offset. The technology will be available in 2010, Kodak says.

HP will show its Inkjet Color Web Press, which prints at 120 meters a minute and will be available for sale next year.

Industry specialists are cautious in theirs predictions and say digital printing won’t push out offset as fast as digital photography replaced film. But the shift to digital printing provides an important growth opportunity for printer makers.

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Do you think history of printing starts with invention of the laser printer? Wrong. The printing press? Wrong again. The history of printing takes off well before our era.

The first known example of printing — the so-called Phaistos Disc — was found on the Greek Island of Crete. Most scientists believe that it was used as one of the earliest forms of a printing “press” dated 1800-1400 BC. This is 3800 years ago.

If you are interested in how was the printing technology developing up to the 21th century, you will learn that from an article title “The History Of Print: From Phaistos To 3D.” The story will take you from ancient Phaistos Disc to tomorrow’s (actually they exist today, but not widely spread) three-dimensional printers. Illustrations and videos are supplied.

This is a recommended reading to the history of laser printers.

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We rarely write about software, but today we do. The subject is not some ordinary program but ZEdit Pro, special software developed by Z Corporation for its 3-d printers.

The pecularity of this new software lies is that automatically prepares 3D data files for easy full-colour 3D printing. ZEdit Pro lets users of 3D mechanical CAD software verify and ensure that geometric data is 3D printable; apply colours, texture maps and labels to their models; and easily print very large prototypes in component pieces.

Another great thins about ZEdit Pro is that it transforms files that were never originally intended for 3D printing, including those produced by 3D digital content creation software used in animation and architecture. ZEdit Pro makes these files 3D printing-ready, often with a single click.

With these capabilities, Z Edit Pro helps create better models faster, and enables including architects, conceptual designers, and game designers to reap the same benefits of easy 3D printing as mechanical engineers.

Naturally, ZEdit Pro suits best Z Corporation 3D printers, and focuses on three functional areas that improve the quality of 3D printed models:

• geometry optimisation to automatically make 3D data ready for 3D printing;
• painting and texture mapping for colouring and applying images to models; and
• print preparation for cutting or hollowing parts before printing.

Unlike mechanical 3D CAD software, digital content creation tools used for visualization and rendering in architecture, animation and avatar creation often do not typically produce 3D printing-ready data. ZEdit Pro automatically “3D Print enables” data from either kind of 3D software, as well as medical scans, by incorporating printable geometric data, closing gaps, repairing meshes, and adding depth that is only suggested by shading in some software.

ZEdit Pro also gives anyone the easy ability to print CAD models that are too big for the printing envelope. The software automatically segments oversized models, creating pins and holes for reassembly of the sections after printing. ZEdit Pro also hollows out solids that would otherwise waste resources, and helps users create bases and pedestals for models.

ZEdit Pro is priced at $2,500, but for a while it will be included with purchases of Z Corporation 3D printers at no cost. Feel like saving $2,500? Buy a $20,000 3D printer and get this software for free!

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At an event on March 10, 2008 in Tel Aviv, Hewlett-Packard offered a peek into future printing technologies, introducing a new inkjet printer that prints thousands of pages per minute and ink that retains its shine even when exposed to extreme elements.

HP’s water-based Latex Ink is specially formulated to embed in a surface and become part of a media print, said Stephen Nigro, senior vice president of HP’s graphics and imaging business. HP’s Latex Ink can withstand snow and rain and is useful for large-format media used on billboards and outdoor signs.

The company also launched the Inkjet Web Press printer, which can print up to 2,600 A4-sized color pages a minute at a cost of under US$0.01 per color page, Nigro said.

The Latex Ink includes a specially created formula, called latex polymer, that provides the print surface its durability and color, according to HP. Water-based ink ejected carries the latex polymer and pigment particles to the surface. The inks are 70 percent water and 30 percent of additives and other inks, HP said. The ink was developed by HP and HP Labs.

Unlaminated outdoor displays using the ink can last up to three years, while unlaminated in-window displays can last up to five years.

The printer cartridge uses recyclable material and the company has developed new recyclable substrates for the ink to make printing environmentally friendly, HP said. Other printing technology for large-format media include UV (ultraviolet) curable ink, which interacts with an ultraviolet light source to create a print.

HP also showed the Inkjet Web Press, a printer that prints up to 2,600 A4-sized color pages a minute. The printer will be able to print on pages up to 30 inches (76.2 centimeters) wide, Nigro said. It is targeted at replacing the printed pages coming from traditional offset presses.

A printing job with a traditional offset press takes hours and it’s not possible to print on demand. With a traditional offset press, a machine first creates a physical plate with the image etched on it, which is then sent to print. With the Inkjet Web Press platform, hitting the print button sends the image directly to a printer, making high-volume printing more productive by eliminating analog elements like a plate, Nigro said.

The printer is built around the Scalable Printing Technology (SPT) platform, which improves the quality of prints by spraying more ink on pages using thousands of nozzles on a single printhead. SPT is already in use on printers like HP’s Photosmart, Nigro said. HP introduced the Photosmart Minilab ml1000 inkjet printer earlier this year, which can print 4-by-6-inch photos as fast as 1,500 prints per hour.

Via www.cio.com

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