Printing Tips that Save Money and the Environment

2009-12-03T04:13:00.000-08:00

The news article below is a surprise. UK green printing is the worst in Europe according to a report by http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk . Anyway I reproduce the news here to save you the effort to click.

UK's Printing Practices Are Worst In Europe

The UK is the worst country in Europe for sustainable printing, with companies wasting up to five percent of their turnover in printout, according to research by Ricoh

The UK's adoption of sustainable document strategies is the worst in Europe, according to new research by printing specialist Ricoh, suggesting that British enterprises are unaware of the potential to use green practices to cut costs.

Ricoh's Document Governance Index – which assigns a numerical value to environmental aspects of document governance such as recycling, setting targets, auditing and employee behaviours – placed the UK in seventh place out of seven, scoring only 38.5 out of a possible 100.

France came top the league with 43.5 percent, followed by Italy (42.7 percent) and Germany (41.7 percent). However, none of the countries surveyed scored more than 50 percent of the total, suggesting that there is still significant room for improvement in sustainable printing strategies across Europe.

According to the report, most European organisations are failing to centralise their document governance, with only 33 percent of companies claiming to have implemented a fully developed strategy to deal with paper and energy wastage. This means that many companies are overlooking tactical actions they can take, not only to improve sustainability but to reduce costs as well.

Paper wastage is one of the highest costs to businesses, with the total spend on document management in Europe currently exceeding 14 billion euros per year – up to five percent of annual turnover. Despite this, 32 percent of business leaders allow employees to do what they like with regard to duplex printing (printing on both sides of the paper) and 19 percent are either still in the planning stages or have no plans to implement a duplex printing policy. Only 18 percent have implemented a such a policy company-wide.

One of the main obstacles for companies attempting to develop a green printing strategy is a lack of awareness among employees. The report found that almost half (47 percent) of European business leaders are unfamiliar with their company's recycling policy and 40 percent with their toner recycling policy.

“Despite sustainability being an important fixture on the business agenda, and documents making up an essential part of day-to-day business operations, there remains a lack of awareness of the role that document governance can play in driving both environmental and business efficiencies,” said Tom Wagland, manager of Ricoh's Environmental Management Group. “Businesses need to act now by taking some simple steps to improve the way they are managing and controlling their document workflows.”

One of the ways that Ricoh proposes to combat this problem is with its Pay Per Page Green consultancy service, which it claims can highlight an organisation's current costs and environmental impacts and propose an optimised solution, offering lower, visible costs, reduced environmental impacts – on average of between 10 and 30 percent – and improve business efficiency.

“We take a cradle-to-cradle approach to sustainable innovation; offering products and services that contribute to environmental preservation from design to recycling,” said Shun Sato, vice president of Ricoh Europe in a statement in February.

Efforts to sell green printing strategies generally rely on having fewer printers, under tighter central control, with some sort of "pull-printing" service so users can't get their output without a security token, reducing the dangers of a shared output tray. “We must constantly be rethinking current practices in the light of new technologies and sustainability issues,” Lexmark's director of sustainable affairs Béatrice Marneffe told eWEEK Europe in June.

Although printer manufacturers' motives are arguably mixed, since they profit from extra output, they say customer demand is helping the sustainable approach: “It's not in our interest for customers to print less, but it is our business to make a profit from what the customers want,” Graham Long, vice president of Samsung’s European printing operation, told eWEEK Europe in July.

The GREEN Printing Companies

2008-12-08T04:52:00.000-08:00

Just came across an article of how three companies go for green printing technologies without affecting their bottom lines and helping the environment at the same time. Here is an extract introducing the article.

Green Team - Thoughts on Going Green

By Gail Nickel-Kailing on December 8th, 2008

Three companies spanning more than a century of printing services - Edwards Brothers, VistaPrint, and Sandy Alexander - recently shared their green initiatives with WhatTheyThink. Learning from the successes of others makes it possible for companies to move faster on the path of sustainability.

John Edwards, President/CEO of Edwards Brothers (founded 1893),
Robert Keane, President/CEO of VistaPrint (founded 1995),
and Mike Graff, President of Sandy Alexander (founded 1963) all have implemented a variety of green projects and processes. Here is what they had to say.

I like the part shared by John Edwards of Edwards Brothers: Here it goes.

The bottom line? Green can be green if you do it right. We’ve been doing it for 50 years because it makes financial sense. We’ve gotten better at tracking waste. We’ve enhanced our efforts significantly in the last five years and team members are on board and enthusiastically do what it takes to segment waste and recycle it properly because deeper segmentation of waste yields a higher return. Ultimately we’re still trying to reduce the amount of waste we generate. We recycle or use 97.5% of all raw materials entering the plant, shipping them out as finished products or as 27 different recyclable byproducts. Our goal is to boost that to 99% and we’re almost there. The fact that it pays and makes environmental sense is a win-win for us. I don’t know why any printer wouldn’t want to do it, but it is an investment – the scrap handling system equipment we installed cost $400,000 — so you have to be smart about it.

Xerox going GREEN on Printing

2008-07-06T08:23:00.000-07:00

It’s always heartening to read news items of company thinking and caring fro the environment and Xerox is joining this group.

Xerox turns a shade green at top printing expo
Dubai: Wed, 25 Jun 2008

Xerox Corporation has brought a deeper shade of green to its environmental sustainability efforts at drupa 2008, the world’s premier printing event.

The company’s sweeping initiatives included a stand that was designed, constructed and staged in a sustainable way, and a range of offerings to help Xerox customers go green.

These include a broad focus on products, services and applications that are eco-friendly, and new educational materials and training sessions on sustainability.

“At Xerox, we take a three-pronged approach to sustainability,” said Chris Govier, general manager - Production Systems Group Xerox Middle East and Africa.

“First, reducing our own environmental footprint throughout our operations has formed the basis of the way we have run the company for decades. Second, it’s about working with suppliers to help reduce their environmental footprint. And third, the most compelling area is supporting our graphic communications customers to respond to their customers’ growing demand for green printing by introducing and educating print providers to digital opportunities.”

Green stand

All three prongs were represented in the Xerox stand, beginning with the stand itself. Xerox has enhanced its events marketing and trade show practices with a more environmentally sensitive approach to materials, energy usage at the exhibit and its carbon footprint in planning and staging its participation.

The 3,500-sq m stand was built almost exclusively from recycled or reusable materials and components. The two-story exhibit structure was assembled using reused steel formed beams, and the sheet materials in the walls and displays use recycled board and sustainable forest timber.

Xerox plans to reuse a lot of the structure at future events and to recycle most of the remaining materials, reducing waste and environmental impact.

Energy-efficient overhead lighting and video screens use 40 percent less power and generate 60 percent less heat than more conventional alternatives. To minimize its carbon footprint, Xerox sourced builders, materials and products locally, and used a virtual platform for planning and designing the stand, reducing air travel by more than 170 flights.

Many of the Xerox products on display at drupa were environmentally sustainable.

’More than 80 per cent by weight, of the waste generated by the Xerox iGen3® 110 Digital Production Press, including consumables (dry ink) can be returned, reused or recycled. More than 97 percent of the components in the iGen3 press have been designed to support multiple lifetimes and minimize waste,’ Govier said.

Many other Xerox products in the stand offered green qualities such as two-sided printing to reduce paper consumption and use of non-toxic toners.

At drupa, Xerox has a number of resources for educating customers about sustainability.
In the stand, daily seminars were conducted about “Greener Ways of Working with You and Your Documents,” and an area is dedicated to environmental communication, showcasing key milestones in sustainable development.-TradeArabia News Service

New source :- http://www.tradearabia.com/news/ENV_145682.html

Green Printing Strategy form HP

2008-06-02T23:35:00.000-07:00

Well one company is going in the right direction with green printing as far as I know. The company is HP and it has plans for helping and guiding not only itself but cuntormers using HP printers to be more environment friendly.

Here is the full extract of the article. The link to the article is :
http://www.vnunet.com/itweek/news/2217447/hp-unveils-green-printing

HP unveils green printing strategy
HP promises a greener printing future

HP has launched an initiative to help its customers become more environmentally responsible with their printing.

The initiative includes the launch of a printing assessment service, which utilises a carbon calculator that helps firms assess the environmental impact of their printing and identify methods of both saving money and reducing carbon emissions.

HP has also pledged to improve the overall energy efficiency of its printing products by 40 per cent by 2011.

Other elements of the green printing initiative include a commitment from HP to use sustainable materials in the paper it sells and the packaging it uses.

HP has also introduced an inkjet printer, the Deskjet D2545, made mostly from recycled materials.

"HP is focused on helping all of our customers – from consumers to enterprises – reduce their environmental impact," said Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president of the Imaging and Printing Group at HP in a statement.

HP is clearly embracing the IT industry's new-found enthusiasm for environmental concerns, but it will be tough slog.

HP still makes a huge chunk of its profits from its printing business – and printing has hitherto been very environmentally unfriendly. Not only is it associated with the huge swathes of paper that businesses churn through every year – often unnecessarily – but the printers themselves can have an adverse impact on the environment.

Many of the inks used in modern printing contain hazardous materials; and the industry is predicated on the mass consumption of disposable parts. It has taken the industry years for the recycling of old toner cartridges to become common practice.

Other potential environmentally-friendly features possible with modern printers, such as intelligent power saving modes and the use of double-sided printing remain largely ignored by end users.

Written by Gareth Morgan

Save The Environment and Money - Print Less

2008-05-15T07:41:00.000-07:00

Some startling facts from http://www.epa.gov/wastewise/wrr/factoid.htm .

Printing documents to read them is very expensive and it also harms our environment.
Americans use 700 trillion sheets of copy paper each year, (that is about 10,000 sheets per office worker!). Every ton of paper not printed will save about 17 trees.
It is shown that deskjet ink costs as much per ounce as gold, The Enquirer , July 25th, 2005. To calculate how much you can save by printing less.

The above facts shows printing can be expensive both on the pocket and the environment. A way to cut the cost and save the environment is to print less. Beside printing less, the other steps to save money and the environment is to :

Use recycled ink cartridges
Use recycled paper
Do lots of print previews
Use software to read your document instead of printing out
Print in Draft Mode

A note of recycled paper. Fact established from the epa website showed that:-

Producing recycled paper requires about 60 percent of the energy used to make paper from virgin wood pulp.
Manufacturing one ton of office and computer paper with recycled paper stock can save between 3,000 and 4,000 kilowatt hours over the same ton of paper made with virgin wood products.
Preventing 1 ton of paper waste saves between 15 and 17 mature trees.

Well some facts to think about and consider before you hit the print button. So go for green printing and it's green printing that I think makes a lot of sense...green wise off course.

Green Printing - One Great Article

2008-05-08T07:05:00.000-07:00

If there is an article that describe so well how to save money on printing and the environment, then the article below has to be one of them. The article touches on all key points about saving money on printing and saving or helping the environment.

On the saving money part, the factors that save money are :-

The Ink
The Paper
Recycling

The above same factors are also responsible for helping the environment as practicing them we are actually practicing green printing. This is because from the type of ink to the type of paper that we use to print, these have a major impact on the environment at the end.

Well one thing I like to add to the above three factors is Printing Practices. I believe printing practices plays a major part too. Good printing practices as already mentioned in earlier post result in less wastage. And less wastage means more money save, less paper used and less trash ends up in the land fills.

Anyway I like the artilce so much that I reproduced the whole thing here.

Products and services generated by a business represent just one facet of industry greening. The way these products and services are generated represents the real meat behind greening a workplace.

Another side to businesses’ environmental goals is revealed through how a company uses print products. Items such as business cards, inventories, packaging and more all contribute to environmental waste, especially if those items aren’t treated with an eye toward lower energy costs, less waste, and the inevitable goodwill among environmentally-aware consumers.

But, most businesses don’t produce the printed matter that they consume. The supply chain that a business uses to order print supplies needs to be scrutinized to realize the potential for change.

Although environmental standards for “green printing” don’t exist, the following list will help businesses understand the questions to ask to find a printer who uses green printing processes. Additionally a few ideas have been peppered throughout this list to illustrate how a business can handle its printed matter in an environmentally friendly way.

Paper

* The terms, “Virgin Paper” or “Virgin Fibers” are applied to papers produced from trees and that use enormous amounts of chemicals and energy to process. Alternatives to consider include recycled or other tree-free papers.

* Alternative papers have become very creative, such as paper created from 100-percent reclaimed blue jean cotton and synthetic papers produced for durability and that can be used in packaging materials or for identification papers. New green papers can bring attention to your company in more ways than one as you use specific alternatives that suit your company’s branding efforts.

* If you want to use recycled papers, avoid papers that state that they are 100-percent recycled, with a smaller percentage of post-consumer waste. This means that the paper is recycled only to the smaller percentage, not 100-percent recycled. Only 100-percent post-consumer waste content can make a sheet 100-percent recyclable. Try to use 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper that is 100% processed chlorine free to achieve the greenest current recycled paper standard.

* Paper size does make a difference! For print runs of 5,000 or more, consider ordering a custom-size sheet of paper that meets exact design specifications versus a standard-size sheet that requires significant trimming. This choice minimizes paper, chemical and energy waste and could translate into dollar savings. Your printer can help you make these choices.

* When a business tries to save money on print jobs, it may save the environment as well. Anytime a company can save on ink, paper, or mailing use, this savings can translate into saving paper, print, and recycling processes. On the other hand, using green products may cost a bit more at this time, but as the demand for more environmentally friendly print processes and products increases, those costs may decrease.

Inks

* Many print jobs still use inks that contain heavy metals like lead, cadmium, and mercury to produce bright colors. Ask instead for soy- or vegetable-based inks for your print jobs. When over 90 percent of daily newspapers routinely use these low-impact inks for color printing, your business can use them as well.

* Avoid inks that use the term, VOC (Volatile organic compounds), as these inks contain petroleum-based products or other harmful matter that cause cancer and birth defects. This ink is leached into the soil when printed papers end up in landfills.

* Digital printing is used in short-run, four-color work for business cards, stationery, promotional pieces and in most print work that is less than 1,000 sheets of 14 x 20 inches. Although this type of printing has been touted as environmentally friendly, this discussion remains debatable. When possible, stay on top of printing industry news and blogs to learn more.

* Special effects that are environmentally friendly include embossing and die-cutting. Embossing can be one-level, multi-level, registered with inks, and/or sculpted, which is especially beautiful on secondary packaging to add texture and shelf appeal. Die-cutting ads a dimension of depth to any printed piece, and this effect is accomplished with a minimum of effort and energy.

Recycling

* If you’ve ever tried to recycle coated or laminated paper, you already may know that many recyclers will reject these papers. Add certain lead-based inks, foils, adhesives, labels, and other special processes, and your recycling efforts will be futile. But newer alternatives to most processes are arriving on the market constantly. Check you’re your printer to see how you can find alternatives for these special effects (such as soy-based coatings).

* If a package isn’t reusable, make sure it’s recyclable. This way you put the onus of recycling in the hands of the consumer, but only if you make the consumer aware that your package is, indeed, 100-percent recyclable.

* Paper recycling is a cost-intensive business that can fail if stringent guidelines to organization and time aren’t followed. Therefore, you may not have the advantage of a waste-paper recycling business in your area. Use the lists at Recycler’s World to learn more about waste-paper recycling in your area and whether or not you can take advantage of this possibility.

What You Can Do

* Businesses, especially larger concerns, often need corporate-level and board agreement to make even slight changes, such as stationary or business card paper. But, a decision to change to recycled or tree-free papers can become a talking point for a press release that showcases that business’s willingness to go green.

* Every green print move your business makes could be documented for public awareness. Your business then becomes a leader in green business education and a source for new customers who are environmentally aware.

* Use both sides of the paper for information purposes. For instance, the backside of a business card can be used as an appointment reminder or to list a group of Websites that operate under one umbrella corporation. This latter option can eliminate the need for thousands of extra business cards.

* Remember that your advertising or public relations firm, your graphic designer, and your printer may not know about some of these design and print issues. Share this list and provide it to your print supply chain so they know your goals for a greener environment.

* Finally, you might want to share this list electronically, as you don’t want to use your Virgin paper with VOC ink stationery to spread the news about your company’s new green efforts.

Article Source ( I don't know if it is the orginal source or not but here is the link) :- http://www.fanaticattack.com/2008/17-tips-for-greener-business-print-jobs.html

10 Printing Money Saving Tips

2008-05-06T06:48:00.000-07:00

Here are 10 tips to save money on printing. As computers and printers are getting very advance, there are lots of features built into the system to let you have a greater control on the out come of any of your printer jobs. The greater amount of control you have the less wastage as a result.

The best is the preview mode, where you get a feel of how your print out will be. You can preview until the cows come home yet we need not print a single piece of paper or use a single drop of ink until we are satisfy with our work before hitting the print button.

Anyway as I was hunting around for money saving printing tips, I came across these 10 tips that generally covers almost all areas where you can save money in your printing. They are :-

1. Use the “print preview” option

2. Print a draft copy to check margins, object placement.

3. Remember those modes!

4. Measure twice, cut once.

5. When possible, buy in bulk.

6. Be a good scout…be prepared!

7. Duplex…Duplex…Duplex.

8. The right paper for the right job.

9. Keep it clean!

10. Know when to splurge.

Having problem understanding some of them, like tips no 10 or 9, then head over to this resource :- http://blog.freecolorprinters.com/?p=41 There you get the full details about each of the tips :) .

Recylcing Empty Ink Cartridges - Any Good?

2008-04-02T23:01:00.000-07:00

Before answering the question lets look at some facts first.

A recent study done by a US based agency the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has found that 67% of the empty cartridges are sent to landfills, 15% are burnt to ashes and a mere 18% are recycled.
If the percentages don’t look intimidating enough, here are some actual figures, every year over 400 million cartridges with a combined weight of 200 million pounds are dumped into landfills.
Source :-http://www.chasdoc.org/2006/articles/article10.htm

Printers came into widely use together with the computer and taking a time span of say 20 years, 20 multiply by 400 million gives 8 billion cartridges being dumped into land fills. 8 billion, this number more than human population of 6 billion plus on Earth. This is to say every human on Earth contributed more than 1 cartridges dumped into land fills.

Looking at the figure, that's a lot of plastic thrown and this is excluding other forms of plastic. So if one now is to answer the above question in the tittle, the answer is a definite YES.

I read through the whole article above (quoted source) and the writer had made a number of very good points about recycling empty ink cartridges. One the point is that by not throwing away the cartridges you can donate them to some institutions which generate money by recycling cartridges. An example of this is Oxfam which helps to raise money from empty ink cartridges. Here is the Oxam's link:-
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/get_involved/recycle/index.html

Visited the link and it's still valid. Hence beside helping charity works, recycling of ink cartridges helps to :-

Help to reduce our ink cost, as recycled ink cartridges are much cheaper compared to new cartridges.
Not forgetting that this way we can help reduce pollution and reduce the amount of plastic that goes into landfills and polluting the earth.

Thus lets start recycling ink cartridges now and not wait.

Printing Practices and Trees

2008-02-15T19:07:00.000-08:00

What had printing practices got to do with trees. To think deeper, perhaps the question should be rephrase to how printing practices can save trees. This is a long shot but some how there must be a link some where. When you think of printing, you think of printer technology to ink technology and all these will they help the trees?

In fact yes..all these technology in printer ink to technology advancement in printers do help trees. An advance printer will have features that can print more information with less papers. These advance features I am talking about is the settings found in these printers where you can set multi page printing, back and front printing to squeezing two pages of information into a single piece of paper. All these can be done with advance printers and resulting in less papers used. And when there is less papers used, then tress are saved.

Then next we have printer ink technology. Advance printer ink can print on all types of paper. There is less wastage and less ink can be use to print on papers. The setting of the print quality can be set to draft, good quality to high quality print output. Since the current can be use on any paper, there isn't any need to print on special quality paper unless so require by clients or commercial projects. Hence less strains on paper quality an therefore recycel paper can be used.

The origin of printer ink had come a long way an now printing is so common in an average homes with computers. Therefore it can be seen that any developement in these two areas of printer an printer ink technology can help to save trees.

Why do we need trees? Beside being the source of papers, trees are the source of oxygen that we all breathe to keep us alive. There will never be too much trees an the more trees we can save the better. An if printing, printer an printer ink can chip in too, so much the better.

Perhaps one ay we may have environmental machines, ie machines that do not harm the environment. Just as in Sweden now, they are going for environmental rivers where they will only be given a riving license if they can show that they can help or benefit the environment. Perhaps we can start with having environmental printers as a first steps.

Lets save the environment with our printing practices from today. This saves trees too.

Best Online Purchase of Ink Cartridge

2008-01-20T16:35:00.000-08:00

What do you do when you need to buy ink cartridges? You can either drive down to the store or buy online. Buying online has many advantages and one of them is you can select the best online store for your purchase of ink cartridges from hp brands to others. For the best online purchase of ink cartridges can be compared form one store to the other and can draw up your own list for future use.

What can you purchase from online? In fact you can purchase an unlimited items and options. They are new OEM or branded ink cartridges to remanufactured ink cartridge which are ink cartridges which are recycled and refill with high quality ink. These remanufactured ink cartridges are a good option to use if one wants to save money and the environment without sacrificing print quality.

Using remanufactured ink cartridges can save the environment because they prevent the empty ink cartridges from ending up in landfills. If they do land up in land fills they are competing for spaces with other garbage thereby putting strains on the land fills. This is because they do not degrade ie bio-degradable.

Also even though they are empty, they still have ink remaining and this will leak out over time. The ink contain unfriendly chemicals which may eventually end up contaminating the local water table. So by preventing empty ink cartridges from being dumped into landfills is one way to solved this problem and save the environment. Hence using remanufactured ink cartridges a good option.

Using printer ink refills is also one way to save money and save the enviroment. Refill kits comes complete with the necessary accessories to enable one to refill empty ink cartridges. Some refill kits comes with enough ink for refilling more than once. Off course the down side is some find the refilling process inconvenience and messy. However try to think of the enviroment and you doing a part to save it. Not forget your wallet too.

So from printer ink refills, remanufactured ink cartridges to new ink cartridges, these you can purchase from online stores. The best online purchase stores provides excellent service and ensure you are completely satisfy using the products. However do note that one down side is tha you will only be getting your ink cartridges after a few days , so planning ahead is crucial to ensure your printing is not disrupted.

How to cut down on ink used in printers

2008-01-08T02:22:00.000-08:00

Replacing ink cartridges is an expensive affair. A new ink cartridge is expensive especially if it is OEM. Cheaper alternatives includes buying third party compatible ink cartridges, using refill and using remanufactured ink cartridges. Remanufactured ink cartridges are also known as recycled ink cartridges.

By buying recycled ink cartridges, refill kits or compatible ink cartridges, these steps are ways to save money. Other ways to save money is to cut down on ink used in printers. If possible reduce the quantity of ink used in ones printing job will reduce the cost of printing per page.

So the question, how to cut down on ink used in printers?

One sure way of reducing printer ink use is to print in draft mode. As many a time,the final document is produced only after many drafts. Hence by printing the drafts in draft mode, considerable amount of ink can be saved. In draft mode the ink used is minimized. This is also true if the final document is to be in colors.

Setting the printer in draft mode is rather an easy task. Follow the following steps.

1) First go to the control panel and select printers and faxes
2) When in printer and faxes, you should be able to see the printers installed. Select the printer that set as default ( with a tick mark)
3) Right click on it and from the drop down menu, select printing preference.
4) In the printer preference , select print quality and in there there are a few options and select draft mode.

The above four steps are meant for window system , the steps are applicable to different models of printers installed. When the document is ready for the final print, you will need to reset back the print quality to high using the same steps above.

Another method to save on ink, especially color inks is to have two set of printers. One printer is printing in black and white only, while the second printer prints in color. Always use the first printer to print in draft mode and when document is ready only use the second printer to print. This could be in color or in black and white. Through this method one can extend to usage of color inks and off course reducing the cost per page of printing.

Hence the above two methods can be used to cut down on ink used in printing.

Types of Printer Ink

2008-01-01T05:11:00.000-08:00

There are many types of printer ink in the market. This makes the printer ink market very competitive as different ink manufacturers will be touting their different printer ink technologies and selling points. However this is good news for consumers as they have a wide choice to choose from. Hence whether one chooses compatible ink cartridges over the OEM ones , what is important is one is satisfy with the quality, value for money and can get the best deal out of it.

In the OEM sector, two companies are leading and they are rivals to each other. The companies are HP and Epson. HP’s printer ink like are known as HP’s Vivera Inks. Vivera stands for Vivid and Vibrant Era and this line of ink are designed for high quality photo printing. The ink is pigment based and is specially formulated to be of high resistance and can make photo last for more than 100 years. As such this HP printer ink line represent a new standard and quality in printing technology.

As for Epson, it’s line of printer ink is known as Durabrite. Durabrite printer ink is also pigment based and again formulated to last just like HP’s Vivera Inks. However Epson’s Durabrite ink are best for large volume prints as the printer inks are stored in multiple ink cartridges.

As can be noted, the type of ink from HP and Epson are pigment based and uses a special resin. This resin dries are quickly when the ink is printed onto paper. However it the printer is not used over a long period, the ink in the printer cartridges, especially those located at the tip of the cartridges will dry up causing clogging and off course the need to remove and un-clog them. Hence it’s inconvenient. Further more pigment based ink are costlier that the dye based inks.

However printer ink technologies will always make strides from the OEM sides as they have the resources to lead in research and development. You as a consumer, finding the right printer ink is a constant exercise of comparison and knowing what you want out of your printer. Nevertheless for high quality photo finishes, the great colours of Vivera and Durabrite are plus points. However, there are also many other compatible ink cartridges and printer ink that can equal or even surpass the quality of OEM printer ink for much less cost. Hence at the end of the day it is you who will decide the type of printer ink that you will use for your printing need.

Printer Ink and Saving the Environment

2007-12-10T00:11:00.000-08:00

Talking about the environment and how to save it, one will think of going green. How is it that printing and printer ink plays in saving the environment. In-fact the role is great. Just think for a minute the following question "What is the main environmental concern of modern time?". The answer is global warming caused by the accumulation of CO2 or carbon dioxide gas.

Now recalling high school science, which organism is responsible for removing carbon dioxide? Well plants. Plants like trees, all sort of trees. And it's from trees too that we get the pulp to make paper. The million of tonnes of paper are printed on each year and discarded to land fills. The printer ink on them slowly leaked out and causes pollution in land fills and water sources.

Not forgetting to mentioned the millions of printer ink cartridges disposed off too into landfills and the same thing happening to the printer ink in them that leaked out and causes pollution and placing strain on the landfills too. More land fill required menas less land for living and growing food.

Thus if we can go green on our printing, we will be doing great favors to the environment and mother earth. Less trees cut down, less paper and printer cartridges ending up in landfills and less requirement on them.

What are the printing practices that's consider green and that can save the environment?

First, use remanufactured ink cartridges. These are used ink cartridges that have been recharged with new ink after cleaning, checking and testing. By using them, these cartridges are saved from ending up in the landfills and causing all the problems stated earlier.

Secondly, use ink based on plant like the soy plant. Most modern ink are petroleum based which are toxic when leaked out. They also made use of solvent which are equally dangerous when leaked into the environment. When printer ink are of soy plant origin, they have labels on them verifying their plant origin.

Thirdly, use paper with high paper recycled content. This can be as much as 70% or more, the higher the better as this means more paper are recycled and less trees cut down. Less trees cut down is good for the environment. Then buy paper that's pure white as bleaching agents had been used to achieve the white color. Go for green paper that is certified bleaching agent like chlorine free. Bleaching agents are used during the manufacturing process and after used, these agents may end up in river. By buying chlorine free paper, this makes sure no bleaching is used.

Hence the above three simple practices of selecting printer ink, ink cartridges and paper that can help to save the environment and make mother earth happy.

Read more printing ways to save the environment.

The Kinds or Types of Printer Ink

2007-12-04T01:19:00.000-08:00

Inkjet printers store their inks in ink cartridges. Depending on the type of printers, the number of ink cartridges and the types of printer ink are different. If it is a black and white inkjet printer, then normally there is only one cartridge of black printer ink.

On the other hand if it is a colour ink jet printer, there will be a number of ink cartridges with each cartridges containing different colours of printer ink. The kinds of printer ink colours are yellow, magenta, cyan and black. These are the four basic types printer ink colours and by combining them in various combination enables the full spectrum of colours to be obtained.

How does an inkjet printer ink cartridge work?

An inkjet works by producing very fine ink droplets containing different colours of ink dots to make up a printed image.

The jets are from very fine holes that are so small that the printer ink stored in them does not leak out by surface tension. The ink can only comes out if forced and this is where pumps come in. Each hole is controlled by its own electronic pump and these pumps are available in two different types.

The first type is known as piezoelectric pumps. The name is taken from the piezoelectric crystal that is used to make the pump. The crystal is formed into a circular ring surrounding the ink channel near the hole where the ink is ejected. When an electrical pulse is produced during printing the crystal contracts and forces ink along the out of the hole as a jet of liquid ink, hence the name ink jet.

Once the electrical pulse stops, the crystal returns to its original shape and ready for the next round. All these takes place in minute scale and each drop of printer ink is very small. Also the electrical pulses are produced in rapid succession producing thousands of ink dots per second forming the image on paper.

The second type of pump is known as Bubble pump. This is very similar to piezoelectric pump except instead the ink channel is surrounded by small heating elements instead of crystal. When an electronic pulse is sent to the heating elements, they heat the ink which expands and bursts out onto the paper.

Similarly when the pulse is removed the heating element cools down which in turn allows the ink to cool, and contract and ready for the next electrical pulse again. Do note that images produced by bubble pumps will dry quicker because the ink that burst onto the paper has been heated. Hence the name bubble jet printer.

Overall the working principle of both types are similar. In both system the printer ink cartridges may have as many as 24 or more ink jets and pumps. The kinds of printer ink used is solvent based and does not dry too quickly in air. When it is at this stage the ink will not dry up and can be left for long period even when exposed to air. Hence these types of printer ink are of special formulation. Off course each ink manufacturer has got their own special kinds and types of printer ink"brew".

However during printing, the ink is deposited onto paper which drawn off the the solvent. When this happens the image dries quickly. Ina sense this is good so we don't get smudges but if the printer ink ends up in your shirt or elsewhere it will be difficult to remove as the ink, once dried is indelible.

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The types of Printer Ink Cartridges

2007-12-01T06:56:00.000-08:00

When the mentioning of printer ink cartridges, these are about the ink cartridges for inkjet printers. What are the types of printer ink cartridges available?

In fat there are three types. They are:

Brand Names : - These are cartridges from brand name printer manufacturers like HP, Epson, Lexmark, Dell, canon and many others.

Compatible Ink Cartridges : - These are cheap one and very often sold without any brands. Sometime sellers may place their names on the cartridges.

Refurbished or remanufactured Ink Cartridges : - These are ink cartridges recycled by third party companies. The remanufacturing process is of high standard and even exceed OEM ones.

The above are the three types of printer ink cartridges briefly explained. All of them have their own advantage and disadvantage. For example if you buy brand names then you have the peace of mind using them but on the other hand these brand name printer ink cartridges are very expensive. In the long run the cost of replacing these ink cartridges can buy a new set of printer. So if you are cost consious is best to look for other options.

These options are the cheap printer ink cartridges and the refurbished ones. The cheap ink cartridges are cheap but then their is the fear of quality. Then may be there are compatibility problems too. These could be serious as these can damage the printer. Also there could be even counterfeit ones being pushed into the market under the disguise of cheap printer ink cartridges. So using cheap ink cartridges can post a lot of risk and if buying one has to be extra careful.

Next, the recycled printer ink cartridges. Well since they have to undergo very strict and high standard remanufacturing process, their performance is not affected. Furthermore the manufacturers do provided additional guarantee to end users. Thus they can use these ink cartridges with peace of mind. When I mentioned the performances are not affected, I meant the print quality and compatibility. Cost wise they are cheaper than the brand OEM ones.

Hence if one is to save money, I would think the recycled printer ink cartridges offer the best deal.

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The Popularity of Printer Ink

2007-11-28T05:34:00.000-08:00

Printer ink as known today will mostly likely to mean inkjet printer ink. Off course printer ink does not only mean is the ink use by inkjet printers. There are others which uses printer ink, for example newspaper printing, professional printers, etc. However, for this site and blog, printer ink meant it’s ink used by inkjet printers.

Inkjet printers are mostly used by home users with PCs or Mac computers. Printers are used for printing stuffs like documents, web pages, photographs and a whole lot more. Laser printers though they give great printing quality, they are of a different class from inkjet printers. For one, laser printers do not use ink but rather toner. These are in powder form unlike ink which is in liquid form.

However I am in the opinion that the print quality of inkjet printers are as good as laser printers. Well others may not agree with me but I am more concern with dollars and printer ink is cheaper than laser toners.

Printer ink has come a long way since the chinese invented printing many centuries ago. They reach further advancement when Johannes Gutenberg printed the first bible. As far as computers, I do remembered that when I first used them, printers are luxury items and they don’t use ink in liquid form but ink ribbon. Yes I am talking about dot matrix printers. These printers work like type writers where force which is impact force matters. Dot matrix printer is great for printing documents with word but not so for graphic or in color. But they pretty good for dot matrix art. Don’t know what’s that just go to google and do a search.

These is where inkjet comes in. I can’t remember when the first inkjet printers came into the market but it change the printing landscape. Behold we can get or print documents in all their glorious colors. Then when digital cameras came around, this marked the end on film cameras and film studios. Why, well with the powerful and versatile ink jet printer, one can print our own photographs at home. Now speak of independent and creativity, this is it, we can go on taking shots after shot with our digital cameras and not to worry about wasting “film”. Don’t like a particular shot, just press delete. Love the shot, print it out with a printer.

So printer ink had comes a long way but I see a bright future for it. Printing is not going to end anytime soon like the film scenario but there is still great thing in store for printing and printer ink included.

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