The Differences Between Tattoo ink, Pen ink and Printer ink

Ink is ink right? Wrong! Contrary to popular belief, there are various types of ink out there that all perform many different functions. Getting in the know about what types of inks are out there will certainly give you kudos points amongst you’re friends, not many people know this stuff!

According to a survey undertaken in February 2012 by Harris Interactive, a staggering 42% of US citizens admit to having at least one tattoo, now that is certainly a lot of ink! The origins of tattoo ink stem back thousands of years ago and have since evolved into the increasingly popular artist’s aid that it is today.

Most recent variations include UV light tattoos which create glow-in-the-dark body art work and easily removable permanent tattoos that can be erased with just a couple of laser sessions, as opposed to the laborious procedure of yesteryear which required near to 12 laser treatments to achieve results.

Despite its evident popularity tattoo ink has not been without its problems. Due to the fact that the substance is not regulated in the US, tattoo artists are given free rein to alter ink formulas, which can then lead to difficulty in distinguishing the exact components that make up certain tattoo inks.  Traditionally, tattoo inks are made up of anti-fade and smudge components; no one wants to pay for a tattoo that will come off in the shower do they! However this often results in heavy and potentially harmful components such as particular metals, alcohols and chemicals being used. 

A far cry from the arguably exciting nature of tattoo ink, the humble pen ink has a standardized formula and is heavily regulated in the US meaning this formula cannot be tampered with by different manufactures. Unlike tattoo ink, pen ink commonly uses dyes as opposed to pigments due to their ability to not clot or dry inside the actual pen.

Mirroring the vast differences between tattoo and pen ink, the ever useful printer ink certainly follows suit. Unlike tattoo ink with its often unknown elements, it is widely accepted that Printer ink is made up of four components colorants, binders, additives and carrier substances. However, similar to tattoo and pen ink, printer ink can be split into two categories: dye-based and pigment-based both of which offer different finishes and host their own benefits.

The type of printer will determine whether a dye-based or pigment-based ink is to be used which is ultimately important to remember. Nothing can be more annoying than purchasing ink that won’t work for your printer.

The differences between all these three ink types are clear and interesting to see. What’s even more interesting is to see the ways in which ink and its uses will evolve over the years to come. Who knows what ink could be used for in 10 years’ time, watch this space! 

Canon Announces New PIXMA AirPrint Printers

It seems like not a day goes by that I’m not using my iphone for something other than placing an actual telephone call. Anymore, I rarely ever use it for that function. Communication via text or email is so simple. For me it is mostly used for hand held access to the internet, GPS and a good camera that slips into my pocket. Did you know you can print from most of these applications to your wireless printer? The technology and features of iPhones, and many smartphones, have become so convenient that many people are eliminating their home phone lines all together. Who needs wires to slow you down? Not me as I’m in the middle of running to do half a million different things.

It’s true that those wires served their purpose at one time. Just like that bulky parallel cable running from your PC to your printer was needed in the past. Well the times they are a-changin’ and Canon has introduced a pair of new Pixma All-In-One inkjet printers that offer AirPrint support for your various Apple devices. No more searching for cords or downloading drivers just to print and hang that candid picture you took of your co-worker when they thought no one was looking, like we did below.

Canon has pledged that, from this point forward, the majority of its Pixma printers will support AirPrint. This ensures that owners of these new devices will be able to wirelessly print photos and documents from their iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches running iOS 4.2 or newer. A seamless user experience is what this technology is promising and what we all crave in our daily lives.

Back in September 2011, Canon had released the first of its printers to support AirPrint and Clickinks.com already carries those Canon Pixma ink cartridges. So when you are in the market for a new printer, you might want to take a second look at a Canon Pixma series printer, and see if you too can print directly from your iphone.

Can Kodak successfully rebound?

The Eastman Kodak Company’s stock price fell to a new low on Wednesday, as reports came in that the ailing company is about to seek bankruptcy court protection. This leaves many people questioning how Kodak could have fallen so far and so fast. Eastman Kodak, a technology titan of the industrial age, has been struggling for years. Kodak's cash crop of film and film processing was killed by digital photography and at home printing. The Wall Street Journal, quoting unidentified insiders, said Kodak is preparing for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing "in the coming weeks".

As the market began to turn away from film cameras and more consumers started purchasing digital cameras, Eastman Kodak was in the position where they needed to diversify their technology offerings. Kodak began selling printers to consumers in 2007. Kodak’s strategy was to run counter to the industry's prevailing approach of offering a more expensive printer and cheaper ink. The majority of inkjet or laser printer manufacturers sell the printers at a loss in hopes of recouping their money on the sale of high priced ink cartridges and toner. (You can beat them at their game by buying your replacement ink cartridges from Clickinks.com.)

By 2010, the company held 3% of the all-in-one inkjet printer market world-wide, up from 1% in 2008. Kodak's strategy was to subsidize the business on the cost of the printers until its installation base was large enough to generate a proportional amount of ink sales. Still, because it’s proprietary ink refills were cheaper than its other OEM competition (HP, Canon, and Epson); Kodak was trying to sell its printers at a higher price than competitors. But as of last quarter, Kodak's innovative printers still weren't turning a profit.

Fear not, if you are a fan of Kodak. There is still a chance that the company will rebound, can avoid bankruptcy and continue making great printers and other products. But when it comes to your ink needs, Clickinks always offers all of the ink cartridges that you may require. Just go to Clickinks.com and save yourself some money and the environment in one simple internet transaction.

Printer Problems

Whether you are using a business or a personal printer, sometimes you might run into different issues that can cause the printer to no longer function. This can be frustrating, and it can sometimes be daunting to try to determine where the problem is coming from. A variety of printer problems can occur from a simple paper jam or unclear print results, to the printer completely not working at all. If you're installing a brand new printer, it is a good idea to look for various printer problems and solutions directly from the manufacturer's website or owner's manual. Often, troubleshooting printer problems is as simple as reading the manual that comes with it. A driver might not be installed properly. First, make sure your printer's driver is installed completely and that your computer recognizes the printer. If the driver is in fact installed, try to print a test page. This usually gets the printer to "wake up" and begin the printing process. If you have a paper jam, gently open up the printer and look for the source of the problem. Never jerk, pull, or yank the paper out, but instead slowly try to get it to come out by pulling it gently and methodically.

Many times, a printer problem is related to the quality of the print job itself. If a print job comes out smeared or faded it could be a number of different things. Check your printer's ink levels and make sure they are up to par. Your printer may alert you if the ink cartridges are getting low, but not all models will do this so you may need to manually check. If the ink levels look good, try to clean the print heads. Most new printer models have a feature that allows you to select this option from the printer's main menu. It will then go through the process of cleaning the print heads, resulting in clearer printouts. When troubleshooting printer problems, make sure you are selecting options that match your own make and model to ensure you can fix the printer problem easily and safely.

Remanufactured Ink Cartridges for Printers

As inkjet technology has evolved, and demand has increased for professional looking prints, inkjet printer cartridges from the original manufacturer have become in some cases rather expensive and for a small number of accurate prints. At the same time consumers overall have been satisfied with the value of their printer, but less so their printer in cartridges. Many manufacturers have emerged to provide remanufactured ink jet cartridges for popular brands of inkjet prints, such as Hewlett-Packard, Epson, Canon, Brother, and others.

Remanufactured inkjet printer cartridges began as small companies selling replacement ink and leaving the consumer to refill the cartridge but today is a much more common business, and the consumer doesn’t need to buy strange systems that refill the cartridge. Many large companies, and also public programs provide for ways for consumers to dispose of original inkjet printer cartridges in such a way that they can be refilled and recycled. This results not only in being friendly to the environment but also in savings for consumers who can then buy remanufactured inkjet printer cartridges at a reduced price. Similarly for laser printers there exists remanufactured toner cartridges.

While once branded as being lower quality, the remanufactured inkjet cartridges for printers of today in most cases offer same, or similar quality to those provided by original inkjet cartridges. A savvy consumer can save a lot of money with an affordable price that offers quality, even at cheap prices, for those on a budget. 

Many consumers often prefer ink, and cartridges from original manufacturers, but for many, remanufactured inkjet printer cartridges from clickinks serve day-to-day printing needs. Also ordering online can save consumers money because, even though there is sometimes a cost for delivery, buying inkjet printer cartridges in bulk can result in substantial savings. 

Even when buying a modest supply, it is worth investigating whether remanufactured inkjet cartridges compatible with one’s printer, at a low price, can outweigh the perceived benefit of inkjet printer cartridges purchased from the original manufacturer. For consumers looking for deals, whether it be low volume or high volumes, remanufactured inkjet printer cartridges are a seriously compelling option, which consumers can consider when replacing the inkjet printer cartridges which were supplied with their printer, or those purchased from the original manufacturer of their printer.

Find Inkjet Printer Cartridge Refill

Since the inception of inkjet printer cartridges, prices have seemingly become steadily higher when buying inkjet printer cartridges at popular retailers. Companies have learned that once a consumer has already purchased an inkjet printer they are very likely to continue purchasing inkjet printer cartridges for it, even if the prices are steep.

A further tactic is that the companies that produce printers often ship them with printer cartridges that contain less ink that those sold separately. Indeed buying authentic inkjet printer products retail can make the prices of having photos printed professionally, and visiting the copy shop to print out documents rather attractive by comparison. For these reasons consumers are continually searching for the cheapest ways to purchase inkjet refill cartridges. An inexpensive option when purchasing inkjet refill cartridge options is to purchase remanufactured ink jet printer cartridges.

These are cartridges that have been refilled either by the original manufacturer, or more often third-party companies. The most expensive and polluting part of an inkjet printer cartridge is the electronic printer head. Remanufactured inkjet printer heads are one of the most optimal forms of recycling. Buying remanufactured inkjet printer heads, at a low price, is a great way to protect the environment, and get good value at the same time.

Another way for consumers in search of bargain deals on inkjet printer cartridge refills is to buy online. Because they do not need to maintain a large retail presence online stores can offer reduced prices on inkjet products, and often have clearance sales because they sell so many. When buying online consumers can save even more money while buying remanufactured inkjet printer cartridge refills at clickinks.

Also buying in bulk can yield even more savings. Further consumers can purchase products for non-inkjet printers, like laser toner, or specialty papers. It doesn't even take a very large order to see savings on shipping charges, and these combined with the savings on the price of inkjet refill cartridges themselves offer tremendous value for consumers shopping for inkjet printer cartridge refills on a tight budget.

How to Install a HP Printer Without a Disk

When installing a printer, it can be frustrating to find out you’ve lost or misplaced the installation disc. New Hewlett Packard (HP) printers should come prepackaged with a cd to make the installation process easy. However, used printers may not come with the cd, resulting in a manual installation. Learning how to install HP printer without disk can be easily achieved in less than ten minutes. Follow these simple directions to install HP printer without cd. Plug and Play can be used on Windows operating systems to automatically configure and install new devices.

This technology can be used for [HP printer installation without cd]. Place the printer near the computer and ensure that all required wires are connected to both the printer and computer. Most HP printers will require a USB cord that attaches from the back of the printer to the appropriate port on the computer.

The printer will also need to be plugged into an electrical outlet for power. First turn the computer monitor and tower on and allow it to load to the Windows desktop. Next, press the power button on the printer. In some cases, the “Add Printer Wizard” may appear on its own. If not, locate the “Printers and Hardware” icon on your computers “Control Panel”. After double-clicking on the icon, choose “Add Printer”. Once the “Add Printer Wizard” appears, click “Next”. To [install HP printer without cd], choose the “Automatically detect and install plug and play printer” option.

If the printer network is found by your computer, the printer will install automatically. However, if the computer is unable to install automatically, a pop-up will appear and you will be prompted to manually install the printer. Click “Next” to manually install the printer and select a printer port (choose recommended port if you are unsure). Next, choose the manufacturer of the printer and click “Next”.

Type a name for your printer and set it as “Default”. On the final page, you will be prompted to print a test page to ensure your newly installed printer is working. Click “Finish” to close the printer wizard. Plug and Play is a simple way to install HP printer without cd. While misplacing important installation discs can become a problem, most devices can be easily installed using automatic device wizards found on your computer.

MICR toner, What is it and Do you need it

Have you seen or wondered what MICR toner means? What are the benefits of a MICR laser system? Should you be using MICR toner for your business or accounting needs? And what MICR toner cartridges are available?

 MICR is a Magnetic Ink Character Recognition technology used primarily by the banking industry to facilitate the processing of checks.  MICR characters are printed in special fonts with a magnetic toner containing iron oxide. As a machine decodes the MICR text, it first magnetizes the characters, and then the characters are passed over a MICR head, a device similar to the playback head of a tape recorder.  As each character passes over the head it produces a unique form that can be easily identified by the system.  Banks and Institutions rely on this MICR technology to read the account numbers and other codes in the bank line on checks and other negotiable documents with electronic bank processing equipment.

Most users cite the following benefits as a reason for converting to MICR printing:

• MICR Laser check processing provides a much higher level of security.
• Cost reductions by eliminating pre-printed checks
• Creating a MICR Laser check is a single step process that adds payee data, signatures, logos, bank identification, and the MICR line to the check.
• Increased flexibility to add, change or delete new bank accounts on demand, without ordering new checks.
• Decreased exposure to check fraud.

So if you are in banking, accounting, payroll or accounts payable or are printing checks, you should use nothing less than MICR toner.  Clickinks MICR remanufactured laser toner cartridges guarantee that all checks are printed properly and will clear the financial institutions check clearing systems, adhering to ANSI readability standards.

Clickinks.com offers the best value, quality and price on MICR toner cartridges for all your check printing needs. We offer MICR toner for Canon, Dell, HP, Lexmark, IBM, Samsung, Toshiba, Xerox and even Source Tech printers, with more brands to come.  

How Does a Printer Work

We use our desktop printers every day, but do you really know what happens to deliver an image from your computer to that piece of paper? No matter what type of document you are printing, whether it is a letter, spreadsheet, PDF or a photo, and no matter what type of printer you are using, whether it’s a Xerox Work Center or HP Photo Smart printer, there are some similarities in how your printer works. There is software responsible for sending the data to the printer; this software is known as the printer driver. The driver translates the data from the application into a format that the printer understands, the driver also checks to see if the printer is connected, turned on, and functioning properly.  There are two main types of printers, the laser printer and the inkjet printer.

How a Laser Printer works:

The laser printers functions are based on static electricity. A revolving drum unit receives an electrical charge from a wire that is called a charge corona, while it spins a tiny laser beam shining across its surface to discharge at various points to create the image on the drum.

Once the image is set, the printer puts positively charged toner powder on the drum. The toner then will only stick to the negatively charged areas.

After the toner is adhered to the image on the drum, the paper is moved into position. The paper encounters the transfer of the corona wire and receives a negative charge. The negatively charged paper has a stronger pull than the static electric charged toner that is holding to the drum, the paper pulls the toner powder from the drum transferring the image to the paper once the image is transferred from the drum; a detac corona wire zaps the paper to remove it from the drum.

Finally the paper is ready for the fuser. The fuser permanently bonds the image into the paper. The paper passes through the fusers, which are just heated rollers.  As the paper passes through, the fuser heats up the toner powder and bonds it with the paper, then the fusers sends the paper out of the printer.

How an Inkjet Printer works:

For the inkjet printer, it uses minuscule droplets of ink to create the image. The ink comes from an ink cartridge that is placed in the print head assembly, inside the print head assembly there is an actual print head which has several nozzles that spray drops of ink.

There are two types of inkjet printers:

Bubble Jet Printer:  The resistors create heat, which vaporizes the ink into tiny little bubbles and the bubble is pushed out onto the paper. The bubble jet print head can contain 600 nozzles and they all can fire a drop of ink simultaneously.

Piezoelectric printer: Piezo crystals are found at the back of the ink reservoir which vibrates when it receives an electric charge. The vibration from the crystal will force the ink out of the nozzle.

This is a quick and simplistic view on how the most common printers work.  Do you have questions about your printer?  Just let us know!

How to save on printing

We are all trying to save money these days, so here are some of our best tips on how to cut your printing costs in half by taking simple steps like shopping around for the best price, emailing your documents instead of printing them out and using duplex printing.

Don’t spend too much on ink

You can shop around and compare prices on printer ink. You will usually find the best prices, discounts and widest selection on-line. Remanufactured ink and toner cartridges are the best price at the highest quality, you will find remanufactured cartridges less than half the price of OEM while performing better than refilled or compatible cartridges.  Clickinks.com is known for low priced remanufactured ink and toner cartridges.

Print in economy mode

Next thing is changing your printing preference; how is this going help me save on my printing cost? By changing your printing preferences to print fit to page, change your current resolution to 300 DPI, change you toner saver on, set to economy mode and change your printing settings to text or even draft instead of photo. Once you have changed your printer preferences then go to print preview to make sure you are printing only what you need instead of printing headers, footers and anything else unnecessary.

Duplex Printing

If your printer has a duplex option, you can print on both the front and back of paper.  Many office printers even have the option of automatic duplexing.  This will cut your paper costs in half. 

Consider your Font

Switching to Calibri, Times New Roman or another narrow font and not using bold effects also means that you use less ink with each letter you print.  For more information on Ink Saving Fonts, see our earlier blog.

Email your documents

Are you sharing documents with other co workers? Everything doesn’t need to be printed, many times you can send them by email instead of printing them out, saving time, money, ink and the trees. Only print out what you need, for example let’s say that you have a memo or announcement you can just print the document once and then post it up somewhere everyone can see.

When you aim to save money, you end up spending less on ink or toner, putting less strain on your printer so it lasts longer, saving trees and keeping empty ink cartridges out of the environment.