Internal Debate between Computer and Printer

Do you ever feel like getting something printed is a fight? Maybe, it actually is.  Do you think your computer and printer have these discussions?   

Internal Debate
by Streeter Seidell at Collegehumor.com

Computer: Monitor, display this document, ok?
 
Monitor: No prob, boss.

Computer: OK, now it looks like Mouse is moving around so, Monitor, will you move the pointer icon accordingly?
 
Monitor: Anything you ask, boss.
 
Computer: Great, great. OK, Mouse, where are you going now?
 
Mouse: Over to the icon panel, sir.

Computer: Hmm, Let me know if he clicks anything, OK?
 
Mouse: Of course.

Keyboard: Sir, he's pressed control and P simultaneously.

Monitor: Oh God, here we go.

Computer: i>sighs Printer, are you there?
 
Printer: No.
 
Computer: Please, Printer. I know you're there.

Printer: NO! I'm not here! Leave me alone!
 
Computer: Jesus. OK look, you really ne…
 
Mouse: Sir, he's clicked on the printer icon.

Computer: Printer, now you have to print it twice.

Printer: NO! NO! NO! I don't want to! I hate you! I hate printing! I'm turning off!

Computer: Printer, you know you can't turn yourself off. Just print the document twice and we'll leave you alone.

Printer: NO! That's what you always say! I hate you! I'm out of ink!

Computer: You're not out of in…
 
Printer: I'M OUT OF INK!

Computer: span style="font-style: italic;">Sighs Monitor, please show a low ink level alert.
 
Monitor: But sir, he has plen…
 
Computer: Just do it, damn it!

Monitor: Yes sir.

Keyboard: AHHH! He's hitting me!

Computer: Stay calm, he'll stop soon. Stay calm, old friend.

Keyboard: He's pressing everything. Oh god, I don't know, he's just pressing everything!
 
Computer: PRINTER! Are you happy now?! Do you see what you've done?!
 
Printer: HA! that's what you get for trying to get me to do work. Next time he…hey…HEY! He's trying to open me! HELP! HELP! Oh my god! He's torn out my cartridge! HELP! Please! ERROR!

Monitor: Sir, maybe we should help him?
 
Computer: No. He did this to himself.

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.

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 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.

What is Toner

What is Toner?

Toner is an electrically-charged powder used in laser printers and photocopiers.  It is used to form text or images.  In its early form it was simply carbon powder.  Later the manufactures added polymers to improve the quality of printing.  The two main ingredients of toner powder are now pigment and polymer. The role of the pigment is fairly obvious, it provides the coloring (black, in a monochrome printer) that fills in the text and images. The use of polymer varies by manufacturers and even by printer model.  Some of the most common polymers are styrene acrylate copolymer, polyester resin and styrene butadiene copolymer. 

The formulation of toners can also vary in granule size and melting point. The particle size of toners has reduced from a 14–16 micrometers to 8–10 micrometers (600 dots per inch resolution) to improve resolution.  The smaller the particle, the more accurate the color reproduction and efficiency. Uniform shapes are also a great factor when talking about improving the quality of the printout.  Further reductions in particle size producing further improvements in resolution are being developed through the application of new technologies.

In earlier machines, this low-cost carbon toner was poured by the user from a bottle into a reservoir in the machine. Current machines feed directly from a sealed cartridge. To save money and keep cartridges from piling up in landfills, empty cartridges can be refilled or even better, remanufactured.  Remanufactured cartridges refill the empty toner cartridges and the quality remanufactured cartridges like found at Clickinks.com also replace all used or worn parts. 

What is ink

What is ink?

Ink according to the Oxford Dictionary is: “a colored fluid used for writing, drawing, printing, or duplicating.”  According to Wikipedia: “Ink is a liquid or paste that contains pigments and/or dyes and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design.”  Britannica Concise Encyclopedia defines it as a “Fluid or paste of various colors (usually black or dark blue) used for writing and printing, composed of a pigment or dye in a liquid vehicle (solvent).”  No matter where you look for a definition, all of them have something in common; the purpose of ink is to deliver a visual image.  Inks are found in almost every aspect of human activity.

The first inks used were made of fruit or vegetables juices; blood from some types of animals and bark from trees.  The first man made inks were made from animal or vegetable charcoal mixed with glue and it appeared in Egypt about 4,500 years ago.  Older style writing inks, such as in fountain pens, use a fluid water-based dye system. But in the 1950s, when ballpoint pens became fashionable, the writing ink industry shifted to paste like oil-based dye systems. The thick consistency allows capillary action to keep the ink flowing well, and the inks generally are no smearing and quicker drying than water-based systems.  Dyes tend to be preferred over pigments for writing inks because pigments can't be dispersed minutely enough and tend to clog the pen tip. Water-based dye or pigment systems are still used for markers, highlighters and rollerball pens. A few pen manufacturers, such as Bic (which sells about 3 million pens per day) make their own ink, but most pen manufacturers buy their ink.

There are various types of inks available today, all used for different purposes in the printing market.  Newspapers, magazines, photo and book publishers are just a few examples of the paper base industries that use inks in a daily basis.  Even the governments use ink to print money.  But there are a lot more industries that depend on inks to deliver a message; apparel, beverage and paint industries are some good examples.  In today’s developed nations, most residences and businesses have a printing capability and having an inkjet printer is very common in most countries.  At home ink is used to print homework, reports, bills or just to print some drawings to keep the kids busy doing some coloring (I’m guilty as charged). 

Today's inks are divided into two classes: printing inks and writing inks. Printing inks are further broken down into two subclasses: ink for conventional printing, and ink for digital nonimpact printing, which includes ink-jet and electrophotographic technologies.  Inks also contain additives such as waxes, lubricants, surfactants, and drying agents to aid printing and to impart any desired special characteristics.  An average size magazine issue of 80 pages requires a total of only about 68 gal of ink to print just more than 150,000 copies.  The advent of personal computers, personal electronics, and the Internet may one day replace libraries full of printed books and periodicals with electronic products.  Look how many e-books are already in use. But the great paperless society hasn't fully shown itself yet, many industries still rely on paper. And as long as there's paper, then there must be ink.

How Does a Printer Work

No matter what type of document you are printing, whether if it’s a letter, spreadsheet, PDF or a photo, and no matter what type of printer you are using there are some similarities in how your printer works. The software is responsible for sending the data to the printer; this software is known as the 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 major types of printers, the laser printer and the inkjet printer.

How a Laser Printer works:

For the laser printer there is a basic principle which is static electricity. A revolving drum which is known as a photoreceptor which is made out of conductive materials that sends light photons, as it revolves it receives an electrical charge from a wire that is called a charge corona, while it spins a tiny laser beam shines across it surface to discharge at various points to create the image on the drum.

Once the image is set, the printer puts a positively charged toner 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 threw the fusers which are just heated rollers.  As the paper passes threw 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 miniscule 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 actual print head which has several nozzles that spray drops of ink. An Inkjet printer also contain a print head stepper motor which a mechanism that moves the print head across the paper.
There are two types of inkjet printers:

Bubble Jet Printer:  The resistors create heat, which the heat 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 crystal is 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 on your printer? Just let us know!

Pressing Forward: The Evolution of Printing Devices

What would Johannes Gutenberg think of today’s modern laser printer? Would he even recognize it as an evolution of his invention that changed the world? Most historians believe that the printing press was the single most important invention of the Middle Ages. Gutenberg conceived the idea of a movable type and the first printing press. It should be noted that the printing press is not the result of a single invention, it is the aggregation of three different technologies that were in existence centuries before Gutenberg was born.


• The adaptation for printing of the wine or olive oil screw-type press that had been in use for hundreds of years, throughout Europe and Asia.

• The adaptation of block print technology, known in Europe since the return of Marco Polo from Asia at the end of the 13th century.

• The development of mass production paper making techniques. Paper was brought from China to Italy in the 12th century, but was thought too flimsy for books.

The first few books to be printed and sold at print shops were religious texts and bibles. There was very little to no printing of new ideas taking place. Most people entered the printing business and then quickly left it. The main reason was the distribution of books was not organized. The potential for improvement was there, the market was there, and the demand was definitely there, but the control and transport were poorly organized. To add to this, the literacy rate in Europe was still very low. Most people did not even know how to read. However, this situation was improved by the Frankfort Fair, which was a center for printing and drew hundreds of booksellers, scholars, publishers and collectors from all over the world.

Printing encouraged literacy amongst the population and eventually brought about a deep and lasting impact on many people’s lives. The majority of the first books made by hand were typically the Bible. The print shop on the other hand, responded to demand with medical, travel and practical manuals. Printing also provided a platform for scholars and prevented the corruption of their texts during hand copying. By giving everyone the same texts to work from, the printing press had brought about progress in science and scholarship in a faster and more reliable way.

The main effects of the printing press however, was to multiply the supply and cut down the costs of books. Thus, it made information of all kinds readily available to larger segment of the population. Libraries were then able to store more information, and at a lower cost. The printing press also facilitated the preservation and dissemination of knowledge. This was very important for the advancement of science and technology. The printing press certainly fueled the start of the ‘information revolution’, which is on par with the Internet of today. The printing press allowed the spread of new ideas and information quickly, and with much greater impact.

Initial success with automatic printing was found with the steam printing presses of the early 1800's. This was the next major step for the printing industry. Gutenberg's original design had remained largely unchanged until then. The steam press, constructed of cast iron, allowed double the print size and required 90% less force to print properly. It could produce 250 prints an hour, an amazing feat for the era. Compare that to today's fully automated digital printing presses, which are capable of handling any color, font and print size at a printing rate that makes the steam press look like a snail.

So in the span of five centuries, we have witnessed human expression evolve from the spoken word, to the hand written word, to printed word. Now with today’s electronic mediums, our communication has evolved to what has become the digital information age. The internet’s effect on communication is causing us to rethink text itself. It has almost come full circle and returned to a state much like it was in its infancy of the spoken word. I am confident that if Johannes Gutenberg were alive today and needed toner for his laser printer, he would web-surf over to ClickInks.com. With the purchase of Clickinks remanufactured printer cartridges, you help reduce the amount of cartridges that are disposed of into landfills and save yourself money at the same time!