If It Prints, I'll Let You Know

In recent years we have seen the birth of a new line of business: cartridge retail, to which PrintCountry proudly belongs. As time progresses, an increasing number of entities – from fledgling entrepreneurs to corporations – are joining the bandwagon.

This business can attribute its success to the demand for its unique services. These days, customers do not mindlessly make purchases. The 21st century buyer is sensible and smart, and goes through a number of considerations before shelling out cash. Among their considerations are practicality, the longevity of the equipment, and its impact to the environment.

In the printer industry, these concerns are being addressed by the various cartridge retail chains. By breaking the monopoly of branded printer manufacturers as far as inks and cartridges are concerned, they have widened the market playing field and brought prices down.

Also, they help consumers by offering more choices that will suit a customer’s needs and wants, as well as what they can afford. Presenting a potential buyer with a wide array of products and services also encourage them to read up and research, thus enabling them to make informed decisions regarding their purchases.

The cartridge retail line of business heavily contributes to the conservation of the environment. Since they introduced the concept of cartridge recycling through remanufacturing and refilling, they have diverted the improper disposal of millions of empty ink cartridges that would have otherwise found its way into landfills.

I am not afraid of many things, but if there’s one thing that would scare me out of my wits, it would be encountering a snake. It may be coiled and sleeping, but the sight of one will send chills up my spine.

Being from a country in the tropics, snakes are something that I have luckily avoided confronting myself, but are generally in my midst. We’ve fished cobras out of our basement back home so many times that I have totally lost count.

So seeing a photo posted by Denis and Marie Matthews of Lismore, New South Wales, Australia, of a brown tree snake curled up comfortably inside their home printer is just so creepy. Imagine if this was something I saw in my printer! I would literally wake the entire apartment block up with my blood-curdling scream!

They apparently discovered the snake while preparing a group newsletter. While trying to print envelopes, they were wondering why nothing was coming out of the printer, so they decided to investigate the cause of the jam. So what caused the jam? A meter-long snake curled up inside the printer!

The couple and their friends tried to prod the snake out of the printer. Initially, it did not move, but eventually – and reluctantly! – it decided to leave the printer. It did not go far, though. It stayed outside the printer, but still inside the room. Yaiks!

The Matthews were lucky. The brown tree snake is normally aggressive when confronted. It is a miracle it didn’t attack when it was being coaxed out of the printer. It is also venomous although generally regarded as being of little danger to adults. It can, however, kill a small child.

You can give me any kind of ‘printer error’, just not this!

I don’t know about you, but I definitely noticed something recently – ink cartridge packages are slimming down.

Let us take the cartridge for Epson 2200. The first cartridge packages started at 77 grams, measuring 11cm by 15cm by 3.5cm. The package was much larger than the cartridge itself; more than twice, as a matter of fact. If you remember from years ago, you would open a carton to find an even smaller package that contains the actual cartridge and, beside it, was this huge wad of printer cartridge information folded and stuffed inside. Frankly, I never read any of this information. 

Then, about two years ago, the package was slimmed down by getting rid of the corrugated cardboard filler and shrink wrap. The width was narrowed to 2 cm and the weight dropped to 63 grams. Nowadays, the box has shrunk even further by 3.5 cm and its weight dropped to 57 grams. This is just as well, since the cartridge itself is only 7 cm tall!

All this slimming down is not just for aesthetic purposes. These adjustments not only benefit the environment, but also save Epson dollars. The reduced size has allowed Epson to pack more cartridge packages into what is called a pallet, which is basically what is used by industries during shipping. By packing in more cartridges, the company is able to maximize its shipping efficiency and resources.

This “trend”, if you could call it that, is not specific to Epson. HP is also redesigning its North America home printer cartridge packaging. This effort, just as in the case of Epson, is geared towards environmental conservation and cost efficiency. HP will end up getting rid of about 15 million pounds of materials, and will go green through the use of recycled plastic and paperboard.

Holiday greetings from ‘If It Prints, I’ll Let You Know’!

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Since laser printers undeniably provide better quality printing for documents, there is a general preference for them among those who do mainly document printing. Laser printers, however, are normally bulky and expensive. It is a good thing that over the last fifteen years, innovations have been made to tone down the size of not just the laser printer body, but its price tag as well.

The latest installment from Canon for its compact laser printer line is the Canon i-SENSYS LBP3100 Mono Laser. Its sleek white and compact design – it is about the size of two white bread loaves side-by-side – makes it an attractive addition to any home office. With its reasonable price tag, we may even see one of each for every office desk in a small company.

What I love about it is that you can easily and neatly pack it away. The high-gloss lid folds up and forward and becomes the output tray. When the printer is not in use, the lid serves to protect your print head from dust and other elements that do not need to find their way into your printer. At the same time, the front panel folds out to become the input tray, which can hold up to 150 sheets of paper.

If you do not need to have paper ready at all times, folding it in is a space saver for your desk. But if you want your paper ready for printing at all times, there is a built-in hinged cover that you can fold down to protect paper from moisture, which may affect print quality.

As if all that neatness is not enough, the design also includes hiding the cable plug, so that you don’t have visible cables snaking through your desk. A small fold out cover hides a USB socket, and once plugged in, the fold out cover hides the cable plug.

Canon supplies a printer driver in the package, and software installation entails little more than sticking the driver in and following instructions. So if sleek and neat is your thing, and you do not print in color, then check out the Canon i-SENSYS LBP3100 Mono Laser.