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 Printer  Personal Choices

Ø      HP Printers www.hp.com

Printers
When it comes to printing I will in nearly every occasion recommend Hewlett Packard (HP).  We have had four models since 1995 – three are still working well – one was unfortunately ruined by a dripping recycled cartridge.

What I like about HP is that I consider the quality is crisp and clear.  When you change the ink you are also changing the print head which means that with each new cartridge, the quality is like a brand new printer.  From my own experience I do not recommend recycled cartridges (they leak and drip) ...- yes recycling is good for the environment (generally)..... otherwise you may end up recycling your printer sooner than you think....  (note that printers of any brand are hardly worth fixing anymore).

For new cartridges – I use www.viking-direct.co.uk for my new cartridges.

Epson and Canon printers are also very good – I see my customers using them – and with these I believe you are only changing the ink cartridge, not the print head, which does make the replacement cartridges cheaper, and many customers seem to pick up refills with their shopping to assist in recycling.

The printer is where the results of your work will often leave the machine and therefore you want a good presentation.  Most printers can print pages fast, print them clear and colourfully and will usually print on A4 paper.  Some printers are adapted to handle photo paper and may even have an additional; special ink cartridge for the purpose.  Some printers can cope with up toA3 in size too.

HP printers seem to print immediately and gets on with the job.  Other brands charge the ink first which results in a whir, click, click..... click, click whir, .....whir, click, click..... click, click whir...... whir, click, click..... click, click whir,... sorry I can’t stand the wait .... !

Scanner
Most people who have scanners from a few years ago never used them....  if they tried it was easy to scan, but most lost where the scanned document went in to the depths of their PC’s hard disk....

Today the best way of having a scanner is by having a printer scanner combined unit.

Printer / Scanner combination
These units are now very popular.  They take up little space and yet are both printer and scanner all in one unit.  Better than that they are also photocopiers which can of course print in black or colour at the touch of a button, some of these work like this even without the computer being turned on.

For those who like to print their own photos, one of these units I saw recently, took the photos from the camera data card and produced a proof sheet, then lottery style you mark the pictures you want on the proof sheet and place the sheet onto the scanner and in return it “reads” the sheet and starts printing the photos that you selected!  Excellent, even for technophobes...  www.hp.com

Some units today also have built in screens so that you can see the photos on that too and make adjustments.

Fax Facility
A few models have a fax facility too.  In the business environment I can see the point, but less so in the home setting.  You can usually fax straight from Word (in XP) so there is no need to print out and then fax it.  For incoming faxes, it doesn’t usually have an answer machine built in, so “voice” callers may get the fax tones and how do you know what calls to pickup... and doesn't work with your 1571 service when you are on-line.  The purchase of one of these machines should be considered carefully as otherwise the cost of the units extra functionality will be wasted..  A basic fax machine can be purchased for around £50 for those who really need such a device.

Compatibility with other Windows versions
Note that all printers and combined units sold today are not necessarily compatible with older operating systems like Windows 95, 98 and ME.  Likewise while most old printers will work with Windows XP, many scanners will not - see your scanner manufacturers web site for further details.

Last modified: Sunday, 27 November 2005