GEK1511-Assignment 2 (Printers)

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GEK 1511 - Introduction to Computing (Assignment 2)

How do various printers works?

Advantages and Disadvantages

How do the various printers work?

Latest Developments of Printers

Printers can be basically divided into four categories, specifically the inkjet printers, laser printers, photo printers and the multifunctional printers. For an inkjet and photo printer, both creates text and pictures on paper by shooting tiny dots of ink through tiny nozzles. A print head, which contains these tiny nozzles, will moves back and forth across the page and when each passage is done, the paper will moved forward so that the print head can continue across the next few lines. The only difference between these two printers is that a photo printer will give a more defining photo image. There are also some that uses a technology known as thermal dye technology. This method basically melts ink "crayons" onto the pages that will provide high-quality color, but are not really suitable for anything except photo printing.

Comparisons between 3 Printers

A Glimpse into the future...

Some Discoveries...

For a laser printer, instead of using tiny nozzles, it makes use of a photosensitive drum/belt that is able to pick up an electrostatic charge whenever the laser drum hits on it. The charged areas will then pick up the toner and transfer the toner to the paper. One point to take note is that not all printers that are termed as laser printers actually make use of lasers. There are exceptions whereby in the case of LED printers, they use LED lights instead of laser light to draw images on the photosensitive drum or belt.

As for the all-in-one printers, it is basically the combinations of a normal printer with a scanning unit. Currently, it can be observed that a multifunction printer consists of a printer, a scanner and fax machine. This allows users to scan the documents, which either save the data in the PC, print them out immediately, or send them to PC for faxing. All these functions are contained in one unit and can be done without multiple connections.

With regards to the type of ink color used, almost all printers except the photo printer uses the four basic colors, namely Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black. Most photo printers are basically inkjet printers with six-color cartridges (light cyan, light magenta, cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) rather than the usual four-color cartridges. By combining these colors in various combinations, the printers can recreate almost any shade the user wants.

Advantages and Disadvantages:

Advantages	Inkjet	Laser	Photo	Multifunction
Inexpensive
Easy to operate
High-quality color
Connects directly to camera (or takes digital media cards)
Portable printers
Immediate photos
High quality printing
Fast speed
Cartridges need changing less often
Convenient
Saves space

Disadvantages	Inkjet	Laser	Photo	Multifunction
Slow
Ink cartridges can be expensive over time
Low precision printing
May not print normal text well
More expensive than normal inkjet printers
Color only available for high-level machines
Heavier
Repairs means you are deprived of both printer and scanner

Latest development of Printers

There is a significant growth in the usage of printers in the market today. In order to keep up with the growing needs, companies have been coming up with new models to attract customers. We will discuss three of the leading printer maker here in Singapore, namely Epson, Canon and Hewlett Packard and also their latest models.

Epson Stylus C65 is one of the latest inkjet printers from Epson. It comes with DURABrite? Ink in INKdividual? cartridges for convenient best photo printing on plain paper and specialty media. It is swift yet silent and efficient. It also has innovative software features such as PhotoQuicker 3.5, Centre of Creativity, Printer for Mobile Phone Camera and Digital Camera Solution.

One of the latest models from Cannon will be the Canon iP2000, which is a high graded photo printer that features a 2-way feeding option. This is one of the most affordable photo printers with PictBridge and Bubble Jet Direct support. Apart from that, it can print images directly from camcorders or digital cameras without going through a PC. In addition, it also comes with Easy PhotoPrint 3.0 photo retouching software.

For HP printers, HP Desktop 6540 Colour Inkjet printer is one of which can print up to 30.0ppm (page per minute) for quality printing. This printing speed is one of the fastest that an inkjet printer can offered. It also has an additional front USB port for walk-up laptop printing. Digital photo printing capabilities and auto-off feature to switch the printer from operating mode to a low-power, energy-efficient mode are some of the more attractive features this printer offered.

Comparisons between the three printers:

Brands	Weight	Resolution	Print Speed	Print Quality	Interface	Paper Hold Input Capacity
Epson Stylus C65	4.41Kg	5760 x 1440	Black Text- 17.0ppm Colour Text- 9.0ppm	Droplet Technology	Parallel & USB Port	120 Sheets
Canon iP2000	3.4Kg	4800 x 1200	Black Text- 20.0ppm Colour Text- 14.0ppm	Fixed	USB Port	150 Sheets
HP Deskjet 6540	5.98Kg	4800 x 1200	Black Text- 30.0ppm Colour Text- 20.0ppm	HP Thermal Inkjet	USB Port	150 Sheets

From the 3 printers compared here, our team would recommend the Canon iP2000 printer for most users running on an average budget who just wants to print simple words documents and sometimes photos. Although it might not have the fastest printing speed here, but at 20ppm it?s reasonably fast enough. Unless very high quality photos are required otherwise a resolution of 4800 x 1200 is already very suffice for normal photos size. Even at such weight, it can already prints photos directly from the appropriate hardware without actually going through another computer interface which most printer with this advantage weights much more. Also at such a high paper holding capacity, user will not have to worry about refilling the paper cassette frequently. All in all, the decision of choosing a printer lies not only on its appearance, but also on how well it can operate such as the resolution, print speed and print quality.

A Glimpse into the future

Some novel ideas for printer of the future has been brainstorm by our group members and logically selected based on their feasible possibilities.

Wireless printer concept: Make printer equip with WiFi or Bluetooth technology. Basically, the connectivity of the printer will be enhanced to wireless type. This will save the hassle of finding an extra port on your computer and also the mess it creates with an extra wire protruding out from your computer. With this concept, sending print job through a network printer which previously requires the main computer connected to the printer to be switch on before the print job can be process would not longer be a requirement. Essentially, all computers within the network are directly connected to the printer wirelessly and sending print jobs would be made faster and easier. Also, the distance of the computers from the printer will not be restricted by the length and accessibility of the cable anymore.

Firewire printer concept: Although most of the current printer comes equip with a USB 2.0 compatibility that allows faster transfer of print jobs relative to the parallel and USB 1.0 & 1.1. However, this might not be enough for the professional class such as graphic & interior designers whom almost always need to print very graphic intensive jobs, which is very large in their size. Hence, printer with Firewire compatibility can be designed and would allows a much faster transfer of print jobs to the printer, increasing printing speed overall thus saving plenty of time.

Internet Printer Booth: Printer booth can be set up at designated and prominent spot where their uses are mostly sought for. Places such as schools, library or even hospitals etc. can be potential spot. These printers are always connected online and available 24 hours. User who fear of forgetting to bring some important documents to the area where the printer booth is the next day or simply too lazy to bring some documents for submission near the area will sure to develop a liking for this printer booth. All they need to do is just to get online and on to the website of the printer booth. They can then select the location, time of collection and type of prints. After which, the print jobs can then be uploaded to the website for processing. Of course they would have to pay through the net before their print jobs are acknowledged with a 6-digit pin which they need for collection. With this concept, students, researchers etc. would no longer have the worries of late submission due to forgetfulness or having last minute print jobs that they need urgently.

Some discoveries...

Nowadays, many ink-makers that do not produce the printers themselves have emerged in the market, with most taking over the sales of the original ink-maker of their own printer. Our group has research on and discovered that there are several factors behind this commonly called ?pirated-ink? being so successful.

First of all, these commonly called ?pirated-ink? are not really pirated. A pirated product is one that has unauthorized use, copying, or distribution of the original products. However, the ?pirated-ink? production is entirely based on their own formulation and designs hence there is no copyright infringement to them. Without this violation, the government cannot prevent the production and sales of these ink-makers by any laws or regulations. Hence, they will continue to produce such inks.

Furthermore, these companies have very innovative ideas to attract their consumers. Not only a wide range of inks refills are available such as the ink itself that are injected into the original ink cartridge, an entire new ink cartridge that can be used to replaced the original one etc. There is even a newer type of ink refill system that never needs replacing of the cartridges, known as the continuous ink refill system. What it does is to attach several plastic tubes from a much larger capacity external ink tank to the internal ink cartridges. And with this design, the user will no longer need to purchase ink cartridges when it?s run out, he/she just need to top up the external ink cartridges with the refill inks available from the same companies at a much cheaper prices relative to an original one.

Although original ink-makers have come out with solution to counter this concern, such as inserting a smart chip on their ink cartridge to monitor the usage of the ink level, basically a ink counter which will prevent any refill of ink into the cartridge for usage. This however was also strike back by the ?pirated? companies by packaging their ink refills sale with a device known as a chip-resetter that can reset the smart chip installed on the original cartridges which allows repeated use of it again!