A
anon
The Ideal inkjet printer
I intend this article as a base for discussion, and in no way is it intended
to place any bias towards or against any particular printer manufacturer.
Indeed all printers have their advantages and disadvantages, be it print
quality, cost, speed, ease of use, reliability and maintenance. I intend and
make no judgement or jibe towards any individual manufacturer and name none.
I wish printer manufacturers would read this newsgroup and get a grasp on
the problems people encounter with inkjet printers and resolve them. All
printers have their advantages and disadvantages and it is a shame that
no-one has really taken measures to ease these burdens on the end-user when
new models are designed.
I have considered laser printers but in my opinion laser printing is
excellent for the workplace or home office, however in my assessment their
tonal blending still falls short of the photographic quality required for A4
sized prints, and inkjet has the facility to create colour blends and
various finishes from gloss to matt whereas toner cannot.
Each of the following inkjet specs are further expanded on below.
a.. Four separate ink chambers / cartridges
b.. Clear plastic cartridges
c.. Optical ink level monitoring
d.. Option to refill chamber and/or replace cartridges with cheaper
original ink
e.. Better cartridge design
f.. Larger ink reservoir
g.. Replaceable snap-in print head
Discussion.
1) Four separate ink cartridges.
A few printer manufacturers have already started to use this technology and
it is a step towards cutting costs as only the empty colour needs replacing.
2) Clear plastic cartridges.
I once saw a printer which has four clear see-through cartridges where the
ink levels could be visually checked.. I am tired of having to replace half
used cartridges because I cannot see how much ink is remaining..
3) Optical ink level monitoring.
If cartridges were transparent, then an optical system could be employed to
prevent printing once a cartridge gets down to a critical level.
4) Option to refill and/or replace cartridges with cheaper original ink.
The bulk of the cost of cartridges is in the cartridge itself. It would be
nice to be able to purchase original inks in bottles and top up the
reservoirs oneself, thus reducing the amount of cost and waste.
People could still have the option of replacing the cartridge if they did
not want to go to the trouble of refilling the existing ones. It would be
nice to have the option of fill and/or replace.
Printer manufacturers need not lose out as they could sell the bottles of
their original inks at more reasonable cost to all concerned and could even
reduce manufacturing costs which would then cascade downwards. Cartridges
could be filled by a syringe to a max mark on transparent cartridges just as
one fills a kettle.
5) Better cartridge design.
Although some cartridge designs are quite elaborate and ingenious, they are
more complex than really need be. A simple gravity-fed tank system would
surely be better.
6) Larger ink reservoir.
The problems with some printers are that they do not take advantage of the
space available within the printer casing. Larger ink reservoirs would mean
that inks would not need to be changed so often and thus reduce chance of
airlocks and reduce waste. Inks could be improved to include an
anti-clogging agent to reduce the chance of clogging.
7) Replaceable print head unit.
I once did see a printer with an ingenious design of a separate removable
snap-in print head tray, thus enabling a swift affordable print head
replacement for the serious photographer or person suffering a clogged print
head.
People will undoubtedly argue that printer manufacturers would not want a
printer to have a long lifespan. However there are printers which do have a
long lifespan at a cost due to more expensive cartridges with built in print
heads. An argument is available that the more affordable printing becomes,
the more people will use them and need more inks and so on. To be honest -
would we not use our cars more if fuel were cheaper? (however I do not want
to get into a discussion on that point here - thank you.)
I would not mind paying a few extra quid on a printer if I knew it would be
a wise investment for a long life and ease of maintenance. Affordable
printer spares would also be welcomed, and people who were into serious
photo printing would be most likely to replace their print head assemblies
regularly to maintain quality.
People would still purchase new printers as the manufacturers concentrated
more on enhanced print quality, speed, different paper sizes, selectable
paper trays, duplex printing, and so on. I myself would like to obtain an
A2 or A3 printer if they could prove themselves to last and all parts be
cost effective and easily interchanged should a fault occur. My problems
with inkjets to date leave me little confidence when deciding to pay out the
extra cost in buying a larger printer as one would not be expected to print
out an A2 or A3 page that often.
Personally I like the all-in-one systems as they save space overall. An A2
or A3 all in one would be fantastic, though admittedly awkward to fit onto
my desktop.
These days we tend to live too much in a throwaway society, and in the case
of inkjet printers a blocked or dry print head is the cause more often than
not. It is a shame that so much material is wasted and thrown into landfill
because a miniscule component such as a print head cannot be simply replaced
by snap in replacement or cartridges cannot be re-used.
Today we live in a modern world, but there's still a long way in which
inkjet manufacturers can go in order to supply a product with an outstanding
name for long term reliability, cost-efficient printing and easily
maintainability. How long will it be before they start to listen to the
people who use them?
I intend this article as a base for discussion, and in no way is it intended
to place any bias towards or against any particular printer manufacturer.
Indeed all printers have their advantages and disadvantages, be it print
quality, cost, speed, ease of use, reliability and maintenance. I intend and
make no judgement or jibe towards any individual manufacturer and name none.
I wish printer manufacturers would read this newsgroup and get a grasp on
the problems people encounter with inkjet printers and resolve them. All
printers have their advantages and disadvantages and it is a shame that
no-one has really taken measures to ease these burdens on the end-user when
new models are designed.
I have considered laser printers but in my opinion laser printing is
excellent for the workplace or home office, however in my assessment their
tonal blending still falls short of the photographic quality required for A4
sized prints, and inkjet has the facility to create colour blends and
various finishes from gloss to matt whereas toner cannot.
Each of the following inkjet specs are further expanded on below.
a.. Four separate ink chambers / cartridges
b.. Clear plastic cartridges
c.. Optical ink level monitoring
d.. Option to refill chamber and/or replace cartridges with cheaper
original ink
e.. Better cartridge design
f.. Larger ink reservoir
g.. Replaceable snap-in print head
Discussion.
1) Four separate ink cartridges.
A few printer manufacturers have already started to use this technology and
it is a step towards cutting costs as only the empty colour needs replacing.
2) Clear plastic cartridges.
I once saw a printer which has four clear see-through cartridges where the
ink levels could be visually checked.. I am tired of having to replace half
used cartridges because I cannot see how much ink is remaining..
3) Optical ink level monitoring.
If cartridges were transparent, then an optical system could be employed to
prevent printing once a cartridge gets down to a critical level.
4) Option to refill and/or replace cartridges with cheaper original ink.
The bulk of the cost of cartridges is in the cartridge itself. It would be
nice to be able to purchase original inks in bottles and top up the
reservoirs oneself, thus reducing the amount of cost and waste.
People could still have the option of replacing the cartridge if they did
not want to go to the trouble of refilling the existing ones. It would be
nice to have the option of fill and/or replace.
Printer manufacturers need not lose out as they could sell the bottles of
their original inks at more reasonable cost to all concerned and could even
reduce manufacturing costs which would then cascade downwards. Cartridges
could be filled by a syringe to a max mark on transparent cartridges just as
one fills a kettle.
5) Better cartridge design.
Although some cartridge designs are quite elaborate and ingenious, they are
more complex than really need be. A simple gravity-fed tank system would
surely be better.
6) Larger ink reservoir.
The problems with some printers are that they do not take advantage of the
space available within the printer casing. Larger ink reservoirs would mean
that inks would not need to be changed so often and thus reduce chance of
airlocks and reduce waste. Inks could be improved to include an
anti-clogging agent to reduce the chance of clogging.
7) Replaceable print head unit.
I once did see a printer with an ingenious design of a separate removable
snap-in print head tray, thus enabling a swift affordable print head
replacement for the serious photographer or person suffering a clogged print
head.
People will undoubtedly argue that printer manufacturers would not want a
printer to have a long lifespan. However there are printers which do have a
long lifespan at a cost due to more expensive cartridges with built in print
heads. An argument is available that the more affordable printing becomes,
the more people will use them and need more inks and so on. To be honest -
would we not use our cars more if fuel were cheaper? (however I do not want
to get into a discussion on that point here - thank you.)
I would not mind paying a few extra quid on a printer if I knew it would be
a wise investment for a long life and ease of maintenance. Affordable
printer spares would also be welcomed, and people who were into serious
photo printing would be most likely to replace their print head assemblies
regularly to maintain quality.
People would still purchase new printers as the manufacturers concentrated
more on enhanced print quality, speed, different paper sizes, selectable
paper trays, duplex printing, and so on. I myself would like to obtain an
A2 or A3 printer if they could prove themselves to last and all parts be
cost effective and easily interchanged should a fault occur. My problems
with inkjets to date leave me little confidence when deciding to pay out the
extra cost in buying a larger printer as one would not be expected to print
out an A2 or A3 page that often.
Personally I like the all-in-one systems as they save space overall. An A2
or A3 all in one would be fantastic, though admittedly awkward to fit onto
my desktop.
These days we tend to live too much in a throwaway society, and in the case
of inkjet printers a blocked or dry print head is the cause more often than
not. It is a shame that so much material is wasted and thrown into landfill
because a miniscule component such as a print head cannot be simply replaced
by snap in replacement or cartridges cannot be re-used.
Today we live in a modern world, but there's still a long way in which
inkjet manufacturers can go in order to supply a product with an outstanding
name for long term reliability, cost-efficient printing and easily
maintainability. How long will it be before they start to listen to the
people who use them?
But