Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Printer

RGB inkjet printer color chart

sequin — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 08:30:23 -0800

RGB color reference guide. I have just purchased an Epson R1900. I need to match pantone colors & fabric swatches to create artwork. So ideally I would like to print a color reference book of all it's possible RGB colors that I can refer to as a guide to match a color. Is there an "easy" way to do this from either Photoshop or preferably Illustrator? I am a mac user. I did find a multiRIP software but it seems to be only PC friendly.

What printed this Certification?

Faint of Butt — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:50:52 -0800

What sort of machine printed this Certification of Birth Abroad? The letters are broken up and stencil-ish, but it's no ordinary dot-matrix printer. I have here a Certification of Birth Abroad of a US citizen, printed at the US embassy in Lima, Peru, in 1978, and it's blowing my mind because I've never seen printing like this before and I don't know what kind of machine produced it. The form itself is pre-printed, but the personal information filling in the blanks is the weird stuff.

The font is all caps, and the characters are broken up into individual lines and shapes. The letter H looks something like this:

| | - | |

and a Y looks something like this:

\ / |

Other letters and numbers contain curved lines, and an O is sort of like this:

n ( ) u

only not nearly as disjointed.

Identifont is no help. Do you have any ideas? I'll be happy to answer any other questions about the type.

How to emulate an older printer....

Kalepa — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 22:15:47 -0800

Does anyone know of a program that will capture a program's printout to a variety of different printer formats and allow me to print out the output on a newer printer? My problem is this -- I have several older programs that print out to older printers and I would like to them to print out to my newer printers. Two of the programs are 10 plus years old.

I think I'm looking for a printer emulator system but I can't find the right one. I have gone through about 5 of them laboriously.

Otherwise, I think I am looking for what used to be called a "printer capture" file.

Any thots on this?

Thanks!

Sharing Is Caring?

murtagh — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:54:25 -0800

Sharing a printer between an iMac (with printer driver installed) and a Windows laptop without installing any drivers on the laptop: can it be done? I have an iMac running OS X Leopard. My sister is using her work laptop. Unfortunately, her company has disallowed (blocked) installation of any new software on the laptop, which includes printer drivers. We need to share the printer between the iMac and the laptop. The iMac, to which the printer is connected, has the printer drivers installed.

Can the printer be shared between the iMac and the laptop without installing any drivers on the laptop?

The printer is a Canon Pixma MP145.

Please tell me this is possible (or any possible alternatives). Any help would be greatly appreciated!

What are some good non-Epson digital papers for my Epson R1900?

deinemutti — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 14:12:23 -0800

What are some good non-Epson digital papers for my Epson R1900? What are some good non-Epson digital papers for my Epson R1900? I am a graphic design student in my last year of school and I have recently purchased the above mentioned printer after researching and comparing other printers.

Because I do more with the printer than just plain photos and I don't want to pay for Epson's markup with their papers, what are some good alternatives?

I've been experimenting with its settings and different papers. I unfortunately bought a ream of offset semi-gloss coated paper; and although it looks fine with lighter colors, any dark colors (especially large areas of dark color) look spotty and horrible, even after using the "plain paper" (or non-photo paper setting). When I lowered the draft quality the colors were too washed out. I was told that I got the results I did, because I bought offset paper. Live and learn I guess.

I usually go get paper from a specialty supplier where I live (Anchor Paper in the Twin Cities) and I need 11 x 17 or 12 x 18 and I want some type of coating with a gloss or dull finish. But what are some brands of digital paper I can buy? And for those who live in the area and know, any other stores besides Anchor that are also good?

Wireless router that can connect to a printer and external hard drive?

Dasein — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 10:23:12 -0800

Please help me find a router to make my parents' lives easier. I am looking for a wireless router that will allow me to connect to a printer and an external hard drive via USB. It doesn’t need to be wireless N (G is fine), but if it’s N it needs to be dual-band. Other than the Apple Airport Extreme with a USB hub attached, what wireless routers can do this? The models from Linksys with Storage Link and D-Link with Shareport seem to be able to connect to either a printer or a USB drive, but not both simultaneously. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I'd like my parents to be able to wirelessly print and back up data to a RAID drive. They run Windows, and while I'll install Bonjour to run the Airport Extreme if necessary, I know they will be a little suspicious about the comptability of Apple products. If the Airport Extreme is the only way to do this, anything you could say that would allow me to reassure them that printing will be seamless with Bonjour would also be appreciated.

Need help with Laser Printer recommendation AND forums where I can get good Laser Printer recommendations...

olddogeyes — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:26:00 -0800

Need help with Laser Printer recommendation AND forums where I can get good Laser Printer recommendations... I have a two part question:

1. I am in need of some recommendations on options (brands/models) for a new laser printer. What forums/message boards exist where I can post a message similar to my question below in hopes of getting more recommendations?

2. Here is what I am looking for in a new printer -- can you make any suggestions or recommendations? 1) Must work in a Windows environment - Could either be a stand-alone network printer (must work with Win XP, Vista and v7) or I could share it off of a computer (Vista). We don't have any Macs. 2) Must do both color and monochrome (black and white). 3) Needs to be able to duplex (print on both sides of paper -- usually by a mechanism that turns the paper over). 4) Looking for lowest cost of printing for black -- wouldn't need to print in color that often. 5) Probably will NOT print photos or other special media (like slides, etc). Will only be printing from Word, Excel, Adobe Acrobat and Web Browsers. 6) Would like a printer that prints at least 8-10 pages per minute in both color and monochrome. 7) Would like for it to have a manual feed capability so I can print envelopes. 8) Finally, it does NOT need to be multi-function. I have a great stand-alone sheet feed scanner and don't need to send or receive faxes on it. 9) Won't consider a Brother brand product - but will consider any other.

Thanks in advance for your help in either recommending a "laser printer" forum/message board or an actual printer model.

I can has printing?

Beardman — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:53:28 -0800

Out of toner and out of cash. What's the cheapest way to get my laser printer (Lexmark E232) printing again? This is in Toronto. I'm hoping to avoid the financial hit of a new cartridge. Ideally, I would just take the empty cartridge into some joint on College St. and they'd slap some new toner in it, but does anybody do that? Google is only turning up references to do-it-yourself ink refill kits, and online stores where you can buy new ones (which are cheaper than Staples, but still not ideal). Thanks!

Do I ask the publisher for a new copy or would that be stupid?

trixare4kids — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:57:55 -0800

Book Collectors: Is my new signed collector's edition book more or less valuable with a cutting machine error? I received a wonderful present: A signed collector's edition of "Under the Dome" by Stephen King. It also came with a set of collector cards. The set came directly from the publisher. So I'm not really a book collector, but I'm delighted to have this copy.

I noticed that there are about 10 pages that were cut wrong. The cutting machine left a triangle shaped tag on the top corner of these pages.

I took a picture so you can see what the error looks like.

Do I ask for a new copy or is it better to keep this one -- just in terms of future value?

Looking for information on PAYG cell phone (NY state), inflatable mattress, All-In-One scanner, fax, photocopier and printer

zaxour — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:22:56 -0800

Moved to NY (NOT NYC) from Sweden, need information on PAYG cell phone, inflatable mattress, All-in-One scanner, fax, photocopier and printer. I moved to NY state from Sweden and my job will involve moving from one place to the other every 3 months or so. Hence, would like to maintain as little belongings as possible.

Since I haven't got my SSN yet, I have to go with PAYG phone. I am checking all cellphone carriers I am aware of but feel like very little information is offered on the web. Going to the stores isn't helping either. I am curious which carrier has best coverage in NY state? Also, do I have to use carrier's phone to be able to use their SIM?
I considered delaying buying PAYG phone and use cellswapper later but I am not too sure how good is this idea.

I am looking for king/queen size inflatable mattress, which brand is good to go with? A previous thread on me-fi directs me to Aerobed. Any other recommendation? (or if you didn't like Aerobed, why?)

I am also interested in All-In-One Scanner, Photocopier, Fax and Printer. I checked cnet.com reviews but there is a conflict between editor's ratings and user's ratings so not too sure how much I should rely on them. I wonder if its a good idea to have such All-In-One equipment and if yes, any recommendation?

Printed Picks Please

signal — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:58:10 -0800

I need a reliable guitar pick printer. I need to get around 10.000 guitar picks printed with a logo + URL. 1 color on each side, logo on front, URL on back.
There's a bunch of people who offer this service online, but it's hard to figure out who's legit and who's less than. I'm in Chile, so they'd have to ship internationally.

I want a fancy printer. How archival should my prints be?

actionpact — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:17:32 -0800

I'm looking into getting a nice printer for printing fine-art quality prints. Help me decide between a couple (Epson v. Canon), and let me know your opinion re: 'archival' quality... I've been toying with the idea of getting a nice printer and making good quality prints (on matte fine art paper, like Hahnemuhle) from my illustrations for a while now. Previous research had always gotten me to believe that pigment based printers were the way to go, as dye-based systems would fade over time, despite some initially brilliant color.

I was looking at the Epson R1900 as most illustrators/designers I know recommend Epsons for doing home studio printing. A friend of mine though suggested the Canon Pro9000MkII printer, which looks like a nice printer except for the fact it's dye-based. His explanation: Supposedly the prints can last 30-100 years which is pretty good for a $20-30 print he sells. Conversely, supposedly the ink based prints have truer colors and he largely prefers the Canon. I can't really fault that logic. But most everyone I see selling prints online sell pigment based prints and I wonder-- does that make a difference for the buyer? Obviously you're getting a print and not an original, but say you were buying a $25 print, would you be less likely to buy it if it were a dye-based ink or would that matter to you? By now the technology on these high end consumer products makes it so almost all the prints seem to be archival to a degree....

My friend is sending me a proof of one of my prints to show me, and I ordered a sample from Epson. It seems like the printers and their inks are largely comparable in price, so those aren't big issues. In the meantime all I can do is wait (tricky). But I guess my question is-- which one would be better for making quality art prints, and accurately hued ones at that? (and the easier the better, really-- I'm picky about color.) How archival would you expect a $20-30 print to be?

Mefites who own of either of these models of printers would be appreciated too. Especially if you print warmer hued images (I use oranges, peaches, purples a lot and I hear those are hardest to reproduce.) I just am having a hard time choosing between two printers who are both probably pretty good.

Recommend me a printer

sailoreagle — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:59:41 -0800

I and the boyfriend are in the market for a new printer. We're largely clueless and would rather not buy an awful one. Help? Requirements:

- A4 printing, don't need anything bigger.
- Color as well as black and white.
- Text as well as pictures.
- Ability to network it so we can print from multiple computers (all running Windows, if it makes any difference).

I have no idea how printing on photo paper works, or if we'd ever do anything of the sort, if it helps any; so it's not that necessary, as long as the printouts are good quality.

Speed is a secondary benefit; ideally, I'd like to be able to print something (ie. a page of text) quickly but sacrificing a bit of quality if necessary, as well as print something with high quality but sacrificing speed.

Not getting ripped off on ink cartridges would be awesome.

Thanks!

Need help with multiple routers

tjbarrett — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:04:11 -0800

Looking for help with multiple routers on network. I'm with a small company that has 3 routers on its network; 1 open wireless for the public to use in the deli, 1 secured for employee laptops, and 1 commercial non-wireless that has a firewall for the office computers. The printers are inside the office and all of the wired computers talk just fine together. The problem is that we'd like to give some of the departments laptops to use on the floor, but since they're coming off of a different router, I'm not sure how to get them to see the computers and printers. Any helpful comments or links to networking resources pertinent to my situation would be very helpful and greatly appreciated. Thanks.

An old school portable printer

saxamo — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 19:45:59 -0800

Looking for a (cheap) portable, parallel printer that prints in A4 size. I have a portable device, which I need a printer for. The printer must have a parallel (DB-25) port. I need the printer to be as small as possible, so I can take it with me to different places. But be able to do basic A4 printouts (just text). I found a small printer but the cartridges were like $60 each!.

So basically. I want a cheap tiny printer, which does basic A4 prints out. Which uses cheap ink cartridges.

I don’t know much about printers. So any help would be grateful!

Color laser printer with Linux/UNIX drivers available

noztran — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 07:23:08 -0800

Could anyone recommend a color laser printer for ca. 500 GBP for a small office? Compatibility with Linux and Solaris---essential. BONUS question: should I also buy a monochrome laser for B&W printouts or is an unnecessary overkill when one has a color laser?

It wastes too much ink!

jbenben — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:39:47 -0800

Is there any way to tinker with this Brother printer/fax to disable the ink head auto-clean function? It wastes too much ink! After a lot of research, I am thinking of purchasing the Brother MFC 490. It's an all-in-one type unit, decent user reviews, etc. etc.

One frequent complaint which will drive me crazy is an auto-clean function that drains the thing of ink. In my experience, all of these printer/fax machines have serious issues and design flaws, including ink issues. For my uses, the MFC 490 is the best of a bad lot.

I'm interested to hear from other Brother all-in-one users on this issue. Do you live with it, or is there another way around this flaw?

If there is some way to alter the programming on the unit, I would love to know. I would also consider keeping the machine unplugged when not in use.

Your input and ideas are appreciated.... Thanks!

Are we being punked?

Tallguy — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 08:53:37 -0800

In order to fix a malfunctioning printer we have been told to unplug it and hold down the power button for one minute to release static. Are we being punked? My wife is working through the scripted advice generated by HP on addressing an ink jet printer that is not functioning correctly. Most of the steps are to be expected (clean rollers, check paper feeds, etc.) They also ask her to unplug the power and USB cable and hold down the power button for 1 minute to release static. That was the first I ever heard of using that as a fix. When I google it, there are people who recommend it for fixing other electronic devices such as laptops that won't boot (first remove the battery then hold the power button for 1 minute).

Does this actually do anything or is it electronic device voodoo? Where is this static that is supposedly being released and how does holding the power button release it? And since the device is unplugged and is not grounded where is this static going? I am not an electronics expert and I would love to hear from those who are.

I can not believe I am posting in the shopping category - photo paper question...

jessamyn — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:51:57 -0800

Do I care, in the slightest, that the photo paper I ordered is not what I received and seems to be older and thinner? I have an hp photosmart 375 and I use it for making prints of photos usually to send as postcards, nothing fancy. I bought some new paper recently from here, this paper. I had done some research and knew I was looking for the Q1990A paper and not the Q1989A paper because I guess it's newer and better? I don't know why I was looking for it, but that's what people were all asking the ebay sellers about who were selling photo paper.

I get the paper today and three things are weird.

1. instead of getting one pack of 100 sheets, I get two packs of 60. Hey that's 20 extra sheets!
2. instead of getting Q1990A like the listing said, I got Q1989A which they also sell.
3. the paper I get is 9 mil. thickness not the 10 mil. advertised (for either type of paper)

So, I know I can get an RMA and go through the back and forth and say "you sent me the wrong stuff!" but I'm wondering, from people who know something about photo paper, do I care a lot about this? What is likely to be the difference between what I have and thicker, newer paper? Is it the sort of thing only fancy photographers will care about, or would I notice the difference? I did a little bit of Googling but had a hard time sifting through the shopping sites and I figured someone here might just know. I'm inclined to just keep this paper unless there's a compelling reason not to. Thanks!

Can you help me identify an electronic component (from a printer)?

klanawa — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:07:09 -0800

long ago, i disassembled a printer and inside found a component that was clearly a revolution counter of some sort. it consisted of a disc with radial slots and a "caliper" with leads attached. for the life of me, i can't figure out what to call this thing or how to describe it to google. what was it?

(for the curious, i'd like to modify my anemometer with this, to make it more precise; the one-per-revolution counter sucks on light-wind days and i'm a big nerd).

Printer/Scanner software causing restart problems

N2O1138 — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:12:44 -0800

I installed software that came with a Brother MFC-9840CDW all-in-one and now my dell computer is having multiple problems at startup. The application itself failed to start citing missing registry data. Then, on restarting I get "Services.exe - Application Error" and clicking either OK or cancel causes an automatic shutdown timer to start. By leaving the application error window I'm able to start windows.

The Brother software required turning off the firewall. The installation I chose was wired ethernet. The application is called MFC Control Center 3 and includes printing scanning and faxing utilities.

I uninstalled the software in safe mode to avoid the first error but the second error persists.

Clicking ok or cancel in the services.exe application error box causes the following message to appear. "Shutdown initiated by NT Authority System. And the message reads "The system process C:\windows\System32\services.exe terminated unexpectedly with the error code -1073741819". Running Windows XP SP2.

Looking for a printer without the problems of finicky ink.

blueberry — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 21:36:09 -0800

[MomFilter] Looking for a reasonably cheap, reliable printer (for printing text) for an iMac. Leaning towards laser as the experiences with inkjets have been that bouts of little use lead to still full, yet dry and thus worthless ink cartridges. Looking for a printer for my Mom's iMac. She is wanting to print up a bunch of stories she has written, so the printer will only be used for text.
(No need for color, an attached scanner, or anything else)

She's had two cheap inkjets in the past where they were cheap to buy, but then you got gouged on the ink cartridges. These printers would up being a bit like "disposables" or white elephants—either getting gummed up after a while, or she'd not print anything for a month or two by which time the ink would have dried up or otherwise stopped working.

Fellow MeFites, do you own or know of any reasonably cheap (both pre- and post-sale), reliable b/w laser printers that you can recommend out there? Also, am I correct in guessing that laser toner has a longer "shelf life"?

Or, if lasers are too spendy, do you own or can you otherwise recommend an über-reliable inkjet that, say, you can just buy black ink for, and you've never had gum up or dry up on you?

Thanks all!

My printer won't turn on after leaving it unplugged for 2 weeks. Why, and how can I fix it?

Beep — Mon, 25 May 2009 16:59:06 -0800

My printer, an HP PSC 1410 All-in-One, will not turn on after leaving it unplugged for two weeks (I was out of town and always unplug everything to save on electrical costs). It's connected through a power module, and I have tried unplugging the power cord from the power module and the power module from the printer, and reconnecting them all again. I have tried different outlets, and it will simply not turn on. I have also tried disconnecting the USB cable that runs from the printer to the computer, just in case it was interfering in some way. Does anyone know how this could have happened, and what I can do to fix it?

Our HP PSC 1600 has gotta go!

Mutant — Mon, 25 May 2009 03:44:36 -0800

Looking for recommendations: high volume, low cost printer. We've got an HP PSC 1600 that I purchased in 2005. I didn't really consider operating costs (which, by the way, are now extortionary, thanks HP!) when purchasing the device as until recently its been used infrequently.

Both Mrs Mutant and I are writing dissertations which means in September we'll be handing in 30K or so printed words, but after many revisions. We're going to be pushing a lot of paper through a printer in the next three months, and considering how HP's operating costs have skyrocketed its not going to be our current printer.

We'd like to find a printer with lowest per page operating costs. We're indifferent to the price of the printer; its total cost of ownership that is of interest. Multi function (i.e., scanner, copier) capabilities not necessary, but it must be able to print in colour, as well as produce graphics of a reasonable density (I print lots of graphs). The greater bulk (i.e., 98% or so) of our printing will be in black and white, and we'd like that it offer some type of low ink consuming, draft mode. Ideally, this printer would have wireless capability as our home office is in a back bedroom, far away from the wired side of our LAN.

We're primarily an OS X household, but do have a couple of Linux netbooks as well.

Oh! We're not interested in refilling the cartridges. This experience with HP has left such a bad taste in my mouth I'd write my dissertation in long hand rather than give them another pence.

We're interested in recommendations based upon personal experience please; Kodak seems to be making a big push here in the UK now with their ESP series but after the HP experience we're suspicious of vendor claims.

When I say draft I mean draft!

DiscourseMarker — Tue, 19 May 2009 09:51:14 -0800

How can I get my HP printer to work correctly with my MacBook Pro? I have a new, HP Photosmart C4580 all-in-one printer connected to a wireless network. In the room I have an Intel iMac and a MacBook Pro, both running 10.5.6. I added the new printer to both computers, choosing the same driver from the list (C4400 series, as there was no C4500 series choice).

Here is my problem: I can change the settings on the iMac with no difficulty, and when I set it to draft, the printer actually prints in draft mode. However, nothing I do on my laptop seems to get the printer to print on draft. Even when I change the settings on the printer menu to draft, the printer is not printing draft (and is therefore wasting precious ink) when printing from the MacBook Pro. I also cannot get the printer menu to save any of my settings on the laptop - for example, it always defaults to HP Premium Photo paper instead of plain paper.

I have completely uninstalled all HP software from the MacBook Pro and installed the Apple HP drivers direct from the Apple website.

This is driving me absolutely insane. Help!!!