Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with ink

Save Paper? Go Digital?

Willie0248 — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:54:27 -0800

Help! My job requires me to interview people. Lots and lots of people. I've been printing out my (standardized) questions, and the cost is getting out of hand. How can I mitigate the wallet damage? One aspect of my job is doing quite a few interviews each week. The questions for these interviews are legally standardized, but vary just a little depending on the situation... So basically I assess what sort of situation the person is in, then print out one of three different interview forms. These forms are for my own personal use - they don't get turned in to anyone, but the information is important for writing reports and analyzing the data. The answers people are giving are largely narrative, so I'm writing a lot of stuff down in the interview. Oh, and I'm not allowed to record anything at these interviews, either.

The paper and ink cost is getting a little out of hand. I print at the lowest draft I can read and double-sided to save paper, but I'm still tearing through ink cartridges like crazy! So I was hoping the fine community could help me come up with a better way of doing this thing. I've come up with three ideas myself:

1. Get a tablet PC and write on there. The problem is that the cheap versions of these things (like the T91) are still $500, and I'm not even sure how well these cheapies would work. Don't get me wrong, it would pay for itself pretty quickly, but I don't want to buy one and end up deciding it's too clunky to use.

2. Get a laser printer. Yeah, I'm still using just as much paper, but the toner is supposed to last a hell of a lot longer. Still, I've heard that the lower-end home laser printers chew through toner just as fast as an ink-jet using ink. If that's true, then I would need to drop a thousand bucks before seeing a benefit!

3. Get an old PDA. I seem to remember being pretty quick on the old handwriting things these suckers had, but I might be remembering wrong. I thought PDAs were basically dinosaurs and I could get one for super cheap on Ebay. Nope, they're just as expensive as they were six years ago. If it would work, I wouldn't mind paying for one, but it rubs me the wrong way to pay a premium for ancient technology, especially if I don't even know if using one is a viable option.

So those are my ideas -

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!

Pencil-like pen, please?

ishotjr — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:08:00 -0800

Are there any pens that write like a pencil? I have a weird problem. It is much easier for me to write neatly with a mechanical pencil than a pen. It's odd, because my printing is very neat in pencil, but I have difficulty not ending up with chicken scratch using a pen. I'm in grad school and have to take a lot of notes by hand, which I do with pencil. The notes tend to smudge when they rub against the other pages in my notebook. I could switch to harder or finer lead, but 0.7 HB is optimal for the way I like to write, plus I'd rather have my notes in ink. Are there any pens out there that have a writing feel more like that of a pencil *and* don't bleed through (so I can use paper front and back)? Erasable is a plus, but certainly not a deal-breaker.

I got HP printer ink in my eye, am I okay?

stlboi — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:59:04 -0800

I got HP printer ink in my eye, am I okay? So my HP printer squirted ink into one of my eyes somehow.

Half my eye was black!

I immediately removed my contacts and washed my eye out with water followed by a lot of flushing with eye drops.

Looks like all the ink is out (dont see anymore blackness) but now my eye is red/irritated.

I got the part number on the ink cartridge and looked up the MSDS on it:

http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/globalcitizenship/environment/productdata/Countries/us/ij_cc640series_us_eng_v11.pdf

Has this ever happened to anyone before? Do you think it will cause blindness or anything serious?

Getting Ink Off a LCD

deadcrow — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 10:10:58 -0800

Ballpoint pen + LCD monitor + 5-Year-Old Artist: Any hope for safe removal (of the ink, not the child)? It seems that a small child got a hold of a ball-point pen and my brother's macbook and did some line art near the center the LCD screen. There are two black ink lines, one about 1" long and another about 3". He describes them as looking the hairs on the screen. There are no apparent cracks or dents in the screen.

My brother has done some research on removal but is nervous about advice to scrub vigorously with dish soap and warm water or to use
a paper towel (he wants to remove the ink, not scratch it so the ink is indistinguishable from the scratches). He has tried LCD cleaner with a Q-tip to no avail (but refused to scrub vigorously). Some have said that rubbing alcohol can damage the screen as can hairspray, but most people claiming success used one of those options. The ones that claimed the soap worked said they spent 3-5 minutes scrubbing.

Are there any safer options he should try? Is scrubbing and LCD screen vigorously ever a good idea?

how do I improve my pencil/ink drawing, as an intermediate artist?

invitapriore — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:06:22 -0800

How can I improve my pencil drawings from an intermediate/advanced level? Most of the resources I've found on pencil/ink drawing focus on drawing from life, which I can do fairly accurately, or introductory technique, such as cross-hatching, perspective, and basic form and lighting. I'm looking more for something that covers advanced technique. To give an example of some of the problems I'd like guidance with:

– Difficult textures/surfaces. I was drawing a scene that included a glossy photo, and I was stumped as to how to render it accurately.

– Covering large areas with a consistent tone (using graphite). I either end up with fluctuating darkness levels or there are visible lines between rows of my scribbling.

– Planning large areas of tone so that the contrast between them is appropriate. I'll render part of a face and then find that I have to make the surrounding area darker than seems appropriate because of how darkly I drew the lips, for example. This is more of an issue when I'm drawing from my head.

– Contour hatching is something I've never gotten the hang of.

Lessons are pretty much out of the picture, but I'd appreciate anything else. Thanks!

(A bonus related question: I was given Anatomy for the Artist as a gift a while ago, and I don't really know how to use it. Will it serve me best to copy from it, or just use it as a reference to check against my own figure drawings?)

Bright Ink, Dark Skin

Juliet Banana — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 09:06:24 -0800

Is it possible to get a bright, satu rated, extr emely colorful tattoo on light brown skin? It hasn't escaped my notice that the tattoos I admire are generally on Caucasians. I've heard that you should consider tattoo ink like colored cellophane; the color of your skin will shine through. I've heard tattoo artists saying that your color options become more limited as your skin gets darker. Hence, I've kind of accepted the fact that brightly colored tattoos are out of the question for me.

I'd love someone to prove me wrong, though, with photos or anecdotes or personal experiences! I'm half Mexican and half White, with skin the approximate color of peanut butter. I would like to see examples of colorful tattoos on people in a relatively similar shade range (ex: Latinos, South Asians, Native Americans, multiracial people, any light-brown people regardless of race). I know about BMEzine, but it's total information overload. If there are certain colors that would work but others that wouldn't, I'd like to know that too; this previous thread discusses white ink, for example.

If I got inked, it would almost certainly be on the upper arm or back, as pictured. I know that the bright color in photos of tattoos is sometimes because the tattoo is very fresh, and I also know that maintaining that brightness has a lot to do with limiting sun exposure, sunscreen, regular touch-ups, etc. I just want to know: is it possible for someone with my shade of skin to get a very colorful tattoo and keep it that way with a reasonable amount of effort?

I know Metafilter "doesn't do race well." This is not a cultural question about race or identity or ethnicity, it is a scientific question about how tattoo ink appears when applied to different shades of skin. In addition, I know there are issues with tattooing over scars; that's a different can of worms, kids. Your reward for keeping discourse civil is an extra bonus NSFW colorful tattoo.

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!

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!

What kind of black ink is best?

Roman Graves — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 21:32:22 -0800

So I've ordered my first fountain pen, a Lamy Safari. What kind of ink do I use? I've heard a lot of positive things about Noodler's bulletproof black, but also that it causes "nib creep" with Safaris. Is this actually much of a problem or just a minor annoyance? Also, I'll mostly be writing in a Moleskine planner (which I hear works well with Noodler's) and on whatever generic paper I buy for class notes. Any specific paper recommendations are also appreciated, as I know ink brand/paper combos make a big difference. Yes, I'm only looking for black ink.

Bonus question: what kind of drying time can I expect?

Tired of being dictated to by printers

arniec — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 10:41:29 -0800

Inkjet Printer filter: My wife and I both have HP All in One Inkjet devices, me the 3310, her the 7280. Ink is a PITA. I'm looking to upgrade anyway, what should I get? My 3310 scanner glass is dirty and almost impossible to clean, plus I need a document feeder. So I was going to get a 7280 like my wife's BUT...I believe honestly that HP is bending me over on ink. Sure, all inkjet ink is overpriced, but it seems that these are ALWAYS short on ink of one color or another. Worse, unlike old ink carts which you could run dry, these actually stop you from printing ANYTHING if the printer determines one is too low of ink. I can't even choose to print in black-only mode of one of the two shades of purple is out.

I love the HP for their photo-printing capabilities, the prints really do look like photo prints, but I think I'm being taken on this whole ink thing.

Is there any better product that can scan to OCR with document feeder, mac compatible, and NOT an ink terrorist?

Custom Stamp in Stencil Font?

warriorengineer — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 08:45:55 -0800

Where can I get a custom made 1/2" and 1" stamp (prefeably self inking) in the Stencil font?

Anyone still remember anything about the Epson Stylus 3000?

baylink — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 14:24:54 -0800

Print Filter(heh): I just bought a spandy-old Epson Stylus 3000 Big-A$$-Inkjet, and I have a couple questions about it that fairly persistent Googling failed to answer. It came with the network interface, but no booklet, and I don't know how to set it. I'm also going to want to set it up for Bulk/Continuous Ink, but Lyson appears to have stopped making a setup for that model. And finally, Epson used to have a bundled version of (I think) Birmy's Postscript 2 RIP called "StylusRIP", but I can't find any evidence that they still do, and I'm not clear whether they sold the software, or bundled it. Any graphically inclined typed got any pointers for me?

Warm (and Stained) Leatherette

yellowcandy — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 11:28:21 -0800

Faint but visible blue handprint on white leatherette couch...help me, Heloises! We bought this sofa (photo here) precisely because we knew it would be easy to clean. So far, it has been.

However, this weekend, we discovered a blue-green handprint that we suspect is either from one of our contractors or from ink transferred from sweat on a green throw pillow. Either way, we're not sure what the handprint is made of, but it appears to be permanent.

Having been an organic chemist in a previous life, I tried and failed to remove it using: a Magic Eraser, hair spray, and soap & water. I avoided acetone, as I suspected it might dissolve the sofa fabric.

What I want to know is simple: What leatherette/vinyl cleaners will remove the stain safely? I would really like to hear ONLY from people who have used the products they recommend, not generic like-dissolves-like speculation--I want to keep the sofa intact.

How can I measure toner coverage?

reeddavid — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:24:46 -0800

How can I measure ink coverage? I know my toner will yield 3,000 pages at 5% coverage, but I want to know what coverage is typical for the pages I print. (Found PC product, seeking Mac or web-based software) I'd like to be able to learn the toner coverage of a given page before I print it in order to better measure my home printing costs. My search turned up APFill for PC, but I'd like a Mac or web-based product. I'm looking for something simple and cheap.

I remain your obt svt

Countess Elena — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 15:52:22 -0800

In period dramas, I have seen characters, once finished writing a letter in longhand, blow a powder across the surface to make the ink dry faster. What was this substance? If it's an ordinary powder like flour or talc, I want to start using it. I'm having a problem with smearing ink lately at work.

Where can I find a high-quality jumbo t-shirt printer?

wmeredith — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 12:48:34 -0800

Where can I find a high-quality jumbo t-shirt printer? Preferably one that will seem rip the tags out of the blanks to be printed on. Example 1 (Scroll all the way down.)

Example 2

A question about Ink Spots. Not the musical group, the stain.

rileyray3000 — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 22:41:42 -0800

I got black ink on a birch wood bookshelf from Ikea. Help me get it out. Cheap pen. Too much heat. light colored wood. Now I have a bunch of small stains all over my nice cabinet. Worst case scenario? I'll make it into the floor end for this thing as it's one of those cube deals that can be either side. But I'd rather get it out. Any suggestions for black ink on birch wood?

How do you ink a drawing with a brush?

pantufla — Mon, 19 May 2008 21:34:06 -0800

How can I learn to ink drawings using a winsor & newton series 7 brush? I would like to learn how to ink clean, curving lines over my pencil drawings, and to have control over those lines. I've heard that the best brush to use for this is a Winsor & Newton Series 7. I've also heard that it takes lots of practice. Some of the brush masters I've been studying are Dan Clowes, Charles Burns, and the Hanukas.

I'm having a hard time generating those types of lines, or even finding information about how to create them. Can anyone offer pointers on brush inking technique? Everything from how to hold the brush to loading it with ink, different strokes to practice, etc. Thanks!

What materials should I use for labelling the spines of my books?

Flunkie — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 12:27:32 -0800

What materials should I use for labelling the spines of my books? A while back, I took the plunge into a big project that I've wanted to do for a long time: organizing my books. My plan went like this:

First, separate books by their physical height, into four groups: (1) Bigger than will fit (standing) on any of my shelves; (2) Smaller than that, but bigger than will fit on any but my largest shelves; (3) "Normal"; (4) Mass market paperback and smaller. This allows for minimal wasted shelf space.

Second, within each of those four broad categories, look up the Library of Congress call number for each book, write it on a piece of masking tape, stick it on the spine, and store the books in that order.

If I couldn't find the LCCN for a particular book, I would classify it under the LOC system myself, to the degree that I was reasonably confident, additionally marking it so that I would know the number on the book's spine was not official.

This was a fairly tedious process, so I would only do a few books at a time, and it therefore took quite a while. But, in general, I am happy with the results, and want to keep my collection this way. I am quite willing to keep tagging my new books as I obtain them

Unfortunately, by the time I was finishing up, the labels on the first books that I dealt with were already fading, some of them to the point of illegibility.

So, I want to do this again. But I want to do it in a manner such that I'll never have to do it a third time.

I don't know whether the fading was due to the ink that I used, the tape, both individually, or both in combination.

So, what should I use?

In addition to the permanency of legibility, I would also like the label to be something that, like masking tape, stays on well, but comes off easily and cleanly if you want it to, without damaging the book or leaving significant residue.

Finally, I've read some other AskMe posts about organizing bookshelves that showed up when I searched for this, and I'm already well aware that a lot of people think this is overkill and/or a waste of time. So if you were going to chime in with that, thanks, but not interested. I know exactly what I'm getting into.

New Jersey Tattoos

FunkyHelix — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:24:50 -0800

I'm looking for recommendations for tattooists in New Jersey. My husband wants a tattoo on his bicep and is looking for shop and artist recommendations. He'd like the design to be colorful and he has a general idea of what he wants done drawn out already.

Packing Pen on Plane?

gyusan — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 19:36:00 -0800

Does anyone have direct experience taking a Rotring 500 fountain pen on an airplane in post 9/11 America? If so, your advice? I am flying to a conference and would like to bring along my daily writing pen as I intend to take lots of notes but because it is a solid hunk of brass I am reluctant to chance getting it confiscated. It has always reminded me of one of those "self defense wands" and I am afraid that a tsa agent will think the same. Bonus: any general tips for taking a fountain pen on an airplane? I have heard horror stories about spurting ink and general messiness due to fluctuating air pressure. Thanks.

Brown Paper

charmston — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 03:43:42 -0800

Why do some types of paper (e.g. ski lift passes, recipts) turn brown when put through the dryer?

pen island

fish tick — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 18:07:51 -0800

Graphic artist question: can anyone tell me how the old K&E Barch-Payzant lettering pens work? Do they hold a nib of some sort, or if not, what is the function of the knurled knob?

What is the low-down on brown ink tattoos?

livinginmonrovia — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 13:55:31 -0800

I am planning an extensive tattoo and would like to have it done in brown ink. I have seen a few that look beautiful but the tattoo artist I have chosen is advising me against it as he said it will not fade out well (he says it will degrade fairly quickly and fade unevenly). I'm in a quandry because I'm not crazy about black tattoos. Does anyone have personal experience with this? I haven't been able to find much online about it. Here is an example of what I like.