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The ideal inkjet printer
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? |
#2
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On 28-Apr-2005, "anon" wrote: 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. Bigger ink tanks mean more inertia, it would however be useful to be able to top up without removing the cartridge, less risk of airlocks. 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. Gravity operates continuously, the aim is to get a syphon action where fresh ink is drawn in to replace discharged ink. 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. They aim to sell printers, and ink, for what the market will pay, thereby optimising the bottom line. Retail price does not reflect cost to produce. If you produce 10 million printers, for a world wide market, using automation and cheap labour, the cost per unit is only a small fraction of the retail price. If printers had cheap, easily replaceable, parts plus a long life we wouldn't have to keep buying them (to add to landfill). Cartridges, and the dyes for formulating inks, come cheap in industrial quantities, and cartridge manufacturing is automated, down to dropping the finished product into its box. |
#3
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The Canon printers pretty much have all of your suggestions.
Gary Eickmeier |
#4
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anon wrote: 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. If they did they would determine that most of the clogs are the result of 3rd party ink that is not up to snuff and it is difficult to find the very few that are. But they already know this. And they already know that they are way over priced when it come to ink. 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. Now that is a great idea. Bulk OEM and Goodbye whores. 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. And the carts should be cheaper per ml. 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. Canon and some HP printers already have that/ The problem is it costs too much. 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. What are the sizes in inches for A2,3,4? 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? |
#5
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"measekite" wrote in message
... anon wrote: 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. If they did they would determine that most of the clogs are the result of 3rd party ink that is not up to snuff and it is difficult to find the very few that are. But they already know this. And they already know that they are way over priced when it come to ink. 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. Now that is a great idea. Bulk OEM and Goodbye whores. 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. And the carts should be cheaper per ml. 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 head. Canon and some HP printers already have that/ The problem is it costs too much. 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 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 out an A2 or A3 page that often. What are the sizes in inches for A2,3,4? Inches what are those, don't you know the whole world's metric? But seriously: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_size 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? -- Derek |
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Although my choice is my Canon i960 for its beautiful photo prints and
excellent aftermarket refill inks and carts, your criteria pretty heavily tilted toward the Canon printer line. What would have tipped the responses toward Epson would have been greater image permenance and the primary choice of the graphic artist and professional photographer community. If a print head build into the cartridge was a criteria (not a bad idea as all inkjets have the potential to clog) HP would have had a shot at the best choice. Interesting thread. Canon would win hands down if the inks were more permenant and a replacement print head was priced as a consumable. And my Toyota Camry would be the ideal car if it handled like my Porsche and got 100 miles to the gallon! What was the old homily - If wishes were horses, beggers would ride. I don't mean to be cynical, but the fact is that the inkjet technology is pretty amazing, but like everything else in the world, it isn't perfect. "anon" wrote in message ... 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 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 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 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? |
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Burt wrote: Although my choice is my Canon i960 for its beautiful photo prints and excellent aftermarket refill inks and carts, your criteria pretty heavily tilted toward the Canon printer line. What would have tipped the responses toward Epson would have been greater image permenance and the primary choice of the graphic artist and professional photographer community. Usually in favor of their pigmented printers like the R800/1800. The majority of the Epsons use dye based inks like the Canon. If a print head build into the cartridge was a criteria (not a bad idea as all inkjets have the potential to clog) HP would have had a shot at the best choice. Interesting thread. Canon would win hands down if the inks were more permenant and a replacement print head was priced as a consumable. And my Toyota Camry would be the ideal car if it handled like my Porsche and got 100 miles to the gallon! What was the old homily - If wishes were horses, beggers would ride. I don't mean to be cynical, but the fact is that the inkjet technology is pretty amazing, but like everything else in the world, it isn't perfect. "anon" wrote in message ... 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 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 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 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? |
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