Posts Tagged ‘Inkjet printer’

With recent stories of decline from other manufacturers, such as our recent story of Dell No Longer Making Inkjet Printers, HP continues to show strong sales and innovation in its printer lineup. While it may be true that inkjet printer sales are on the decline, the market for laser printers is still strong. HP’s laser printers are seeing such low prices in recent months that they are becoming affordable enough for busy home and small office users to take the plunge.

Monochrome Laser Models

The HP LaserJet 1606dn

HP’s monochrome laser models are a staple of the modern office environment, but affordable models are starting to make their way into homes and small offices as well. Consider the company’s least expensive model, the HP LaserJet Pro 1606dn. This unit includes both networking and duplexing with sharp laser quality, but its price is more in line with that of a typical inkjet model. Of course, the savings on HP 1606dn toner cartridges will make it a more cost-effective solution in the long term. Continue reading “Affordable HP Laser Printers for the Home and Small Office” »

Attrib:Flickr/Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

We all like to express our individuality through the clothes we wear, and one of the quickest and least expensive ways to create unique and original clothing is using an ordinary inkjet printer. The techniques we are about to discuss work brilliantly for making personalized t-shirts, but there’s no reason that you can’t apply the same ideas to decorating other items of clothing.

There are a couple of techniques that are frequently used to print designs onto fabric: the freezer paper method, and using transfer paper. We’ve found that the latter method is more reliable and results in images that last longer, so that’s what we’re going to focus on here, but we’ll give a brief explanation of the freezer paper printing method for those of you who want to try it out.

Whichever method you choose, you’re going to need a design. You can use any graphics applications you like to create the design. If you haven’t got the appropriate software, take a look at this list of great online art applications to get you started.

Continue reading “Printing on Fabric” »

The Internet is full of great resources for people who love to create and print beautiful things. This week we’ve collated the best design and printing resources of recent weeks for your enjoyment. Have fun!

Continue reading “The Monthly Miscellany: Printing & Design Roundup – Best of September 2012” »

The basic principles that underlie inkjet printing are easy to understand. A series of dots comprised of inks are squirted through a printer head at a substrate — most commonly paper. The exact mechanism by which this is achieved is quite complicated, but the idea of creating images by building up patterns of dots on a surface has been around for a long time, and was frequently used by artists. This week we’re going to take a look at three artistic techniques that artists have used to create paintings and printed works in a manner analogous to the inkjet printing process.

Pointillism

Most painters create images by mixing paints on a pallette until they’ve got the right color, and then applying it to their canvas with a brush in long strokes. Pointillists instead use small drops of pure colour added in a precise arrangement and proportions, which, when viewed from a distance, merge into a block of color. This is very much similar to how inkjet printing builds an image. Pointillism was first used by French post-Impressionist artist Georges Seurat in the latter half of the 19th century, and has been employed by various painters since, including Van Gogh. Modern painters like Chuck Close use the pointillist technique to achieve photorealistic results for their works.

Continue reading “Art before Inkjet” »