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Printer Shopping tips

By Fei on March 29, 2010

By Melissa Riofrio
March 29, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO – If you’re about to go shopping for a printer, whether in person or online, keep the following tips in mind.

Set your budget: How much can you spend on a printer? $100? $200? $1000? It’s important to know your price range, as you can expect different levels of quality and features as you go up the scale.

Decide on must-have features: What do you want your printer to do? Is photo printing a must? Do you need to print on both sides of the page automatically? What about single-function versus multifunction–are there any trade-offs? For help deciding, read our discussion of your printer options. Based on what’s available in your current price range, you might find that you need to spend a little more (or possibly less) to get what you want.

Know your ink and toner costs: A printer is only as cheap as its consumables. If a specific model has caught your eye, check out its ink or toner costs to make sure that you won’t be bleeding money over the long term. We show you how easy it is to do the math for ink costs on the next page.

What to expect for your money
$40 to $80: Curb your expectations. You can get a single-function inkjet printer in this price range, but it will most likely be a very slow model with bare-bones features: slow performance, no control panel, skimpy paper handling. The inks will most likely be expensive, to compensate for the rock-bottom hardware price. Watch out for tricolor cartridges, which unite cyan, magenta, and yellow into one package, forcing you to replace all three inks when any single one runs out.

$80 to $100: Basic functionality. In the $100 range, you can buy either a single-function inkjet printer or a low-end inkjet multifunction with basic features, or you can nab an extremely basic monochrome laser printer. These models are designed for single users, and speed is not a priority. Paper handling will remain skimpy, but you might get a halfway decent control panel. The inks or toner will most likely be pricey, since the unit price is low. A few inkjet models might have separate ink cartridges for each color, or high-yield ink options, but you’ll still have to watch out for printers that use tricolor cartridges.

$150: Adequate or better. If you can afford a $150 printer, you will get a better range of features and capabilities. Among single-function inkjet printers or multifunctions, you’ll start to see more models with automatic duplexing and high-yield ink options, both of which can cut your printing costs. Monochrome laser printers remain basic at this price point, but they’re a little better than the low-end ones. Printers in this price range might have adequate speed. Some will have wireless networking capability for sharing among a very few low-volume users.

$250: Midrange inkjets and monochrome lasers. At this price point, models start to offer more functions or improved features, especially for small offices. The single-function and multifunction inkjets in this range will have much better speed and paper handling, as well as more networking features and better control panels with cool features such as touchscreens, color displays, and wide-format capability. A monochrome laser in this price range should have a 250-page input tray, making it useful in a group setting, though probably still slow.

$400: The best inkjets and bare-bones color lasers. If you have this much money to spend on a single-function or multifunction inkjet, you will enjoy a premium level of features and capabilities, including networking, a big color LCD, and innovations like Web connectivity. Speed and print quality will be consistently good, and ink costs should be among the cheapest, with high-yield inks offering impressive savings in some cases. As for laser models, you can get a reasonably fast, networkable monochrome printer or a bare-bones color printer, but the toner costs will probably be high.

$500: Basic color lasers and better monochrome lasers. Graduate to the $500 range, and the monochrome lasers improve a lot, as do the low-end color lasers. Speed and photo quality will still be limited, but you will at least get 250-sheet input trays, networkability, and good speed. Toner costs might still be on the pricey side.

$700 to $800: The sweet spot for lasers. Laser and LED models in this price range are designed for workgroups, with speed and paper handling to match. Solid-ink color printers in this range are another good option. At this level and higher, you’re looking at specs such as installed and maximum RAM (to see how many jobs a printer can juggle), standard and optional paper trays (to determine how much the printer can grow to fit your needs), and monthly duty cycle (to get an idea of durability). Toner costs should be reasonable to cheap, possibly with high-yield options.

$1000 or more: First class all the way. If you can afford to spend this much money on a printer, you expect (and deserve) the best. The majority of printers in this price range, whether laser, LED, or solid-ink, offer fast performance, fine print quality, and a wide array of standard and optional features. Toner costs can be amazingly low, thanks to higher-capacity cartridges. Unless you’re a business with high-volume printing needs, you won’t need to consider a model at this level.

Ink and toner costs
The money you pay for any printer doesn’t stop with the hardware purchase; you also have to consider the ongoing costs for replacing the ink or toner supplies. For many inkjet printers, in particular, the cost of replacement cartridges can quickly outstrip the initial cost of the printer. Don’t be tempted by a printer’s features without also checking on its cost of consumables. Here’s how we calculate the cost for our printer reviews.

1) A little shopping: We get the current price of each cartridge from the printer vendor’s own Website. If the vendor doesn’t sell the cartridges directly, we average the prices collected from three or more major online retailers.

2) A little research: All inkjet printer vendors publish yield data for their ink cartridges–how many pages a cartridge can print before it runs dry. Most vendors’ yields are based on an industry-standard measuring tool, a specific suite of documents printed at specific settings so that the results are comparable among different models. Finding the yields can sometimes require a bit of digging; feel free to explore, and don’t hesitate to bug the vendor for guidance if you can’t find what you’re looking for easily.

3) A little math: For each color, we divide the price of the cartridge by the page yield to get the cost per color per page. If a printer offers high-yield cartridges as well as standard-size ones, we gather the prices for both kinds of cartridges.

The resulting costs per color per page will give you an idea of how much the printer will cost you in ink or toner. It’s important to note that your mileage may vary depending on what you actually print on a day-to-day basis, and how much you print.

One more tip: Check the printer’s “what’s in the box” information to see whether you’re getting full-size ink or toner cartridges, or lower-capacity, starter-size supplies. It isn’t unusual for lower-end laser or LED printers to come with starter cartridges; some snapshot printers give you just a few shots’ worth of ink, forcing you to buy a full set right away. Avoiding this trick is getting harder, but at least you’ll be aware of it.

Three tips to avoid the Windows black screen of death

By Jon on December 3, 2009

By Tony Bradley
December 3, 2009

It doesn’t take much to ignite FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) against Microsoft– especially with news of a critical flaw affecting Windows 7. News that a Microsoft update is causing “millions” of PC’s to experience a “black screen of death” is both exaggerated and wrong. Apparently, its much ado about nothing.

Originally reported by security firm Prevx, the black screen of death issue was believed to have been caused by updates issued by Microsoft on the November Patch Tuesday. The combination of a headline like “Black Screen woes could affect millions on Windows 7, Vista and XP” and the fact that Prevx didn’t bother to contact Microsoft about the issue suggest that Prevx was primarily interested in sensational publicity for itself.

Microsoft investigated the issue and determined that its patches are not to blame. Prevx followed up with a post apologizing to Microsoft for the inconvenience, and admitting that the root cause that triggers the black screen of death is, in fact, not related to Microsoft’s patches. The prevailing theory now is that it is related to a malware infection, most likely something from the Daonol family of Trojans.

All FUD aside, there does seem to be an actual black screen of death issue, it just isn’t impacting “millions” of Windows 7, Vista, and XP systems. More like thousands. Maybe hundreds. Here are three tips to help ensure your Windows PC doesn’t become one of the afflicted:

1.Keep It Updated. I have a secret for you–most malware exploits known vulnerabilities for which patches already exist. Sure, there are zero-day vulnerabilities as well, but one of the best defenses against malware of all kinds is to simply ensure that your operating system and the applications you use have all of the latest patches applied.
2.Protect Against Malware. If its true that the black screen of death is caused by some variant of the Daonol family of Trojans, then it makes sense that anti-malware software could protect your PC from it.
There is a vast array of security products for Windows PC’s–both free and commercial. Microsoft offers its anti-malware security software, Microsoft Security Essentials, for free.
3.Run the Fix. While Prevx was mistaken about the Microsoft updates being guilty for causing the black screen of death, it still has a pretty solid reputation as a security vendor and its research into the root cause that triggers the issue seems to be accurate.

Prevx has stated that its fix does not work in all cases, but running the fix has a fair chance of fixing the issues within Windows that have been determined to trigger the black screen of death. Download the Prevx fix and give it a shot.

If you are one of the “millions” already struck down by the black screen of death, downloading and running the Prevx fix can be problematic. Prevx has already thought of that and has provided step-by-step instructions for how to download and run the fix from an affected system.

Turn your flashlight into a digital paintbrush

By Jon on August 5, 2009

By Dave Johnson

We don’t usually often think of it this way, but photography is really about drawing pictures with light–which means that you can literally draw your own pictures by adding light to a photo in a controlled way. Many years ago, before digital photography, I used to experiment with this sort of photo using long exposures and a flashlight. In the past, I’ve shown you how to mimic that effect digitally (“Add Sci-Fi Special Effects“). This week, I thought it would be fun to do it the old-fashioned way and actually “paint” with a flashlight.

Get Set Up

Painting with light is more art than science: You can get great results with almost any kind of camera, and experimentation is key. Unlike the kind of experimentation I remember from my college physics class, though, this is actually fun.

To get started, you’ll want a digital camera that has some sort of long exposure mode. Ideally, you’ll be able to set the shutter speed to 8 or 16 seconds. I’ve found that 8 seconds is barely time to do anything, so honestly, you’ll get more satisfying results if your camera has a 16- or even 30-second exposure setting.

You’ll also need to set the camera on a stable surface. Since you can’t really hold it still for 16 seconds, a tripod is ideal. You could also just set it on a desk, table, chair, or any other surface that isn’t going to move around during the exposure.

And finally, you’ll need some light sources. You should gather one or more flashlights, and, if possible, an external flash unit. Don’t mount the flash on the camera–you’ll want to hold it and trigger it manually.

Taking the Shot

Now that you have your supplies ready, wait for nightfall and position your camera for a photo. Your surroundings should be as dark as possible, such as in a room with the lights turned off. or outdoors, away from street lights. Press the shutter release to start your long exposure, and then use a flashlight to “inject” light directly into the scene.

One way to use your flashlight is to mimic a sci-fi “phaser” effect, like this old photo from my film days. I achieved this shot of my buddy Paul “phasering” Bob by positioning them in total darkness, starting the camera exposure, and illuminating them with my handheld flash. Then I carefully moved a flashlight in a straight line from Paul to Bob. For a finishing touch, I removed Bob from the scene and fired the flash again to achieve the impression that he was disintegrating.

For a modern update with a digital camera, here are some shots I took just this week with my daughter, who hasn’t been this excited to be photographed since the time we tried our hands at popping water balloons at high shutter speed. Here she is shooting beams of light from her hands.

And this one shows the kind of cool, unpredictable light trails you get as a result of random variations in the way you hold the flashlight.

Controlling the Light

Since this technique relies on you moving a flashlight around in the dark, clearly it’s not possible to get perfect results every time–that’s why I say you need to experiment. You can stack the deck in your favor if you remember to choose your camera settings wisely.

The shutter needs to be open for a long time, so that means the only aspect of your camera you really have control over is the aperture. If you use a small aperture (which equates to a large number, like f/18), the effect of the light will be diminished. A large aperture (small number, like f/4) will admit a lot more light, and that means any ambient light will illuminate the entire scene. But it also means the flashlight will appear brighter, and you might pick up ghost images of the person moving around with the flashlight. Start with an intermediate aperture, like f/8, and vary it to see how different values affect your photos.

Pointing the Flashlight

Finally, how you point your flashlight can give you dramatically different effects. I recommended that you point the flashlight directly into the camera lens, because that will give you the most immediate and dramatic result. But as an alternative, try shining the flashlight at objects in the scene instead. In a perfectly dark room, for example, you can experiment with selectively illuminating subjects. Good luck, and send me some of your best results.