Carbon Chemist

Tag: printers

  • How to Print Something in 2024

    How to Print Something in 2024

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    Whatever printer you buy, make sure you’re happy with its wireless-printing capabilities. Modern printers typically allow you to print from any device on your home Wi-Fi network—from both computers and mobile devices—eliminating the old-school need to hook a cable up to a PC. On some printers, leaving the device unused for a long time can affect the ink and clog up the works; if you think you won’t be using the printer more than a few times a year, it might be more economical (and less frustrating) to outsource your printing instead.

    Printing on Demand (in Person)

    If you don’t have or want a printer, but you need something printed immediately, your best option, other than asking a friend or family member to do it for you, may be to visit a nearby print shop or your local library.

    FedEX Office can copy or print documents on a variety of papers, in color or black-and-white, and the employees working there can even give you some design help. For basic documents, you might be paying about 21 cents per page. You can bring your document to a FedEX Office store on a USB drive to plug into a copier device, or email the document to FedEx and have them print it for you. Staples, UPS Stores, and Office Depot offer similar printing services.

    Of course, other local print shops offer customized service as well. You might also find print-for-a-fee services at your supermarket’s business center.

    For photos, you’ve likely seen printing kiosks at retailers like CVS or Walmart. You can usually connect your mobile devices to the kiosk, plug in a USB drive, or upload photos through an app. If you’re using an app or the photo service’s website, you can upload your images at home, pay for your prints, and pick them up later when they’re ready.

    Many people are surprised to learn they can print for free (within certain limits) at their local library. My nearby public library charges 10 cents a page for black-and-white printing and 50 cents a page for color, but gives patrons $5 of their first prints for free. It’s hard to beat that deal.

    If you’re traveling, your hotel is likely to offer free printing in its business center—helpful if you need to get a last-minute boarding pass on paper or have other travel-related print needs.

    Printing on Demand (Not in Person)

    If you can wait a few days or longer, you can shop around for the best deal from a variety of online printing services. Photo printing services like Printique and Snapfish have evolved quite a bit and are great for projects like photo books or custom gifts like personalized calendars or holiday photo cards.

    VistaPrint, CatPrint and GotPrint are among the services that offer a wide range of printing jobs, from documents to business cards to T-shirts to wedding invitations.

    We may be moving to a cashless, all-digital society, but printing is still a requirement for some tasks. Thankfully, these days that doesn’t automatically mean you have to own or maintain a printer of your own.

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  • 8 Best Online Photo Printing Services (2024): Tips, Print Quality, and More

    8 Best Online Photo Printing Services (2024): Tips, Print Quality, and More

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    Starting at $13 per month

    Best for Printing Business Card and Postcards

    I covered SXSW for WIRED way back in 2006 and one of the strange things I remember is that everyone I met was handing out these clever little half-size business cards that came from a company named Moo. Moo still offers those cards ($21 for 100 of them), but it has also grown into a full-service print shop that can do anything from business cards to custom postcards to water bottles. Moo would not be my top pick for photographs, as that’s not really its specialty, but for artwork, invitations, postcards, flyers, and just about everything else, I’ve been impressed.

    I printed some postcards with some custom designs (including photographs and some of my kid’s artwork) and was impressed with the accuracy of the colors. All the paper I’ve tried has been high quality and the color matching is probably the best of all the services I’ve tried. You can upload your own designs for most things or use Moo’s templates, which offer some customization options. That would be my only real criticism—Moo’s online tools don’t offer quite as many customization options as I’d like. Fortunately, it’s easy to do your own work in free software like GIMP and then upload your files as PDFs or JPGs.

    Starting at $21 for business cards and $23 for postcards

    Printing Services to Avoid

    Amazon’s Photo Printing: This service produced the worst images—not just out of this particular test, but the worst prints I’ve ever seen. The best I can say about it is that it’s fast. I had my prints in less than 24 hours. The problem is, of the 25 prints I ordered, eight of them had printing errors. Convinced that a 30 percent failure rate must be some kind of fluke, I fired off another round of 25 (different) images, and this time seven of them were misprinted. That’s a kind of progress, I suppose, but not one I would recommend. I didn’t bother trying again, and I suggest you avoid Amazon’s photo printing service.

    Walmart/Target/CVS/Walgreens: Technically, 1-hour photo kiosks didn’t die. They wormed their way inside pharmacy chains. There’s nothing wrong with these services. They’re convenient, and this is still the fastest way to get your images printed as uploaded jobs generally process within a few hours. But the results vary tremendously from one store to the next. Just like the 1-hour services of old, the quality of prints you get depends on what shape the machine is in and how skilled the technician working that day happens to be. You might be able to get good prints at your local store, and it might be worth checking out if you’re not happy with other options, but for most people, this option is very hit or miss.

    Costco: Costco used to have in-house photo printing and it was surprisingly good for the price. These days though the company outsources its photo printing to Shutterfly. If you’re a member and you can get a discount or it’s convenient for you then by all means, go for it. Just know that you could get the same results using Shutterfly directly.

    What to Look For In A Printer

    If none of these services quite fit the bill, or if you prefer to use a local service, here’s a few things to keep mind when choosing. First of all, regrettably, these days your local shop may well be sending their print work off to somewhere like Nations, so ask where they print before you dive in (not that there’s anything wrong with that, but you’ll likely end up paying a middle man fee for nothing). Here are some other things to ask about.

    • Photo Paper: Paper quality varies tremendously, but the quality prints in our testing have been done on Kodak Endura and Fujifilm papers. Reputable printers will tell you which paper they use so ask and if it isn’t from a name your recognize, avoid it.
    • Paper Type: Do you want glossy prints? Luster? Matte? Metallic? Fuji’s Deep Matte? There’s no right answer here, but you ultimately have to pick one. This is one of the reasons I love Printique, you can order a set of sample prints in most of the finishes the service offers. Check to see if the printer you’re interested in offers something similar (and if you’re curious about a specific service, drop a link in the comments below and I will test it).
    • Enlargements: How big can you print? This will depend on where your images come from, but a good rule of thumb for those shooting mostly on phones is don’t go over 8 x 10. Files from any DSLR or point-and-shoot camera made in that last decade can likely go to 11 x 14 without issue, possibly even 16 x 20. See the next section for some tips on how to get the best prints from your images.

    How to Get Better Prints

    We used a mix of images that represented a good cross-section of the kinds of photos most of us have. That includes green forests, blue seascapes, browns and grays in city shots, portraits, macro images, close-ups, images with strong bokeh, stacked images with long depth of field, and more.

    We didn’t limit testing to good images either. We tested plenty of blurry images, photos that were overexposed and washed out, and ones where details might be lost to shadow. In other words, images like most of us have on our phones and in our cameras. Some images came from RAW files we edited in desktop software, others were sent straight from our phones, and we also pulled from social media posts.

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  • HP Wants to Rent You a Printer That It’ll Monitor at All Times

    HP Wants to Rent You a Printer That It’ll Monitor at All Times

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    HP launched a subscription service Thursday that rents people a printer, allots them a specific amount of printed pages, and sends them ink for a monthly fee. HP is framing its service as a way to simplify printing for families and small businesses, but the deal also comes with monitoring and a years-long commitment.

    Prices range from $6.99 per month for a plan that includes an HP Envy printer (the current model is the 6020e) and 20 printed pages. The priciest plan includes an HP OfficeJet Pro rental and 700 printed pages for $35.99 per month.

    HP says it will provide subscribers with ink deliveries when they’re running low and 24/7 support via phone or chat (although it’s dubious how much you want to rely on HP support). Support doesn’t include on- or offsite repairs or part replacements. The subscription’s terms of service (TOS) note that the service doesn’t cover damage or failure caused by, unsurprisingly, “use of non-HP media supplies and other products” or if you use your printer more than what your plan calls for.

    HP Is Watching

    HP calls this an All-In-Plan; if you subscribe, the tech company will be all in on your printing activities.

    One of the most perturbing aspects of the subscription plan is that it requires subscribers to keep their printers connected to the internet. In general, some users avoid connecting their printer to the internet because it’s the type of device that functions fine without web access.

    A web connection can also concern users about security or HP-issued firmware updates that make printers stop functioning with non-HP ink.

    But HP enforces an internet connection by having its TOS also state that HP may disrupt the service—and continue to charge you for it—if your printer is not online.

    HP says it enforces a constant connection so that the company can monitor things that make sense for the subscription, like ink cartridge statuses, page count, and “to prevent unauthorized use of Your account.” However, HP will also remotely monitor the type of documents (for example, a PDF or JPEG) printed, the devices and software used to initiate the print job, “peripheral devices,” and any other “metrics” that HP thinks are related to the subscription and decides to add to its remote monitoring.

    The All-In Plan privacy policy also says that HP may “transfer information about you to advertising partners” so that they can “recognize your devices,” perform targeted advertising, and, potentially, “combine information about you with information from other companies in data sharing cooperatives” that HP participates in. The policy says that users can opt out of sharing personal data.

    The All-In-Plan TOS reads:

    Subject to the terms of this Agreement, You hereby grant to HP a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free right to use, copy, store, transmit, modify, create derivative works of and display Your non-personal data for its business purposes.

    Two-Year Commitment

    In January, HP CEO Enrique Lores declared that HP’s “long-term objective is to make printing a subscription.” The All-In-Plan is HP’s latest attempt at that goal, hoping people believe that the subscription service will simplify things for themselves. And by including high cancellation fees, HP is looking to lock subscribers in for two years.

    HP will charge subscribers who cancel their subscription before its end date up to $270 plus taxes (the amount decreases to as little as $60, depending on the printer rented and the length of the subscription). After two years, users won’t see a cancellation fee if they return the rental printer and ink cartridges within 10 days after canceling their subscription. With these tactics, HP is creating the same type of subscription reliance that has made companies like phone carriers rich while limiting customer options.

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