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Wednesday, July 05, 2006 |
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Expand Your Printer's Allowable Printing Area
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Printing the "unprintable"... (no, not forbidden text ;-)
Most printers have an "unprintable" border area for each page printed. Check your printer's manual for its minimum settings and make sure they match the settings listed in Windows under "Unprintable Area."
Click Start > Settings > Printers to open the printer's dialog box. Select your printer, choose File/Properties, then click the Paper tab. If the settings are too high, lower them to increase the printable area. ** Don't lower them past what your printer manual calls for. Experiment to get the printable area you want.
source: http://www.maxpatchink.com
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posted by ^%&^
@ 8:26 AM
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Power Down Properly To Prevent Problems
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"Should I turn my printer off when not in use or just leave it on?"
Short answer: turn your printer off after using. Naturally, if you're going to be printing during the day (on and off) you don't need to do this until you are finished for the day.
There are two issues here. One is electricity usage and the other, drying of the print head on the cartridge (for HP/Lexmark type) and on the Epson printers with built-in print heads.
Now days, most printers, inkjet and laser, are Energy Star complaint and use *very* little electricity. Even the older printers use relatively small amounts. So in my opinion, from an electrical usage point, it's not a big factor in my decision to turn our printers off. It is an added savings though. ;)
Turning your printer off when not in use can, and does, help prevent drying of ink in the print nozzles. With most all ink jet printers there is a 'capping' mechanism that seals the print head from outside air when it's turned off.
** Remember, turn off your printer using it's on/off power switch. This causes the capping mechanism to fully engage. Do not use a power strip to turn the printer off.
The newer Canon printers can be configured (via their software utility) so that they go into a type of 'hibernation' mode using either the 'Auto Power' or 'Quiet Mode' found in your printer utility. I like this feature of the Canon printers. We do prefer and run mostly Canon printers in our office. They are very cost effective to 'feed' too!
Some of the newer model Epson printers are supposed to do an automatic 'capping' of the print head after a certain amount of inactivity. I suppose Epson got tired of replacing printers because of clogged print heads. I don't leave that to chance so I manually turn them off. ;o)
source: http://www.maxpatchink.com
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| posted by ^%&^
@ 8:26 AM
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Keep Your Printer's Nose, Er, Nozzles Clean! :-)
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Faint output, unprinted lines running across the page, or simply no visible printing at all indicates clogged nozzles. Many inkjet printers come with a nozzle-clearing function that draws ink through the nozzles to unclog them. Use this feature regularly, especially if your printer tends to sit unused for weeks at a time. How to run your printer's 'cleaning' procedure is found in your printer manual.
Tip if you're using Windows98: To access your printer's software, double-click on the My Computer icon on your computer's desktop. When the screen comes up, double-click on the printer's folder. Next, place your mouse cursor over your installed printer's icon and right-click, selecting "Properties" from the drop-down list, and bam, there's your printer utility. All sorts of settings can be found there, including the portion for cleaning your cartridges!
For cartridges with built-in print heads like HP and Lexmark:
If you know you've got ink and suspect a clog and you've tried the printer's cleaning routine described above...
It's most likely that the nozzles (where the ink comes out) are just clogged. It's easy to see if that's the problem. The following works most of the time to get your ink flowing:
Draw up about 1/2-3/4 cup hot tap water (distilled or bottled is better) and put in a small bowl. Put JUST the nozzles of the cartridge into the water and hold it there for 3-4 minutes (sometimes longer). You should see the ink start to 'bleed' out into the water... don't worry, it won't all leak out. You should see a good strong stream of black ink (or all three colors if trying to unclog a color cartridge). This "bleeding" helps to unclog the nozzles. When a good flow of the inks in the water is visible, remove the cartridge and "gently" dab the nozzles on a folded paper towel to dry.
Next, use a cotton swab with alcohol to gently clean the metal (copper-colored) contact plate on the cartridge AND the contacts on the printer where the cartridge fits. Place the cartridge back in the printer and run the cleaning cycle, then print a test page or two to get your desired print quality.
Note: you may have to repeat the above a time or two to get it completely unclogged and the ink flowing again.
Another Note: It is important never to let your cartridge sit out of your printer, as it takes only a short time for the nozzles and the internal sponge to dry out! If you must have your cartridge out of the printer, place a slightly moist paper towel along with your cartridge into a plastic baggie and seal it tightly... this should prevent drying.
source: http://www.maxpatchink.com
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| posted by ^%&^
@ 8:23 AM
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