Dot matrix printers.
-
Does anyone remember them? I know inkjet and laser printers largely killed them off but it irks me how much you pay for printer cartridges. I have a Kodak ESP printer. I bought a pack of black and colour cartridges about two months ago. I've probably printed about 40pp in black and maybe 20pp in colour, yet the printer tells me I have about 20% colour ink remaining. Clearly the printer is killing my cartridge so it can force me to buy another one: thanks a lot Kodak. What makes me even more annoying is that the printer driver's software will not honour my request to print using the black cartridge only; convenient, huh? I wish I could find a decent dot matrix printer and ribbons. What I liked about them was the almost therapeutic sound of the printhead slowly working its way to and fro. I also liked them because you could run a ribbon until it was almost bone dry and in danger of shredding and a cheap ribbon gave 100s of pages before you (the owner) felt it was the right time to replace the ribbon. I never objected to getting slightly inky fingers. I also remember those little tufts of printer fluff that gathered in corners. And if the paper wrecked when it slipped off the grip wheels you could manually advance it and carry on. By Jove; those were the days. Edit: I see that you can still buy them. It seems nostalgia is alive and well. :)
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68). "I don't need to shoot my enemies, I don't have any." - Me (2012).
PHS241 wrote:
Clearly the printer is killing my cartridge so it can force me to buy another one: thanks a lot Kodak
First, a confession: I work for Eastman Kodak Company; my division makes commercial ink-jet printers. The business model in the printer industry is now based on the customer paying for usage rather than hardware. The printer mechanism is sold at or even below cost. Manufacturers make money by selling consumables. In the consumer market, the primary consumable is ink or toner. Competition is fierce, and cartridge prices are confined to a relatively narrow range. 40 pages of black and 20 pages of color is reasonable for a consumer ink-jet printer. I typically get less than that from my HP. Printers differ in how they use ink based on the type of printing you do and the type of paper. It's up to you to set those preferences each time you print in order to get the results you want. If you leave the driver set for photo paper, for example, you're going to use more ink than necessary. Setting 'draft' mode can help you economize on ink usage for day-to-day printing.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
Eddy Vluggen wrote:
still got a ringing in my ear
I have too, except mine's caused by tinnitus. I wonder if it too was a result of going to Dot Matrix concerts. ;)
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68). "I don't need to shoot my enemies, I don't have any." - Me (2012).
-
Does anyone remember them? I know inkjet and laser printers largely killed them off but it irks me how much you pay for printer cartridges. I have a Kodak ESP printer. I bought a pack of black and colour cartridges about two months ago. I've probably printed about 40pp in black and maybe 20pp in colour, yet the printer tells me I have about 20% colour ink remaining. Clearly the printer is killing my cartridge so it can force me to buy another one: thanks a lot Kodak. What makes me even more annoying is that the printer driver's software will not honour my request to print using the black cartridge only; convenient, huh? I wish I could find a decent dot matrix printer and ribbons. What I liked about them was the almost therapeutic sound of the printhead slowly working its way to and fro. I also liked them because you could run a ribbon until it was almost bone dry and in danger of shredding and a cheap ribbon gave 100s of pages before you (the owner) felt it was the right time to replace the ribbon. I never objected to getting slightly inky fingers. I also remember those little tufts of printer fluff that gathered in corners. And if the paper wrecked when it slipped off the grip wheels you could manually advance it and carry on. By Jove; those were the days. Edit: I see that you can still buy them. It seems nostalgia is alive and well. :)
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68). "I don't need to shoot my enemies, I don't have any." - Me (2012).
I buy my ink by the 500ml bottle, and inject it into the cartriges. If you have a 3 in 1, then break one open to see where the colours go. Drill a 1 mm hole for each colour and work away (with care). The black will take 15 - 20 mil, but no more than 10 in the colour bays.
Ger
-
PHS241 wrote:
Clearly the printer is killing my cartridge so it can force me to buy another one: thanks a lot Kodak
First, a confession: I work for Eastman Kodak Company; my division makes commercial ink-jet printers. The business model in the printer industry is now based on the customer paying for usage rather than hardware. The printer mechanism is sold at or even below cost. Manufacturers make money by selling consumables. In the consumer market, the primary consumable is ink or toner. Competition is fierce, and cartridge prices are confined to a relatively narrow range. 40 pages of black and 20 pages of color is reasonable for a consumer ink-jet printer. I typically get less than that from my HP. Printers differ in how they use ink based on the type of printing you do and the type of paper. It's up to you to set those preferences each time you print in order to get the results you want. If you leave the driver set for photo paper, for example, you're going to use more ink than necessary. Setting 'draft' mode can help you economize on ink usage for day-to-day printing.
Software Zen:
delete this;Gary, yup, the printers are sold way below cost and the so-called cheap cartridges and long-term use from them was one of the reasons I fell for the Kodak ESP marketing trick. :) I always print in draft mode and my colour prints are nothing more complex than you see on average websites, although skin tones look a little washed out (wink, wink), something you can mention to your boss. :-D I'm probably over estimating my colour printing usage and I think my colour cartridges usually expire because I don't use them. I think that was the case with the HP ones? You could maybe confirm that for me being a Kodak man yourself. I've tried using generic cartridges from Cartridge World (in the UK) but I find they're not as economical as they claim they are. I've never had problems with generics "bleeding" through the cartridge or on the paper so perhaps the quality is okay? I also read or heard somewhere (crime documentary) that colour printers deposit droplets of yellow ink on the paper which when examined identify the model of printer and serial number which is useful to police and other agencies when examining printed documents. Is that the case? Perhaps I heard it on Paranoia TV one evening but I can't be sure as I think was being observed.
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68). "I don't need to shoot my enemies, I don't have any." - Me (2012).
-
I buy my ink by the 500ml bottle, and inject it into the cartriges. If you have a 3 in 1, then break one open to see where the colours go. Drill a 1 mm hole for each colour and work away (with care). The black will take 15 - 20 mil, but no more than 10 in the colour bays.
Ger
Sounds like an innovative approach! But where do you buy such large bottles of ink?
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68). "I don't need to shoot my enemies, I don't have any." - Me (2012).
-
Gary, yup, the printers are sold way below cost and the so-called cheap cartridges and long-term use from them was one of the reasons I fell for the Kodak ESP marketing trick. :) I always print in draft mode and my colour prints are nothing more complex than you see on average websites, although skin tones look a little washed out (wink, wink), something you can mention to your boss. :-D I'm probably over estimating my colour printing usage and I think my colour cartridges usually expire because I don't use them. I think that was the case with the HP ones? You could maybe confirm that for me being a Kodak man yourself. I've tried using generic cartridges from Cartridge World (in the UK) but I find they're not as economical as they claim they are. I've never had problems with generics "bleeding" through the cartridge or on the paper so perhaps the quality is okay? I also read or heard somewhere (crime documentary) that colour printers deposit droplets of yellow ink on the paper which when examined identify the model of printer and serial number which is useful to police and other agencies when examining printed documents. Is that the case? Perhaps I heard it on Paranoia TV one evening but I can't be sure as I think was being observed.
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68). "I don't need to shoot my enemies, I don't have any." - Me (2012).
-
Gary, yup, the printers are sold way below cost and the so-called cheap cartridges and long-term use from them was one of the reasons I fell for the Kodak ESP marketing trick. :) I always print in draft mode and my colour prints are nothing more complex than you see on average websites, although skin tones look a little washed out (wink, wink), something you can mention to your boss. :-D I'm probably over estimating my colour printing usage and I think my colour cartridges usually expire because I don't use them. I think that was the case with the HP ones? You could maybe confirm that for me being a Kodak man yourself. I've tried using generic cartridges from Cartridge World (in the UK) but I find they're not as economical as they claim they are. I've never had problems with generics "bleeding" through the cartridge or on the paper so perhaps the quality is okay? I also read or heard somewhere (crime documentary) that colour printers deposit droplets of yellow ink on the paper which when examined identify the model of printer and serial number which is useful to police and other agencies when examining printed documents. Is that the case? Perhaps I heard it on Paranoia TV one evening but I can't be sure as I think was being observed.
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68). "I don't need to shoot my enemies, I don't have any." - Me (2012).
PHS241 wrote:
the Kodak ESP marketing trick
It's not a marketing trick when the entire industry does it :rolleyes:.
PHS241 wrote:
I think my colour cartridges usually expire because I don't use them
I could see an ink cartridge having an expiration date from the time you install it. Ink-jet performance and reliability are highly dependent on the chemical properties of the ink, concentration in this case. As time goes on and the water base of the ink evaporates, the concentration increases. Eventually the concentration will be high enough to give poor results or to damage your printer. Putting an upper limit on concentration reduces warranty costs for the manufacturer.
PHS241 wrote:
I also read or heard somewhere (crime documentary) that colour printers deposit droplets of yellow ink on the paper which when examined identify the model of printer and serial number which is useful to police and other agencies when examining printed documents
I've heard that same story. I'm not aware of it in any specific products. I first heard about it with business-class laser printers back in the 90's.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
I buy my ink by the 500ml bottle, and inject it into the cartriges. If you have a 3 in 1, then break one open to see where the colours go. Drill a 1 mm hole for each colour and work away (with care). The black will take 15 - 20 mil, but no more than 10 in the colour bays.
Ger
Again, a confession: I work for Eastman Kodak Company, a manufacturer of both consumer and commercial ink-jet printers. Refilling ink cartridges may work for a while, but the quality is going to suffer over time. The orifices that spray the ink degrade due to electro-chemical effects. This leads to poor dot size control and print quality. Ultimately the cartridge will fail.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
Eddy Vluggen wrote:
still got a ringing in my ear
I have too, except mine's caused by tinnitus. I wonder if it too was a result of going to Dot Matrix concerts. ;)
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68). "I don't need to shoot my enemies, I don't have any." - Me (2012).
-
100's of pages with one ribbon, sure, but that would take hundreds of days to print. Just get a b&w laser printer.
B&W laser printer are cheap and will print thousands of pages before needing a new toner cartridge. Also the less expensive toner cartridges are about the same price as a set of ink cartridges for the ink jet printer.
VS2010/Atmel Studio 6.0 ToDo Manager Extension
Version 3.0 now available. There is no place like 127.0.0.1 -
Does anyone remember them? I know inkjet and laser printers largely killed them off but it irks me how much you pay for printer cartridges. I have a Kodak ESP printer. I bought a pack of black and colour cartridges about two months ago. I've probably printed about 40pp in black and maybe 20pp in colour, yet the printer tells me I have about 20% colour ink remaining. Clearly the printer is killing my cartridge so it can force me to buy another one: thanks a lot Kodak. What makes me even more annoying is that the printer driver's software will not honour my request to print using the black cartridge only; convenient, huh? I wish I could find a decent dot matrix printer and ribbons. What I liked about them was the almost therapeutic sound of the printhead slowly working its way to and fro. I also liked them because you could run a ribbon until it was almost bone dry and in danger of shredding and a cheap ribbon gave 100s of pages before you (the owner) felt it was the right time to replace the ribbon. I never objected to getting slightly inky fingers. I also remember those little tufts of printer fluff that gathered in corners. And if the paper wrecked when it slipped off the grip wheels you could manually advance it and carry on. By Jove; those were the days. Edit: I see that you can still buy them. It seems nostalgia is alive and well. :)
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68). "I don't need to shoot my enemies, I don't have any." - Me (2012).
They're still in use in many businesses. The venerable Okidata 320/390 series is alive and well in most small retail operations, and at least one major hardware chain. In addition to being more reliable and cheaper to feed than any "modern" printer, they have a key advantage - multipart forms. No ink jet or laser printer can work with a three-part NCR form, and quite a few businesses depend on them. I only a couple of years ago chucked my last dot matrix printer, an Epson wide-carriage (LQ-1070, I think). Cartridges for it cost $4 and lasted a year or so, compared to $120 or so for my new HP inkjet. This is progress?:mad:
Will Rogers never met me.
-
Does anyone remember them? I know inkjet and laser printers largely killed them off but it irks me how much you pay for printer cartridges. I have a Kodak ESP printer. I bought a pack of black and colour cartridges about two months ago. I've probably printed about 40pp in black and maybe 20pp in colour, yet the printer tells me I have about 20% colour ink remaining. Clearly the printer is killing my cartridge so it can force me to buy another one: thanks a lot Kodak. What makes me even more annoying is that the printer driver's software will not honour my request to print using the black cartridge only; convenient, huh? I wish I could find a decent dot matrix printer and ribbons. What I liked about them was the almost therapeutic sound of the printhead slowly working its way to and fro. I also liked them because you could run a ribbon until it was almost bone dry and in danger of shredding and a cheap ribbon gave 100s of pages before you (the owner) felt it was the right time to replace the ribbon. I never objected to getting slightly inky fingers. I also remember those little tufts of printer fluff that gathered in corners. And if the paper wrecked when it slipped off the grip wheels you could manually advance it and carry on. By Jove; those were the days. Edit: I see that you can still buy them. It seems nostalgia is alive and well. :)
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68). "I don't need to shoot my enemies, I don't have any." - Me (2012).
In India, dot-matrix printers are still being manufactured - see http://www.tvs-e.in/main.aspx[^] and http://www.wepindia.com/home.aspx[^] And, there even exists a ribbon re-inking business.
-
Does anyone remember them? I know inkjet and laser printers largely killed them off but it irks me how much you pay for printer cartridges. I have a Kodak ESP printer. I bought a pack of black and colour cartridges about two months ago. I've probably printed about 40pp in black and maybe 20pp in colour, yet the printer tells me I have about 20% colour ink remaining. Clearly the printer is killing my cartridge so it can force me to buy another one: thanks a lot Kodak. What makes me even more annoying is that the printer driver's software will not honour my request to print using the black cartridge only; convenient, huh? I wish I could find a decent dot matrix printer and ribbons. What I liked about them was the almost therapeutic sound of the printhead slowly working its way to and fro. I also liked them because you could run a ribbon until it was almost bone dry and in danger of shredding and a cheap ribbon gave 100s of pages before you (the owner) felt it was the right time to replace the ribbon. I never objected to getting slightly inky fingers. I also remember those little tufts of printer fluff that gathered in corners. And if the paper wrecked when it slipped off the grip wheels you could manually advance it and carry on. By Jove; those were the days. Edit: I see that you can still buy them. It seems nostalgia is alive and well. :)
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68). "I don't need to shoot my enemies, I don't have any." - Me (2012).
We bought a new car last week and the finance guy was using a dot-matrix printer for the long multi-part forms. I commented on the beautiful sound, he commented on the cost of repairs. Later we went to an auto parts store for a few things -- again a dot-matrix printing multi-parts forms. I may have to start hanging out in auto parts stores.
-
Sounds like an innovative approach! But where do you buy such large bottles of ink?
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68). "I don't need to shoot my enemies, I don't have any." - Me (2012).
Ger
-
Does anyone remember them? I know inkjet and laser printers largely killed them off but it irks me how much you pay for printer cartridges. I have a Kodak ESP printer. I bought a pack of black and colour cartridges about two months ago. I've probably printed about 40pp in black and maybe 20pp in colour, yet the printer tells me I have about 20% colour ink remaining. Clearly the printer is killing my cartridge so it can force me to buy another one: thanks a lot Kodak. What makes me even more annoying is that the printer driver's software will not honour my request to print using the black cartridge only; convenient, huh? I wish I could find a decent dot matrix printer and ribbons. What I liked about them was the almost therapeutic sound of the printhead slowly working its way to and fro. I also liked them because you could run a ribbon until it was almost bone dry and in danger of shredding and a cheap ribbon gave 100s of pages before you (the owner) felt it was the right time to replace the ribbon. I never objected to getting slightly inky fingers. I also remember those little tufts of printer fluff that gathered in corners. And if the paper wrecked when it slipped off the grip wheels you could manually advance it and carry on. By Jove; those were the days. Edit: I see that you can still buy them. It seems nostalgia is alive and well. :)
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68). "I don't need to shoot my enemies, I don't have any." - Me (2012).
Some of our clients still use them. Gave us programmers quite a headache... :sigh:
It's an OO world.
public class Naerling : Lazy<Person>{
public void DoWork(){ throw new NotImplementedException(); }
} -
Some of our clients still use them. Gave us programmers quite a headache... :sigh:
It's an OO world.
public class Naerling : Lazy<Person>{
public void DoWork(){ throw new NotImplementedException(); }
}Shoe, back in the early 90's I wrote a function to print barcodes on a epson lx800 (before barcode fonts). Had to dig into the manual and learn all the "escape codes" for the epson standard - that function is still in use today to print slips for a file store. Will remember that rithmic grrrd,grrrd,grrrd till the day I croak!
-
Does anyone remember them? I know inkjet and laser printers largely killed them off but it irks me how much you pay for printer cartridges. I have a Kodak ESP printer. I bought a pack of black and colour cartridges about two months ago. I've probably printed about 40pp in black and maybe 20pp in colour, yet the printer tells me I have about 20% colour ink remaining. Clearly the printer is killing my cartridge so it can force me to buy another one: thanks a lot Kodak. What makes me even more annoying is that the printer driver's software will not honour my request to print using the black cartridge only; convenient, huh? I wish I could find a decent dot matrix printer and ribbons. What I liked about them was the almost therapeutic sound of the printhead slowly working its way to and fro. I also liked them because you could run a ribbon until it was almost bone dry and in danger of shredding and a cheap ribbon gave 100s of pages before you (the owner) felt it was the right time to replace the ribbon. I never objected to getting slightly inky fingers. I also remember those little tufts of printer fluff that gathered in corners. And if the paper wrecked when it slipped off the grip wheels you could manually advance it and carry on. By Jove; those were the days. Edit: I see that you can still buy them. It seems nostalgia is alive and well. :)
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68). "I don't need to shoot my enemies, I don't have any." - Me (2012).
Banks still use them. In highschool I learnt that dot matrix printers outdid laser printers in terms of economy (which probably still applies). However, I would assume the maintenance cost benefit has become more marginal over the years and it makes no sense to do this as an average user. EDIT: This whole argument excludes InkJet - those are just wasteful.
He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes. He who does not ask a question remains a fool forever. [Chineese Proverb] Jonathan C Dickinson (C# Software Engineer)
-
Does anyone remember them? I know inkjet and laser printers largely killed them off but it irks me how much you pay for printer cartridges. I have a Kodak ESP printer. I bought a pack of black and colour cartridges about two months ago. I've probably printed about 40pp in black and maybe 20pp in colour, yet the printer tells me I have about 20% colour ink remaining. Clearly the printer is killing my cartridge so it can force me to buy another one: thanks a lot Kodak. What makes me even more annoying is that the printer driver's software will not honour my request to print using the black cartridge only; convenient, huh? I wish I could find a decent dot matrix printer and ribbons. What I liked about them was the almost therapeutic sound of the printhead slowly working its way to and fro. I also liked them because you could run a ribbon until it was almost bone dry and in danger of shredding and a cheap ribbon gave 100s of pages before you (the owner) felt it was the right time to replace the ribbon. I never objected to getting slightly inky fingers. I also remember those little tufts of printer fluff that gathered in corners. And if the paper wrecked when it slipped off the grip wheels you could manually advance it and carry on. By Jove; those were the days. Edit: I see that you can still buy them. It seems nostalgia is alive and well. :)
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68). "I don't need to shoot my enemies, I don't have any." - Me (2012).
DOT Matrix printers are still used to print Braille. You simply print onto paper with a peice of soft foam in front of it. You could also use it to make embossed paper...
Have a nice life!!
-
Does anyone remember them? I know inkjet and laser printers largely killed them off but it irks me how much you pay for printer cartridges. I have a Kodak ESP printer. I bought a pack of black and colour cartridges about two months ago. I've probably printed about 40pp in black and maybe 20pp in colour, yet the printer tells me I have about 20% colour ink remaining. Clearly the printer is killing my cartridge so it can force me to buy another one: thanks a lot Kodak. What makes me even more annoying is that the printer driver's software will not honour my request to print using the black cartridge only; convenient, huh? I wish I could find a decent dot matrix printer and ribbons. What I liked about them was the almost therapeutic sound of the printhead slowly working its way to and fro. I also liked them because you could run a ribbon until it was almost bone dry and in danger of shredding and a cheap ribbon gave 100s of pages before you (the owner) felt it was the right time to replace the ribbon. I never objected to getting slightly inky fingers. I also remember those little tufts of printer fluff that gathered in corners. And if the paper wrecked when it slipped off the grip wheels you could manually advance it and carry on. By Jove; those were the days. Edit: I see that you can still buy them. It seems nostalgia is alive and well. :)
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68). "I don't need to shoot my enemies, I don't have any." - Me (2012).
You could eke your printer ribbons out even more - I used to pop the top off my ribbons when they had gone dry, spray the fabric roll with WD40, reassemble and leave for a few days in a plastic bag - the WD40 diluted the unused ink on the regions not hit by the print head and distribute it across the ribbon - you could then re-use it and get at least an additional 50% print capacity - slightly fainter, but still fine for most uses.
==================================== Transvestites - Roberts in Disguise! ====================================
-
Banks still use them. In highschool I learnt that dot matrix printers outdid laser printers in terms of economy (which probably still applies). However, I would assume the maintenance cost benefit has become more marginal over the years and it makes no sense to do this as an average user. EDIT: This whole argument excludes InkJet - those are just wasteful.
He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes. He who does not ask a question remains a fool forever. [Chineese Proverb] Jonathan C Dickinson (C# Software Engineer)
They are often ,amdatory for security printing - e.g. on cheques or legal documents Toner from laser printers can easily be scraped from the surface of paper - a dot matrix will embed the ink in the paper fibres making it much more difficult to remove
==================================== Transvestites - Roberts in Disguise! ====================================
