With Wi-Fi and cloud connectivity features, printers have undergone a sea change, says Sangeeta Yadav
A printer at home has evolved to a utility gadget that complements today’s digital lifestyles of most consumers. The compact and sturdy design which comes in a variety of colours, matches the customer’s lifestyle and needs. From cloud and wifi connectivity that can be operated from your smartphone and tablet, to the cost and electricity efficient laser and inkjet, there are a lot of innovative features that are offered in today’s hi-end printers. Big players like Canon, HP, Panasonic and Samsung are offering larger than life experiences through innovative features and giving a tough time to students in making the right choice.
Wi-Fi & Cloud computing
“All it takes to print pictures or documents is a printer’s command once connected with network and compatible devices like your desktop, tablet, laptop or smartphone. It eliminates the need to buy a dedicated printer for each machine. On the other hand, the cloud printing technology enables printers to be accessible over a network cloud. Canon PIXMA printers, for example, have cloud applications for Picasa and Google documents. For end users, cloud ready printers eliminate the need for PC connections and print drivers, enabling them to print from mobile devices itself. So now you can shoot a print while you are out of station as well,” Dr Alok Bharadwaj, executive vice president, Canon India, says.
On the other hand, HP ePrint technology allows users to print documents by simply sending an email to the printer’s email id from any device, anywhere in the world. HP Wireless Direct is another new technology that allows users to print directly to a supported HP printer from a Wi-Fi mobile device, without requiring any network connections.
“Many HP printers also support Apple AirPrint, which allows Apple iOS device users print directly to an HP printer without installing any app or driver. Users just need to share the same wireless network with the printer. HP printables are apps that run directly on the printer — for example HP Deskjet Ink Advantage 5525 eAiO supports PrintApps. These apps can connect directly to the cloud and download and print content, without requiring any PC as an intermediary,” Nitin Hiranandani, director, printing systems, PPS, HP India, tells you.
lASER AND INKJET PRINTER
Though both inkjets and laser segments are seeing steady growth and a shift from single function to multi-function printers, it comes in almost the same price.
“Inkjet printers use liquid ink sprayed through microscopic nozzles onto the paper. Innovation and evolution have quickly taken inkjet printing from a few hundred thousand colours with four-ink systems to 72.9 million colour combinations with the new eight-ink systems. Whereas, laser printers use a toner cartridge (filled with fine powder) and a heated fuser. The basic principle behind laser jet printing is static electricity,” Hiranandani says.
According to Dr Bharadwaj, Inkjet printers are ideal for home users who have limited document and photo printing needs and prefer convenience and connectivity. laser printers on the other hand are better suited to office environs with high-volume printing requirements.
Where Canon provides FINE (Full -photolithography Inkjet Nozzle Engineering) cartridges that improve colour reproduction and enhances print speed maintaining image quality, HP’s PageWide Technology for inkjet platform, delivers high quality professional documents at up to 70 pages per minute.
Innovative applications like creative park premium and my image garden in Canon printers give a good picture quality. “Our inkjet range, PIXMA, is supported by the FINE technology and delivers exceptionally high-quality, fast output. Printers are convenient multifunction devices, which combine features such as copying, scanning, and faxing,” Dr Bharadwaj tells you.
Many of HP’s advanced printers for businesses run HP FutureSmart and Open Extensibility Platform (OXP) that allows them to work across a fleet of both old and new devices.
With HP FutureSmart firmware, the entire fleet of HP FutureSmart devices can be updated with new features and capabilities as they emerge.