CHANGING FACE OF HOME PRINTING
Ihave always had an inkjet printer at home for the last several years. My current printer (and so was the previous model) is with print, scan and copy functions built-in. The current one is an Epson L3150.
All inkjet printers in earlier days came with small ink cartridges. Ink in cartridges turns out to be expensive if one has to print photographs. It was good for documents or a passport / ID photograph required in a rush. One would think twice before hitting the print button. But no more. These days’ inkjet printers come with larger and individual ink tanks and it works out quite costeffective. Now I never think twice even if I have to print not only for myself but others too. And I print quite often.
This ink-in-a-small-tank concept has changed the face of home printing. Printers are now affordable and printing is very cost-effective. And these printers offer true photo-quality output. An A4 printer with a scanner copier built-in is a great investment for the family. Great for routine printing, scanning and copying of documents and photographs and project work for children.
So, what do I print? Documents, for sure! Routine ones. Boarding pass, articles that I download from various sites, then there are small swatches on which I scribble notes or jot down points which go through the copier that results in an A4 printout giving me extra space to add notes, newspaper cuttings, bills that come via emails and such. Not just me but my entire family prints whatever is essential. Please note the word ‘essential.’ This means, we print responsibly, and use both sides of the sheet where ever possible. We always ask ourselves if a file really requires to be printed. There are several occasions when I shrink the A4 size document to A5 and print 2-Ups on an A4 sheet, as shown by this example on left which was my proofreading sheet for the article published last month.
Apart from documents I print photographs. Mainly in 4x6 inches or A4 in size, on photo-grade inkjet paper (In future, I will cover various substrates for inkjet printing). I also create bookmarks, calendars, mini gift-wrapping papers, and zines (these are mini booklets which are self-published, as shown here. This one is of A6 size. Yes, in future, we will also cover ISO paper sizes).
Most inkjet printer manufacturers have dedicated creative printing websites. Readers could check them out as some of the print projects are quite interesting. Alternatively, search for “Free Printables” and you will come across several free resources on the internet.
Happy Printing!