To support this site:

Forewarned is forearmed...

Build Your Own PC: Inkjet and Laser Printers and Scanners

Last updated 3 May 2008

	SEARCH THIS SITE:
	Web www.pcbuyerbeware.co.uk

This article consists of six pages. You can access the other five pages by clicking the relevant hyperlink below.

Step 5

The Expansion Cards and

Peripheral Devices

This set of pages is devoted to the following adapter cards and peripheral devices. Click the relevant heading to go to information on that subject.

Dot-matrix printers that use a printer ribbon used to be the most popular kind of printer. They're still being used in business, because of how well they can print continuous printouts, but you would have a difficult time finding a supplier. Businesses that use them have them built to order. Not many home users use dot-matrix printers these days, because they're noisy, can't print in colour in the same way as inkjet and laser printers can, and aren't as good as them at printing standard A4 documents. Therefore, they aren't dealt with on this page.

Very decent inkjet printers can be purchased very cheaply (for between £50 and £70), but their quoted print speeds for printing documents and colour graphics can be less than half of those speeds in practice. They also tend to be more expensive to run than more expensive heavy-duty inkjet and laser printers. But most of the cheap inkjet printers are fine for light use.

If you need to print many documents, you should look for a printer with double the minimum speeds and half of the printing costs of the sub-£100 printers. You should look for an inkjet printer that can handle all kinds of office media, including printing envelopes and labels, and printing to recordable CDs and DVDs.

If you need a printer to produce digital photographs, you should choose one that can handle subtle colour tones well. A printer that is capable of printing right up to the edge of the paper (borderless printing) can be bought inexpensively these days. You should therefore read the reviews of the wide range of photo printers that are currently available before you make a purchase.

Note that you should find out how many printer cartridges an inkjet printer uses, and how much they cost compared to similar printers before you make a purchase. Cheap inkjet printers often use expensive print cartridges. For example, the HP PSC 1410 printer-scanner-copier, which is no longer available, was priced at under £50/$100, and uses HP 21 (black) and HP 22 (colour) inkjet cartridges. Those cartridges contain only 5ml of ink, which doesn't last very long but they cost as much as HP cartridges containing 20ml of ink. Fortunately, you can buy reliable remanufactured HP 21 and HP 22 cartridges that have been refilled with 25ml of ink. The cartridges can hold that much ink, but HP only fills them with 5ml of in in order to make a good profit from a cheap printer that is sold at a loss. A good supplier of remanufactured cartridges in the UK is http://www.advantage-online.co.uk/. Computer magazines usually calculate the cost per page when they review printers. Laser printers are usually more expensive to buy than comparable inkjet printers, and a toner cartridge is more expensive than a set of inkjet cartridges, but they are usually more economic to run, because a toner cartridge lasts much longer than a set of inkjet cartridges.

You may find that even when an inkjet printer is printing in black, it can be using its colour inks to create the black instead of using the black cartridge. In that case, it is using a combination of three colours to create composite black and grayscale tones. Most printer device drivers allow the user to disable an option such as "Use composite black", or enable a setting that forces the printer to use the black cartridge for black.

If the blacks in inkjet photos look washed out, it's because the printer is using its colour cartridges to create composite black, because it uses a pigment-based black that is unsuitable for photos and is only used for printing text. If you want the best photo prints, look for a printer that uses a dye-based black cartridge for black. Some printers, such as the Canon PIXMA iP4500, uses five cartidges, including both dye-based and pigment-based blacks to create deep shadows in photos and pin-sharp text.

You access the printer's driver in the Control Panel via Printers and Faxes in Windows XP and via Printers in Windows Vista. The settings differ for the different makes of printers. In Windows XP, for example, to gain access to the settings, you would open the printer that appears as an icon or is listed, and then click Printer => Properties. You will have to explore the available options. If you don't understand any of them, you can make use of a suitable search term in the Google search box at the top of this page (with its Web radio button enabled) to find out more information on them.

If you just use black, you cannot use only black cartridges in the printer, because the colour cartridge slots are designed to accept only colour cartridges, which differ from black cartridges. In every inkjet printer, you will find a diagram that shows where the black and colour cartridges are fitted.

If you only require black, you should use a mono laser printer, which are much more economical to run than inkjet printers. Reviews of inkjet printers, MFPs, and mono and colour laser printers are provided further down this page.

Printer reviews

An excellent source of printer reviews for the different types of inkjet and laser printers is provided further down the page. Click here! to go directly to it. Use your browser's Back button to return to this point on the page.

Printer cartridges

As you should know, it is possible to create all of the possible colours from mixing just red, green, and blue. That is how colour television pictures are created, and how colour images are printed.

The number of cartridges an inkjet printer uses can vary from one (black only) to seven (six colour and one black). General-purpose inkjets use four colours, but most photo inkjets use six or more. HP's Deskjet 5740 and Lexmark's Z815 use six colour cartridges and a black cartridge in order to print high-quality colour photo images. Epson's Stylus C66 and Canon's PIXMA iP3000 have separate cartridges for black, cyan (a greenish blue), magenta (a deep purplish red), and yellow. But most budget inkjet printers use just two cartridges - a black tank, and a single colour tank that contains cyan, magenta, and yellow inks.

Some printers have a pigment black cartridge for text and a dye-based black cartridge for photos. Printers that only have a pigment black cartridge for text and dye-based cyan, magenta, and yellow cartridges print the black photos by mixing those three colours to create black, which is not as black a the black from a dye-based black cartridge.

Note that if a single colour cartridge is used, if one colour runs out the cartridge has to be replaced, because the printer can't work with one part of the tank empty. Moreover, it might be possible to buy cartridges for a particular make and model of printer that are described as being for light use and high yield. The light use cartridges usually contain about half as much ink as the high yield cartridges but usually cost more than half the price, thereby making it more expensive to use them.

Compatible cartridges versus the printer manufacturer's cartridges

You can purchase compatible or refilled printer cartridges (made by or refilled by third-party manufacturers) for all of the major brands of inkjet printer, usually at a cheaper price compared to the cost of new brand-name cartridges. But, as might be expected, you should know the about the pros and the cons.

An inkjet printer's manufacturer can state that the warranty will be rendered void if compatible cartridges are used and the printer is damaged so that it requires to be repaired. For instance, Canon has such a clause in its warranty, but it also states that Canon has to prove that the use of compatible cartridges was the cause of the damage.

Note that there are many manufacturers of compatible cartridges that provide their own warranty. This usually states that, in the unlikely event that their cartridges damage the printer, they will bear the cost of the repairs or replacement of the printer.

You should also make sure that the compatible cartridges you buy have an ISO9001 or ISO9002 certification, which means that they have been manufactured to a high standard.

You can look for your own information by entering the relevant key words in the Google search box at the top of this page (with its Web radio button enabled). For example, enter the printer's make and model within double quotation marks, and use a + sign to add key words: "canon selphy cp500" + compatible + cartridges.

Chipped cartridges and printers with the print head built into the printer

Note well that some makes of inkjet printers use ink cartridges that contain the print-head (chipped cartridges), and other makes just use a cartridge that fits to a print-head built into the printer (non-chipped cartridges). Most of the current models made by the major inkjet printer manufacturers are now using chipped cartridges.

Most new Epson and HP and Lexmark printers use chipped cartridges. Canon printers used to use non-chipped cartridges, but the latest Canon printers, such as the Canon PIXMA range, also use chipped cartridges.

Of course, non-chipped cartridges made by the printer's manufacturer are much less expensive than chipped cartridges, because the print-head is an expensive additional overhead. Moreover, non-chipped cartridges are easier for third-party compatible cartridge manufacturers to make or refill, so non-chipped compatible cartridges are also much cheaper than the chipped compatible cartridges that are available. In many cases, chipped compatible cartridges are not available.

Note that as well as making chipped cartridges for its inkjet printers, Epson also make photo inkjet printers that have the print-head built into the printer.

Some printers are easier to set up than others. For example, the Epson Stylus C46 provides a manual printer head alignment system that is awkward to use. It produces three sets of printed lines and asks the user to choose the straightest line from each set. It can be difficult to discern any difference between the lines, thereby leaving the user wondering if the right choice was made.

Cartridge renewal can be a very expensive business with photo printers, some of which require as many as seven different chipped cartridges - one black and six for colour.

Note that some chipped inkjet cartridges, such as those made by HP, have an expiry date that can cause problems. For instance, if the system clock suddenly shows the wrong time and date, it can confuse the printer and make it close down access to the cartridge long before the ink has run out. The latest generation of HP cartridges monitor the ink levels and the expiry dates, and therefore make refilling them by third parties, or by using refill kits, far more difficult than it would be for, say, the non-monitored, non-chipped cartridges used in Canon printers.

Search inkjet printer support on the Hewlett Packard site for information on this problem. I have seen the information is there, but I have not provided a direct link to it because the links change constantly.

See http://www.misterinkjet.com/hpreset.htm for information on how to reset HP cartridges.

You should be able to find more current pages with this information by entering the search phrase such as: reset + hp + cartridge in the Google search box at the top of this page (with its Web radio button enabled).

Click the link to read Will you render a printer's warranty void if you use refill kits or third-party cartridges? on the Warranty page of this site.

And click here! for possible solutions if you're having USB connection problems with an HP printer or HP MFP (Multi-function Peripheral) machine that usually consists of a printer, scanner, and copier.

Some other interesting pages

Support for cartridge refillers:

http://www.alotofthings.com/support_for_refillers.html

Bypassing Expiration dates on HP #10 / #11 Ink Jet Cartridges -

http://www.alotofthings.com/supportforrefillers/expirationdatehp1011.htm

Some photo printers can read the memory cards used by digital cameras

Some photo printers have the capacity to read data directly from the memory cards used by digital cameras. Such printers usually offer advanced layout and quality options, and can also be used as a memory card reader when connected to a computer. Just make sure that a photo printer with such a facility supports the same memory card format as your digital camera.

Printing on envelopes and cards

Most inkjet and laser printers can print on envelopes. Inkjet printers that can do so usually have markings on their paper tray to show you where the envelopes are fed. However, laser printers usually have a feed slot specially for envelopes. The paper used in envelopes is thicker than standard sheets of A4 paper, so you have to set the printer's driver to print to envelopes as well as to thick card paper. You can access the printer's driver via Printers and Faxes in the Control Panel in Windows XP.

In Windows Vista, the Hardware and Sound category provides access to the following devices: under Printers add or remove printers and connect to other printers on a network, troubleshoot printers. From there you can install, remove and set the options for scanners and digital cameras, mice, game controllers, joysticks, keyboards and pen devices.

You click on the printer's icon or reference and then choose Printer => Properties in the window that presents itself to access the driver's features, which differ from one printer to another. For the HP PSC 1400 series of printer/scanner copiers, clicking the Printing Preferences button of the General tab allows you to choose the paper options (size and type). A standard bill envelope is 220mm x 110mm. There are options for different types of paper and cards, etc.

Some printers can print labels on a CD or DVD

Certain printers have an inbuilt tray that accommodates a CD or DVD disc so that the printer can print a label on it. An example of such a printer is the Canon i965 inkjet printer. Read an illustrated review on it here:

http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/interactive/Canon%20i965/page_1.htm

Dell inkjet and laser printers

Dell is now selling inkjet and laser printers under its brand name. Lexmark makes both the printers and the cartridges for Dell, but if you visit a cartridge vendor's site, this is the message that you're likely to see: "Dell printers accept Dell ink and toner cartridges only." In short, officially you can only buy the cartridges for a Dell printer from Dell. The inkjet cartridges have a notch on them so that Lexmark cartridges can't fit Dell printers, and vice versa.

Printer memory from Crucial

Printer memory is available from Crucial for all of the major brands of printers. Shipping is free and the memory is guaranteed to work or you get a full refund. You can use the UK or the US Memory Advisors provided below to locate memory for your make and model of printer. You can also use the advisors to locate RAM memory for a desktop PC or laptop/notebook.

Paul Mullen, the highly-respected computer guru of the Helpfile at ComputerShopper.co.uk - "I have recently been buying my memory only from Crucial Technology. I would rather pay the extra cost than waste time trying to track down the obscure program faults that bad memory can cause."

The memory requirements of the versions of Windows Vista

Most of the versions of Windows Vista require more RAM memory to run optimally on a computer that doesn't use memory-hungry applications than Windows XP. A video-editing application is an example of memory-intensive software. Only Windows Vista Home Basic has a recommended minimum amount of memory of 512MB, which is the same amount recommended for Windows XP. Windows Vista Home Premium, the most popular version, and Windows Vista Ultimate require a recommended minimum of 1GB (1024MB) of memory, which is twice the amount of minimum memory recommended to run Windows XP. For more information on computer memory, read the RAM pages of this site.

For example, if your computer has an Asus motherboard, open the menu, scroll down to ASUS, and click GO. If, say, you have a Dell computer, scroll down to DELL, and do likewise. You will be taken to the relevant information on Crucial's website.

If you don't know the make and model of the motherboard installed in your computer, here is a good free utility - Belarc Advisor - that creates an analysis of the hardware and software on a personal computer. Look under FREE DOWNLOAD - http://www.belarc.com/. Another utility that also provides detailed information on the memory itself is CPU-Z.

Duplex printing

Duplex printing is the ability of a printer to print on both sides of a sheet of paper. After a pause to allow the ink to dry, each page is drawn back into the printer for a second pass. It's an excellent way to save paper, but the interval between printing one side of a page and the other side makes duplex printing a much slower process than single-page printing.

Duplex inkjet printers, which can also print single pages, are not as expensive compared to ordinary inkjet printers as they used to be.

It is best to use a laser printer to print to card paper

If you use decent-quality card stock (200gsm and above), the feed mechanisms on inkjet printers tend to wear out quickly. It is therefore best to use a laser printer that can handle up to 215gsm paper. At the time of writing (December 2007), the Dell Colour Laser Printer 3110cn has that specification. If you use its PostScript driver, it has good print quality and is cheap to run and maintain.

Mono and colour laser printers

Mono and colour laser printers are usually considerably larger than inkjet printers. A laser printer requires to be placed on a strong table or desk with the space around it providing good ventilation and to allow the user to be able to open its paper trays and/or access panels.

Mono laser printers are as cheap as inkjet printers, but are very much cheaper to run. Colour laser printers used to be very expensive, but the prices have recently become very affordable. At the time of writing this (March 2007), it was possible to buy the small-office Canon LaserShot LBP-5000 colour laser printer for only £155/$300, and the Canon LaserShot LBP-3000 home colour laser printer for only £50/$100.

Most laser printers connect to computers via a USB connection, the cable for which is usually not provided with the printer. Installing a printer is usually a simple matter of following the illustrated set of installation instructions that come with the printer. You should follow the instructions, because there is no such thing as a standard installation. Some printers require the printer's software to be installed before connecting the printer to the PC and others require the software to be installed during the installation process.

Many laser printers have an Ethernet networking connection, which is handy if you want to share the printer on an office network. To do that you would use the printer-sharing system that is built into the Windows operating system (from Windows 95 to Windows Vista). However, you should note that network printers are not always easy to configure.

Mono laser printers (that have a single toner cartridge) that can only print in black are fairly simple to operate and maintain, but colour laser printers are complex devices that can use anything from four to ten different consumables, including several toner cartridges.

Most mono laser printers come with a normal toner cartridge. However, because of the cost, most colour laser printers come with starter toner cartridges that may need to be replaced after printing about 500 pages. When buying replacement cartridges, you should shop around for the lowest prices on the genuine brand-name cartridges made by the same manufacturer as the printer, and you should choose the more expensive high-yield products that are more economical in the long run than the lower-yield products.

Colour laser printers that can print black, cyan, magenta, and yellow toner in one pass can print as quickly as they can print in black only. But the colour laser printers that require a pass to lay down each colour, print colour pages that take four times as long as printing pages in black only.

Home and office laser printers can produce excellent results with the graphics created by business applications, but they are currently not suitable for printing photos. Certain colour laser printers can produce gloss finishes on image prints, but the low resolutions they use compared to inkjet printers produce photos that look grainier than those produced by even the cheapest inkjet printer.

However, at the time of writing, HP had just introduced 220gsm Laser Gloss Photo paper for its range of Color Laserjet printers that is said to produce excellent results. You can enter a search term such as hp + 220gsm + laser + gloss + photo + paper in the Google search box at the top of this page (with its Web radio button enabled) to locate information, reviews and local vendors.

All printers come with the device drivers for Windows XP, but at the time of writing this (March 2007) not all printers provide the device drivers for Windows Vista, which was officially released on January 30, 2007. If you are using Windows Vista, you should therefore check to see if the correct drivers were included with the printer, or that they are made available from the printer manufacturer's website.

Inkjet and laser printers and MFPs as rated by Computer Shopper

The following sections provide links to information on top products, printer reviews, and buying advice.

To see all of the current reviews visit:

Computer Shopper - Printer Reviews:

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/shopper/archiveproductsearch/15/Printers

Home/Small office colour laser printers -

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/shopper/labs/240/...

Inkjet MFPs -

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/shopper/labs/239/inkjet-mfps/products.html

Alternatively, to read the review of a particular printer, visit the Computer Shopper site and enter the printer's name in the Search For box.

To find vendors and other reviews, enter the make and model enclosed within double quotation marks in the Google search box at the top of this page (with its Web radio button enabled).

Note that a printer described as a mono printer means that it can only print in black.

Printer reviews

Photo Printers - Reviews - http://www.steves-digicams.com/printers.html

Computer Shopper - Printer Reviews:

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/shopper/archiveproductsearch/15/Printers

Computer Shopper - Latest Reviews - the latest computer hardware and peripherals, including printers:

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/shopper/reviews/latest/

Over 3,000 reviews are browsable by category or company name.

Computer Shopper Laboratory (tests): http://www.pcpro.co.uk/shopper/labs/

Computer Shopper Hotlist - hot computer products, including printers:

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/shopper/reviews/hotlist/

20 PC Printers Under $200 -

"Find out which inexpensive inkjet printers are worth the cost of replacing the ink and which you can toss after the cartridges run out." -

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle...

Buying advice and how to install a printer

Look under the HOW-TO heading on PCWorld's site for advice on buying a printer or scanner and most other electronic devices.

If you want to print documents or websites you'll need to buy an inkjet or laser printer. There is plenty of information about printers on the Internet (suppliers' and manufacturers' sites, and information sites).

You can buy a good brand-name inkjet printer retail for a little as £50.

Laser printers are more expensive, but they are usually cheaper per page to run. Mono laser printers only offer black and shades of grey. A colour laser printer will usually cost more that a comparable inkjet printer, both of which provide colour printing. Any printer you buy will come with a CD containing its drivers and other printing software.

If you use a printer for heavy-duty image printouts, make sure that it comes with enough memory (RAM) installed, and make sure that you can add more memory at a later date.

You should take pains to find out how much the ink cartridges (for inkjets) and toner cartridges (for lasers) cost before you make a purchase. The prices can vary wildly from model to model, and they are seldom included in adverts.

Visit this site - http://www.inkjet-printer-cartridges.org/ - to read an article on inkjet printer cartridges that contains a survey.

The reason that printers are so cheap is because the manufacturers will recoup many times the cost of a printer by selling the ink cartridges and toners expensively. In fact, you can often get a printer free of charge if you agree to purchase all of the cartridges from a particular supplier.

Neither Windows XP nor Windows 95/98/Me will install a printer's (or a scanner's) driver automatically unless it is a Plug and Play (PnP) device.

As long as a printer is connected to the computer and it is a Plug and Play (PnP) printer, Windows should recognise and install the drivers as for any other device.

If Windows XP/Windows Vista doesn't install the drivers automatically, it has an Add Printer Wizard.

To use the wizard in Windows XP, click the Start button, and then click Printers And Faxes. In the Printer Tasks bar click Add A Printer to open the wizard's Welcome screen.

For some reason, you may have to install the printer manually using the Add Printer Wizard in Windows XP/Vista.

In Windows Vista, after you have connected the printer to the PC and have turned it on, click Start => Control Panel => Hardware and Sound => Printers. Click Add a printer which launches the Add Printer Wizard. Click Add a local printer. The rest of the process is fairly simple. You select the port that the printer is using, select the printer's manufacturer. If the printer isn't listed, click the Have Disk button, which requires a source, such as a CD/DVD containing the drivers, or a folder that contains a file that installs the latest drivers.

Windows 95, 98, and Me (Windows 9x) have the option Start => Settings => Printers => Add a Printer in order to install a printer that is not a Plug and Play (PnP) device.

You install the printer (or printers) after Windows has been successfully installed - has detected and loaded the drivers for all of the devices that have been installed.

In Windows 9x/XP, installing a printer is just a matter of installing the manufacturer's device driver by using the printer utility/wizard, and connecting the printer to the correct port, which is usually a LPT parallel port, or a USB port.

The image below from an MSI motherboard manual shows where the LPT Parallel Port is located on an ATX motherboard (the largest port - top middle). You can download the manuals for the latest MSI motherboards free of charge from http://www.msi.com.tw/.

If an LPT port has been installed, it will appear under the Ports (Com & LPT) heading in the Device Manager. If a COM or LPT port is not listed, it has to be installed by using the Add New Hardware utility that is in the Control Panel. (It is just Add Hardware in Windows Vista under Hardware and Sound in the Control Panel.)

Installing a parallel port printer:

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000441.htm

The image below also from an MSI motherboard manual shows where the USB ports are located on an ATX motherboard. USB ports are not shown in the Device Manager because they are controlled by the USB Controllers, which are listed in the Device Manager if the motherboard, BIOS, and the operating system support USB, and USB has been installed by enabling it in the BIOS.

Most current printers are connected to a computer via a USB port, but you usually have to buy the USB cable separately, so you have to make up your mind which type of cable you want to use.

An LPT parallel port has to be installed in the Device Manager if a parallel port printer cable is used, and the computer's motherboard must have a parallel port. Most current motherboards still have a parallel port, but it is old technology that will soon be disappearing from motherboards.

If you are using a USB port, USB has to be enabled in the BIOS setup program (for Award and AMI BIOSes, hit the Del key at start-up to enter it) so that a USB controller is shown in the Device Manager. If Hi-Speed USB 2.0 ports are available, and Enhanced Host Controller will show under Universal Serial Bus controllers in the Device Manager. If there is only a USB Universal Host Controller, then only much slower USB 1.1 ports are available, but you can install a PCI USB 2.0 adapter card that adds USB 2.0 ports to the system.

See the USB page of this site for more information on the Universal Serial Bus.

As you can see by clicking the following link, there is a heading in the Device Manager called Ports (COM and LPT), which has a + sign beside it. The USB ports are not listed under the Ports heading, they are controlled by the USB Controller.

Click the + sign in your computer's Device Manager to reveal the ports that have been installed.

To use USB devices, there has to be a Universal Serial Bus controllers heading in the Device Manager. If there is no such heading you will have to enable USB in the BIOS, and Windows will install it automatically. You might have to load the Windows CD if the files are not present in the Windows folder. The USB Controller can often be updated by installing the update from the manufacturer of the computer's motherboard's website. Updating it can often solve problems with USB devices.

If you're using a parallel port and there is no LPT printer port listed in the Device Manager, you'll have to make use of the Add New Hardware utility in the Control Panel to install one.

(It is just Add Hardware in Windows Vista under Hardware and Sound in the Control Panel.)

Scroll to the Ports heading on the list and choose an LPT port.

There are BIOS settings that enable the modes of operation (SPP/EPP/ECP/Normal) for parallel-port printers, and there may be another LPT port setting under Power Management Setup that enables the power-management timers that cuts the power to the printer when no activity is detected. The printer's manual should tell you which options to enable for that particular printer. These settings do not apply to USB printers, which are controlled via the USB Controller.

Look under the Integrated Peripherals section of most BIOSes for the Onboard Parallel Port, Onboard Parallel Mode, and USB settings.

You must use the correct mode for a parallel-port printer. For example, if you set the mode as SPP for a bi-directional printer that requires the printer to be able to communicate with the computer, it will not function because the SPP mode is not bi-directional. Most new printers require EPP or ECP mode to be set, but an older printer might require the SPP mode.

Note that you have to have a motherboard and operating system that supports USB in order to be able to use a USB keyboard, mouse, or printer, etc. An old AT motherboard does not have any inbuilt USB ports, so you will have to install a USB card in a PC slot, or purchase a keyboard or monitor that has inbuilt USB ports, to be able to use USB devices.

The same goes for the new FireWire devices.

Windows 98/Me/XP/Vista provide full USB support.

Versions of Windows 95 prior to version OSR 2.0 do not support USB at all. Windows 95 OSR2 can be made to support USB inadequately by installing an update, but it is not nearly as good as the version that is built into Windows 98. Therefore, if you have Windows 95 and you want to use USB, you should upgrade to Windows 98.

Note that Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 98/98SE/Me on 11 July 2006, so no futher updates will be provided. However, the MS Knowledge Base articles will still be available from Microsoft's site.

Accessing the settings in a printer's driver

Printing requires making the printer print documents and images as they appear on the screen, or in draft form, so you need to have control of the quality of the printing (Draft, Normal, Best). Therefore, Windows gives the user access to a configurable driver.

For most printing requirements, such as word-processing, printing web pages, etc., the manufacturer's device driver is all that you need. In Windows XP, you access the printer driver via Printers and Faxes in the Control Panel. In Windows Vista look under Hardware and Sound => Printers.

To access the settings right-click on the entry for the printer and then click on Properties in the menu that presents itself.

You can set the type of page to be printed to (A4, A3, etc.), the orientation of the page (portrait, landscape), the quality of the printing, and even colour management. There is also usually an option that, if enabled, makes the printer print a test page.

Third-party printer drivers

If your printer supports them, you can also install third-party drivers, such as PostScript, that provides even greater control on the output. Most laser printers support PostScript. If you install another driver for the printer, another entry for that printer will appear under Printers and Faxes in the Control Panel. You have to use the correct instance of the printer in order to make use of a particular driver.

Visit the USB pages of this site for more information on USB.

Sharing a printer on a network

There are plenty of tutorials on the web on how to install a printer so that it can be shared by the client computers on a network. It is merely a matter of enabling settings on the client computers that you want to to share the printer (or printers). The settings depend on the version of Windows (or some other operating system such as Linux) being used by the client computer. A network can have client computers using any operating system that has the networking protocols (usually TCP/IP) that link them on the network. Use search terms such as network + printer + "windows xp", or network + printer + "windows 98" in the Google search box at the top of this page.

Tips on how to make a good choice of printer

1. - Having read many printer reviews, I would say that this is the order of rank among laser printer manufacturers - Hewlett Packard (usually the most expensive brand by far), Lexmark, Okidata (Oki), Brother, NEC, Epson, and Canon. The order of rank for inkjet printers is more difficult to establish, because most of the above companies produce very good inkjet printers, but HP is probably at the top of this list as well, closely followed by Canon, Epson, and Lexmark. Lexmark's inkjet cartridges are usually more expensive than the other brands' cartridges.

2. - Don't purchase the cheapest model. The more you spend, within reason, the longer the printer will last, and the more economical it will be in the long run. If you do a lot of text printing, it is much more economical to buy coloured letterheads and use a monochrome laser printer than it is to use a colour inkjet printer. You can now purchase a monochrome laser printer of good quality at a very affordable price. Toner cartridges (for laser printers) cost significantly more, but they can print many thousands of pages more than the equivalent amount spent on inkjet cartridges. Mono laser printers are cheaper to run than inkjet printers. The cost per page produced by cheap laser printers, although still inexpensive, is usually about twice that of the expensive models. In the UK it is about 2 pence a page compared to 1 pence a page.

3. - Don't purchase a "Windows printer". - In other words, do not buy a printer that lists Windows as a system requirement, otherwise you won't be able to obtain drivers for it if you want to use the printer with another operating system such as Apple's OS/X, or Linux.

4. - Make sure your version of Windows is listed among the versions that the printer supports. Windows XP support is a good idea, because, sooner or latter, unless you change to another operating system such as SuSE Linux Pro, you'll have to upgrade to it. A good printer will usually last much longer than a PC.

5. - Unless the speed of the printer is of crucial importance, it is not usually necessary to select one printer over another just because it can print faster. Most new printers can print acceptably fast for ordinary business purposes.

6. - 300 dots per inch (dpi) is all you need for business correspondence. There is no need to set the printer to print at 1400 dpi or higher. Doing that is just a waste of ink. Configure the printer to use the most economical modes for your particular printing requirements.

7. - Re: the HP Printer Control Language - PCL. - Your printer should support PCL 5 or better compatibility. Enter "PCL" or "Printer Control Language" in a search engine [there's a Google search box at the top of this page] to find articles on this subject.

8. - Before you purchase a printer, find out how much the toner cartridges or inkjet cartridges cost, how many cartridges are used, how many pages on average one cartridge is reported to print , and the average cost per page. Ordinary colour inkjet printers use four colours of ink - black, cyan, magenta, and yellow. But photo inkjet printers can use six or more colours. The printer will usually use two cartridges - one for black and one for colour - or have a different cartridge for each colour. Some printer manufacturers provide this important information on their websites, and it is usually provided in PC magazines whenever they review printers.

9. - For business use, a 50- or 100-sheet paper tray is inadequate. A sheet-feeder that can hold 200 to 250 sheets is required. You will be surprised at how fast the paper is used up.

10. - If an inkjet printer uses a combined colour cartridge, unless you can get the cartridge refilled manually, or do it yourself, you have to throw away the ink when one colour runs out, because it won't work when one colour runs out. Epson printers are often criticised for wasting ink in this way, and because if the cartridge runs dry the printer itself is irredeemably ruined. As mentioned earlier in this article, new Epson and HP printers use chipped cartridges that have the print-head on the cartridge, which is an expensive overhead. New Canon printers use non-chipped cartridges. The print-head is built into the printer. Therefore, Canon printers are less expensive to maintain than Epson and HP printers.

An explanation of the terms used to describe printing methods

Duplex printing is the ability of the printer to print on both sides of the paper, as is required when printing a book.

Automatic duplexing requires printer hardware that takes the pages as they come out of the printer and then feeds them back into it the other way up. This makes duplex printing very easy. Inkjet printers have to pause to allow the ink to dry before re-feeding the paper.

Manual duplexing requires a manual re-feeding of the pages.

Reverse-order printing means that the printer is set to print the last page first and the first page last so that the whole book or articles does not have to be reordered, because the first page will be at the top of the pile instead of at the bottom.

Multiple-up printing saves paper by reducing the pages so that many pages can be printed to a single sheet of paper.

A relatively cheap printer with a built-in duplex unit is the HP DeskJet 980 that retails at about £165.

How inkjet and laser printers and scanners work and how to install a printer in Windows XP

If you want to know how inkjet, laser printers, and scanners work, visit these articles:

How Inkjet Printers Work -

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/inkjet-printer.htm

How Laser Printers Work -

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/laser-printer.htm

How Scanners Work -

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/scanner.htm

If you want to know how to install a printer in Windows XP, visit this article:

How To Install printers -

http://www.smartcomputing.com/Editorial/..../21w02/21w02.asp&guid=

Printer reviews

Click here! to go to the printer review links on this page. Use your browser's Back button to return to this point on the page.

Google searches

If my descriptions are not clear enough for you, you'll be able to find many sites offering illustrated information on how to install computer components by entering a phrase such as "install a xxxx" (where xxxx stands for the device, such as RAM, hard disk drive, etc.) in the Google search box at the top of this page (with its Web radio button enabled).

PC Buyer Beware! Copyright © Eric Legge 2004-2008. All rights reserved.