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The average Joe has pretty simple printing needs (a work contract, an airline ticket, a funny blog post to stick on the fridge door, and the like) which can easily be met with a sheaf of white paper and some basic HP ink. But some people have much more complex needs: namely, the designers and engineers that simply can’t work with an average 2-D print-out, but instead need a fully dimensional recreation of their vision. That’s where the futuristic 3-D printer comes in: a gadget that interprets designs and plans, and churns out an actual, three-dimensional model of them—in full color, no less!

Well, that full-color part is actually still in the works, thanks to a forthcoming innovation by Hewlett Packard. Yes, this giant supplier of personal and business printers and printing accoutrements is getting into the highly specialized three dimensional printing biz, and though the forthcoming units promise to be pretty expensive, and thus out of reach of the average consumer (retailing at a couple grand a piece), they still undercut current prices for similar machines, which currently retail for an average of $15,000 a pop, making HP’s prices seem downright democratic.

The techie press reports that, although these models aren’t yet available on the market (and probably won’t be for some time), some prototypes are already being sent to hand-picked users in Europe for testing. If you have Star Trek-like fantasies of owning your own 3D printer that could spit out anything your little heart desires (maybe you need a new chair for that guest room, or a charming doll for your daughter’s birthday), don’t hold your breath. These special printers are really reserved for design professionals, and similar gadgets won’t be available to the average consumer for quite some time.

Even if they were available to the average consumer, the 3D objects that they make are still paper-based, and rather flimsy at that. It isn’t witchcraft, after all; it’ll be a while before you can just whip a delicious pizza out of thin air, no matter how expensive your printer was. Doesn’t hurt to keep dreaming, though!

So here’s a brief run-down of printing as most of us know it: you type something up on your computer, press the print button, go over to your printer and grab the sheets of paper that are the result of this operation. In the mundane course of your day-to-day responsibilities, do you ever wish that printing could be something more exciting? Something more like, say, Star Trek, where you could type something into your computer, and instead of just getting a 2-D print-out, you could print the actual object? Well, although you probably won’t want to scrap your paper and HP ink just yet, technological advances may slowly be getting you closer and closer to your dream.

At McGill University in Montreal, Canada, a futuristic three-dimensional printer has been equipped with the power to “print” out ice sculptures. Yes, you read that right ice sculpture. A class of designing and engineering students came up with the concept by equipping an already existing 3-D printer with a special system to transport and freeze water.

The fruits of their labor? Some whimsical, ambiguously shaped sculptures and a giant beer mug (these are, after all, college students; oversized beer mugs seem very important at that age). Admittedly, for the moment, this project doesn’t appear to have very much use-value, apart from a draw for tourism. And hey, local liquor establishments would probably be glad to have a drinking vessel guaranteed to keep beer ice cold.

Well, whoever said the future of printing had to be useful. It’s still pretty cool! At least it gives you something to daydream about the next time you have to spend an afternoon photocopying and printing some plain old paperwork or less-than scintillating brochures at your office’s regular 2-D printer. One thing’s for sure: you wouldn’t want to be printing out those important contracts as an ice sculpture, so count yourself lucky that the ink-and-paper model of printer hasn’t gone out the window quite yet.

It looks like there’s no sector that the economic downturn isn’t affecting in this day and age. Stocks are down, jobs are scarce and, apparently, people are printing less. Major media are reporting that the printing business is particularly hard hit in the current economic climate, meaning that stock in HP ink is going down in accordance with a decrease in demand.

Analysts say that the drop in printing (and, as a result, ink usage) is only to be expected. After all, when major companies have laid off thousands of employees, there are simply fewer people around to use the printers; it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that one out. Of course, companies are also encouraging staff to develop a “paper-less” office environment, and to work with documents as much as possible on the computer, as opposed to on paper. This is often in the guise of environmentalism, but it’s the bottom line that counts: cash-strapped businesses are desperate to save money on paper and ink, one of an office’s greatest costs at a reported $8,000 per gallon (more than prices fetched by both oil and human blood).

But printer and ink companies beg to differ. Hewlett Packard claims that, despite the numbers, the truth is that people are printing just as much as they always did. Sales numbers have been going down not because people don’t want to print anymore, but because companies aren’t stocking up on ink cartridges like that used to. In the old days, office managers might buy ink supplies to last for an entire year all in one go. Now that budgets are growing increasingly precarious, however, offices resort to buying small, short-term orders, which may temporarily drive sales figures down, but in appearance only.

Worse than the recession is the problem of ink piracy, says HP. Stealing HP cartridges and reselling them at a small discount, or reselling them at a steeply reduced price under a different name altogether, has become an increasing problem for the major ink companies. In fact, HP loses billions of dollars in sales each year just due to these counterfeiting problems, recession or no recession.

Imagine this scenario: your printer is out of ink and, hoping to save money, you take a trip to your local mom and pop store instead of a big chain. There, you find a lot of HP ink at an incredible value, at several dollars off the regular store price. Too good to be true, right? You buy a few cartridges, take them home…and then discover that yes, indeed, it was too good to be true. The ink cartridges either don’t work or, even worse, damage your printer! So what happened? Did the seemingly innocent mom and pop back at the discount store pull one over on you?

The truth is that they were probably just as unaware as you were that the ink was no good. International media outlets have been reporting recent upsurges in ink counterfeiting. This first became a major problem in 2007, when it’s estimated that Hewlett Packard lost one billion dollars in sales due to ink counterfeiting.

Since then, the company has had a secretive team of “ink detectives” on the prowl, searching for ink scammers. They’ve certainly had their hands busy: in 2010, HP sued several companies for ink counterfeiting after a rash of high jacking incidents in Asia, where several trucks transporting the company’s ink cartridges were pulled over and robbed. Soon after, some companies began selling those exact same cartridges under their own names, or instead sold them at a sharp discount to smaller outlets. In fact, some sources state that as many as one in twenty ink cartridges on any given store shelf may be fake!

So what does this mean for you as a consumer? Unfortunately, in the short term this will probably lead to higher prices, as the company loses in profits and has to spend more on its “ink detectives.” Fortunately, as the international community becomes more aware of the problem and more counterfeiters get shut down, prices should be able to lower again.

When it comes to computers, sometimes it seems like what should be the simplest thing in the world becomes incredibly, frustratingly complicated. Like, let’s say that you’re at work. You had to bring your laptop with you to work on some files, and now you’re ready to print. Maybe the files aren’t compatible with the software on your work computer so you want to print directly from your laptop. You go to the printer to make sure that it’s well stocked with paper and a new HP ink cartridge, since this is an important document and you don’t want anything to go wrong. You go back to your computer, press “print,” and…nothing happens.

Nothing happens, that is, except a tiny message appears saying “install device driver,” or “can’t find printer driver.” There are few situations in your professional life more mind-bogglingly frustrating than this one: you’re sitting right next to the printer because r, all systems are go, and you can’t print because of one measly missing driver; and, to make matters worse, you can’t switch to another computer because of software compatibility issues. Why on earth can’t those big corporations with all their advanced technologies just make all electronics, everywhere, compatible with one another?

If you have experienced this same frustration, then drum roll, please: HP, Google and Microsoft are all taking one little step closer to attaining that heavenly paradise that is known as universal compatibility. And it all comes down to something called “cloud” technology. It’s a little bit complicated and technical, but in basic terms, it means that computers, printers and other devices will be able to communicate with each other in virtual space (hence, the cloud metaphor) without needing to plug them into each other or other inconveniences, like installing those pesky drivers. Basically, it means that you would be able to send your documents to any printer, anywhere, with the mere click of a button!

Google has already been using this technology for its email and other services, and now printers are starting to get into the business. At the beginning of 2010, Hewlett Packard and Microsoft signed an agreement to start working on this technology so that very soon, everyone’s time in the office will become that much easier.

You might want to go to a wikipedia article for some additional information if you know that you are a photographer who would ideally like to print out all of your own digital photographs. This is a very convenient thing to do if you are absolutely sick of having to go out to a remote printing facility each and every time you would like to share one of your digital images with others. You will find that this is something that is quite beneficial because the moment you capture a fantastic image, you will be able to have it in tangible form.
The other thing to note about printing if you are a photographer is that it is going to be very important for you to make sure that you are using compatible cartridges at all times. If you are someone who loves to take close up images of nature, for instance, then you are going to need to feel confident that these images are going to look stellar before you ever put then up in an art gallery.
Speed is also important if you are printing out some photographs, especially if you know you are going to have to print out high volume for an upcoming art show in town. Do not change the setting on your printer from anything but top quality. You are going to want to feel confident that you are printing out photographs that clearly indicate the time and attention you spent taking it in the first place.
Finally, keep in mind that the best photography is often printed out on a different kind of high gloss paper that you would not use for an ordinary document. However, this paper is definitely going to serve to make your prints look much better, and they are going to seem as realistic as prints that might have been printed out on some expensive film.

If you watch the right video, then you will know all about how to replace your ink with ease. You will find that the replacement process is actually something that is incredibly easy to do so long as you have taken the time to go through the information necessary to ensure that the prints are going to be up to your standards. The replacement process itself is only going to take a couple of minutes at most, but it is still going to be worth your time to watch these videos if you have never been in charge of this task in the past.
Remember that when you are replacing the cartridges, make sure to have HP ink on hand if this is what is the recommended type to put with your printer. You might want to buy this kind of ink if you know that it is going to enhance the quality of your documents to a degree that is going to be extremely impressive to whomever comes into contact with them.
Also, you should never force the cartridges into place if you feel like they don’t fit into the allotted slots in your printer. Rather, you might ask someone if you are uncertain that you’ve grabbed the right kind of ink. This is something very important to do, and you should always replace the cartridges with a proper amount of gentle care so that they don’t malfunction.
Keep in mind that the best cartridges are going to be those that are compatible, but this doesn’t mean that they have to be made by the exact same manufacturer as the one who made your printer. You could easily get some great prints by using remanufactured cartridges, for instance, if you feel like these would do just a good of a job of making some stellar prints.

Going to a good youtube video is a very important thing to do if you feel like you would like to get a higher amount of efficiency from your printer. No one likes to feel like a slow printer is standing in their way of some heightened productivity. Therefore, in order to feel better about all you can accomplish throughout the day, it might serve you well to do more with your cartridges and printing supplies in terms of ensuring that they are compatible.
The other thing to remember is that if you are able to optimize your printer, then you are going to benefit from having it run smoothly at all times. Usually, when the efficiency is compromised, this means that someone did not load the paper in a correct manner or the cartridges were forced into place. Make sure that everyone in the office is briefed on proper use of the printer.
Also, you could do some thinking about how the right supplies will play an integral role in the quality of your prints. You should never settle for prints that look anything less than stellar, especially if you know that your boss is going to see them or that some potential clients are going to see them and are therefore going to judge your attention to detail.
The most efficient printer will also come in handy if you would like to tackle some more complicated tasks such as printing out your own digital photography. If you have not optimized your printer in the proper manner, then it might be very difficult for you to have good prints because you will find that your printer is liable to go slower when it is struggling through a complex task.

You should make sure to go to cesweb.org if you know that you would like to ideally get precision out of the ink that you use with your printer. This is something important if you know that you would like to use these prints in the professional world. If you are someone out looking for a job, then the potential employers definitely are not going to be impressed with a resume that looks blurry or smudged. You would want to put your best foot forward in this situation.
Another reason why precision might be important is that it is going to allow you to do more with your printer than you ever thought possible. You might want to think about how you could do some design with the printer, or even print out your own business cards. If you can count on the printer to always deliver precise lines, then there is no reason to pay someone else to do these things.
You also could think about how this precise ink is going to help you do more with your printer as someone who loves to print out their own photography. Precision is going to play a key role whenever you are thinking about printing out some close up images. Therefore, you should make certain is that your cartridges are up to par just so that you do not have to worry about whether or not the images might look less than perfect.
Also, make sure that you have considered the potential of buying remanufactured cartridges in an effort to save a bit of money and also do something that is very good for the environment. This is going to be quite beneficial to you if you know that you’d ideally like to get more out of your printed documents and you also would like to make sure that the cartridges are just as good as new.

As you will discover from going through howstuffworks.com, recycling all of your HP ink is going to come with some distinct benefits. It would serve you well to find out exactly what these benefits entail if you are having some misgivings about recycling in the first place. Many people assume that they simply do not have enough time in their schedules to really get involved with saving the planet, but this simply is not the case whatsoever. This is just an excuse people make who are ultimately uninformed.
You will note that the right recycling program to suit your needs might be one that involves recycling on a remote basis. Many people prefer to recycle in this manner just because it means that they do not have to leave the comfort of their home or office in order to do something very good for the environment, and they will love the fact that it still is going to serve to get the job done.

If you opt to recycle your used cartridges, then you are going to benefit from the fact that you can easily get some good use out of your printer and still feel good about the fact that the products are not going to wind up in a landfill. You might note that the right products will even optimize your printer in a new way, and you can do a high volume of printing with a clear conscience.
The other thing to note about a benefit of recycling is that it can certainly serve to get you some new business. You might realize that the right program is going to serve you well because it is going to allow you to recycle and still inspire others to do the same thing. Make sure to include this type of information in the very next mass e-mail you send to your potential clients.

Many consumers understand how hp ink recycling on their end helps to prevent environmental damage. By simply inserting used printer cartridges into the envelopes that HP includes in every box of cartridges sold and leaving the envelopes in their outgoing mail, the average ink user helps to keep toxic e-waste out of the landfills. Consumers can also avail themselves of various free services offered by non-profit organizations devoted to helping people recycle their e-waste, supporting community endeavors (like afterschool projects) in the process.

That’s all well and good, but what about environmentally friendly acts on the Hewlett Packard’s end? What has this mega corporation done for the earth lately? Well, according to some sources, HP has been working hard to be deserving of the accolades its garnered in the international press for being one of the world’s greenest companies. In particular, in 2007 HP redesigned the packaging for its ink cartridges to be more environmentally friendly, resulting in a mega reduction of green house gases. According to HP, in 2007 alone this change reduced its emissions of greenhouse gases by around thirty seven million pounds, which is akin to keeping three thousand, six hundred cars off the road for an entire year.

Part of the reason behind this huge savings in noxious emissions is the fact that the cartridge packaging now requires about fifteen million pounds less of materials than it did before. Packaging also now mostly consists of earth-friendly, easily biodegradable cardboard and paperboard, as opposed to the very environmentally unfriendly polyvinyl chloride plastic, or PVC.

The benefits of the new packaging extend beyond HP as an organization. The savings will also be passed on to distributors and retailers, who will find the new packages more space-efficient, thus allowing them more room in their trucks and shelves and, hence, fewer trips needed to pick up more stock.

Do you remember that movie, “Twister,” with Helen Hunt? In it, Hunt played a tornado-chaser who was trying to dump a barrel-load of tiny sensors into the eye of the tornado, in order to obtain fine grained data about the storm. Well, thanks to the makers of hp ink information about our entire planet (not just tornados) may soon be available at this same, microcosmic, fine grain level, thanks to hp’s widely touted “smart dust” system.

It may seem like a long leap for the makers of popular home and business printers, inks and papers, but it’s true: Hewlett Packard is reportedly developing an intricate system of small sensors that will be distributed around the planet to collect ambiguously defined information, such as the average energy consumption of a given community, or the evolving shape and size of a given ecosystem.

It might sound potentially creepy; exactly what kind of information will HP be collecting? You don’t have to be paranoid to get the impression that this sounds like some sort of creepy, invasive spying system. But the company assures its public that the only information it collects will be of the environmental sort, promising a boon in our understanding of the way the planet works, and thus improving our capacity to protect the environment by changing our habits.

So why would an ink manufacturer set its sights on such a seemingly mysterious, and certainly grandiose, project? To stay competitive in a global market that has taken its share of the punches dealt by the economic meltdown. According to stats on the company’s health, people just aren’t buying as much paper and ink as they did before recession, so HP has to step it up to remain competitive with other techie mega-giants like Microsoft and Google, the latter of which has its own pseudo-spy systems in effect with programs like Google Earth. The paranoids amongst us are going to have a hard time sleeping in the coming years if this trend of invasive sensors continues.

You’ve been doing your part to keep the environment at least a little bit cleaner. You recycle paper, plastic, glass, and whenever possible, your used electronic items, as well. Of course, some techie pieces are easier to recycle than others, but you know one thing that’s always easy: hp ink recycling. You just stick your old cartridge in the envelope that it came with when you bought it (already addressed and stamped by Hewlett Packard themselves, thank you very much), lick the flap and throw it in your outgoing mail for the mailman. It’s a cinch!

It may be easy for you, but sometimes it’s not so easy to get others to see the light. That’s why having a big, community-wide recycling event can be a really great idea: not only does it immediately serve a purpose by collecting a ton of recyclables that would otherwise have been thrown away, but an event of this nature also helps to raise awareness and get people to think twice before blindly tossing something in the regular trash can.

One great way to start with community recycling events is to have a used ink cartridge collection day. For those who lost those handy envelopes described above, never knew what they for or never even got one in their packaging, this is a great way to safely dispose of their used cartridges. Try coordinating with your local school, church group or some other community organization that has some space and that you enjoy working with. Pick a date (weekend afternoons usually work best) where anyone can come by and drop off their used cartridges. Publicize the event with fliers, announcements in the school newsletter and inviting people on your social media sites of choice. Hopefully, word will spread quickly and you’ll get a fantastic turn-out.

On the day of the event, try to encourage a friendly, social atmosphere where people won’t just drop off their stuff and leave, but will stick around to learn more about e-waste, recycling and what they can do to help the environment in their day to day lives. If you have the budget, provide some refreshments (or make it a pot luck!) and encourage an open dialogue with whoever drops by.

When we run to the office supply cabinet or local office supply store to pick up a fresh cartridge of ink, usually too much thought doesn’t’ go into the process. Most people just look for the cartridge that’s the right model, has a good value for the money and, alongside that, is offered for a fairly reasonable price; then they just pop that puppy into the printer and start printing away in happy ignorance of all of the ramifications of their purchase. For those who have a little bit more curiosity about the materials they work with, though, there is a wealth of hp ink information out there on the web for anyone to peruse.

One interesting report on the Hewlett Packard website revealed intriguing information regarding the durability and performance of its inks when paired with that archenemy of ink and paper anywhere: water. According to hp, staff chemists have worked tirelessly for literally thousands of hours trying to find the absolutely perfect chemical composition of ink that will allow for bright, durable color, high precision, a high page yield and total efficiency, all without risking water damage.

Pretty amazing, right? But even beyond that, the hp people have been hard at work not only on their inks, but also on supports, like their advanced photo paper which is also water resistant. This special paper is non-porous, glossy and slick, thus ultra resistant to spills, messes and unexpected rain storms, while the ceramic pigments in the inks are also highly water resistant and dry extra fast compared to your average printer ink.

As you can learn from reading reports on the Hewlett Packard website, hp backs up these claims to durability with an extensive track record of testing. Employees took pictures printed with hp inks on hp photo paper and did things like spray them with water, dip them in water and even leave them fully immersed in water for one hour, then tested to see of the image remained true. So if you see on the ink cartridge label a claim to be water resistant, you can be rest assured that the manufacturers know what they’re talking about!

Ok, if you’re reading this article, the chances are you are already convinced about the merits of recycling your printer ink cartridges. You know that hp ink recycling isn’t just good for the environment; it’s also incredibly fast and easy, thanks to Hewlett Packard’s own recycling program as well as several similar programs run by non-profit ecology groups across the nation. Clearly, then, there’s no excuse not to recycle your used up ink cartridges! But how to convince those that aren’t quite as earth-friendly as you are?

We all have them: those friends, neighbors or family members who might pay pretty good lip service to environmental protection, but when it comes to their own daily routine, are only too happy to just toss environmentally noxious products like ink cartridges straight into the trash without another moment’s thought. Or maybe they don’t even do so much as pay “lip service” to environmental protection, but really and truly don’t care.

This can be infuriating for those of us who really do care about the environment and know how important it is to recycle ink cartridges; especially when it’s so incredibly easy to do so. So how can you convince the naysayers, the ignorant or the simply lazy? There are a couple of strategies you can try out to get people to do the responsible thing.

First, remember not to get preachy and high-and-mighty with the offending person; this can be an incredible turn-off and will not motivate anyone to change their ways. Instead, be proactive and offer to recycle their cartridges for them. If they reply that they wouldn’t want you to go the trouble, explain why it is absolutely no trouble for you at all. They’ll either let you do it, or realize how simple the task is and recycle the cartridges themselves, so it’s a win-win situation. You can also try launching a big group event, like a mass collection of cartridges, at a local school or community organization, to help raise awareness about ink recycling and its importance.

Got electronics? Try checking out the manufacturer’s website, just for kicks. While recently searching for some basic hp ink information on the Hewlett-Packard website (just some simple stuff, like model compatibility and page yield information), a veritable universe of educational opportunities was revealed. Not only did the site contain that product information, but it also had a wealth of articles and videos about other topics that most ink-purchasers would be interested in, like which papers interact best with various HP inks according to the type of printing (along with the testing and statistical data to back that information up).

That’s not all. Interested in how well HP ink interacts with photo paper and how durable those images will be? Then you may also be interested in the online photography classes that you can find on that same website. Some of the class topics include a creative introduction to taking digital photographs; digital portrait photography; digital vacation photography and taking action shots with your digital camera. You can also find courses on organizing and preserving your digital photo files as well as your printed photos, how to scan your print photos, and how to restore and preserve your old family pictures.

If you enroll in the class, you can virtually meet your qualified instructor and interact with him or her and any other enrolled students on the virtual message board. You can follow the online lessons at your own pace, report your progress and ask the teacher and other students for advice.

It’s a pretty fantastic thing, when you go online to get some basics about the ink cartridge that you need to purchase, and then leave with a cornucopia of information about the ins and outs of digital and print photography. It’ll give you a whole new perspective on editing and printing your photos on your home printer.

It’s far too easy: you press the “print” button, only to find that you’ve run out of ink and it’s time to replace the cartridge. So you open the printer, take old the old cartridge, stick in the new one and…just toss that empty cartridge into the trash. Millions of people do it every day, even though hp ink recycling is easier than ever before: all you have to do is stick the old cartridge into the self-addressed, pre-stamped envelope that HP included in the cartridge box when you bought it. There’s no excuse not to recycle!

Tossing away those old cartridges into the regular trash is absolutely devastating for the environment. These cartridges contribute to the tons of e-waste that cause irreversible pollution and very real harm to the people in developing nations who have to deal with it. But now, forgetting to recycle your old ink containers can have detrimental effects not only in the world’s environment, but in your very own community, as well.

Why, might you ask? Well, in addition to HP’s own recycling program, there are an increasing number of organizations that undertake the recycling of electronics (like old cell phones, laptops and yes, ink cartridges) for you. These organizations are able to reuse or resell the various items in an ecologically friendly way for profit, and then donate a percentage of the proceeds to area schools and other non-profit organizations, like shelters for domestic abuse.

Some of these organizations include Access Recycling and Cartridges for Kids. All you have to do is sign up for the service, pack up your materials and ship them using the free labels that the programs send you, and the rest is taken care of. Then you can rest easy with the knowledge that you’ve done your part for the environment and the children in your community, leaving you with no excuse not to recycle.