Befor buying a printer....
Here are some questions you should keep in mind to ask the sales person
at the printer store of your choice:
1.) How does the printer handle different types of paper?
Check and see if the printer can handle things like envelopes, cards or other types of paper you might use. Also, ask how much paper the printer is able to hold at one time.
You don't want to be constantly refilling the paper and you don't want to run into any paper jams.
2.) What type of ink cartridge does the printer take?
You'll want to ask about black and color ink cartridges. Check on the cost of them (you don't want to be forking out tons of money for ink later on), how easy the installation is for refills, etc. Ink is what makes your projects turn out at all, so you want your new printer to be top notch in that area. Also, even if you're buying a printer on the cheaper side, it may cost more to refill the ink down the road, so always double check on this.
3.) How easy is it to install this printer on my computer?
Always ask the sales person who is helping you how the installation process is. Some printers can be more difficult than others and you can save yourself some hassle by asking. Most printers just come with a CD kit and you just have to walk through the process with a wizard, but make sure that is all you're getting yourself into.
4.) How durable is the printer?
Depending on what you're going to be printing with your new printer,
you'll want to find out how much it can handle. If you're only going to be printing items every so often, a standard printer will be fine, but if you're going to be printing in high volume, you may need something a little more advanced.
5.) Does the printer handle postscript language?
If you're going to be printing a lot of heavy graphics and so forth, make sure your printer supports the language.
6.) How noisy is this printer?
You should definitely ask the sales person to do a quick test print for you so that you will be able to see exactly how your printer will act and also how it will sound. You don't want your printer to be so noisy that
every time you print something, you can't even hear yourself think.
7.) What type of warranty does the printer come with?
Always check on this to keep yourself covered.
8.) And finally, the most important question of all: How much does it cost?
If you keep these sample questions in mind, you should be able to find the printer of your dreams and one that will fulfill all your needs.
Happy shopping!
And now some bytes of info
Kilo, Mega, What?
With so many different file sizes, it may be hard to keep them all straight, so here is a little refresher that any computer user can always use! So, what really are the differences in all of the sizes you see on your computer?
Kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, etc?
File sizes tend to be one of the more perplexing issues for both the fledgling and intermediate computer user. So, we've put together a breakdown of the various file size "units" you may encounter.
Bit - The smallest unit in computing. It can have a value of 1 or 0.
You'd be hard pressed to find a file size listed in bits.
Byte - A (still small) unit of information made up of 8 bits.
Kilobyte(KB) - A unit of approximately 1,000 bytes (1,024 to be exact).
Most download sites use kilobytes when they give file sizes.
Megabyte (MB) - 220 bytes = 1,048,576 bytes or 1,024 kilobytes.
Sometimes used to mean 1 million bytes.
Gigabyte (GB) - Approximately 1 billion bytes (1,024 MB).
Most hard drive sizes are listed in gigabytes.
OK, now for a little practical application.
A 3 1/2" floppy disk holds 1.44 Megabytes (1,474 KB).
A CD Rom holds 650 to 700 Megabytes (though most programs you get don't utilize the whole amount).
This would be around 450 of those 3.5 floppies.
A 20 Gig hard drive will hold the same amount of info as 31 CD ROMs or 14,222 floppy disks.
It takes between 7 to 10 minutes to download a one megabyte (1,024 KB) file using the average dial up Internet connection.
A typical page of text is around 4KB.
To see the size of a given file, just right-click it (in Explorer or My Computer) and select Properties from the resulting menu (or Alt+ double click the file).
I know that even with the information above, it can still be confusing,
so I thought I would compare these digital units of measure to some everyday objects.
Just picture them being completely hollow so you can store information in them.
Bit - Let's call this a regular sized marble.
Byte - Compared to the marble, this would be a baseball.
Kilobyte - Now we jump up to a pickup truck size.
Megabyte - Now for the leap - this would be a medium sized sky scraper.
Gigabyte - Take 1,024 of the medium sized sky scrapers
and stick them together for this one!
at the printer store of your choice:
1.) How does the printer handle different types of paper?
Check and see if the printer can handle things like envelopes, cards or other types of paper you might use. Also, ask how much paper the printer is able to hold at one time.
You don't want to be constantly refilling the paper and you don't want to run into any paper jams.
2.) What type of ink cartridge does the printer take?
You'll want to ask about black and color ink cartridges. Check on the cost of them (you don't want to be forking out tons of money for ink later on), how easy the installation is for refills, etc. Ink is what makes your projects turn out at all, so you want your new printer to be top notch in that area. Also, even if you're buying a printer on the cheaper side, it may cost more to refill the ink down the road, so always double check on this.
3.) How easy is it to install this printer on my computer?
Always ask the sales person who is helping you how the installation process is. Some printers can be more difficult than others and you can save yourself some hassle by asking. Most printers just come with a CD kit and you just have to walk through the process with a wizard, but make sure that is all you're getting yourself into.
4.) How durable is the printer?
Depending on what you're going to be printing with your new printer,
you'll want to find out how much it can handle. If you're only going to be printing items every so often, a standard printer will be fine, but if you're going to be printing in high volume, you may need something a little more advanced.
5.) Does the printer handle postscript language?
If you're going to be printing a lot of heavy graphics and so forth, make sure your printer supports the language.
6.) How noisy is this printer?
You should definitely ask the sales person to do a quick test print for you so that you will be able to see exactly how your printer will act and also how it will sound. You don't want your printer to be so noisy that
every time you print something, you can't even hear yourself think.
7.) What type of warranty does the printer come with?
Always check on this to keep yourself covered.
8.) And finally, the most important question of all: How much does it cost?
If you keep these sample questions in mind, you should be able to find the printer of your dreams and one that will fulfill all your needs.
Happy shopping!
And now some bytes of info
Kilo, Mega, What?
With so many different file sizes, it may be hard to keep them all straight, so here is a little refresher that any computer user can always use! So, what really are the differences in all of the sizes you see on your computer?
Kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, etc?
File sizes tend to be one of the more perplexing issues for both the fledgling and intermediate computer user. So, we've put together a breakdown of the various file size "units" you may encounter.
Bit - The smallest unit in computing. It can have a value of 1 or 0.
You'd be hard pressed to find a file size listed in bits.
Byte - A (still small) unit of information made up of 8 bits.
Kilobyte(KB) - A unit of approximately 1,000 bytes (1,024 to be exact).
Most download sites use kilobytes when they give file sizes.
Megabyte (MB) - 220 bytes = 1,048,576 bytes or 1,024 kilobytes.
Sometimes used to mean 1 million bytes.
Gigabyte (GB) - Approximately 1 billion bytes (1,024 MB).
Most hard drive sizes are listed in gigabytes.
OK, now for a little practical application.
A 3 1/2" floppy disk holds 1.44 Megabytes (1,474 KB).
A CD Rom holds 650 to 700 Megabytes (though most programs you get don't utilize the whole amount).
This would be around 450 of those 3.5 floppies.
A 20 Gig hard drive will hold the same amount of info as 31 CD ROMs or 14,222 floppy disks.
It takes between 7 to 10 minutes to download a one megabyte (1,024 KB) file using the average dial up Internet connection.
A typical page of text is around 4KB.
To see the size of a given file, just right-click it (in Explorer or My Computer) and select Properties from the resulting menu (or Alt+ double click the file).
I know that even with the information above, it can still be confusing,
so I thought I would compare these digital units of measure to some everyday objects.
Just picture them being completely hollow so you can store information in them.
Bit - Let's call this a regular sized marble.
Byte - Compared to the marble, this would be a baseball.
Kilobyte - Now we jump up to a pickup truck size.
Megabyte - Now for the leap - this would be a medium sized sky scraper.
Gigabyte - Take 1,024 of the medium sized sky scrapers
and stick them together for this one!
Cheers!!!
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