"THE INKSIDER" _______________________________________ July 2001 Newsletter #5-708 ======================================= This newsletter only goes to people who subscribe to it. Unsubscribe instructions are at the bottom of the newsletter. ///////////Please support our sponsor\\\\\\\\\\\\\ If YOU Can't Find It ORURA Can! ORURA can find what you're looking for. ORURA is a Search Engine and Directory all in one. ORURA is quick and to the point. List your site for free or take advantage of our Pay per Click keyword advertising. Put your listing at the top for as little as 0.01 cents per bidded listing! Send online greeting cards for free! Join our Affiliates program and you too can have your very own Pay per Click Search Engine on your web site TODAY! Check out - orura.com. http://www.orura.com ////////////////////ORURA.com\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ ================================================== This newsletter is brought to you by Atlascopy.com. Company Goal: Offer you, the consumer, a cost savings alter- native to expensive OEM cartridges. Our cartridges are 50 to 80 percent less expensive than OEM's. We also have Refill Kits, which can save you up to 90 percent. ================================================== 1. Industry News from each Major Manufacturer 2. Atlascopy.com New Products 3. General Tips ================================================== Industry News from each Major Manufacturer Every newsletter will have news from each Major Manufacturer. This section will talk about new products and new methods to refill. Federal Trade Commission has ruled that competing products, including recycled cartridges can be used without voiding the warranty of your printer. Hewlett Packard Consumer Reports has two HP printers at the top of their list for best printer. The DeskJet 970Cse at about $300 dollars and the PhotoSmart P1100xi at about $400. Consumer Reports tested both printers and said that the two produced text rivaling that of the best laser printers and did excellent with photos. With the PhotoSmart you can even print right from your digital camera memory card. Lexmark Lexmark International, Inc. recently introduced the Lexmark X83 and X73 All-In-One Print Centers. These value-packed digital imaging centers combine Lexmark's award-winning inkjet print technology with scan and copy capabilities, enabling creativity and enhanced functionality for home and small office/home office (SOHO) users. Prices were not available at the time of this printing. Lexmark is the first to deliver consumers industry-leading 2400 x 1200 dots per inch (dpi) print resolution on all paper types, a flexible flatbed scanner, and top-quality copy capabilities all under $200, said Tim Craig, Lexmark vice president and president of its Consumer Printer Division. The new All-In-One Print Centers set a precedent for value-packed, compact solutions that not only handle a variety of imaging needs, but bring memories to life in the form of brilliant photo-quality output. Canon June 25, 2001 Canon U.S.A. receives "Supplier of the year" award from Staples, inc. Looks like we have a lot of work to do. :-) The last inkjet printer introduced by Canon was the S600 in April. Here is an excerpt from their press release: COSTA MESA, California, April 9, 2001 - Canon U.S.A. Inc., a division of Canon Inc. (NYSE: CAJ), announced today its S600 Bubble Jet printer which the company believes sets new standards for performance in the mid-range ink jet printing market for small office/home office (SOHO) users. The S600 printer, new to the company's broad range of Bubble Jet printers, boasts high-resolution four-color printing at 2400x1200 dpi - 38 percent higher resolution than 2880x720 dpi printers - and produces laser-quality text at up to 15 pages-per-minute (ppm) as well as stunning 8x10-inch photos on plain paper in approximately 90 seconds. The S600 printer also includes the exclusive Canon ThinkTank System - individual ink tanks for each color (CMYK) and a low-ink sensor - an intelligent, economical system. For only $199* estimated street price, the S600 printer offers a combined feature set that no competitive printer can match. "The ink jet printer market has been waiting for a product that can deliver higher resolutions without compromising speed - our S600 printer answers that need for every SOHO customer," says John Arnos, senior vice president of sales and general manager for the Digital Home and Personal Systems Division of Canon U.S.A. Inc. "But, what truly sets this printer apart from the competition is our unique individual ink tank system as well as archival quality photo prints that can last approximately 25 years without fading. Whether you want text, Web pages or photos - all at top speeds - the S600 printer is the most feature-rich printer on the market today. It's technology that makes sense." Its rather long but you can read the rest at: http://consumer.usa.canon.com/press/2001/040901_1.html It looks like the S600 will use the BCI3 cartridges. We also just found out that Canon has discontinued the BC-50 print head. This holds the BCI-5 cartridges which are very popular yet and we sell a lot of them. This move doesn't make much sense to us. Canon has been trying to upgrade their BCI-5 users to the new BCI-6 cartridge. They claim that the colors are more vibrant but we believe because of the popularity of the cartridge they are trying to thwart the efforts of the generic manufacturers. If you are using the BCI-5 cartridges and don't want to change then just don't install the new driver that Canon is pushing with great effort. After you install the updated driver you pretty much have to use the new BCI-6's. If you don't the colors will be off slightly. We put the BCI-6 cartridges on our web site after we were informed by our vendors that they were available. However, after we put our initial order in we were told that they would not be available for another month. Go figure! ================================================= Ever wonder what certain words mean, when reading your printer manual. Each week, I will give a couple of new words to better help you when looking for a new printer or for supplies for your printer. Draft Mode In draft mode, an inkjet printer operates at its fastest speed but sacrifices resolution. Draft mode on laser printers, which only print at one speed, saves toner. You can save a lot of ink using draft mode with inkjet printers but you may not like the results. High-quality Mode In high-quality, or HQ, mode, an inkjet prints at its highest resolution. This is generally used when printing final output. HQ printing takes considerably longer, especially when out- putting graphics. Resolution Measured in dots per inch (dpi), resolution is a metric for the quality of the material being printed. The more dots per inch, the higher the resolution and the higher the quality. ================================================= Atlascopy.com New Products This section will promote the new products being offered to the consumer from Atlascopy.com. We encourage you to take a look at our website because we update regularly. We plan to have a line of CD labeling products very soon. keep Checking the web site under media. Looking for Greeting Card stock or Photo Glossy paper check out our Media and Paper section. Our films and papers are designed to perform equally well with Repeat-O-Type Brand inks and those offered by the printer manufacturers. http://atlascopy.com/media.htm We are now selling OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) products. We are selling Epson, Canon, Lexmark, Compaq, Nec, Hewlett Packard, Brother, and Xerox cartridges. OEM cartridges can be found here: http://atlascopy.com/cartridges/ ================================================= General Tips Each newsletter will have a few tips to help you in the re- filling process. You can Email questions to atlas@dvol.com. What is the difference between standard dye-based ink and pigmented ink? Water Resistance The dye in the dye-based ink dissolves in water like sugar does in water -- completely. Pigment does not dissolve completely. It is more like a flour and water mixture. Because of this, dye-based inks flow better and have been the standard in inkjet printers. But the dye will re-dissolve and the ink will flow across the paper if drops of water hit the paper. Pigmented ink particles tend to settle into the tiny fibers that make up the paper. As the ink dries, the pigment particles get stuck in the fibers. Thus, the pigmented inks are more water resistant than the dye-based inks. Only about 5 to 10 percent of the ink will re-flow if the paper is hit by water. Fade Resistance The molecules in dye-based inks are spread out. You might think of dye-based ink on paper as similar to a beach covered with sand. Because of this, dye-based ink tends to fade quicker, since all of the molecules are exposed to the chemical and sunlight-caused reactions that fade the ink. You may notice fading of dye-based inks exposed to direct sunlight commonly in 6 to 12 months. Pigment particles are similar to large pebbles on a beach. It is much more difficult for sunlight and chemicals to react with all of the pigment molecules, since most of them are hidden inside the "pebbles". Pigmented inks will usually last for many years before fading becomes noticeable. Print Quality It is possible to get more "color" into pigments than into dyes. Therefore, pigmented COLORS tend to be more vibrant than dye- based colors. And pigmented BLACK inks tend to be slightly grayer than dye-based black inks. Price You can't get something for nothing. Pigmented inks cost more to make than dye-based inks, so they cost more. Check our pricing for details. Bulk inks are found here: http://atlascopy.com/refills/bulk.htm ================================================== Your ad here for only $10.00 ================================================== Tim Lancaster http://atlascopy.com atlas@dvol.com