Image Source : Daniel Foster
I don’t think you are going to use your home printer every day… (If you do, please leave this post!). Most of us only use our printer for several days a month. So, most of the time, if you keep it waiting for a long time and start to print all of a sudden, things will go horribly wrong! So, there are two solutions… 1) Never buy a printer and use a professional service like PrintRunner.com to do your job. 2) Keep reading…
The main reason for this problem is your ink! Ink means a liquid and it solidifies with time. But when it comes to printing, we need it to solidify only after it hit the paper. But, if we keep the printer idle for a long period, it’ll start to solidify sooner than we want! So, if the tiny nozzles in the print head gets clogged, we’ll run into trouble. To fix this, inkjet printers run a small clean-out once every couple of days. It use a small amount of ink to keep the nozzles wet. But if you keep it for a long time and try to print, the printer might spray a lot of link out for the clean-out. Simply, inkjet printers are not designed to wait! They are designed to print frequently! Because of this reason, I lost two printers.
How to Solve this problem?
There are two solutions…
One… Print at least a small test paper once a week. Make sure you use all the colors your printer got. If it’s a normal RGB printer, a page with Black, Red, Green and Blue stripes will work. If it’s a CMYK printer, you have to use those corresponding colors. Remember, some CMYK printers also have 6 colors (light and dark colors per each).
Two… DO NOT BUY an inkjet printer! Go for a laser printer instead. There’s no much difference between the prices and I think the laser printers have a lower running cost. But the real reason to use a laser printer is they don’t have ink to clog! They use toner. It’s a powder so its safe to keep the printer waiting for a very long time before you print!
Understood? Unfortunately, I never realized this when I was buying my 3rd printer several months ago… So, an inkjet printer sits on my desk :(
