Yesterday Office Depot announced the launch a new office equipment and furniture leasing option for small business customers in North America.

The new SmartWayLeasing service, which is provided in partnership with ThinkSmart (a specialist international leasing business) is only available in select Office Depot retail stores in the Tampa - St. Petersburg, Florida area. It is expected that nationwide expansion of the program will continue throughout the coming year. Office Depot’s leasing program is the first small business leasing program available through an office supply superstore.

The program allows small businesses to save thousands of dollars of upfront expenses by providing them with the option to lease office equipment, including computers, peripherals and office furniture. Inkjet and laser printers are included in this program. At the end of the lease term the customer has the option to renew the existing lease, return the equipment, or upgrade to new equipment.

And yes, Office Depot will even be leasing the ink cartridges you need for your printers. According to Office Depot, small businesses can include printer ink, toner, and paper in their leasing program.

An interesting idea. Would you use the program? Let Pacific Ink know what you think.

The popularity of All-in-One printers is rapidly growing amongst home printer users. As more households are buying printers, or replacing old printers, printer users are more often than not turning to All-in-One, or multifunction printers. Why?

Put simply, because of their versatility and space saving features. All-in-One printers allow you to print, copy, scan, and fax all from the same machine. Way back when (a few years ago), if you wanted to do all of these things you needed 4 different machines - now you only need one!

According to Consumer Reports, All-in-One printers are actually getting more affordable, more versatile, and being given more features with each new release. Examples include network capabilities, memory card readers, and LCD screens. Many of the features being added actually allow the All-in-One to be used as a photo printer.

A group of 28 All-in-One printers was tested by Consumer Reports. They found that all 28 cost less than All-in-Ones manufactured two years ago. Six of the 28 cost $100 or less. The Canon PIXMA C5180 (cost $140) was deemed a Consumer Reports Best Buy.

When tested against traditional inkjet printers, Consumer Reports found that the All-in-One inkjets printed with the same quality, cost about the same, and printed with the same speed.

Based on their research, Consumer Reports suggests the following All-in-One printers:

Best Print Speed: Canon Pixma MP610 ($170)
Best for Printing Photos: HP PhotoSmart C7280 ($250)
Best for Home Network: HP PhotoSmart C8180 ($350), HP PhotoSmart D7460 ($140)

Consumer Reports recommended the following questions if you are considering purchasing an All-in-One printer:

1. Will it be used only for printing photos? If so, consider a photo printer. Most print directly from memory cards or the camera.

2. Can you get by just printing in black and white? If so, get a laser printer. For text, they have the lowest cost per copy (which reflects long-term printing costs) and the fastest speed. But unlike inkjets, they don’t print in color.

3. What other features are important? Some printers include an extra paper tray for 4-by-6 prints. Others print directly from Bluetooth devices, such as cellphones. If faxing is important, Consumer Reports recommends getting an all-in-one with that capability.

4. What will printer ink and paper cost? Over a printer’s life, ink costs can exceed the printer’s purchase price.

If you have an All-in-One printer, take a minute and let Pacific Ink know what you think about it.

Reviewers and customers all give high reviews for one of HP’s newest photo printers. All say it makes photo printing easier than ever (even easier than the Epson PictureMate). The HP Photosmart A826 is a photo inkjet printer that features a 7 inch LCD touchscreen. Various menus can be displayed on the screen, and with a few simple touches you can have your pictures printed in a few seconds.

To print your photos all you have to do is insert your digital camera’s memory card, select your photos (with a few touches of the screen), and print! You don’t even need a PC.
The A826 comes with a loaded software package so you can customize your photos with borders, graphics, and text. Pictures can be printed in 4×6, 5×7, wallet, and panorama sizes.

The biggest complaint we have heard . . . the cost! This unit costs $250.00. Most would say a bit much for something that only print photos. But, if your focus is on photo printing and you are somewhat of the “scrap booking” type, it just might be worth it. The photo quality and the additional features would easily fulfill your needs.

What about the ink? This printer uses the HP 110 tri-color inkjet cartridge. The 110 is part of the Vivera line of

inkjet cartridges, so it contains a higher grade of ink those outside the Vivera line. HP A826 owners also have the option of purchasing the HP 110 Photo Pack. This pack contains an inkjet cartridge and 120 sheets of 4×6, 10.5mil photo paper.

The editors at CNET gave this unit an excellent 8.1 our of 10 rating. Users rate it a 7.1 out of 10. Take a minute to read over their review. And, if you own this printer, let us know what you think of it.

The Brother MFC-9440C Multi Function Center (MFC) is a network ready all-in-one printer that can be used in either your home or your office. Amazingly this printer prints 21 pages per minute not matter if you are printing black/white or color pages. Almost every other printer on the market is a few pages slower when printing in color. this is a great feature.

The 9440C has 64MB of memory and prints at an outstanding resolution of 2400 x 600. It comes with a standard paper tray that can hold 250 sheets, but you do have the option to move up to a tray that can hold 500 sheets. The printer handles a variety of paper sizes, including letterhead, letter, and legal, as well as envelopes.

As said before, it is network ready and even has a Ethernet jack. Setting this machine up in your office will be a breeze.

What about the other features?

The copier works without a computer, and copies at a rate of 17 copies per minute (black). This is a pretty decent copy speed. The fax machine supports both black/white and color faxing, and has a 33.6 KBps modem speed. This means that your fastest faxing speed is about two seconds per page (that is pretty good too!).

Our customers have called this a “work horse printer”, which for what is costs is a great thing. We have also been told, and have read, that this printer has duplex capabilities. Our customers have confirmed it does NOT. They have also told us that this is not an easy machine to set up. In fact, we have heard a lot of complaints about the complication of setting the machine up (from both MAC and PC users). But, they all say once you get past the set up it is a wonderful machine.

The editors at CNET loved the machine and gave it an excellent 8.2 out of 10. Take a minute and read their review.

Now we know what at least one company is doing with the printer ink cartridges they collect. There has been speculation over the years that some OEM’s collect empty cartridges simply to ship them to third world countries and dispose of them in landfills. This has never been confirmed, but the rumor has continued to grow over the years.

But, we finally have confirmation of what one OEM is doing with them, and they are doing something good.

HP, through its Planet Partners program, has revealed that it uses post-consumer recycled plastic in the production of new original HP ink cartridges. The cartridges that are returned through the company’s Planet Partners program are reduced to raw materials (plastic and metals). The plastic is then combined with recycled bottle resin and other compounds to make new inkjet cartridges.

HP reports that the amount of recycled material in a new ink cartridge may vary between 70-100% of the total plastic used. If 100% of the plastic is recycled does this mean that HP is selling remanufactured ink cartridges?

They have further reported that more than 200 million cartridges have been manufactured using recycled plastic, and in 2007 alone they used more than five million pounds of recycled plastic. Their goal is to use twice as much in 2008.

Pacific Ink offers the same empty cartridge collection services. When you recycle with us, our goal is to take your empty and use it as a remanufactured cartridge. A remanfuactured ink cartridge will save you substantial money over using the “name brand” OEM cartridge.

Cell phone printers . . . now this is amazing. As we know now, nobody prints their cell phone pictures, but this little piece of technology is out to change all that.

Polaroid has released a pocked sized printer that uses ZINK (zero ink) technology and prints 2″ x 3″ color photos. That’s right, no ink cartridges.

The printer was designed by ZINK Imaging, a company built on the idea that printer ink is not a good thing. The printers they design are ink free. Instead the printers incorporate dye crystals inside ZINK paper. The crystals are secured under a glossy protective layer, and heat produced by the printer melts the cyan, magenta and yellow crystals to release the appropriate colors.

I could not find a price for a pack (or roll) of ZINK paper as of today, but as of last February they were proposing selling 100 sheets for $20. Twenty cents per sheet is on the pricier side, but when you don’t need ink cartridges the price may seem a little more reasonable.

Anyway, back to the printer . . .

You connect your cell phone via USB or BlueTooth and then print. The printer itself is 4.7″ x 2.8″ x 0.9″ and produces 2″ x 3″ photos. Still pretty small, but at least now the image can have a life outside your cell phone. It is expected that the printer will sell for $150.00, and should be released this spring.

ZINK is claiming that if they can put this technology in a printer this small they can put printers within notebook computers, digital cameras, and even cell phones. Let Pacific Ink know what you think of this technology.

Troubleshooting your printer. We take a lot of these calls every day. Search around this blog for a while and you can read about all the various troubles people are having. You can also read about the various horror stories of those that have called HP, Epson, Lexmark, Dell, Canon, etc for support. Some of these calls were quite expensive.

So, anyway before you make that call take a look at these troubleshooting tips. They may save you a lot of time and a few dollars! These are pretty simple steps, but the often do the trick.

1. Read your printer’s manual. Not profound advice, but the information in your manual could be very useful. Often that is what you pay a repair person to do, or for that matter the folks at the support hot line.

2. Check your printer manufacturer’s web site. Manufacturers keep their web sites up to date with problems folks have encountered with their printers. A quick search of their site could just reveal the exact problem you are having and an effective solution.

3. Is your printer receiving power? In other words . . . Is it plugged in? Is it turned on? Is your power strip turned on? Is the outlet your printer (or power strip) is plugged in to receiving power? The most common problem being that the printer is not turned on. Check the printers power before doing anything. Also make sure none of the LED lights on the printer are flashing. If they are refer to #2 and you will receive direction on how to solve.

4. Check your cables. If you can’t print it may be because the cables that connect your printer to your computer are not connected. Make sure your cables are securely connected to both your computer and printer.

5. Is your printer beeping? Some of the new printers actually beep when there is an issue. Most beeps occur when the printer is out of ink or paper.

6. Can you test print? Most printers are built with an automatic test print feature. This means that you don’t have to use your computer to initiate a test print page. You will need to consult your user manual for the button, or sequence of buttons, to push, but if you can print a test page from your printer it tells you that there is not a problem with your printer. The trouble then lies in the connection to your computer (See #4) or the software on your computer that communicates with the printer.

7. Make sure your ink cartridges have enough ink in them and that they are installed correctly. If using a toner cartridge, do the same - make sure there is enough toner in the cartridge and that it is installed correctly.

8. Run the print head cleaning utility. Most printers do this by themselves (clean the print head), but in some cases an additional cleaning is necessary to improve performance. You will need ton consult your user manual for direction on how to do this.

9. Do you have a paper jam? Paper jams happen quite often, and are a big pain! When you have a paper jam you must be sure not to use the “brute force” tactic to remove the paper. This tactic often results in major damage to the printer. Our friends at DUXCW have the best tips for fixing a paper jam:

Always read the manual on how to clear a jam. Don’t be a “gorilla” with your printer! You can easily damage a printer (strip gear threads, etc.), or even get hurt, if you do not follow instructions and are not careful. Turn the power off–unplug it. You have 110 volts running around the inside many printers. And print heads, gears, etc. like to nip fingers.

Laser printers have some very fine wires to remove static charges from the paper near the fuser mechanism which will break if you aren’t very careful. Also, the fuser itself can be very hot (it fuses/melts toner to the paper).

Don’t move a print head unless the instructions direct it. You can damage the belt, etc.

Address labels cause many paper jams and cannot always be seen. The old shirt cardboard trick can be used to dislodge them from many printers. Just feed a shirt cardboard (or cut a piece of like-sized cardboard form a file folder) through like a sheet of paper and wiggle the label loose and out.

Staples, paper clips, dog hair, and cookie crumbs are among the many things we have coaxed out of printers. A staple will raise havoc with the drum in laser printers. If you see vertical lines on pages printed by a laser printer (or copy machine), the drum is probably scratched. Replacing it can be a very expensive repair, indeed.

If jams persist, or the printer won’t feed paper, there is a good chance that gears are stripped or rollers are worn-down or have flat spots. Fixing this sort of problem may require specialized tools and elaborate alignment procedures and is often best done at a printer repair depot. It is not usually economically feasible to send low-end ink jet and dot matrix printers, etc. to a repair depot. Sometimes roller problems can be fixed by cleaning the rollers.

Changing to a different kind of paper may help. Refer to your user manual for guidance.

On humid days, slightly damp paper can cause jams by sticking together causing more than one sheet to be fed at a time. Try removing the paper from its tray, etc. and fanning it. Make sure the edges or corners aren’t curled and the tray is either not too empty or too full. Read the book (user manual).

10. Is your printer memory full? Printers have a certain amount of memory, just like your computer, and it possible for the memory to fill up. When it does your printer will just freeze up. The quickest way fix this is to turn the printer off. Wait about 30 seconds before turning your printer back on. The memory should not be empty.

There are quite a few tricks we’ve used, and heard about over the years, but these are the most “scientific”. We are a little hesitant to post the “off the record” or “experimental” tips we’ve suggested. But, if you would like to share yours, go ahead.

Oh man, we’ve got some trouble. Actually, most everyone (in the printer ink world) could see it coming. It was only a matter of time before someone decided that Staples 2007 decision to stop selling remanfuactured cartridges was a violation of an antitrust law and bring a lawsuit.

An individual named Ranjit Bedi filed the lawsuit yesterday against both Staples and Hewlett Packard. He claimed that both companies had broken antitrust laws when they jointly formed the deal that would elminate remanufactured inkjet cartridges from Staples offerings.

The lawsuit claims that the two companies reached “an illegal agreement between competitors to stop competing” when HP paid Staples (what HP calls) market development funds to stop selling non-HP-brand inkjet printer cartridges. These cartridges are better known as compatible cartridges or remanufactured cartridges.

Additionally the lawsuit claims that HP paid Staples $100 million (WOW!) to stop selling these cartridges. How this figure of $100 million was derived is unknown. We have heard rumors of a figure that was much higher. But those are just rumors, so we’ll leave it at that. Here is where it gets dicey for Staples and HP, and extremely profitable for the lawyers involved. The suit is seeking class action status based on that fact that the agreement violates the Sherman Act and Clayton Act. These acts phohibit noncompetitive behavior.

Our take . . . Staples made a decision that limited a customer’s decision to choose. Not so good when the customer has so many other options when it comes to purchasing their printer cartridges.

Neither Staples or HP have commented yet. But you can. Let Pacific Ink know what you think of Staples decision to stop selling non-HP-brand cartridges.

We’ve got something new to add to the “printer ink is more expensive than” list. Now it is more expensive than gasoline.

According to a story in the Lakeland Ledger (Florida) a gallon of manufacturer brand ink is more expensive than a gallon of gasoline. IF you were to buy a gallon of manufacturer brand ink (ink made by HP, Dell, Epson, Lexmark, Canon, etc) it would cost you somewhere between $3,000 and $5,000. What’s a gallon of gas going for today, somewhere between $3.00 and $3.50? Quite a difference. This puts printer ink right up there as one of the most expensive liquids in the world.

Another comparision . . . Imaging driving up to a gas pump and paying $13 for a teaspoon of gas - that’s what you pay for a teaspoon of printer ink.

Let Pacific Ink know what you think about the high cost of printer ink.

With the gift giving season getting close to full swing, let’s take a look at CNET’s Top 5 most popular inkjet printers.

#5 - Canon Pixma MX700
Priced between $144 and $225, the Canon Pixma MX700 offers fast print and copy speeds; great print and scan quality; ADF; two paper sources; a preview LCD screen; memory card slots and a PictBridge port. The bottom line, according to CNET: “The Canon Pixma MX700 is a great choice for small offices with a wide variety of print tasks. This inkjet multifunction beats out the competition with a winning combination of features and performance.” (Find out more)

This printer uses the CLI-8 series of black and color cartridges.

#4 - HP Officejet Pro L7680 All-in-One
Priced between $313 and $405, this HP OfficeJet printer offers digital filing; a built-in ADF, a duplexer, and media card slots; excellent print quality; fast-enough print speeds for small workgroups; low print costs. The bottom line: “With its wealth of office-oriented features, fast prints, and great print quality, the HP Officejet Pro L7680 is a very compelling all-in-one for small businesses or work groups. We wholeheartedly recommend it.” (Find out more)

This printer uses the HP 88 black and color cartridges.

#3 - Canon Pixma MP830
Priced between $170 and $340, the second Canon printer on the list is inexpensive for multifunction printer standards and includes a fax machine, an ADF, a duplexer, and a media card reader. CNET’s bottom line: “The Canon Pixma MP830 is a good option for a single home or office user who doesn’t need high-quality graphics prints. If you need better graphics handling or networking, check out the HP OfficeJet 7410.” (Find out more)

This printer uses the CLI-8 series of black and color cartridges.

#2 - Canon Pixma MP530
Priced between $149 and $218, The MP530 offers excellent print quality and affordable ink cartridges. But, be warned it is not network ready and does not have any media card slots. CNET’s final verdict on this printer: ” The Canon Pixma MP530 is a nearly ideal all-in-one for a small office. It just lacks networking and media card slots.” (Find out more)

This printer uses the CLI-8 series of black and color cartridges.

#1 - HP Photosmart A826
The Photosmart A826 is the “fun printer” of the season. It has a very unique design and is a little more expensive that one might think for a photo printer. It is priced between $186 and $2559. It quickly produces high-quality photos; offers lots of fun (there’s that word again) features such as clip art and captions; per-print costs are in line with other snapshot printers’ costs; touch screen is easy to use and great for displaying slide shows; menus are logically organized. What is CNET’s bottom line on this printer? ” The HP Photosmart A826 snapshot printer offers an attractive design, is easy and fun to use, and works better without a PC than any other snapshot printer we’ve reviewed thanks to its huge touch screen, but we wonder who will spend $250 for a dedicated photo printer.”(Find out more)

This printer uses the HP 110 (Q8700AN) 120 sheet photo value pack. It contains one tri-color (cyan, magenta, yellow) ink cartridge and 120 sheets of 4″x6″ photo paper.