It’s safe to say that printers have evolved a fair bit since the invention of the printing press. Whilst most businesses will have a standard inkjet or laser printer churning out their documents, there are some truly innovative printer features that have been developed recently. We’ve chosen our top printer features that could help out your business.
Cloud or Web-Based Printing
One feature that is now a norm in newly released printers is web-based printing. Using something like Google Cloud will allow you to print from any app or device to any web-ready printer providing that you have permission to do so. Not only does this mean that you could print from anywhere in the office building but there is also the option to print from any location. For example if you were working from home but needed to have something printed at work, you could do so at the click of a button. This is a clear advantage for many businesses whose employees tend to use a range of devices such as smartphones or tablets as part of their daily work lives.
3D Printing
In the past couple of years, 3D printers have become a tech phenomenon but it’s only recently that shops have started stocking them for commercial use. If you haven’t seen a 3D printer at work, you’re missing out. The process begins by creating a 3D design of the item you want printing – essentially virtual blue printing. A material is then selected (if there is the option) before the printer begins creating the item by passing over repeatedly, depositing the material, building up layers until the job is complete.
This can be incredibly useful for a business that creates prototypes, models or designs on a regular basis. The amount of time save by using a 3D printer as opposed to creating a model by hand or sending off designs to have them made by an outside source is phenomenal. There are of course still a lot of restrictions at this point. Size is one of these, with most commercially available 3D printers only having a small maximum print size.
High Speed Printing
All businesses want to be time efficient and productive and this is something printer manufacturers have listened to. HP even have an offering that can spit out 70 pages per minute! Another plus here is that the majority of the newer high speed printers are able to work with cloud printing, making them even more efficient. Queues for the office printer can be a thing of the past!
Eco-Friendly Printing
More and more businesses are trying to be environmentally friendly and reduce the carbon footprint they leave. This is not the easiest task however some manufacturers have tried to make their products as eco-friendly as possible by including modes that aim to reduce the sometimes wasteful nature of printing. These can include features such as automatic duplex (double sided) printing, reduced toner use and printing what would originally be multiple pages in a smaller size onto only 1 sheet.
Another step that can be taken when using inkjet and laser printers is to have empty cartridges refilled. This can be done multiple times and is as simple as taking empties to a local business that carries out the process. This can also save a great deal of money in comparison to purchasing new cartridges every time. However it’s worth noting that you can’t continue to refill the same cartridge forever as the print heads or nozzles can experience a decrease in quality the more they are used.
