a creative use of ink

Fun with photography

2010-08-17T17:23:00.000-07:00

The more photos I take, the more I want to print, and the more I realize what a pain it is to have to order photos and drive 20 minutes to get them. But my printer, to put it mildly, prints crappy photos. I'm looking into a new one, but haven't decided yet which to get. I'm partial to Canon, but I've had an old Canon printer now for about a decade. Maybe this time I should get a different one? Would love advice...

printer haiku, part II

2010-05-18T13:17:00.000-07:00

pencil could work fine
no need to buy ink refills
but ink looks nicer

out of printer ink
but need to submit report?
hope boss likes crayon

buy ink, get other stuff too. sweet.

2010-03-19T12:23:00.000-07:00

Looks like a good time to buy printer ink from My Ink Pro... from Mar 15 - 26, you can get a $15 gift card if you buy any four HP inkjet cartridges at $19.99 or more. Sweet! The gift cards can be from BP or Shell gas stations, Barnes & Noble, Darden Restaurants (Bahama Breeze, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Longhorn, The Capital Grille, Seasons 52) and Lowes Home Improvement. I can imagine a good use for a whole lot of that...!

The full page of info is here.

iron-on avatar

2009-02-13T08:23:00.000-08:00

So what ink stories so I have now? It's been a while... but we did make some good use of the printer for our Christmas gifts this year! For my son, we took a photo from his favorite TV show, Avatar the Airbender, superimposed his head over the lead character, and turned it into a kids-sized iron-on T-shirt. He loves it, and for less than $8 or so, it was easily one of the best gift values we could have come up with. We did T-shirts for other family members too, but I think the Avatar shirt was my favorite. It's a good reminder that printers and ink don't have to just be office materials, but they can be the first step to some incredibly creative ideas!

2008-10-30T06:46:00.000-07:00

You probably won't need any ink to vote on November 4th, but get out and do it.

music at my fingertips

2008-09-11T11:41:00.000-07:00

I just found the coolest thing ever... printable staff paper for my Austin guitar lessons! No more music notebooks needed now that I can print out the blank sheet music right in my music room, right when I need it. Gotta love that kind of convenience! (Of course, getting cheap ink cartridges online doesn't hurt either.)

ad blocking to save ink?

2008-09-04T07:54:00.000-07:00

There's a great post (okay, so I wrote it, but I do think it's got some good tips, really) over at the PCWorld printer ink blog listing out a few ways to save money on inkjet cartridges. I noted a few highlights there, but the one that stood out to me as I was reading the original article was the idea of using an ad blocker to save printer ink. One of those things that makes total sense when you hear it, but the connection wouldn't have occurred to me on my own...

great idea too long in the making

2008-09-02T11:23:00.000-07:00

In the category of "Why didn't they think of that sooner?"... there's now something in the works that will enable students to access open-source textbooks! Back in college, it always killed me me to spend $70 on a textbook that I knew I'd dread reading, and that I'd barely get $15 back on the next year, if I was lucky.

One problem, though... even with the convenience of free online textbooks, there's still something to be asid for having your info on paper and being able to take it with you easily. Can you imagine the printer ink costs involved in printing a textbook?

printer haiku

2008-08-21T11:32:00.000-07:00

And now... with no other ideas readily in mind, it's time for some printer-related haiku.

want to start printing
won't the paper go inside?
printer door won't close

ink is running dry
hate to buy and lose money
should use more pencil

cat vs. hp deskjet

2008-08-13T10:00:00.000-07:00

Is it a cat blog? A printer blog? Okay, maybe it's both. Perhaps Marcus is an Epson printer fan?

turn the paper over

2008-08-07T22:32:00.000-07:00

I have a hard time with these numbers... according to this article, a typical office worker uses about 50 sheets of paper a day, adding up to 250 sheets or half a ream per work week. Really? I guess my office is based on internet technology, so we’d be a little different (not even taking into account the fact that my boss recently led the charge to go paperless)... but I can’t picture us going through that much paper even when we were in full paper-usage swing.

The article hints at several ways to reduce printer paper usage... seems one of the simplest (well, after recycling used paper, of course) is to make sure – whenever possible – to print on both sides of each page.

The trees will thank you!

a REALLY good use of ink

2008-07-31T08:51:00.000-07:00

Just an update... turns out the signs were well worth the trouble, as the mysterious black kitty's owner called today and let me know that her name is Shadow, and she's been missing for a couple weeks. Assuming she's still on my front porch tonight, she'll be going home soon!

a good use of ink

2008-07-29T17:16:00.000-07:00

With this little guy parked on my front step - having appeared out of nowhere couple days ago - I found myself really glad I had enough printer ink on hand to print up a bunch of photos and "found cat" signs for the neighborhood.

Anyone missing a sweet kitty?

a good use for your macrowave and inkjet cartridges

2008-07-14T12:53:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure whether I like this video more for its content - in other words, the fact that you can make your own glow-in-the-dark printer ink using a product called "Glow Dust" (strangely referred to consistently as "Glow Dusk" in the video, despite the clearly visible label reading "Glow Dust") - or whether I like it more for its wonky translations. ("...warm up 30 seconds in a macrowave for dissolve the glowing dusk, and suck this solution with a seringes...")

Either way, it's AWESOME.

How Make Glowing Printer Ink - video powered by Metacafe

never know what you'll find on the street...

2008-07-10T11:20:00.000-07:00

Caught this unusual sight while touring San Francisco this past weekend. All sorts of captions popped to mind, from wondering if the printer might get ticketed for violating the 2-hour parking rule, or thinking that maybe this is like some strange personals tactic, and there's a computer geek hiding around the corner waiting to find his perfect woman who's attracted to lonely computer printers. Or hey, maybe the printer made its own way outside to pick up a hot bit of toner?

Or it could be some new California computer peripherals recycling program...

If anyone has any insight as to the motives of this poor abandoned printer, I'd love to hear it!

it's me, Mario!

2008-06-25T14:55:00.000-07:00

Sorry, this isn't printer-related, but it's paper-related, and it's incredibly cool. Easily file-able under the "too much free time" category, but seriously, how can you not be impressed by a three-story Donkey Kong rendition created solely out of post-it notes and office supplies?

http://blog.shoplet.com/office-supplies/post-its-note-art-8-bit-edition/

hp activity center printables

2008-06-23T11:14:00.000-07:00

With the 4th of July coming up, I did some searching for printing crafts and found this HP Activity Center page with some good ideas. But even more compelling than the printable Independence Day crafts was the Kung Fu Panda lanterns - my son loves that movie, and I have no doubt he'd find this the best use of printer ink EVER.

what are those Canadians printing now?

2008-06-17T16:48:00.000-07:00

I found this CNET article entertaining - not so much that it looks like people are using their printers for personal reasons at work, but that the article takes the time to specifically call out Canadians on it, like it's a big Canadian office printer epidemic. Well, that and they make it sound like it's merely an issue of cost, as they talk about how affordable print cartridges are now, and how much cheaper home printers are than they used to be. Personally, I doubt it's the money so much as the fact that people spend so much time at work that they just tend to gravitate towards whatever printer is closest... but that's just my opinion.

printers should be green too!

2008-06-09T09:18:00.000-07:00

Everyone talks about turning off the lights and cranking up the AC to save on energy, but what about printers? I think there's a lot of power consumption that goes into computers that people just don't think about. This site - ClimateSaversComputing.org - spells out in detail exactly how we can better manage our computers to not waste so much energy, and it's a site I'm bookmarking for future reference. I have to admit I've been one of those people who just buys computers and computer printers based on price and leaves it on all the time, so I need a site like this. :/

inkjets coming of age

2008-06-03T15:15:00.000-07:00

So it’s time for the big Drupa trade show, and it looks like inkjets are taking the stage in a big way this year, with new uses for home, office, print shops, etc, and new products from the big manufacturers like HP, to the lesser known like Xaar and Dimatix from Fujifilm. But I’m not going to bother going into a whole lot of detail on the technicals, considering I can just link to it instead. I love the internet. :)

printer ink disposal the right way

2008-05-28T12:37:00.001-07:00

Gotta love those stories that reassure you that the world’s not such a bad place. The landfills are growing larger by the day, and inkjet and toner cartridges are a big part of the problem – but now there’s a new way to help, thanks to… the United States Postal Service?

The new "Mail Back" program, designed to help consumers make “more environmentally friendly choices,” makes it easy for customers to get rid of those old HP printer cartridges without adding to the landfil problem. Just use the free envelopes found in post offices around the country to mail back empty inkjet cartridges and other small used electronics, and they’ll be sent, postage paid, to Clover Technologies Group, a company that will recycle and refurbish what they can, leaving as little as possible ends up in landfills.

There’s no limit to how many envelopes a person can take and use, so with luck this’ll be a big step towards cleaning up a major problem!

when printers talk back

2008-05-22T07:53:00.000-07:00

A conversation with my printer (or why I stick with MyInkPro):

Me: Hey, print this map, would you?

My printer: Of course. Here you go.

Me: What’s this?

My printer: Your map! Have a nice trip.

Me: All I see is a couple faded dotted lines. There’s no map here.

My printer: Maybe the printer ink wasn’t flowing yet? You can always try again.

Me: But won’t that end up costing me more, since I’m using more ink than I needed to, and twice as much paper?

My printer: Do you want your map or not?

Me: Fine. Print it again.

My printer: Here you go!

Me: Now I see a dozen dotted lines.

My printer: We’re getting better! Try again?

Me: This is ridiculous. I replaced your ink only a couple months ago, and I’ve hardly printed anything!

My printer: Where’d you get the ink?

Me: I don’t remember, some cheap ink place.

My printer: Well, there you go. But hey, at least you saved some money. Let’s print it again!

Me: Forget it. Where’s my pencil?

solar power from a printer?

2008-05-18T16:13:00.000-07:00

Holy cow, take a look at this article. Solar cells, created from an inkjet printer, woven into clothing. Who needs batteries anymore for their Walkman? (Of course, no one uses Walkmen these days, either, but that's a different post.) Living in Texas, I can only imagine how quickly this would be used to create summer clothing with built-in fans.

I'm ready for that now.

talk about going the long route

2008-05-14T08:01:00.001-07:00

Lol... there have got to be easier ways than this to get a rebate on an inkjet printer. :)

preventing ink clogs, one startup at a time

2008-05-02T10:25:00.000-07:00

In case anyone’s forgotten, I’m the one with the constantly-clogged printer heads, so I figured I’d throw out another good article on keeping printer heads clean. A tip from this one I didn’t know? Just the act of turning your printer on every day can help to keep them clean, as the start up mode will often do a quick cleaning as part of the process.

Learn something new every day!

only inkjets for me--wait, what's this?

2008-04-25T06:41:00.001-07:00

I admit I've been an inkjet fan myself for some time, but I think I've found the printer that might change that. Check this out: is this the hottest home laser printer or what? Seriously, not only does it look stylish, but it's small, prints faster than an inkjet, and each toner cartridge can print 1500-2000 pages. My main question left, then, is how well those toner cartridges stand up to not being used for long periods of time... since if they can still print fine after not being in use for 2 months, then I think one toner cartridge might be a lifetime supply for me.

3-D printers for all! Or at least, for the very wealthy.

2008-04-24T07:29:00.000-07:00

I am now officially intrigued. From this article on fabbers, or 3-D printers:

"Our goal with this open-source, multi-material printing is to explore the potential of universal fabrication: Machines that can use multiple materials to fabricate complete, active systems."

How cool does "universal fabrication" sound? I mean, seriously, I could see it in a Star Trek episode. "Scotty, the warp core's proton deflectors are weakening. We've got to replace them or the antimatter shield will blow. Quick, bring the universal fabricators online!"

what if the ink doesn't flow?

2008-04-21T14:15:00.000-07:00

A quick note regarding my last post... it's actually looking like I may need to chuck my Canon inkjet for a laser printer at some point, since according to this and this, inkjet printer ink tends to dry up much faster than laser toner when not in use.

Funny... I always figured that since I don't use my printer all that often, I was better off sticking with a cheaper printer, since the high ink costs wouldn't affect me all that much (at an average of ten prints a year, how much ink was I really going to use?).

Little did I know that my infrequent use is the exact reason I should have gone with a laser printer in the first place...

the ink... must... flow

2008-04-18T09:12:00.001-07:00

Okay, so this is not a terribly creative post, but when your ink won't run, it's hard to be creative. The printer heads on my Canon i860 (yes, my printer is that old) are so clogged that I can't print anything that needs any kind of high detail. You should see how splotchy a UPC code on a printed coupon turns out. :/

So I found this article on cleaning print heads, which gives me hope that my printer heads can actually work again at some point, and that the new inkjet cartridges I bought last month will actually do me some good, as opposed to sitting for a year and drying up because I never use the printer.

inkjetting everything these days...

2008-04-15T06:15:00.000-07:00

Yet another innovative use of inkjet printers - now it's T-shirts! I'll miss that silkscreening process where after several washes the shirt would start to shrink but the silkscreening part wouldn't, resulting in rippling and peeling of the shirt design... oh wait, no, I won't.

print your own tattoos!

2008-04-05T10:09:00.000-07:00

Now this is easily the most creative use of printer ink I've seen in a while... fake tattoos, printed at home! I've used plenty of inkjet ink on school projects and lists for work, but I've never worn it before. This article over at MAKE shows photos of some of the artwork on the body, and I'm just blown away by the quality. See, now this is the way to tattoo your loved one's name... lol.

Here's a place to order the tattoo paper, and here's a good spot for the color inkjet cartridges (that link is specifically HP brand, but they have other brands too).

welcome to the site!

2008-03-17T12:03:00.001-07:00

Welcome to Creative Inkage! This blog is an irreverant look at things people print, big and small. Enjoy the linkage to inkage...