Thursday, May 23, 2013

Apple StyleWriter test page

According to Apples support web site, you can prit a test page from a StyleWriter printer by turning the printer off, holding down the Form Feed button, then pressing the Power button and letting go of both buttons at the same time.
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Brother HL 5140

The Brother HL-5140 is a competitive monochrome printer that offers high quality prints with the ability to expand the device should it become necessary.

The HL-5140 is one of Brothers range of workhorse printers. Nothing to look at but offers solid dependability while producing good quality, high resolution prints for days on end. This device is ideal for the small business who isn’t worried about printing in color who wants a good value, long lasting printer.

Printing at 20 pages per minute at 600 dpi, the HL-5140 works quickly enough to be productive, but produces quality enough to suit most needs. It warms up in 18 seconds, and once warm will have a completed print on the tray 10 seconds after pressing the print button. Both figures quite respectable at this budget.

Despite being designed for the smaller business, the HL-5140 can cope with large print jobs thanks to the 133Mhz SPARC processor and 16Mb of memory. If that wasn’t enough, the memory is upgradeable to a decent 144Mb. Manual duplexing allows for all that power to be utilized in producing double sided prints too. The 250 sheet standard paper drawer is also partnered by a single sheet feeder and a 150 sheet output tray. There is also an optional paper tray to expand the paper capacity by a further 250 sheets.

To add to the functionality, the printer natively supports different sized paper, envelopes, labels and card stock. This can make printing business literature, marketing blurb and business cards a breeze.

Setup is quick and easy. Connection is by USB or parallel port, and the drivers are installed on each client machine. There is an option to purchase Ethernet or wireless connectors too, which adds flexibility if more was needed.

Toner is readily available and easy to refresh. A simple clip mechanism allows quick removal and replacement, keeping downtime to a minimum. New cartridges are reasonably priced with the high yield variants able to produce up to 6500 pages of standard business documents.

With the expansion potential of the extra paper drawer, networking options and expandable memory, this is an ideal printer for the new business who is set to grow. Adding these elements to an existing printer of a good quality is much cheaper than constantly upgrading and offers a cost effective printing option.

The reasonable cost of consumables, and these scalable features, coupled with the good text reproduction leaves me with no hesitation in recommending this product. Overall, a great printer.
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Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Konica Minolta MagiColor 2300W

The Konica Minolta MagiColor 2300W is another quality printer from the electronics giant from Japan. It is marketed as a desktop printer for the SOHO market, and is just that. It differs from the similarly named 2300DL in color, shape performance and capability, and it is odd that they used a very similar designation for a totally different machine.

Printing is of good quality, the reproduction during testing were clean and accurate. Image detail was good with no banding on black and white images, and accurate reproduction on color. Our test document is 28 pages of text, mono images, colored text and colored images, so gives us a real flavor of what a printer can do. The speed is also okay with a rating of 16 pages per minute for monochrome and 4 for color.

The 2300W can handle 200 sheets of paper in the drawer, with no option to expand. The built in 32Mb memory can be so it reaches the maximum of 288Mb.

Toners are easy to replace, and relatively inexpensive. Cartridges are good for 4500 sheets in black, and the drum is also good for 4500. All are fairly easy to change, and shouldn’t present any problems to experienced users. Like relatively few others on the market, this printer came with standard cartridges included as opposed to “starter” ones, which are often half or less than half full.

Connecting and configuring the 2300W is as straightforward as it gets. It can be connected via USB or parallel, with no network option included. The drivers and user manual are easy to use and logical. Overall, setup took less than 30 minutes, from the time we started opening the package to the time we ordered the first print.

The 2300W is a no-nonsense dedicated printer. What it prints it does with luster and good quality. The price and general usability makes up for a lack of features making this a viable option for those offices who aren’t in a hurry, and prefer quality over quantity.

Source: http://hubpages.com/hub/Konica-Minolta-MagiColor-2300W-Printer-Review
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