subject: What's New In The Home Printing Market? [print this page] Sometimes, it really doesn't pay to joke about what things will be like in the future. If you have ever stumbled upon the blogs that dredge up magazine articles and things from the first half of the 1900s, and seen how scarily similar some concepts of the future were, you'll understand! We've joked before about being able to buy a printer that can also toast your ham and cheese sandwich for lunch, and looking at some of the developments in the home printing market recently, we might not be far away from that eventuality! Check out what's new in the home printing and ink cartridge refill market, from news in early 2010.
New printer security solution from Ricoh for sensitive documents
It seems like a business-oriented printer solution - making sure that unproductive employees can't waste company ink refills and paper on their personal jobs. However, if you've ever let your kid use the computer, and come back to find hundreds of colour copies of their Paintbrush drawings on the ground, you'll understand why this is just as useful for the home market! It's a quirk of the market, but ink cartridges can cost more than exotic champagne - so why not protect them!
The world's smallest laser multifunction printer has been doing the rounds of launches across the world, and at the end of February had made it to Nigeria. Samsung's SCX4300 measures only 409 x 362 x 232 mm, so takes up less space than most ordinary laser or inkjet printers, while offering the multiple functions of copying and scanning.
Application makes it possible to print and reassemble large posters at home
Easy Poster Printer is a freeware, Windows-based tool for slicing and dicing your enormous photos into smaller A4 (or customised) sizes, so you can print each of them individually and reassemble them as an enormous poster. Even fairly low quality (low DPI) printers can do a great job on enormous posters, simply because they are viewed from so far away. Make sure you have plenty of ink refills or printer cartridges at the ready to use this one, though!
World's first web connected home printer launched
HP is one of the market leaders for printers, and they recently launched the world's first web-connected home printer. You receive apps preloaded onto the printer, and can download additional ones from the app store. You view and interact with the apps on a touch panel, helping customise and print content the way you want it. This is when that ham and cheese toastie starts sounding pretty close!
3D printing
This is not quite in the range of the home user just yet, but we couldn't resist adding it in - the concept is so futuristic! 3D printers have only been available for a short time, but have already found their way into many major architectural, R&D, and product design studios. You feed the printer a CAD drawing, it creates a 3D plastic object for you .. mind boggling!
Home printers are gaining features faster than you can say "Should I get a HP or Epson?'. The future of home printing, ink refills and paper technology is coming .. perhaps sooner than you think.
