Printing ideas

Do you ever get tired of trying to figure out which print driver to use?  Have you ever sent a document to a printer in another zip code because you picked the wrong driver?  Have you ever wondered why you have a list of drivers longer than your screen?  Well if you answered yes to any of these questions then do I have a driver for you - the Xerox® Global Print Driver™ (X-GPD).  The X-GPD is a universal driver that offers simplified use for IT personnel or network administrators that are managing a diverse set of print devices across a network.  The X-GPD will also greatly reduce the time and effort required to install and upgrade print drivers.   

Okay I see those doubting faces but let me tell you about this driver, the Xerox Global Print Driver lets you print to almost any printer or multifunction printer, but wait there’s more.  This Global Print Driver works with not only Xerox products but even those made by other manufactures. It is truly a universal driver supporting Xerox and non-Xerox printers PostScript and PCL.

So what are some of the advantages of the Global Driver?  This X-GPD driver allows IT people to create global print application settings like duplex or black and white printing to save costs. Another Earth smart feature is Print Job ID which prints the job/user information in the margin on the first page which can eliminate costly and wasteful banner pages. The common interface will also cut down on training when a new printing device is added to the network.  Just plug in the new device and give it the same IP address as the old printer (or redirect the port).  The Xerox Global Print Driver automatically discovers the device and updates users’ feature options.  No requalification or reinstallation necessary!  The user interface shows most-used features on the first tab, so users can easily find and select printer options.  The driver is available is 25 languages. 

If you already have the Xerox Global Print Driver please make sure that you check occasionally on the driver page for new or updated releases of the driver and update your driver as appropriate. 

Please take a look at the brochure for more information on this great driver.  Then download your own copy of the X-GPD driver.  Still want to know more?  Check out all the information on the Xerox® Global Print Driver™ webpage.  Need assistance while using the driver?  Check out the Online Support for the X-GPD.

Did you know that the Xerox Customer Support Community has a board specifically for questions and issues with Mobile Printing?  The Mobile Printing board was created to answer questions for users of Xerox Mobile Print Cloud, Mobile Print Solution and the Mobile Print Portal application. The questions and issues posted on this board will be answered by other users or moderators familiar with these products and applications.  The Mobile Printing board is a great source of information and support. 

Xerox Mobile Print Cloud is a software solution that enables users to print from their smartphone or tablet. Xerox Mobile Print Portal is an app for Android and iOS devices that enables users to print with Xerox Mobile Print Cloud or Xerox Mobile Print Solution.  Please watch this short video to see how it works. 

There are also support pages for the Xerox Mobile Print Solutions.  The Xerox Mobile Print Cloud, Mobile Print Solution and the Mobile Print Portal application.  Each have a support page that includes frequently asked questions, how tos and answers to problems and issues.  You can also find documentation on the documentation tab for each page.   

Please visit the Xerox Customer Support Community to review the Mobile Printing board and ask any questions you may have about these products / solutions.

Color By Words makes adjusting the color on your prints easy.  With Color by Words you use natural language to adjust and refine the color on your prints.  The Color by Words technology is part of more of our printers and multifunction devices.  Several of the latest products to have Color by Words.  The  feature can be seen in Phasers, WorkCentres and ColorQubes.  Using Color by Words allows you to adjust the color of the prints without affecting the original file. 

You can manipulate the color through the use of simple natural language instructions chosen from a few simple pull-down menus.  Here are samples of the menus:

As you can see you simply describe what you want the colors to do and the Xerox Printer will adjust accordingly.  It is really an amazing and intuitive way to adjust color. 

As an example I made an extreme change to the pictures below.  All I did was choose Change all green colors completely to purple there you have purple “green” bell peppers!  The changes can be major as in this example or they can be subtle or somewhere in between.  Try it for yourself and see how easy it is to make color changes without having to know all the technical ins and outs of color and color theory.

If you would like additional information about Color by Words explore the website, take a look at the brochure or go to the support pages for the machines that have Color by Words and search on “Color by Words”.  Now here is a short video on Color by Words. 

I am happy to report that March was a big month for getting Drivers posted for the Mac Mountain Lion OS X 10.8.  Many drivers were loaded during the month of March for Phaser and WorkCentre.  Please navigate to the support page for your machine and see if the drivers are there for your machine.   I know that many of you have been waiting patiently and we do truly appreciate your patience as we got all the drivers written, tested and uploaded.  Please check out the Drivers and Download page for your machine and download the driver for your machine(s).

If you have any questions or issues with the drivers please search the online support for answers or you can head over to the Xerox Customer Support Community Forum to search for an answer or post a question there.  There have been several threads about printing from Mac OS X 10.8 to Xerox Printers, you just might find an answer to your questions there.   The Customer Support Forum is a great place to get information, advise and answers from Xerox users all over the world.  As always you can also contact your local support centre if you need further assistance.

Thanks again for your patience with us and happy printing!!

New machines have been added to our Production line.  The Xerox CiPress 500 and the Xerox CiPress 325 Production Inkjet System use waterless ink technology to produce vibrant color on low cost plain paper.  Last time we talked about solid ink now we have waterless ink!  Will wonders never cease!  The waterless inks are dry granules that feed easily and melt quickly. The granules are easy to store and refill, you can even refill on the fly.  The ink dispensing drums are permanent fixtures and therefore do not require recycling.  The drums are refilled using easy to handle 10 kilo (~22 lb) containers.  Storage is no problem because the waterless inks have no restrictions on shelf-life. 

Take a look at the video below for information on the CiPress and the waterless ink. 

So why is waterless the way to go?  The key benefit is the elimination of water so that vibrant, consistent color can be printed on low-cost, offset paper that comes out flat with no ink soaking through.  The waterless ink also has the highest de-inkability rating from the International Association of the Deinking Industry (INGEDE).   What is de-inkability?  That means that deinking  is easier letting the printed paper be recycled.  Deinking is the key process in paper recycling. Hydrophobic (water-repellent) ink particles are separated from hydrophilic (water-wettable) fibers.  Deinking is not fully possible with most water based inks so the dyes and ink particles too small to be removed have no other exit during the recycling process than the fibers. The dyes and ink particles stain the recycled material just as red socks dye the underwear in the washing machine. This can cause recycled paper to look drab and not bright white.  This is an issue recyclers have been struggling with for over 20 years.  But this is not an issue with the Xerox waterless ink. 

What else will you find with the new Xerox CiPress 500 and the Xerox CiPress 325?  The machines have an intelligent system that continuously monitors every page it produces and self-adjusts if an ink nozzle isn’t firing properly. There’s more uptime and less operator involvement to maintain performance.

The product was developed using more than 2,000 patents leading to a robust print head design.  There are 56 durable piezo-electric, drop-on-demand print heads with more than 49,000 nozzles jetting nearly two billion ink drops per second. Each drop hits the paper with precise pixel placement.  An intelligent scan bar checks billions of ink droplets per second so they appear exactly where they should as the printer produces more than 2,000 color images per minute on the CiPress 500 and more than 1300 color images per minutes on the CiPress 325.  These are great products, make sure review all the information available on the product pages including a video tour, to find out all the features and advantages of these machines.

Once upon a time there was Solid Ink… Solid Ink isn’t that an oxymoron?  I mean either it is solid or it is ink… Oh well let’s take a look at these big crayons.  That is what they are big blocks of resin-based non-toxic color that are melted in the printer and affixed to the paper through heat and pressure.  They create a great image.  Printers that use solid ink require no special paper and the prints do not curl or wrinkle like other color laser or inkjet printers. 

The technology has been around since 1991, the last century!!  But in the recent past the technology and the ink formulas have been refined.  The solid ink generates 90% less waste than comparable color laser printers.  So let’s take a look at how the ink gets to the paper.

Okay so there are no little guys with paintball guns in your printer but there is a precise stainless steel print head with tiny holes smaller than a human hair.  It uses 1,236 nozzles jetting more than 30 million drops per second.  The ink is jetted from the print head to a heated drum and then is pressed onto the paper.   Due to this process less ink wicks into the paper fibers and that controls dot spread, allowing for a crisper looking image.   The image on the left below is the magnified image from a Color laser printer, the image on the right is solid ink.

Solid ink is fast, precise, and less expensive.  Print speeds can reach 30-85 pages per minute.  To find out even more about solid ink and the machines that use them please watch the informative video below and then explore the Solid Ink website. 

Did you know that you can store print jobs on your printer or multifunction device to be reprinted at a later time?  The Reprint Saved Jobs feature allows you to do just that. The feature enables you to save print jobs, including the document content and print driver settings, to print at a later time. To use the reprint saved jobs feature it has to be enabled on the printer using the CentreWare Internet Services (CWIS) and in the print driver for the machine. 

Once the feature is enabled you can print and/or save print jobs so that they can be printed later.  Once a print job is saved on the printer or multifunction device the job is available to all users that have access to the printer.  The jobs are stored in folders on the hard drive of the machine.  The number of jobs that can be stored depends on the types of documents and the size of the file.  The options included in the document also play into the number of documents that can be stored.  Attributes such as color or black and white, original document size, resolution, etc. comprise the file and count in the size of the document file. 

The folders the jobs are stored in also have file limits.  These vary by machine and the size of the hard drive.  But once a folder is full you must use a different folder to store the file in if there is still room on the hard drive.  As an example, you can save approximately 5,000 jobs if the file you saved is letter size (216 x 279 mm / 8.5 x 11 in.), original, black and white, and set at 600 x 600 dpi.

Example Folder Structure for Reprint

Stored jobs for reprint will stay on the hard drive of the machine until one of the following occurs:

• A user manually deletes a job.
• The Image Overwrite feature is run.
• A Customer Service Engineer (technician) reformats the hard drive.

This feature is very handy if you have a document that you frequently need to print out.  There is no need to go to a PC, open the document, set the settings and send it to the printer.  Just save it at the printer and print it with the predefined settings whenever you need the document. 

Several of the Xerox printers and multifunction machines have the Reprint Saved Jobs feature.  Please check your user manual or go the support page for your machine to see if you have this feature.  If you are on your support page search on “reprint” to find instruction for enabling and using the feature.  Try the feature and please let us know how you like it by commenting here.