The fine art of printing

What are rotogravure and flexography? How about making someone into tinier

and tinier pieces using an inkjet printer-and wonder what made that so

special? Did you know that a certain print equipment vendor has completely done

away with the requirement of having a drum inside a laser printer and turns out

better prints than before? The world of printing is littered with jargon and

buzzwords. We take you through some of them that try to deliver better, faster,

quieter prints, while saving on raw material and making printing easier.

Rotogravure is the technology where you have a separate printing unit per

color usually in the CMYK color set. Flexography is also called 'surface

printing' especially on flexible material like cloth and bags.

Evolution



Although the core reason for using a printer today still remains the ability to
transfer a document to printed 'hard copy' format, that is not the only

reason for innovation today. The printing machines of yesteryears have evolved

out of their 'print only' avatars to be 'print capable' machines today.

Whether they are termed 'multi functional' or 'all in one' devices, the

printers we see around us are more than electronics with the simple task of

transferring ink to paper in a variety of patterns and colors. They are now at

the core of the connectedness revolution, or the age of collaboration.

The first printing devices had limited memories built in, which could hold no

more than a few bytes of information about the job they were executing. Then,

more memory was added as well as the ability granted to let them be shared among

multiple users through a PC, spool bigger documents and even multiple documents

and print them. The printer was directly connected to the local network and used

by anyone that had access to that network. Tasks that used the same electronics

and were closely related enough to add value to the product were added ---

photocopying, scanning and faxing. And the MFD of today was born. But innovators

were not satisfied as yet.

They said 'hey, why have people sent the same documents again and again to

print?' So they decided to add a permanent storage to the MFD, in the form of

a hard disk. To manage those documents, a DMS (document management system) was

added. Well, if you had a DMS and needed to share the documents with different

users, a minimalist workflow system would be handy too. And when someone placed

a document on the scan-bed of such an MFD, wouldn't it be really cool to have

the scanned document go directly into a preconfigured folder on that user's

workstation? You're now staring directly at a printer from the modern age.

The colloidal toner used in laser printers is usually powdered from a block of it. This gives no control over print quality. To solve this, toner particles are now chemically grown under controlled environments-this gives better print quality

Many MFDs, in the mid to high end range for offices now come with mailbox

facilities. With this technology, when a document is scanned, the scan-output

can go into one of several user's folders either on the MFD, a centralized

document store or the particular user's workstation where installed software

pick it up and drop it into a preconfigured folder. These folders and hence its

content can be organized according to what kinds of document they are: for

example a scanned contract document can go into a folder called 'contracts'.

When someone else requires the same document, the item can simply be moved or

copied from these folders instead of having to scan it all over again.

Regardless of whether the document being printed is text or graphics, the

data is first rendered as a graphic inside the printer's memory and then

printed. Now, each time the printer is required to print the same page, this

operation has to be repeated. Instead of this, a device that can store

pre-rendered images into persistent storage like a hard disk will save a lot of

time.

Since such MFDs are already connected to the local network, it can also

access the same resources as the workstations on the network. This means, if

there is access to e-mail, then the MFD can potentially email as well. This

technology is also harnessed in quite a few MFDs around the office today. With

this, if for example you need to scan a document and need to send it off to

someone via email, you need not scan it, pull it to a computer and then email

it. The MFD can be setup with the SMTP server settings and the device itself can

send off the email. Similarly, the MFD can be setup to watch POP3 or IMAP

folders for certain kinds of mail, download their attachments and either print

it out or send it to someone's DMS folder. Side by side, printers moved from

something relegated to the back office or a separate print-shop room in the

office to being in every household, being on the desktop and the next gossip hub

after the water cooler. This bade the ubiquitous print capable device go color.

We're not talking print cartridge, but the exterior style. Stylish printers

now grace executive desktops and our home work-desks. They have grown used to

being eye-candy.

You work on a multi floor or multi building office. Printing out the document

locally and having to fetch it to someone on a different floor or building is a

hassle. Instead of that, wouldn't it be nicer to fire the print at your

workstation, but the print comes out of any printer that you please anywhere in

your network? Well, this is also possible with today's technology.

Preventing the misuse of resources in an organization of whatever the size is

not easy. But with technologies of authentication and authorization, it is

possible to make sure that only those users who are authorized to print on a

particular device can print from it. Using the same technologies, it is also

possible to allow certain people to print only certain kinds of documents ---

for example, if someone prints out an email, then color could be disallowed and

the document would be printed out using only black. Similarly, administrators

could also setup particular applications to do color while everything else does

only black.

Also, prints can be protected from unauthorized access using security codes,

PIN numbers or technologies such as RFID. Let's say you are trying to print

your salary statement and don't want anyone else to have a peek at it before

you reach the printer. With such protection mechanisms in place, you could fire

a print with the option checked that you don't want the print to come out

immediately. Now, you can walk over to the printer or MFD at your leisure. Only

once you tap in your PIN code or swipe your RFID (could be your employee access

card as well) at the printer would your print out appear. For these technologies

to work, your printer/MFD is linked to the same network domain you log on to (eg:

an LDAP or Active Directory domain). The device will pick up your credentials as

set up.

What vendors are upto



Let's take a look at different printing technologies .

Anti-refilling Ink Tanks



This is a generic term to describe technology used by different vendors to
combat pirate refilling of ink cartridges. The common denominator between the

variations is that there is some kind of electronics inside the ink cartridge

that either self destructs the unit or tells the printer that this unit has been

used before with a lesser amount of ink.

The end result is that such cartridges cannot be reused. Pirate refillers

have still found a way around, by replacing or reprogramming these chips to

reset their state and fool the printers into accepting them as fresh stock.

Mailboxes in MFDs



Multi-functionals now come with the ability to send and receive email. But where
would they store it? Also, it would be a hassle to reprint or rescan documents

again and again. Therefore, MFDs now bundle hard disks inside them that can

store your documents for you. You can create folders and organize them. Access

control lists can protect who has what kind of access to the files stored in a

mailbox. When someone else wants the document, it can be copied or moved to that

mailbox in a simple operation. Embedded software can check your mail, and

organize attachments into your folders, ready for print.

Gloss Mark (Xerox)



This is an accidental invention that uses defects in a printout like banding to
insert digital information on to printouts that cannot be duplicated using

scanning or photocopying. This is used as a sort of watermark to protect the

document. Such information is not normally visible but can be seen when the

documents is held at a certain angle or under certain lighting.

Picolitre/FINE (Canon)



Full Photolithography Inkjet Nozzle Engineering is the correct technical lane
for the buzzword from Canon---Picolitre. In inkjets, the print head has several

nozzles that spray a fine stream of ink droplets with a size of about 5

Picolitres on to the paper. FINE creates droplets of 1 Picolitre size that makes

the output clearer and sharper. Mid to high end models of inkjet printers with

Picolitre can produce an output with a resolution of 9600 dpi. Entry-level

models can do 4800 dpi.

Full Concurrency



A multifunctional device will pause a new print job while there is a scan in
progress. Although a scan does not make use of components required for printing

like the cartridge this delay still happens and is avoidable. Full concurrency

is the term coined to describe an MFD that can process a scan and a print job

simultaneously.

Fixing Film (Canon)



It takes some time to heat up a metallic roller compared to a sheet of the same
metal. The heat roller inside the laser printer traditionally uses a roller made

of aluminium to melt the toner. A fixing film---made of a very fine aluminium

sheet---is used to save energy, heat up faster as well as cool down quickly with

the same results.

Spherical Toner



Pulverizing a block of the mixture can make laser toners but this creates
particles of uneven size creating inconsistency and defects in the printout. To

avoid this the toner particles can be chemically grown under controlled

conditions to create particles of a desired size and shape. The answer found is

the spherical particle and the toner with such particles is called a Spherical

Toner (S Toner). Cleaner-less Toner is a variation of this where wax is added to

lubricate the roller.

DID



When multiple printers of the same model or family from the same vendor are
deployed on a single network it is redundant to have to setup each one

separately. To help with this, DID is an innovation that lets one configured

printer publish and deliver its configuration on demand to another printer of

the same model or family on the network. No manual intervention is necessary to

transfer this information apart from indicating to one of the printers that such

mechanism is either desired or available for use.

Follow Me Printing



For this you require atleast two printers of the same family with AnyPlace
Printing enable. Users of these printers would be assigned PIN codes which are

known to the printers. The software installed on the user desktops would offer

the option of Follow Me Printing. When checked, the user can simply fire a print

without selecting a particular printer and walk away.

He can then go to any of the AnyPlace Printing devices, enter his PIN and the

printout would appear from that device, regardless of the floor, building or

city as long as it is on the same network or access has been provided.

Remote Copy



Similar to AnyPlace printing this sends a scanned image to another device, but
may not require entry of a PIN. The user here would place a document for scan at

his local device, select remote copy and specify the target device. The copy

printout would appear from the remote device that can be a several thousand

kilometers away.

Transmit/RIP once (HP)



The software inside the printer will first render anything sent to it as a
picture in the memory and then prints this image. This operation must repeat

every time the page is sent, causing delays. The rendered image (called a

Rasterized Image) is cached on a hard disk in the printer, letting you transmit

and rasterize it only once speeding up output.

Instant On (HP)



Printers are configured to go to sleep when there is an idle period to save
electricity. When you fire a print it must wake up, get up to temperature before

it can print. Instant On keeps the printer at a certain temperature so that it

can start printing as soon as it can wake up.

Edgeline (HP)



An inkjet's print head is much smaller than the surface of the paper it must
print on. This means the head must travel from one edge to the other before it

can print a complete line of a document. Edgeline printers from HP use a print

heads that cover the entire width of the paper. The print head stay stationary

while it is the paper that moves along.

ImageREt (HP)



Image Resolution Enhancement Technology is a modification to the laser toner to
produce hi-res images. Multiple dots of color are overlaid to produce a single

dot of better quality. The size of the dot and positioning on the media is

controlled electronically. The technology is optimized for use on HP's

LaserJet paper.

Color Access Control



Using traditional authorization software, it is possible to assign ACLs on a
per-user, per software basis. Each user can be limited or allowed to use single

color or full color for printouts as per their role. For instance the front-desk

operator is permitted to take out only black prints and the Marketing Manager

can take black or color printout.