Posted by printer | Posted in Article on board | Posted on 30-01-2010
When you see all those art prints at fairs or in stores, you probably only think about how good they look. You might not consider, though, the amount of work that goes into creating them. There are several different ways to make a print, but all of them involve a considerable amount of effort. Learning about this will make you see anything you decide to buy with new respect, and you’ll see the reason for prices that might seem a bit high for just ink on paper.
Giclee is a French word and the first of the various process used that we will be discussing in this article. The word basically translates to a spraying action, and as you will see, it is used with good reason. When you see a print that is made this way, you’ll be impressed by every detail, and especially how rich the overall color is on the paper.
These images are as good as the digital scans that are first used to make them. The scans are of original images, and they are sent over to a very high tech printer which does actually spray ink onto a piece of paper in one of several colors. This doesn’t sound like the kind of thing that could create such good images, but it definitely does just that.
Whether you’re talking to your fellow customers or to the artist himself, you’re going to find a lot of people strongly supporting this method. Your reasons for liking it are obvious – it produces some of the best final images you’ll find. However, for the artist, it’s probably the easiest way to produce copies of their work in bulk that still look good.
Of course, there are still other options besides giclee. One of these is lithograph. Long ago, you were probably taught that oil and water don’t mix. This principle is used here when pencils and crayons are used to draw on stone and metal plates. Because they are oil based, they work together with the water based paints then placed on for a final effect.
You might have heard the term serigraph by its more common name of screenprinting, but no matter what it’s called it basically refers to the same thing. Several screens are used as stencils here. One color of paint is used on each screen and different layers are set until they all build up to the final image you want.
The monoprint is something that’s a bit rarer, because it doesn’t actually allow for making multiple prints at once. It fact, it can only do one at a time, and that comes from the picture the artist himself paints onto a surface using slow drying paints and then quickly stamps onto a paper surface before that paint is able to dry onto the plates themselves.
Paper is typically used for all of these different methods, but sometimes people want their images to appear on canvas instead. Since canvas is the material artists typically paint on, this makes sense – the new version will look much like the original work of art. With canvas transfer, you can take a print that’s on paper and actually put it on the canvas.
Posted by printer | Posted in Article on board | Posted on 21-01-2010
Last year, there were more sales for e-books than printed books. On March 5 this year, Barnes & Noble, the world’s largest chain of bookstores, acquired online e-book vendor, Fictionwise. President of BN, William J Linch said: “The market hasn’t been that developed to date. We think it’s a big growth area going forward. ”
Many people like to purchase and read e-books and e-magazines through lightweight handheld readers today. Several companies have come up with innovative, standalone e-book readers, such as Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, Hanlin eReader (aka Endless Ideas BeBook), etc; these thin elegant gadgets can take people back to the era of reading. Let’s have a look at some of these readers in this article.
E-books and E-magazines: How Do They Work?
E-books can be of two types: those which can be read on a computer and those which require special devices to read. There are several formats for e-books including Adobe PDF, Microsoft LIT, Palm PDB, etc. In order to buy an e-book, you go to the online vendor of the e-book, pay and register your reader for DRM (Digital Rights Management) protection, and download the e-book to the registered reader. Since only the registered e-book reader can read this e-book, the author and the publisher are protected from piracy. Digital copying is not possible with DRM protection.
Popular E-book Readers
There are many reading devices available in the market, and most of them work with electronic paper technology by E Ink Corporation.
In 2008, an Apple iPhone app for reading e-books in iPhone had a surge of sales (even more than the sales total of Amazon Kindle). This made iPhone one of the popular devices to read e-books. But in this article, we will be looking only at specialized e-book readers.
1. Amazon Kindle
Perhaps the most popular of e-book readers, Amazon Kindle had a sales total of 380,000 units in 2008 in the US alone. Kindle is now in the next generation with the advent of Amazon Kindle 2 and Kindle DX this year (DX is already out of stock). According to Digital Book Readers, K-DX offers native PDF support, has an iPhone-like accelerometer that changes the orientation of the screen when you rotate the Reader and is more suitable for reading electronic versions of newspapers, magazines, and formatted books. With the ability to keep thousands of e-books in storage and easy access to the online Amazon e-book store, Kindle is perhaps the first choice of anyone looking for a standalone e-book reader.
The display is like normal paper and easy to read. Kindle has wireless capabilities to access the online book store and magazine store of Amazon. Kindle 2 has a 600 x 800 (6 inch) display. It can receive books through the high-speed Sprint 3G network, nationally available. Supported formats include the Amazon proprietary format, AZW (DRM-restricted), PRC, TXT, and PDF (some of these formats may need to be converted to AZW).
2. Sony Reader
Sony Digital Book Reader is the popular e-book reader from Sony, and there have been already three editions of this?PRS-500, PRS-505, and PRS-700.
The reader has a 600 x 800 pixel electronic paper display (EPD), similar to Kindle, and the display is 8-level grayscale. PRS-700 edition, unlike others, sports a touch screen. The supported e-book formats include BBeB book (from Marlin), TXT, RTF, ePub, Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word (DOC). It supports JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP for images; and MP3 and AAC for audio.
3. iRex iLiad
iRex iLiad, similar to Kindle and Sony Reader, makes use of the electronic paper display and comes at 768 x 1024 (8 inches) resolution. It has 16-level grayscale screen.
Through Wi-Fi, LAN, USB connectivity, or a network using a MyiRex account, you can transfer e-books to the reader. The supported e-book formats include Adobe PDF, MOBI, PRC, HTML, and TXT.
4. Hanlin eReader
Hanlin eReader, known in various brand names across the world, such as Endless Ideas BeBook, is a popular e-book reader. It has a 600 x 800 resolution, 4-level grayscale display. It connects through a USB port.
Unlike other readers mentioned above, this reader supports almost all popular file formats for e-books?Adobe PDF, CHM, DJVU, DOC, ePub, FB2, HTM, LIT, MOBI, PPT, PRC, RTF, TXT, WOLF. It also supports archiving formats like ZIP and RAR; image formats like BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF; and audio format, MP3.
Conclusion
Most of these e-book readers come with revolutionary E-Ink technology developed by E Ink Corporation. This is a digital paper display, which gives the experience of reading actual paper. With the storage space for thousands of e-books and ability to keep battery power for thousands of page turns or several hours, these e-book readers can be regarded as portable libraries. Since they can connect to some network to purchase and download popular fiction and non-fiction from online e-book vendors, they can provide great reading experience when you are on a long-distance journey.
Posted by printer | Posted in Article on board | Posted on 19-01-2010
From an environmental standpoint, introducing e-ink technology into home use, school curriculum, library facilities, and business use provides a win-win scenario with benefits to be had at all angles. Green reading reduces an individual’s literary carbon footprint intertwining human interaction and the planet’s lifespan together on a favorable level. Traditional reading involves a greater cost on so many levels including production, storage, transport, and disposal. Not only must one consider the cost of making and keeping the book, but one must also consider the getting rid of the book once it is no longer wanted.
Electronic Books as an Alternative to Paper Books
Up until recently, electronic books have only been a temporary alternative to paper books. In fact, the creation of e-Books is simply another facet to improvements in digital technology and the need to reach more people more quickly. Nonetheless, developed partially as a means to obtaining a book more quickly than waiting for it to be published in paper format, eBooks were not originally intended to replace hard copies be they paper or fully bound versions in hard cover.
All of that is about to change as authors are beginning to sign on for eBook versions of their books only. Perhaps one of the most famous of these authors is Stephen King who recently agreed to an eBook-only version of his latest publication, “Riding the Bullet. ” His eBook-only novella has met with tremendous success and is promoting the way for other such books to follow. Once a novel, novella, magazine, newspaper, or children’s story can only be read as an e-Book, the choice will be an easy one. The use of e-Book readers will become commonplace as a matter of course. According to Digital Book Readers, the changes it would provide for the people and the nature are immense and vast, and certainly worth consideration.
Benefits to Green Reading: Storage and Disposal
Since storage and disposal of e-Books is more environmentally friendly than storage and disposal of traditional books, the environment will benefit greatly from the incorporation of e-Books into daily living patterns. Not only will landfills grow at a less alarming rate, but trees will be cut down less frequently as the need for paper diminishes.
The world’s forests will continue to grow while continuing to provide cleaner, oxygen-rich air. Even if these forests are allowed to grow once they have been cleared for their timber, the result is not as good as it would have been had the forest been allowed to grow. Studies have shown that older, established forests retain more carbon than their newer counterparts. Hence, the environment is better if human interaction with it changes through more responsible use of its resources.
Plus, there are other benefits to be had as well, especially where the production of traditional ink-on-paper books is concerned. Not only does the use of e-Books reduce the need to produce ink, paper, and bindings, but it also reduces the pollution associated with such activity. Moreover, e-Books are easier to transport at a lower financial and physical cost than traditional book transport.
The Facts about Paper Production of Books and Newsprint
According to the Green Press Initiative, the United States is responsible for using more than twenty million trees to produce books each and every year and that figure doesn’t take into account the 95 million trees estimated to be consumed by the newsprint industry each year. As eBook reading grows in popularity, it is hoped that these numbers will be reduced significantly.
The Green Press Initiative has also stated that landfills hold a large amount of paper products to the tune of approximately one fourth of the landfill’s content. As if taking up so much space isn’t bad enough, the decomposition of paper products produces a highly toxic greenhouse gas known as methane gas. So not only does paper production create carbon dioxide emissions during their manufacture, but they also produce methane when they fall into a state of decay. These facts certainly point to a better world with the production of eBooks on a global level.
The Harry Potter series of books, one of the most popular series ever and enjoyed by children and adults alike, is projected to reach a total of 290,000 tons of paper in its production of more than 370,000 million books as estimated by Prime View Inrternational. At a cost of 20 trees to produce one ton of paper to be used in the manufacture of books, this comes at the high cost of 5. 8 million trees.
According to the U. S. Book Industry Study Group, more than 12. 4 million tons of carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere on an annual basis due to the mass production of books in hard copy format. This boils down to almost 9 pounds of carbon per book that is produced. Talk about leaving a carbon footprint on the world! While significant changes such as increasing the use of recycled paper are being implemented, they cannot compare to the benefits that eBooks and eBook readers can produce.
According to the Green Press Initiative, many of the world’s forests are becoming endangered due to the logging that continues to occur. Indonesia’s tropical forests lose about 4. 5 million acres each year to logging, some of it illegally culled. More than 2 million acres of Canada’s Boreal Forest are logged each year with 65% of that going for paper reading and writing products. In the southeastern United States, at least 6 million acres of forests fall prey to logging companies while this area along with 26 million plantation acres is known as the largest paper producing area in the world.
Posted by printer | Posted in Article on board | Posted on 17-01-2010
You don’t have to wait for “Cap and Trade” to pass the US Congress to embrace carbon neutrality. Carbon Credits are a responsible and cost effective way to not only help produce non-oil energy projects, but reduce your corporate costs, engage your employees and gain a Green Marketing advantage over your competitors.
Reduce, Recycle and Reuse are the first part, and below I’m going to give you 5 ways to do it. But if you can’t, don’t want to, or would rather just write a check then understand Carbon Credits.
Offset Your Carbon Footprint with Carbon Credits
While Reducing, Reusing and Recycling is key in preventing climate change, offsetting your carbon emissions is the next great step in the preservation of our environment for generations to come. The Carbon Calculator Math is below, or you could use a Carbon Footprint Calculattor.
To offset your carbon emissions simply means to neutralize your part in the polluting of our environment. In technical terms, a carbon offset is a certificate representing the reduction of one metric ton (2,205 lbs) of carbon dioxide emissions.
Certified Projects are developed such as a reforestation project that reduces carbon dioxide emissions, every ton of emissions reduced will result in the creation of one certified carbon offset.
Since carbon dioxide emissions are the principal cause of climate change, purchasing carbon offsets is key to promoting a greener environment.
When you offset your personal carbon emissions, you are doing your much-needed part in helping to put an end to global warming and climate change. In addition to making the world a better place, you just might also score a few popularity points with your friends and family.
Here’s 4 ways to save money while reducing your carbon footprint.
(1) Recycle Toner and Ink Jet Cartridges. These things, which always run out at the most inopportune time, cost way too much and, contrary to what the big companies than manufacture them proclaim with their “send it in recycling programs” – end up in the landfill, usually in the poorest areas of the world. The technology and quality of recycled toner and ink jet cartridges in many cases surpasses the original equipment manufacturers. . . and you get to support a local business like yours when you patronize them. And don’t forget to set your printers to “draft” mode when you’re not printing for official communications. . . it’ll save you money and toner/ink.
(2) Use Less and Buy Recycled Paper. Back in the early 90’s when email was gaining popularity we all proclaimed that it was the beginning of the paperless office. But the paper companies weren’t scared. Paper sales went through the roof because now we had more information to print out, copy and share with each other. Now there are a variety of document sharing services, including free ones like Google Docs, while allow immediate sharing of and collaboration of documents without having to print out 5 copies for the group to mark up. It saves money, time and is much more efficient.
Furthermore, as the quality of recycled content paper has gone up to photo quality level and the cost has gone down to below the cost of “new” paper, it clearly makes no sense not to include the procurement of recycled printer and copier paper in your corporate sustainability plan.
(3) Go Paperless with your invoices. PayPal and Google Checkout both have electronic invoicing capabilities for those of you who process payments via credit card, and for many companies, their PayPal and Google Checkout accounts are tied directly to their corporate checking accounts for seemless, and transaction fee free payment processing. They both offer a variety of export formats and integrate with popular accounting packages like QuickBooks and Microsoft Accounting.
No more 3 copy carbon based invoices, no gas guzzling postmen delivering the mail and no more licking envelopes!
(4) Recycle Everything. Soda cans, newspapers, used equipment, furniture and materials (if you’re manufacturing things) all carry a price. Aluminum cans trade for around $. 80 a pound (32 12 ounce cans = 1 pound) – so figure you can sell them to a local recycler for a bit better than half of that. Doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you have an office full of Red Bull crazed employees or “Diet Coke Fiends” it can actually add up relatively quickly.
List your used equipment on Craigslist or Google for a local company that will pick up and “recycle” your used equipment – or better yet, donate it to a local charity and take the tax deduction. Goodwill and the Salvation Army will send out a truck to pick up larger items and most likely make weekly or monthly trips through your area.
The Challenge is not so much Global Climate Change, but more of a personal one. Do we want to live in a clean world or a dirty one! Do we want to be subject to wars over fossil fuels? Are we, as individuals, stewards of business, operators of government, and elected officials, willing to take action to right the environmental wrongs we might create? The global becomes personal.
Buying Carbon Offsets is one way to deploy our resources towards a better Future. The best first step is to always think about the very real consequences of your actions. Protecting our air and water isn’t something that can be taken care of by someone else, we have to do it for ourselves.
To take an active role in neutralizing your carbon emissions today use our individual carbon calculator
Posted by printer | Posted in Article on board | Posted on 13-01-2010
Nowadays, printing photos at home is an excellent option because it gives the photographer creative control over the final print. Just follow the simple guidelines below to achieve the best results.
Use the right paper
Whether you are printing digital pictures, producing reports, or making photo enlargements, you’ll maximize the quality of your prints by choosing the right paper.
Specialized inkjet photo paper delivers exceptional image clarity and resolution. More importantly, the photos dry instantly and the images are both water and smudge resistant. The specialty papers typically come in two sizes: 8. 5 by 11 inches for larger prints; and 4 by 6 inches for the tradition photo-print size.
Software for the job
Once your images have been transferred from the camera to the computer, your photo software will determine how well your printed photos turn out. With that being said, make sure you take the time to familiarize yourself with all the key features of your software. Depending on the program, you might be able to:
Remember, all software products are slightly different in terms of features and capabilities. Nonetheless, you’ll always be able to enhance your images and add a creative touch to all your photos.
The feeding and care of your printer
It’s always a good idea to calibrate your printer’s head every time you change the ink cartridge. In most cases, this can be done using the printer’s built-in utility program accessed through your computer. Other ways that you could improve your output include:
o Select “Photo paper” or “Premium photo paper” from the paper-type settings.
o Select “Photo” or “Best photo options” from the printer properties and settings.
o Do your research and find an inexpensive, high-quality source for ink cartridges.
Also, keep in mind that your printer software allows you to organize multiple-size prints on one single page. With this kind of flexibility, you can maximize the use of the paper. For example, you could create rows of wallet-size prints to hand out to family members.
Match pixels and size
If you plan to enlarge your images and then print them, try adjusting your camera to a high-resolution setting. Lower-resolution images should work just fine for e-mail or posting on an Internet site. As a general rule, you should experiment with the different settings in your photo editing program to find out what works best for you.
Getting Creative
Scrapbooking has become a popular trend among digital camera users and a creative way to preserve memories. It allows you to tell a story by combining photos with captions, colorful background papers, and other embellishments that are available from various websites. With the help of graphic software programs, you can create pages, import digital photos and assemble a scrapbook that can be shared via the Internet or saved on a hard drive. There are several other advantages of digital scrapbooks as well: you can experiment with different looks and themes; they’ll preserve your photos; and they can be easily changed or revised?the approaches are virtually limitless.

