So, we find ourselves at the dreaded beginning of the New Year and are thus prompted into making half hearted New Year Resolutions which we barely believe will stick with us until the end of the day!  How about a change, making some resolutions for the office and the business you are working in, to galvanise some change into maybe what is a routine environment.

Review Your Equipment:  This is the time to have a look at your printer, fax machine, photocopier, amongst others and see if they are still performing and meeting your business requirements.  If you are looking to produce more of your own marketing material, then buying a slightly higher specification printer may be the way forward.  Most major manufacturers including Oki, Xerox, HP and Dell offer excellent high end products designed to work with PC software packages to produce good results.  It is also possible to buy bespoke papers and card to help you product the marketing items you are looking for.

Go Green:  Well, not literally in a Hulk emulating way but maybe it is time to start turning your office into a haven of eco-friendliness by turning off appliances and lighting, recycling more paper, using both sides of the paper, recycling toners and considering using a printer with a greener slant, such as Xerox’s range of ink stick using machines.  These offer no wastage or have secondary packaging to recycle.

Get Organised:  There are a number of tools which are designed to help even the most discipline challenged person.  These include personal organisers, calendars, desk tidies, notepads, post-it notes and diaries.  All of these are aimed at making appointments and your working space a more dynamic experience on a day-to-day basis.

Drink More Water:  This is one of our personal favourite tips, as staying hydrated has been proven to help the brain function properly and stop people feeling sluggish in the afternoon.  Keeping plenty of water in the office is easy and can either take the form of a water machine or plenty of bottled water in the works kitchen.

Keep On Giving: Business contacts and opportunities are often born out of charitable ventures.  Look at ways you can integrate your business into the community, either by allowing work experience or by offering funds or time to an organisation already set up.  Some charities are delighted to receive help on computer training, creating flyers or business cards, businesses advice, etc and it will help you in return by offering a level of altruistic promotion.

Finally, look after yourself.  Take this time to think about how you can organise your time more effectively, so you feel more energised and enthusiastic about your daily work.  Use diaries or calendars to mark off clearly down time, so you can work towards targets, knowing you have pending time to yourself.  Happy 2013 everyone!

Versatility is the key with most printers these days; most manufacturers want you to start using their machines for a wide variety of projects, so that you receive the best benefit from the printer and to try and make sure it really does answer all your needs.  This way, you will stay loyal to the product you have bought.  This is a good thing because it may also encourage you to try some fun projects with the printer, rather than just mundane office tasks.  With it being the start of the New Year, we thought you might like to see some of the ideas we have and the first item we have started with is a staple you will need right through the year:

Calendars:  Most people need a calendar on the wall in the office or at home to help make sure appointments and important dates are not forgotten.  It is very easy to go online and find templates which will allow you to customise the calendar with your own photographs.  HP Creative Studio has a range of calendars; some preformatted and others allowing you to add in your favourite photographic images.  These would make lovely gifts to other family members.  Ideally, select the best photographic paper you can afford to get the best look and finish or if you want to make it sturdier, why not select cardstock or coloured card.  Check your printer manual to see the highest paperweight your printer can handle.

Business Cards:  Often at the beginning of the year, people start thinking about re-branding and analysing where their company is going.  This is a good time to use your company for a number of marketing materials including business cards.  This can be very easily printed on many of the current printers today and they offer a cheaper solution than using an external print company.  Look for dedicated business card paper which is specifically created for the job in-hand and this will give a decent and professional looking finish.

Postcards:  These are another useful marketing tool and for short batches to a targeted audience, these are often easier to run off on a printer in the office.  Once again, it is easier to buy dedicated postcard paper but it is also easy enough to guillotine a sheet of paper with multiple images on it.

Wedding Invitations:  With the current combinations of decent papers and fantastic printer inks and printer toners, it is entirely feasible to print beautiful bespoke wedding invitations for your big day.

Christmas and Birthday Cards:  Although Christmas has just passed, it is possible you are smarting at the amount of money you spent in the shop to buy individual cards for your loved ones.  The solution is clearly to move this task onto a printer and create cards with images made specifically for the recipients.

Do have a look at our website as we offer wide selection of office supplies, card, papers, toner and ink for a huge range of printers.  If you cannot find what you are looking for, do give us a call and we are always happy to try and source them for you.  Happy printing!

Printers for small businesses or individual users often demonstrate a limited range of features, which in turn makes it difficult to really inspire creative printing and all too often, a reasonable purchase price means a compromise on printing quality. The Oki C5600 certainly dispels such notions with a duty cycle of around 60,000 pages, it will suit workgroups, as well as small businesses and it has an array of impressive features to keep you printing all your documents in-house.

Many people over time have become enthusiastic champions of the style of this LED style of printer Oki have engineered. The printer takes four Oki 5600 toner in cyan, magenta, yellow and black and they come in sensible quantities in light of the type of usage this machine is likely to receive. The black comes in 6,000 page yield, understanding the majority of owners of this Okidata 5600 machine are likely to want to print more documents in monochrome. The colour toners are then weighted in 2,000 page yield capacity each. This all helps to keep the running costs exactly where you need them.

Oki have set-up software solutions which are intuitive and useful for both general users and administrators alike. There are a number of web management tools which are aimed to help an administrator including items that help you to monitor cost implications with toners and remotely manage printer issues. These features are laid out in a way which is logical and user friendly.

The print quality of this machine is superior in comparison to other models around and will give you a visual array of perfect imagery time after time. Black and white text is completely clear and never suffers from bleed or pixilation irrespective of how small the text is taken down to. This is quite a feat for what is effectively a lower-end printer and can be attributed to smart technology and engineering inside the actual machine. With most printers, this kind of review already would be enough to convince most people to give it a go but the next point is a real boon. The print speeds are 32 pages per minute for black and white and 20 pages per minute for colour, which will make sure you, have both speed and stunning clarity when printing.

Going back to the internal engineering of this printer; it is worth reiterating the intelligent calibration of both the 200 MHz processor and 64MB of memory. There are a plethora of extra features you can add to the printer at a later date. An additional paper tray, giving an extra 530 sheets, more memory and a duplex unit for double-sided printing, if you find you have a business requirement for this at a later date.

Printer Overview:

• Printer Type: Colour LED Laser
• Duty Cycle: 60,000 pages/month
• Dimensions (h x w x d): 339.5 x 435 x 563.5 mm
• Memory: 64 MB upgradeable to 320 MB
• Print Resolution: ProQ2400 Multi-level technology 1200 x 600 dpi
• Print Speed (Colour): 20 pages per minute
• Connectivity: High Speed USB 2.0 and 10/100-TX Ethernet
• Paper Capacity: 400 sheets – 930 sheets

Versatility is the key with most printers these days; most manufacturers want you to start using their machines for a wide variety of projects, so that you receive the best benefit from the printer and to try and make sure it really does answer all your needs.  This way, you will stay loyal to the product you have bought.  This is a good thing because it may also encourage you to try some fun projects with the printer, rather than just mundane office tasks.  With it being the start of the New Year, we thought you might like to see some of the ideas we have and the first item we have started with is a staple you will need right through the year:

Calendars:  Most people need a calendar on the wall in the office or at home to help make sure appointments and important dates are not forgotten.  It is very easy to go online and find templates which will allow you to customise the calendar with your own photographs.  HP Creative Studio has a range of calendars; some preformatted and others allowing you to add in your favourite photographic images.  These would make lovely gifts to other family members.  Ideally, select the best photographic paper you can afford to get the best look and finish or if you want to make it sturdier, why not select cardstock or coloured card.  Check your printer manual to see the highest paperweight your printer can handle.

Business Cards:  Often at the beginning of the year, people start thinking about re-branding and analysing where their company is going.  This is a good time to use your company for a number of marketing materials including business cards.  This can be very easily printed on many of the current printers today and they offer a cheaper solution than using an external print company.  Look for dedicated business card paper which is specifically created for the job in-hand and this will give a decent and professional looking finish.

Postcards:  These are another useful marketing tool and for short batches to a targeted audience, these are often easier to run off on a printer in the office.  Once again, it is easier to buy dedicated postcard paper but it is also easy enough to guillotine a sheet of paper with multiple images on it.

Wedding Invitations:  With the current combinations of decent papers and fantastic printer inks and printer toners, it is entirely feasible to print beautiful bespoke wedding invitations for your big day.

Christmas and Birthday Cards:  Although Christmas has just passed, it is possible you are smarting at the amount of money you spent in the shop to buy individual cards for your loved ones.  The solution is clearly to move this task onto a printer and create cards with images made specifically for the recipients.

Do have a look at our website as we offer wide selection of office supplies, card, papers, toner and ink for a huge range of printers.  If you cannot find what you are looking for, do give us a call and we are always happy to try and source them for you.  Happy printing!

The Oki C5300N is a machine designed to slot into home user and workgroup environments, whilst offering surprisingly good additional features.  This printer is quick, small and yet offers a visual smorgasbord of delight.  The documents produced on it, will look professional and allow for a wide range of project documents, flyers and brochures to be produced on it, with ease.

The printer only supports one capacity of Oki toner, which happens to give 5,000 pages at 5% coverage.  Aside from buying Oki 5300 toner, you will also need to buy a drum, fuser and belt for the life of the machine.  These have longer life spans than the toners but are something to consider when working out the running costs on this machine.  The Okidata C5300 toner you will receive with this printer from the factory, are only 1,500 pages at 5% coverage.  If you have upgraded your machine from an Oki C5150 but still have this model in the office, you will be pleased to know the Oki C5150 toner does fit into the Oki C5300 printer.

As with most printers, this is very easy to set-up on to a network environment, as well as for any home user who might be looking to get a printer up and running for the first time.  The printer is equipped with drivers for both PC and Mac environments, so it makes it a perfect choice for those people who are creative at home and use Photoshop or Illustrator.  The connectivity for this printer is USB(2.0) 10/100-TX Ethernet, IBM-Centro CEN36 IEEE 1284 Nibble and ECP.

With print speeds of 20 pages per minute for monochrome and 12 pages per minute for colour, this printer will keep up with even the fastest paced business deadline.  The resolution is 600 x 1200 dpi and this allows the quality of print to appear in a clean, sharp and colourful way.

This is a printer able to a range of options including software tools such as PrintSuperVision, Print Control software, Auto Colour Balance and Toner Save Mode.  All of these things allow the user to make the most of how their printer runs and is especially useful in a networked environment, where administrators often need more control for budgetary reasons.  The Oki C5300N is an amazing printer for the price point and will allow most users to feel they have made the right purchase.

Printer Overview

• Printer Type: Colour Laser
• Duty Cycle: 50,000 pages per month
• Dimensions: 342 x 400 x 528 mm
• Memory: 64 – 320MB (optional 64MB, 128MB, 256MB DIMMs)
• Print Resolution: 600 x 1200 dpi
• Print Speed (Colour):  12 pages per minute
• Connectivity: USB(2.0) 10/100-TX Ethernet, IBM-Centro CEN36 IEEE 1284 Nibble and ECP.
• Paper Capacity: 600 – 2100 sheets- input

The HP Color LaserJet CP4525 is a large printer with a monthly duty of 120,000 pages and is especially suited to large workgroups who find their time heavily invested in creating volumes of documentation.  This is a fast printer and it can also be optimised to meet the business needs via the addition of either memory or paper trays.  Make sure you check the different versions before you purchase a model as there is a great disparity between the models.  The base model does not include double-sided printing as standard.

 HP toner for this machine is fantastic value for money, as it is available in black in either 8,500 page or whopping 17,000 page capacities.  These make running an office simple, as there is less toner changing and hassle when people are in the middle of a busy print run.  HP CP4525 toner for the three colours is available in an 11,000 page capacity.  As this is a machine likely to see heavy usage, buying Laser CP4525 toner in a bundle pack will help reduce costs even further.  The HP C4525dn version takes HP C4525dn toner, which is identical with all versions of this printer.

The HP Color LaserJet CP4525 is designed to work in both high end colour studios, with Mac drivers available, as well as any PC environment.  The printer will arrive to your office network ready and can be made extremely security conscious.  Purchase the HP Secure High Performance EIO Hard Disk to add in a Kensington-style lock to any sensitive data the company may hold.  On the top of the range model the connection ports are as follows: Hi-Speed USB 2.0 port, RJ-45 (10/100/1000Base-TX), EIO slot and an embedded hard disk.

This is the printer for you if you want to get printing, with print speeds of 40 pages per minute and a brilliant level of output.  Turn to this machine for all those large textual documents and you will receive bright and clear text and then use it to produce project charts and brochures and obtain the same level of excellent clarity.  The resolution on this printer is 1200 x 1200 dpi and is definitely helpful in creating decent documents.

The main selling point of this printer is its memory capability.  It is possible to take it from a standard 512 MB all the way up to a gigabyte.  There are also several paper trays to be added at a later date and the processing power is a cool 800 MHz.

Printer Overview

• Printer Type: Colour Laser
• Duty Cycle: 120,000 pages per month
• Dimensions: (WxDxH): CP4525n: 540 x 522 x 420 mm; CP4525dn: 540 x 522 x 420 mm; CP4525xh: 662 x 651 x 964 mm
• Memory: CP4525n: 512 MB; CP4525dn: 512 MB; CP4525xh: 1 G
• Print Resolution: Up to 1200 x 1200 dpi
• Print Speed (Colour):  40 pages per minute
• Connectivity: CP4525n: Hi-Speed USB 2.0 port, RJ-45 port (10/100/1000Base-TX), EIO slot; CP4525dn: Hi-Speed USB 2.0 port, RJ-45 port (10/100/1000Base-TX), EIO slot;CP4525xh: Hi-Speed USB 2.0 port, RJ-45 (10/100/1000Base-TX), EIO slot, Embedded hard disk
• Paper Capacity: 600 – 2100 sheets- input

For those people after a really cool budget desktop printer, then the HP LaserJet Pro CP1025NW is going to fill those boots.  This printer is aimed at individual users but could at a pinch work in a shared environment, as it has the capability to be used that way.  Measuring 400 x 399 x 223 mm, it will come as no surprise the duty cycle on this printer is only 15,000 pages.  This printer can be acquired for less than a £100 but the software features are fantastic.  HP ToolboxFX will automatically install during the set-up process but it is possible to set up SNP alerts and HP Web JetAdmin if needed.  As this printer only weighs 29.4lbs it can comfortably sit on the desktop without any issue at all.

The printer does take both HP toner and drums.  The HP CP1025 toner capacities are 1200 pages for the black, then 1000 pages for the cyan, magenta and yellow.  These toners can also be found under the HPM175 toner categories when searching on-line to buy it.  The paper capacity is 150 sheets, with an output of 50 sheets.

Setting up this printer will be a user-friendly experience with the installation CD helping the user to find the correct drivers for their hardware.  The printer will work with both PC and Mac software and offers USB 2.0 connection.  For those people looking to place this onto a network, there is an Ethernet 10/100 port too.  It is possible for administrators to set up a password protected network embedded web server if they desire.

The printing speeds are very reasonable, with 17 pages per minute for black and white printing and 4 pages per minute for colour.  The image output is clear and colourful, no doubt helped by the 600 x 600 dpi, and enhanced HP ImageREt 2400.  The HP Creative Studio for Business also links in with this printer, so make the most of it by designing and creating flyers and brochures.

The reason this printer probably works so efficiently is down to the 400 MHz processor and 64 MB of memory.  Someone at HP has definitely thought long and hard about how an inexpensive laser printer can bring so much joy to a person’s desktop!

Printer Overview

• Printer Type: Colour Laser
• Duty Cycle: 15,000 pages/month
• Dimensions (h x w x d): 400 x 399 x 223mm weight: 29.4lb
• Memory: 64 MB
• Print Resolution: 600 x 600 dpi
• Print Speed (Colour): 4 pages per minute
• Connectivity: USB 2.0  Ethernet 10/100 Base-TX.
• Paper Capacity: 150 sheets

The HP Color LaserJet CP3505 is suitable for a range of customers and would fit into medium sized offices and smaller workgroups.  The duty cycle is 65,000 pages and the exceptional output is not limited to just the fast print speeds but the print quality is delightful too.  This printer is one to consider if you would like to bring more design work in-house and cut out the costly expense of using an external print business.  The versatility of this machine may also be attractive and with desirable HP CP3505 toner quantities, this printer will keep running effectively for a while.

The machine is very easy to set-up with the HP toner arriving already preinstalled at the factory.  This is definitely a selling point for those customers who find the whole idea of working out where the toners should go (incidently they are located above the multipurpose tray!), all a bit baffling.  The replacement LaserJet CP3505 toner comes in a useful 6,000 page yield and this is definitely large enough to keep most frenetic offices busy.  The standard paper capacity is 300 sheets and this can be increased to 800 sheets in total by adding an additional 500 sheet paper tray.  The toners for this machine are identical to HP 3600 toner and HP 3800 toner.

Administrators will love this printer  as it comes Network ready, along with an embedded Ethernet print server and has USB, EIO or Ethernet cabling options. The printer also has a decent installation CD along with booklet details if needed.  The Web JetAdmin software function is where this really starts to become attractive to the poor soul looking after the printer in a busy office, as it is incredibly simple to use and will troubleshoot the issue within minutes.

The superb print quality is as a result of the 1200 x 600 dpi and this gives a clean page with decent colour replication across the whole image.  The printing speeds are identical whether printing in colour or black and white, and will give the user the confidence to tackle marketing projects in-house.  The printer works with both PC’s and Macs, so it will be confidently used by graphic designers and secretaries alike.

For those offices who have roaming staff, this printer once again steps up to the plate and offers two flash card slots for people to either add in other hardware or put a font cards.  The processor speed is 450 MHz and the memory is 384 MB with an ability to go up to 1024 MB.

Printer Overview
Printer Type: Colour Laser
Duty Cycle: 65,000 pages per month
Dimensions: (WxDxH): 16.25 by 20.07 by 16.9 in.Weight: 59.6 lbs
Memory: 384 MB – 1024 MB
Print Resolution: 1200 x 600 dpi
Print Speed (Colour):  22 pages per minute
Connectivity: USB 2.0, EIO, Ethernet
Paper Capacity: 300 sheets – 800 sheets- input, 250 sheets – output

Recommended Uses

The Oki C3400 LED colour laser printer is aimed at small offices or home businesses who want very fast printing and low start up costs. Print features are first rate on the Oki C3400. First page out timings are 13 seconds colour and 9 seconds black and white. The printer then continues to produce printing at the following rates: 16 pages per minute for colour and 20 pages per minute for excellent quality black and white. A high choice of media are also supported including, plain paper, labels, envelopes, card stock, bond paper and banners, with sizes ranging from 3 in x 5 in to 8.5 in x 47.2 in.

Consideration should be given to the nature of the type of work demanded of the Oki C3400 as the paper tray capacity is only 250 sheets, with no option of an additional tray. If the business demands are likely to increase, this may not be the correct printer to choose as frequent paper reloading will be required. It should also be noted the Oki C3400 does not offer the functionality of automatic duplexing (double-sided printing).

Overall Specifications

Network ready functionality comes as standard with the printer, allowing easy and further connectivity between groups of workers in the future. The standard memory capacity is 32mb but this does have the ability to be expanded to 288mb if a heavy workgroup load is necessary.

Overall, the Oki C3400 is the printer of choice for small businesses and individuals who require first-rate prints for corporate presentations and projects. The print speed efficiency and initial low purchase price negate the lack of expansion options and make the Oki C3400 a desirable consideration.

Specification Overview:

• Print Speed: Monochrome – 20ppm/Colour – 16ppm
• Memory: 32mb, expandable to 288mb
• Resolution: 1200dpi x 600dpi
• Paper Capacity: Input – 250 sheets
• Connectivity: USB, Ethernet 10Base – T/100Base – TX
• Duty Cycle: 35,000 images/month

The Xerox Phaser 8200 truly satisfies the print geek in us.  It uses environmentally friendly Xerox ink sticks, which give a truly gob smacking finish on the page.  They are also incredibly easy to install and use, and the best part is, they leave no residue to clear out or plastic casing to dispose of.  The monthly duty cycle of 65,000 pages, will keep even the most avid print users in work and Xerox have also bundled in software products to allow you to tweak and pull your work about until you are happy with it.

The Xerox 8200 ink for this machine looks just like wax crayon melted into specifically shaped blocks.  This are designed to slot into the printer with ease and require no other user intervention.  The blocks can be purchased in a variety of ways, giving the user options especially if they know they use one colour more than another ie if a company logo is predominantly blue, the cyan will run out faster and it would make sense to buy a five pack of this.  If overall colour usage is low, then opting for the packs of twos makes sense.  The black Phaser 8200 ink comes in either packs of 10 or fives.  Please remember the ink for the Phaser 8550 is shaped differently to the ink for this machine and if you own over wax block using machines, do not try and ram them in, as it will be a costly mistake.

The printer is incredibly easy to install and will work with the majority of software found on Macs and PCs and will run off Ethernet, Parallal or USB cables, depending on your set-up.

People are raving about the print production on these printers and it is certainly unique, with the wax blocks giving a distinctive shiny finish on the page.  The printing speeds are 16 pages per minute and the resolution is 1200 dpi.

This printer does offer a few options; the memory can be increased from 64 MB to 256 MB using both 64 MB and 128 MB cards.  The processor speed is 300 MHz, helping the printer to run smoothly and there are options of transparencies trays, legal paper trays and additional 500 sheet paper trays.

Printer Overview
Printer Type: Colour Solid Ink
Duty Cycle: 65,000 pages per month
Dimensions (w x d x h): 17 in x 23.5 in  x 15.3 in  weight: 79 lb
Memory: 64 MB – 256 MB
Print Resolution: 1200 dpi
Print Speed (Colour): 16 pages per minute
Connectivity: 10/100BaseTX Ethernet, Bi-directional Parallel, USB
Paper Capacity: 200 – 1200 sheets