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Ancestry Daily News
7/10/2003 - Archive
Ancestry Daily News, 10 July 2003
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"RootsWorks: Printer Hardware"
by Beau Sharbrough
In the mid-90's, the office where I worked bought a Hewlett
Packard LaserJet 4MV printer. It was beautiful. It weighed about
300 pounds, and was the size of a microwave oven. It would print
on paper up to 11x17 inches, and would spit them out at a rapid
12 pages a minute. They gave $2,000 for it. I liked that printer
until the day it died.
Today, you could buy a laser printer, an inkjet printer, a multipurpose
printer, and a photo printer - and a year's worth of paper and
ink cartridges, for less than that. The moral of the story is
not that you should wait six years to buy a printer, and then
buy four; but rather that you can't bank on getting a good deal
on a computer related product past three years. After that,
something better, cheaper, and faster will make you want to
give the old one to your church.
How much better, cheaper, and faster? How about the difference
between 700 dots per inch and 4000 dots per inch? How about
an inkjet printer that costs about the same as a toaster—$40?
I wonder about this preoccupation we have with printers. Do
we make hard copies because our friends and families are too
stubborn to use a computer for everything like a regular person?
Do we do it because the paper copy will last longer than the
computer? I've been wondering. As a computer consultant, I live
by the rule that "any report over two pages long is obsolete
before it finishes coming off the printer."
A photo isn't a person; it's just a snapshot of them at one
point in time. It is usually a pretty reliable copy, but it's
a static thing—it doesn't talk, move, or converse like
a person (unless it's hanging at Hogwart's school). I think
that a printout is the same thing. It's a snapshot of a document,
an idea, a set of numbers. It represents the information that
we have at that time—but only for that moment. While the
real thing keeps changing, like a living thing, the printout
stays the same. We continue living, learning, growing, flying
into the future, and the printout stays right where it was created,
and becomes a part of the rapidly receding past.
Well, good news, you have lots of choices about making parts
of the past. Following are the five main categories of printers
available today, and their approximate purchase prices:
- Personal
Inkjets—It's about money. These printers use 4
colors of ink and print on plain or treated paper. They
are the least expensive to buy. Speed is generally not an
issue. The cost per page will vary dramatically depending
on the kind of paper you use, but it's generally under a
nickel, and can get down to two cents. The quality color
pages cost more like a dime. Hewlett Packard (HP) has the
highest ratings. Under $200.
- Photo
Printers—It's about quality. These printers use
six inks instead of four, and sacrifice some speed for quality,
compared to personal inkjets. They cost more to buy, and
lots more to operate. (check the cost per page—25 to
50 cents according to vendors). Canon has the highest ratings.
$200-$350.
- Multifunction
Printers (MFPs)—It's about space. While they may
not scan as well as your dedicated scanner, they copy, print,
and fax as well as most of those devices, and they save
a lot of desk space. At current prices, they compare favorably
with inkjets for quality, speed, and price. $200-300.
- Personal
Lasers—It's about speed. These printers are much
faster than inkjets, and the cost for black and white text
is between 1.5 and 2 cents per page. You can get pretty
good ones for $200.
- Color
Lasers—It's about money. If low costs and slow
speeds don't satisfy you, there's good news—you can
always spend more. The color laser printers cost thousands
of dollars. The PC Magazine editors' choice is a $4100 Xerox.
Over $3,000.
I've
only described a general comparison. There are many features
to compare within each type of printer. There are many models.
One of the important features is the "Total Cost of Ownership,"
or "TCO." Within inkjets and MFPs, the cost of ownership
varies from $550 to $950 for three years of printing 50 pages
a week. Another feature is speed, and on PC Magazine's 39-page
test, some printers took 11 minutes and some took 40.
What
printer is right for you? First, think about your needs, and
ask yourself how many different types of printers it will take.
Most offices have a laser printer and either an inkjet or MFP
for regular work. Everyone has a different mix of "normal"
and "high quality" printing to do. People print different
numbers of pages, and a person with high use might need a laser,
while a person who doesn't print ten pages a week might be happy
with the least expensive printer they can buy. Second, look
at the different models in the category (or categories) that
you need and try to find the combination of quality, speed,
and price (in terms of cost of ownership) that works for you.
One
warning about prices: there are many different kinds of paper
for printing these days, and it's a trend that looks likely
to continue. It's going to be hard to measure the cost of printing
if you don't have any idea whether you'll be buying glossy photo
paper, acid free paper, or the cheapest thing that Wal-Mart
has. I don't suppose that I know what my paper costs will be
for the next three years, so I take estimates of my total cost
of ownership with a grain of salt.
Two
things that are changing with printers is that, 1) almost all
of them attach via USB now, instead of the old parallel port;
and 2) some of the HP printers are capable of detecting the
type of paper media in them. The printer puts ink on pages with
different coatings in different ways. If you don't get this
setting right, you can smear ink all over the paper and have
it bleed through to the other side. It's wasteful and doesn't
look good either. It won't be long until all of the printers
can detect the paper types, and color on them accordingly.
Summary
Familiarize yourself with the five kinds of printers described
above, and with the current models of the kinds that you like.
For more information, go to www.rootsworks.com/printers
to get links to other sites that have useful printer comparisons
and reviews. Next time we'll talk about all of the things besides
plain white paper that you can print on, in "RootsWorks:
Beyond Printing."
The RootsWorks series of articles focuses on genealogical
applications for generic technologies. Beau would like to hear
from you. Whether you have something to add or something to
ask, please point your browser to www.rootsworks.com
and discuss this or any topic related to the use of technology
in family history. Tell us about your PDA experiences. Please
note that Beau cannot assist you with your individual computer
problems. Visit the RootsWorks website at www.rootsworks.com
for links to previous articles and Beau's lecture schedule.
Copyright 2003, MyFamily.com.
ACCESS
A PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION OF THIS ARTICLE, e-mail it to a
friend, or submit your feedback on it.
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Ancestry Quick Tip
Page-by-Page
Searches Through Old Bibles
When searching old Bibles that have not been used for long
periods of time, it is wise to go through the Bible page by
page because items are some times placed in them. I found
news clippings of obituaries for two of my ancestors this
way. The clippings were over one hundred years old. Some of
our ancestors would also hide cash in Bibles, so it can pay
to search these old Bibles page by page.
John A. McCall.
Thanks to John for today's Quick Tip! If you have a tip
you would like to share with researchers, you can send it
to: ADNeditor@ancestry.com
Quick Tips may be reprinted, with credit to the submitter,
in other Ancestry publications, so if you do not want your
tip included in a publication other than the Ancestry
Daily News and Ancestry Weekly Digest, please state
so clearly in your message.
ACCESS
A PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION OF THIS QUICK TIP JAMBOREE, e-mail
it to a friend, or submit your feedback on it.
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Fast Fact:
Ralph Waldo Emerson in the U.S. Census
Ancestry.com subscribers can view the following
enumerations for Ralph Waldo Emerson at:
1840
U.S. Census
Select:
--- Massachusetts
--- Middlesex
--- Concord
--- Image 19 of 22 (line 16)
1850
U.S. Census
Select:
--- Massachusetts
--- Middlesex
--- Concord
--- Image 45 of 55 (line 39)
1860
U.S. Census
Select:
--- Massachusetts
--- Middlesex
--- Concord
--- Image 6 of 55 (line 39)
1870
U.S. Census
Select:
--- Massachusetts
--- Middlesex
--- Concord
--- Image 52 of 61 (line 1)
1880
U.S. Census
Select:
--- Massachusetts
--- Middlesex
--- Concord
--- ED# 362
--- Image 24 of 80 (line 25)
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Clipping of the Day
From The Waukesha Freeman (Waukesha, Wisconsin),
10 July 1940, page 1:
TEN
GERMAN PLANES SHOT DOWN IN RAID OVER BRITISH ISLES
London,
July 10---(U.P.)---Ten German planes were shot down during
mass raids on Britain today, an air ministry communique
asserted.
The
ministry said that reports of the destruction of additional
German planes were as yet unconfirmed.
The
communique did not specify where the planes were shot down.
It
was issued after Germany had sent her strongest air force
against the British Isles. The biggest battle of the day
raged over the English Channel off the southeast coast of
England and it was believed that as many as 150 German and
British planes participated in the spectacular engagement.
In
the major battle of the day--on the southeast coast--at
least 100 German planes, bombers escorted by fighters, were
attacked by British Spitfires and Hurricanes which arrived
after the German planes had dropped a salvo of bombs on
a convoy of ships. The attacked vessels joined in fire on
the Germans.
Witnesses
said that when some of the German planes sought to escape
across the coast, British fighters tailed them.
A
count of casualties was not immediately available. Some
quarters said that five German planes were downed in the
southeast coast battle and other witnesses claimed that
they saw as many as 10 planes fall into the sea.…
Editor's
Note: The Battle of Britain began on 10 July and continued
through 31 October 1940. For more information, see the following
websites:
The
Battle of Britain (RAF website)
Battle
of Britain
Subscribers
with access to the Historical Newspapers Collection can
view
this clipping online.
SUBSCRIBE
to the Historical Newspapers Collection at Ancestry.com.
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Ancestry
Product Specials
Genealogical
Computing One-Year
Subscription
Normally,
a one-year subscription to GC retails for $24.95,
but today you can subscribe to it in
The Shops@Ancestry.com for $19.95.
Digital
Imaging for Genealogy (Video)
Normally
this video retails for $14.95, but today
you can buy it in
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