HP brings down printing cost with F735 All-in-One printer

The great William Shakespeare once said, “Write till your ink be dry and with your tears moist it again.”

Today, HP wants users who print approximately 60 pages a month to print till their ink run dry and for a small amount that might bring tears to their eyes, get an original replacement black or color ink cartridge to print some more.

HP is continuing this year its HP Deskjet Ink Advantage program after a successful market response last year. The HP Deskjet Ink Advantage, designed specially for budget-conscious users from the home and micro business market segments, includes exclusively the HP F735 AiO (All-in-One) printer that costs only P6,999 and affordable high-capacity HP 703 Black or Tri-color Deskjet ink cartridges just at P390. This program does not cover other HP printer models and ink cartridges.

The HP Deskjet Ink Advantage was piloted in the Philippines. It offers customers three times the prints for about half the price and with the added functions of scanning and copying.

HP’s findings show that moderate printer users from the SOHO and micro business sectors who print at least two pages a day on average are more inclined to enjoy savings from the HP Deskjet Ink Advantage.

“SOHO and micro businesses represent a large and fast growing business segment in the Philippines, and we know that lowering operational costs is a real concern that they face in a tough economic environment. Since the Philippines is an inkjet-driven market, we believe that this innovative print solution will benefit this specific segment. As of the third quarter of 2008, around 331,500 units have been sold in the country. That’s anywhere from 2,500 to 3,000 units a month,”  said Jerry Dy, consumer market development manager of HP Phils.’ Imaging and Printing Group.

The F735 AiO prints and copies at 28 pages per minute (ppm) in black and 22 ppm in color. It features HP’s new Dual-Drop Volume ink cartridge technology, which delivers small ink drops for detailed printouts of up to 4800 x 1200 dots-per-inch. Its front control panel has an ink-level gauge that shows the ink status.

Ecofont

Meanwhile, a Dutch company has introduced a font that cuts ink consumption by up to 20 percent by designing tiny holes into the letters — much like Swiss cheese.

Spranq, the company that designed the san-serif font, says Ecofont works by omitting parts of each letter, effectively reducing the amount of ink on a page.

The font, which works best when set in nine or 10 points, is available free from its website (www.ecofont.eu).

Available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, Ecofont, which is based on Vera Sans, an open source typeface, works with OpenOffice, AppleWorks or MS Word.

Spranq says that by making its font freely available, it hopes to increase environmental awareness.

Other environment-friendly tips:

• Print only when necessary, use a modern, efficient printer and use unbleached paper.

• For graphic design, use modern color separation techniques to avoid unnecessary wastage in ink. In paper choice, take the environment into account.