Templot Club Archive 2007-2020
|
|||
| author | remove search highlighting | ||
|---|---|---|---|
|
posted: 6 Mar 2019 15:26 from: Martin Wynne
click the date to link to this post click member name to view archived images |
Anyone here adept at data-mining from government stats? I was trying to find the number of households having an A4 printer (or larger), rather than simply the number of computers or internet access. There's quite a lot of evidence that the number of home printers is falling rapidly. Certainly the price of ink and the amount of it the kids get through are no longer the talking points they once were. High street copy-shops seem to be the place where folks now get their photos printed, if they bother to print them at all. Googling "uk plan printing" returns dozens of places offering large-format digital printing from PDF files. Which has obvious implications for Templot. Is it time to shift the emphasis from printed output to the PDF export as the default output? Going further, there is plenty of space on our server. Templot could optionally upload the PDFs to the server as part of the output process. The URL could then be given to the print shop, avoiding any issues with uploads or email attachments or USB sticks (or knowing where the file got saved). If you didn't need it for Templot, would you still have a home printer? Do your modelling friends all have home printers? cheers, Martin. |
||
|
posted: 6 Mar 2019 15:42 from: richard_t
click the date to link to this post click member name to view archived images |
I have 2 A3 printers at home. One is a A3+ photo printer, and the other is my company supplied all-singing-all-dancing scanner/printer/copier (although the company wouldn't fork out for the A3 scanner version :-( The photo printer will do banners - when I have the patience to feed the paper in "just so". My plan will be to have a couple of full copies printed out by a local print shop for alignments and the like, but to still print sections of the plan on either of the printers I have at home, to create the track on. Transferring the near completed track over to the full plan. Might not work in practice mind you. Hope that helps. Richard. |
||
| Last edited on 6 Mar 2019 15:46 by richard_t |
|||
|
posted: 6 Mar 2019 17:30 from: Rob Manchester
click the date to link to this post click member name to view archived images |
Hi Martin, I think the home printer concept has a lot of life in it yet. No harm in offering PDF output ( as you already do ) with a server upload option for printing at a copy shop. Been looking at house listings recently pondering if a move would be good. Plenty of printers still visible in people's homes, no idea how often they get used. Rob |
||
|
posted: 6 Mar 2019 21:14 from: Judi R
click the date to link to this post click member name to view archived images |
Going to a print house might be OK in the larger conurbations where they can be found but some of us live out in the sticks and we have to be self-sufficient! Judi |
||
|
posted: 6 Mar 2019 21:56 from: Martin Wynne
click the date to link to this post click member name to view archived images |
Judi R wrote: Going to a print house might be OK in the larger conurbations where they can be found but some of us live out in the sticks and we have to be self-sufficient!Hi Judi, There's no thought of removing the print option. It has one obvious advantage over PDFs in that it allows calibration of a specific printer + paper for the greatest accuracy. I'm just thinking of maybe changing the emphasis a bit towards the PDF option, so that potential users who don't have a printer are not avoiding Templot unnecessarily. Many of the print shops operate by mail order -- you send them a file online, they post back the prints, some offering next day service. Thanks all for the comments. cheers, Martin. |
||
|
posted: 6 Mar 2019 22:57 from: Nigel Brown click the date to link to this post click member name to view archived images |
Think I'd be lost without a printer; it's useful for a wide range of things, e.g. formal letters, producing Xmas cards, printing snaps to hang on the wall (I've still a bit of wall real estate left to fill!), and of course Templot. Current printer is a swish Epson A3+ Surecolor P400 photo printer. I'd be surprised if they disappeared, in spite of the impact of the internet, as, for one thing, people can get reasonable quality printer/scanners at dirt cheap prices. So, actual use may become more selective, but they're still useful. Having said that, the ability to print out large chunks of a Templot plan on a large format printer has attractions. Nigel |
||
|
posted: 7 Mar 2019 20:54 from: Phil O
click the date to link to this post click member name to view archived images |
My Epson 1290 A3 printer died last year after, who knows how long and was replaced by a Canon A3. Phil |
||
|
posted: 7 Mar 2019 21:08 from: Stephen Freeman
click the date to link to this post click member name to view archived images |
I am afraid I have multiple printers. Roland A3 plotter, A4 laser printer, Epson wireless WF2010 inkjet and 1290, though I have to nurse the latter along. Phil how did yours stop working? There are couple of things you could have tried if it was to do with the ink supply malfunctioning or error messages. Epson have abuilt in obsolensce counter which can be defeated with a trick or two , Nozzles can be cleaned. |
||
|
posted: 7 Mar 2019 21:22 from: Phil O
click the date to link to this post click member name to view archived images |
Hi Stephen. The ink stopped flowing on a couple of nozzles and using the nozzle cleaning function didn't fully clear the problem. I put new cartridges in, but to no avail. Having just looked at my joining date it would be knocking on 18 years old, so it doesn't owe me much, but if you have a method of cleaning the nozzles, I will give it a go. Phil |
||
|
posted: 8 Mar 2019 15:21 from: Stephen Freeman
click the date to link to this post click member name to view archived images |
If it's a physical blockage then I have rescued my printer more than once with something called "Printhead Hospital". Basically involves squirting their cleaning fluid through the nozzles via a syringe and tube, making sure to position a strip of their blotting paper to hopefully catch most of the ink. It's a bit messy and takes a little time but it worked for me. Phil O wrote: Hi Stephen. |
||
|
posted: 8 Mar 2019 16:55 from: Rob Manchester
click the date to link to this post click member name to view archived images |
Hi Phil, This may be of help - here If IPA isn't suitable or doesn't work there are solutions for cleaning technical drawing pens, not sure how they differ. Rob |
||
|
posted: 8 Mar 2019 17:32 from: Phil O
click the date to link to this post click member name to view archived images |
Thanks Chaps, I will have a go when I get back from visiting my parents in Stourport, should be Tuesday if there are no more family crisis! Phil. |
||
|
posted: 8 Mar 2019 21:41 from: Stephen Freeman
click the date to link to this post click member name to view archived images |
I think printhead hospital is ipa based but must have some kind of detergent in it as ipa alone had no effect. | ||
| Please read this important note about copyright: Unless stated otherwise, all the files submitted to this web site are copyright and the property of the respective contributor. You are welcome to use them for your own personal non-commercial purposes, and in your messages on this web site. If you want to publish any of this material elsewhere or use it commercially, you must first obtain the owner's permission to do so. |