Digital Photocopiers

[Stephen Coates]

I'm not sure whether this applies to all digital photocopiers, as I expect you can get some simple ones that act more like the so called 'analogue' photocopiers, but some digital photocopiers do do some really good stuff.

We have some Gestetner photocopiers in the libraries at college. They will photocopy stuff, at a cost - 5p A4 B&W, 10p A3 B&W, 50p A4 Colour, £1.00 A£ Colour. They will print stuff from the computers in the library, but as they are on the college network, you can print to them from anywhere. It will do black and white for free, and will also duplex it automatically. For colour you are supposed to get your teacher to fill in a permission form, and then they will allow it, but sometimes they didn't block the colour printer driver and you can print loads of colour stuff anyway .

They can also scan stuff upto A3 and in colour. It will either do it as TIFF or PDF, and you can set it to make a multi page PDF file and it will email it to your college email account, so you can log on to the computer and print it to avoid photocopying charges .

I was wondering if anyone else had used such a device? I have found it really good for scanning stuff. It is extremely quick. It can just be a little awkward to set it up using the touch screen, but that isn't really a problem.

Also, what are modern flatbed scanners like at scanning in terms of speed? Mine was made in 2001 and is a little slow.

[Harrison]

Answering your last question. Recent USB2 flatbed scanners are pretty quick these days. They can scan a 300DPI A4 page in under 20 seconds, which is a lot faster than older scanners could manage (they sometimes took minutes).

I've also used multifunction networked photocopies loads of times in the past. They are definitely more useful in an office environment than having just a printer or scanner, and being networked means you only need one for everyone to use.

I've not used any of the big colour laser copiers recently, and the last Xerox ones I used never quite produced accurate colours and always got blues and greens very wrong. But I do know this has been improved greatly in the last couple of years.

It is great that you have found ways around being charged for printing. I remember how expansive it can get when you need to print stuff for course work. At university many many years ago we had a printing card system where you could by printing credits on a card and then pay for prints when needed using it. However we discovered that the Apple Macs bypassed this system so tended to print everything from them. Plus the Macs were not tied into account based login like the PCs so you could use more than one machine at once for downloading. Finally I admit to a Mac having some use!

[Stephen Coates]

We don't get charged for printing from the computers. Only photocopying.

I'm not sure what the permission slips for colour printing are exactly for. It could be so the library charges the cost of printing to the deparment that the work is for, or it could be just to ensure that all colour printing is for college work so no colour toner gets wasted.

There are plenty of printers scattered around college for printing black and white stuff. Even if they did charge for printing, I wouldn't really need to worry about it, as I print rather a lot of stuff at home. I have a nice Laser printer as well as a nice inkjet printer for colour stuff.

Talking about libraries, I still don't get the point of the college libraries having 'Social Learning Areas'. There is a poster in one of them that says 'In the social learning area you can - Text friends, eat a sandwich, have a drink and check your emails'. What that has to do with learning I don't know.

Does anyone here have a laser printer? My laserjet 4M+ has been having cleaning problems recently. It sometimes prints loads of toner down the middle of the page and sometimes repeats parts, like printing a word again, a few inches down the page. I think it is time for a new toner cartridge.

What are modern colour laser printers like? I have used them for some things, as well as colour photocopiers, and I thought they did a reasonable job but it wasn't quite as good as a good inkjet.

[J T]

My knowledge of photocopiers doesn't extend much past 'press green' and 'collect copies'. If something goes wrong it'll be either 'fiddle with it' or 'swear and smash'. For complicated things I equip charm and target a lady secretary/PA/receptionist for the win.

Talking about libraries, I still don't get the point of the college libraries having 'Social Learning Areas'. There is a poster in one of them that says 'In the social learning area you can - Text friends, eat a sandwich, have a drink and check your emails'. What that has to do with learning I don't know.

Ugh, sounds horribly trendy. I bet the sign says TXT UR MATES or something like that. What's wrong with a common room or canteen? A set of rooms or cubicles off the main library for group working is acceptable. The library shouldn't really be (outwardly) advertised as a social club.