Posted by Stacie Savage, HP Inkjet Systems Communications
A few months ago, my boss told me we needed to start an inkjet printing blog. Since refusal would have been career limiting, I started doing research. I even read one of those business books on the topic (you know the type -- $23.95 for hard cover with about 200 pages and a lot of white space, and it gets a lot of speaking gigs for the author). I also started reading blogs. At first, I didn’t get it -- most of the blogs I read didn’t have much valuable information. But, then I found a few blogs that were actually interesting, and I started to embrace my new assignment.
I wondered what my first blog should cover. I was torn between talking about some new products that are launching today (that seemed pretty self serving), and responding to a funny series of comments on a Google users group. I decided to do both – however, I’ll leave the new product stuff to the end.
The funny comments on a Google group of computer printer users had to do with someone having a problem with his Epson printer. Epson inkjet stopped working! The Epson printer user refilled his empty black ink cartridge with fountain pen ink because he wanted to print something all blue. His printer stopped working. The user seemed surprised this happened.
I laughed when I read this because I spend my entire workday focused on printers, and I was shocked that someone would actually think this wouldn’t cause a problem. However, I tried to put myself in the place of someone who doesn’t spend most of his waking hours obsessing over inkjet printing -- someone who thinks “ink is ink” and doesn’t understand that not only is inkjet ink vastly different from fountain pen ink, but all inkjet inks are not created equal. When I put myself in that place, this isn’t really that funny anymore.
Inkjet ink has to be able to create a variety of high-quality output from glossy photos to text on plain paper. At the same time, it has to resist fading due to light and air gases, and it has to interact with printer parts made of metal, plastic, rubber, etc., and it can’t damage any of these parts. Also, it has to be safe for people to interact with when they hold a photo or document. So inkjet ink isn’t just “colored water.”
This is why we’re blogging. We want to better understand what people who aren’t hopelessly devoted to printers think about printers, and we want to be able to help them when they have questions.
Now, to the new products -- it’s a big day for us at HP inkjet. We’re launching two new Photosmart printers, one Photosmart all-in-one, and nine cameras www.hp.com/go/SummerImagingLaunch2007. Highlights of this launch include three new products with interactive touch screen displays -- two printers and the first digital camera ever to have this feature.
Today, we’re also launching a new section on the HP website Why buy HP Home and Small Office Inkjet Printers www.hp.com/go/inkjetprinter. The site explains the differences among HP inkjet printing sub brands.
I hope you’ll read this blog and post comments. Our panel of bloggers is really trying hard to keep it from being as boring as you’re probably already thinking it could be. Help us out by letting us know what you want to talk about.
Opinions expressed here and in any corresponding comments are the personal opinions of the original authors, not of HP and may not have been reviewed in advance by HP.
Posted
06-19-2007 7:37 PM
by
Stacie Savage