Lexmark International, the leading developer, manufacturer and supplier of printing solutions, was short-listed this month for the European Green IT awards.

The European Green IT Awards recognise the companies and individuals that have demonstrated innovation and drive in Green IT. Lexmark was short listed for the 'Use of IT to Support Green Process or People Change' award, alongside BP, iBase Systems for iTRACE and London Borough of Hillingdon.

Lexmark was acknowledged for its contribution to educating printer users on the 'Print Less, Save More' message, using tactics such as a Sustainable Technology roadshow across EMEA internally and its technology showcase in Suresnes, France. Throughout 2007, this gave 150 customers, prospects, industry experts and members of the media insight into effective and responsible printing, and the environmental steps Lexmark is taking internally.
"The impact of printing on the environment is greatest at the usage stage, and we feel an obligation to educate users on how they can contribute to reducing paper wastage," said Béatrice Marneffe, Head of Sustainable Affairs EMEA at Lexmark. "Being a finalist in the European Green IT awards is recognition of the steps we're taking to help the environment, and encouraging users to adopt more responsible printing practices."

The award is well-timed, ahead of Earth Month in April. This is an initiative unique to Lexmark that forms part of its ongoing commitment to reducing paper waste and persuading users to print less - through changing attitudes and using strategies like double-sided printing. Lexmark's Earth Month will run from April 1 to May 1 throughout EMEA.

source @ IT Web

Hi.. here is a piece of review for Lexmark's C780 for you all to have a look and feel about the performance factors for the printer..

Lexmark's C780n color laser printer is pricey, but it pays for itself with its fast performance and exemplary print quality. The company's worse-than-average reliability rating in ourReliability and Service surveymight make one pause, though. Its service rating was average.

The C780nperformed very well in our tests. It printed plain text at a snappy pace of 26.1 pages per minute--close behind the speed leader, theOki Printing Solutions C5800Ldn. Letters looked slightly thick and chunky. Though its graphics speed was about midrange for the group, at 3.9 ppm, the quality was impressive. On plain paper, colors looked a little oversaturated, but the graininess or moir é patterns that one often sees with a laser were restrained and unobtrusive. Using Lexmark's own glossy laser paper yielded more-natural-looking colors and smoother textures.

This 105-pound hulk of a printer is designed for heavy workloads. Its 120,000-page monthly duty cycle is far higher than that of any other competitor in ourrankings. Standard features include a sturdy 500-sheet input tray and a 250-sheet top output tray. The 100-sheet multipurpose tray opens from the left side at a surprisingly steep angle that I found awkward to use; Lexmark says it's designed to save space. Options include a 500-sheet input tray and a duplexer, both of which are standard on higher-end variations of the same engine.

The design is sometimes too subtle to be completely user-friendly. The fairly simple control panel features a four-line monochrome LCD and clearly labeled buttons. The LCD's messages are understandable, but how to proceed or back out of something is occasionally not clear. Getting into the machine is hampered by the lack of handles or levers on the large front panel. Inside, the small leg that props up the panel is a bit hard to figure out, and the very small and unclear explanatory label doesn't help. Removing the toner cartridges requires a lift-and-pull motion that would be easier with more visual cues.

With all its speed and skill, the C780n might have rated higher, if not for its dicey reliability rating. For a busy or growing office, however, it's a good bet in this price range.

All that hype about the paperless office never came true, but the notion of the wireless office is rapidly taking hold as more small and home-based businesses replace wired LANs with WiFi networks. The Lexmark X6570, an 802.11g-enabled all-in-one makes cutting the Ethernet cable a very compelling proposition.

The X6570 uses the familiar two-cartridge, four-color ink system -- one cartridge for black ink, one tricolor cartridge with yellow, cyan, and magenta -- for everyday text and graphics jobs and casual photo printing. But you can also swap out the black for an optional photo cartridge, which turns the Lexmark into a six-color printer for richer, more accurate images.

Two memory-card slots on the front panel support a slew of digital-camera flash-card formats (CompactFlash, Memory Stick/Pro, Secure Digital, MultiMediaCard, and xD). Plus, there's a PictBridge USB port that allows you to plug in a compatible camera and print directly from its storage card without transferring pics to your PC. Another USB 2.0 port in back provides connection to a WiFi-free PC.

Automatic duplex (two-sided) printing is standard, as is a 25-page automatic document feeder (ADF) for multipage copying, scanning, and faxing. A paper sensor automatically detects what kind of paper you have loaded in the 100-page paper tray.

The X6570 comes with OCR (optical character recognition) software for converting scanned and faxed documents to editable text, as well as a useful application called Lexmark Productivity Studio. From the latter's control console, you can manage printing, scanning, copying, sending PC documents as faxes, scanning and sending documents as e-mail attachments, and converting documents to PDF files as well as turning pages to word processing files using OCR.

Lexmark's color desktop printer, the Z1320, is now available. This compact inkjet printer is mainly intended for home use.

The printer offers print resolutions of upto 1200 x 1200 pixels (Black) and 4800 x 1200 pixels (color). It promises print speeds of up to 22ppm Black and 16ppm color. The printer comes with an optional six-color printing feature, and claims to be capable of creating color photos and professional-quality text and graphics, as well as borderless prints up to 5-inches x 7-inches. It can print on transparencies, envelopes, and photo paper.

 

The Z1320 comes with high-yield Black and color cartridge, and has an option for additional higher capacity ink cartridge as well, which offers users best cost-per-page among printers of its class, says the company.

The printer's package includes "Lexmark Software Suite" which includes the "Lexmark Imaging Studio" software to edit images. Through this, users can crop, rotate, and resize photos, manage colors on the photo, and enable red eye reduction as well.

Supporting Microsoft Windows Vista, XP, XP Professional x64, and Apple Mac operating systems, Lexmark Z1320 promises a duty cycle of 3000 pages per month, and comes with a one-year limited exchange warranty.

Lexmark C935 series receives Innovative Product of the Year award from Better Buys for Business

Better Buys for Business gives its Innovative Product of the Year award to a product or family of products that introduce an exciting new technology.

"The C935 product family puts together all the pieces," said Stephen Hannaford, Better Buys for Business editor-in-chief. "It's hard to imagine a departmental color printer that could offer this much for such a moderate price. It fully deserves our 2007 Innovative Product of the Year award."

With print speeds up to 40 pages per minute (ppm) in color and 45 ppm in black, in addition to a wide range of printing options, the Lexmark C935 color laser printers "stand out in terms of speed, features and price," according to Better Buys for Business.

"At Lexmark, we go to work every day with a relentless drive to help our customers achieve their goals. Our commitment to meeting the unique needs of our customers, along with our technology leadership and innovative approach, enables us to deliver a great customer experience with products such as the Lexmark C935 color printer family. We are very proud to receive this important validation from Better Buys for Business," said Marty Canning, Lexmark vice president and president of its Printing Solutions and Services Division.

The Lexmark C935hdn was also awarded a Fall 2007 "Pick of the Year" award from Buyers Laboratory Inc. for Outstanding Large Workgroup Color Printer.

News Source CNN Money.com

Lexmark International, Inc. recently introduced three new color laser printer families to help business customers save time and money by printing professional color documents in house.

The Lexmark C780n, C782n and C935dn color laser printer families are designed for business workgroups that need access to high-quality, reliable color printing technology at affordable prices.

“Color can have a tremendous impact for businesses, but it can be expensive for customers to use widely, especially if they are outsourcing documents to the local print shop,” said Paul Rooke, Lexmark executive vice president and president of its printing solutions and Services Division. “These new printers give customers a more flexible and efficient way to get the same impact without breaking their budget.”

With extensive media-handling capabilities and outstanding print quality, the Lexmark C780n, C782n and C935dn printer families can help customers implement color easily across their business. These new printers can be used for everything from printing color logos on letterhead and labels to help businesses increase their brand awareness to helping increase productivity in a retail store by printing color photos of each product on shelf planograms. The Lexmark C780n, C782n and C935dn printer families can print on difficult media like heavy card stock for documents such as invitations and oversized banner paper for signage and can also be used for unique applications such as printing color photos of patients on hospital wristbands to increase patient safety.

While these products offer a cost effective alternative to color document outsourcing, they also feature Lexmark’s Color Care technology to help customers manage color usage and control the cost of color in general office printing. For example, network administrators can control which employees can access the color capabilities on each device to make sure that color is only used when necessary. Customers can also use unique tools such as the coverage estimator, which helps customers calculate the approximate cost of specific print jobs so they can determine the most cost-effective way to get large jobs printed.

The Lexmark C780n color laser printer family features print speeds up to 31 pages per minute (ppm) in color and up to 35 ppm in monochrome. For customers who need more powerful performance, additional paper handling options or want the ability to upgrade to a multifunction device, the Lexmark C782n color laser printer family prints at speeds up to 35 ppm in color and 40 ppm in monochrome. The Lexmark C935dn color laser printer family gives customers access to even faster speeds, printing up to 40 ppm in color and 45 ppm in monochrome, as well as A3 ledger or tabloid printing capabilities and finishing options such as stapling, hole-punch and booklets. It also features two-sided printing standard to help customers reduce paper usage and conserve resources.

All three printer families are also supported by Lexmark’s new universal print driver, which helps customers increase productivity by making it easy to print to multiple Lexmark products using the same, intuitive driver.

A cartridge contains a print head (the metallic-looking portion of the cartridge), nozzles and circuitry. All are housed within the cartridge itself. The print head, nozzles and circuitry perform most of the work when printing.

Nozzles (where the ink comes out): Cartridges can contain between 48 and 320 nozzles (and more), are smaller than a human hair and connect to a heater or resistor which heats and cools the ink inside the cartridge. When the ink is heated, a bubble forms. When the heat is removed, the bubble bursts, sending dots of ink through the nozzles and onto the page. The dots form the characters on the page at a rate of 6,000 drops per second.

When your cartridge wears out, it is actually the heaters that are "burning" out. This will happen, on average, every 3-5 times you refill or recycle.

The only reason cartridges have a limited refill life is the resistors that control the current to each outlet jet. When a cartridge runs out of ink, the resistors can overheat and burn out. Most printers will warn you of a low cartridge before it completely runs out of ink. At the first sign of low ink, refill or top off your ink cartridge to ensure a long refillable life!

Prevent Print Head Burnout: (Lexmark cartridge types)

Did you know that one of the most common causes of printer cartridge failure is print head burnout?

When the printer gives the command for an inkjet nozzle to print, many things happen. A certain quantity of ink is already in the firing chamber, having been pulled there by capillary, gravity or vacuum action after the last firing. The electronics package (the copper circuitry on the side of the cartridge) instructs the heating resistor to heat the ink in the chamber, causing it to expand. This very quick expansion forces ink to shoot through the print head nozzle onto the paper.

The actual structures that make up the print head are quite small. Each print head nozzle assembly consists of the nozzle plate with hole, a chamber to contain the ink, the resistor plate in the chamber and walls to guide the incoming ink to the correct position. These microscopic structures are very sensitive and delicate, and there are over 300 on the end of a typical printer cartridge.

The ink that flows through this assembly is to the print head what water is to the engine of an automobile. With no water in your car radiator, your engine will soon burn up. The same is true for your printer cartridges. The resistor that heats the ink quickly achieves a temperature of hundreds of degrees Fahrenheit! Without the cooling action of the ink, the microscopic print head substructures crack and begin to break apart, and the nozzle plate begins to warp and pull away from the cartridge.

Once print head burnout has begun, the cartridge can no longer be expected to perform as well as it did. The cartridge may leak, print with streaks of ink on the paper, or may just print poorly -- resulting in banding, poor color definition, bad coloration, missing characters and light / dark text. Printing even part of a page with no ink in the cartridge can damage your print head.

We cannot stress enough how important it is to refill your cartridges before they run dry. Print head burnout is one reason this is so important.

Late model printers may offer an "ink level gauge" letting you know when to replace your cartridge. Unfortunately these software gauges are "guesstimates" of the actual ink level in the cartridges and are based on pages printed, not on any physical measurement of ink levels.

For this reason we suggest that you top off your cartridges on a regular basis. If you know that you use a cartridge every two months, refill every month. Place a sticky note on your printer to remind you when to refill next. If you rely on your printer ink level gauge, be sure to refill before the "out of ink" indicator pops up. Note: If you have ink left over, don't worry, it'll keep!