Kodak Photo Prints At Home
Kodak’s New Inkjet Home Printers Making Their Mark in Wal-Mart
Reducing the running cost of home inkjet printers is Kodak's main weapon in a new range of printers. Kodak promises longer lasting prints at half the cost
Kodak recently announced that increasingly premier office superstore, warehouse, and mass merchandising outlets are stocking the new KODAK EASYSHARE All-in-One Printers. They say that the printers are now available in more than 7,600 retail stores worldwide, including Wal-Mart in Canada.
The printers are in a very competitive market segment for machines that not only print; they scan and copy documents as well. Most will accept a PICTBRIDGE connection from a digital camera for direct printing, with memory card slots and fax capabilities available on some models.
The Kodak machine misses the capability to scan color negatives and slides offered by some of its competitors. For photographers looking to digitize their collection old film images, this is a serious drawback.
Cost Per Print
Market research by InfoTrends suggests the cost of ink and supplies as the major concern when printing at home. This is more significant for printing photographs from digital cameras as the whole page is covered in ink, where normal text documents have mainly space around the printed characters.
“For years, the high price of inkjet cartridges has kept consumers from freely using their printers,” said Antonio M. Perez, chairman and chief executive officer, Eastman Kodak Company. “With affordable premium inks, families can now create crisp documents and KODAK lab-quality photos at home.”
The traditional silver-halide printing process offered by the local photo lab is increasingly under pressure as the cost and quality of home inkjet printer continues to improve. Currently the cost per print at a mini-lab is less than using a home ink jet, although the convenience of printing at home outweighs some of the cost difference.
Kodak claim impressive savings, offering customers up to fifty percent less on everything they print. The actual cost will vary though depending on print quality and the type of paper used.
Besides cost per print, there are other issues involved in choice of how to print. “For too long, consumers have complained that ink costs too much; that quality, durability and longevity is not good enough; and that printers are too hard to use,” Perez said. “That stops today – because of Kodak and our revolutionary approach to inkjet.”
Fading Photographs
The Kodak inks are pigment-based, rather than the more common dye-based inks. Generally, pigment inks last longer than dye inks. Kodak inks are pigment type, and when used with their paper, Kodak suggests photo prints from their printers will retain their color and sharpness for many years.
One trade off for the extra life of pigment inks is their smaller color range and lower saturation than dye inks.
To obtain the best quality and longest lasting prints from your home inkjet printer Henry Wilhelm of the Wilhelm Imaging Research recommends using the printer manufacturer’s paper and ink. Manufacturers optimize their printers and inks to match the absorption properties of their paper.
