Save money on home office and photo printing with Kodak

In this second of our two-part feature in association with Kodak, we will concentrate on the printing needs of home office users and photo enthusiasts who not only want to save money, but also demand fast, high-quality prints as well as the latest features. If you missed the first part of this series or want to share it with a friend, it is available on our website and target="_blank" title="Cut the cost of printing with Kodak - ebook version">as an ebook.

While the printers we looked at in the first part of this series are perfect for those with everyday printing requirements, Kodak also has a range of all-in-one printers that are suited to those with more demanding needs. The Kodak ESP 7250 (£169.99 RRP) and ESP 6150 (£179.99 RRP), pictured below, both offer the same great-value printing but also add a range of useful features.

Both printers can connect to wireless and wired networks without the need to buy adapters, so every PC in your home can print documents without fuss.

Best of all, the wireless connection can be set up in minutes without even switching on the computer. The Kodak printer will detect available wireless networks automatically – all you need to do is tap in the password of yours on the printer’s large colour screen. Or you can plug in a network cable and access your network that way.

Photo prints
If you’re a keen photographer, you’ll know just how expensive photo printing can be. Thankfully Kodak’s high-quality prints are great value. Independent tests by Quality Logic showed that Kodak printers can save more than double the industry average per page, with colour graphics costing just 5.4p per page compared with 12.2p from other printers (full details of independent testing data can be found here). The savings on photos are even greater, with Kodak’s prints costing 7.1p compared with an industry average of almost 29p.

Kodak’s photo prints aren’t just good value, they’re also great quality. Thanks to Kodak’s advanced nano-pigment inks, each droplet is three-to-four times smaller than conventional pigment inks, which means greater precision and brighter more vivid colours.

What’s more, prints from Kodak printers last longer. A report from the independent testing facility Wilhelm Research found that Kodak’s prints should last more than 120 years, a much better result than other printers could achieve.

Photos created using Kodak’s all-in-one printers are designed to last a lifetime, so they will stay looking their best even when stored in unprotected conditions like on your fridge or notice board at home. When used with Kodak’s range of premium photo papers, your prints will be instantly dry, so you’ll be able to admire them straight away without fear of smudging. And being water-resistant, they’re protected from accidental spills.

Great value cartridges
All Kodak printers use the same two cartridges, providing a total of six individual inks. The colour cartridge, which costs £11.99 RRP, delivers 420 pages and contains five inks – cyan, magenta, yellow, a photo black and a clear gloss. This gives your prints that unmistakable photo-lab look and feel with vivid colours and an excellent level of detail.

The black cartridge, which costs £6.99 RRP and delivers 425 pages, is used for text documents and is designed to produce documents quickly. If you need to print lots of text documents you can get even better value from the XL black cartridge, which costs £11.49 RRP and delivers 770 pages. That means both fewer trips to the shop and fewer cartridge changes.

The ESP 7250 has two paper trays, one for A4 and another for photo paper, which means there is no need to swap paper types between jobs when printing documents or photos. Instead, load one or more photo sheets into the dedicated tray and the printer will automatically select them to print your photos on. The ESP 6150 has a larger single 200-sheet A4 paper tray for the office user, which can also be adjusted to print on smaller photo paper.

To learn more about Kodak’s inks and paper, head to www.printandprosper.com, click on the Fairly Priced Ink link at the top of the page and then select the High Quality tab. Here you will also be able to see an example of how photos printed on a Kodak printer retain their quality over time compared to those produced by traditional printers with dye-based inks.

If you’re in a hurry, it’s possible to print your photos without even having to go near a computer. Thanks to the built-in memory card slots found within the range of Kodak’s printers, all you need do is insert your camera’s memory card into the appropriate slot, select the photos you want to print using the colour display and then print them out. For extra convenience it is even possible to crop your photos before printing.

Kodak’s ESP 7250 and ESP 6150 have an extra trick up their sleeve in that they can also print wirelessly direct from devices such as Apple’s popular iPod, iPhone and iPad devices, once you’ve downloaded the free Kodak Pic Flick App. This feature is also available on the Kodak ESP 5210 and ESP 5250.

Home office
The ESP 7250 and ESP 6150 are also well-suited to home office users, with both printers providing automatic double-sided printing. This feature cuts your paper costs by printing on one side of the page, then automatically turning the page over and printing on the other side without you having to lift a finger.

The ESP 6150 has the added bonus of a built-in fax, allowing you to connect it direct to your phone line to both send and receive faxes; up to 60 fax numbers can be stored using the printer’s built-in phone book. Along with a fax, the ESP 6150 includes an automatic document feeder (ADF). A must-have for any home office, the ADF sits on top of the printer and lets you quickly scan, photocopy or fax multi-page documents without having to load each individual sheet separately. And with the ADF able to accept up to 30 sheets of paper, it’s a real time saver.

At the premium end of Kodak’s range, the printers also come with a selection of preloaded templates, allowing you to print a wide range of commonly-used forms. For example, with the click of a button you can turn a standard blank sheet of A4 into graph paper; other templates such as to-do lists, birthday cards and gift tags are also included.

Great value, high quality
As you can see, with such a wide range of features, excellent print quality and, above all, low running costs, Kodak’s range of all-in-one inkjet printers offer the best of everything. No matter whether you need a printer for occasional use, creating professional photo prints or high-volume office-based work, you can get better value by switching to Kodak.

Defy confusion and save money on inks
Buying replacement inks for your printer can be a bewildering process. Shop online or visit your local computer store and you’ll be greeted by an overwhelming range of inks, making it all too easy to purchase the wrong type. Some big-name brands have well over 40 different cartridges available, which is confusing to say the least. Kodak simplifies this by ensuring that all of its inks will work in any Kodak printer, so you will never end up buying an ink that isn’t compatible.