Computer matters

A real funny! When I started at Courtaulds, I attended a new employee induction. One event was watching a film in the lecture theatre called "The Paperless World". How we were all going to cope not needing to use paper. The year that I retired from Courtaulds, 1998, to concentrate on other interests, the Financial Times published a stat that stated that our parliament had used more paper in 1996 than at anytime on record.

Hmm, well Philip what do you imagine they were using it all for, especially if it came in rolls?

As far as I know, Epson weren't making enough from ink sales, obviously due to extortion (around £1000 per litre). So they came up with the idea of the ecotank. Now I've heard the printers will not accept paper other than their own brand, and... it's expensive.

Mine is an Epson, Heathite and it seems quite happy with the copy paper we bought from Wilko’s.

I feel your pain McSporran, good luck with the recovery. Incidentally, I remember Anglo, I met PMJ and the guy with the XJS Jag. I worked at Unbrako after your time, before it closed I put together a pile of photos (including one of said caravan with HP3000) and some old kit, such as an original IBM PC, an Apple II, unfortunately someone skipped the box before I picked it up.

Hello Anne, is the printer OK with colour paper too? I am holding back from buying an ecotank because I've seen Youtube reviews that say it rejects other manufacturers paper. I bought an Epson some years ago and replaced the cartridges with refillable ones. I used to go to the computer fair at the motorcycle museum venue and bought them there, along with the bottles of ink. Now I get the bottles from eBay because they stopped the bus service to the motorcycle museum and the computer fair stopped showing there. The printer frequently stops working after it has done a bit of printing, saying the cartridges aren't recognised. So I start the replace cycle to get at the cartridges and simply lift them out and push them straight back in. Job done, but it's obvious that they were trying to force you to pay their £1000 per litre ink prices. Take a look in Tesco and see the price and volume you get for that price and do your own maths. It's like machine tools, back in the day they would give you the machine tool (yes, give it to you) and you were locked in to buying their tooling.

Heathite, I must admit I have not used the printer very much yet, but I have had no problem with the paper I bought from Wilko. I have printed a couple of photos on glossy photo paper and that was OK. I do not have any coloured paper so I can’t advise on that, I have some letter paper I can try to see if that is ok. The only problem I did have was that I print birthday cards onto glossy card, it prints the front and back on the glossy side very well but when I turn it over it says there is no paper in. I have got round this by printing the inside on copy paper and stapling it in which looks quite nice anyway. It came with a set of big bottles to fill all the tanks and I have looked online and a replacement set of ink is about £35. I always used the proper ink in my old printer as I have had problems with lookalike inks in the past. It was a Canon with separate colours and to replace each one was costing me about £17 so I am hoping that although I have paid more for the printer I will be better off. PS. Just tried printing on some 100gsm linen coloured letter paper (mum got it some cheap some years ago from a local shop that was closing down), not inkjet at all, and it printed with no problems. Edited by member, 7th Feb 2021 3:08 pm

Hello Anne and thank you for a detailed answer. I should have made myself clearer about the colour paper though. I meant glossy paper for printing images and such like. Nevertheless you have answered that for me. I remember the Youtube review stated that it was glossy colour paper that was being rejected by the printer at the time. Maybe Epson have moved on, since it was a couple of years ago when I watched the review? Anyway, your whole reply has some interesting info. Thanks again, Heathite

There is a setting in the printer for glossy photo and matt photo. The little screen tells you if you have different paper in.

Has anyone discovered this site? They offer a 'colorizer' facility. I've tried it with the above mentioned New Star. Post copied from topic Coventry Pubs on 18th Feb 2021 12:46 pm

Skilfully done Heathite. I confess though to a soft spot for black and white.

Hi Helen, not me but their software. Try the link, if you have a black and white photo that you'd like to see 'colorized'. They convert it very quickly and allow you to download it either as the colorized image, or with the original for comparison, or both. I'm sure they offer the service as a loss leader to encourage subscriptions. I like it, it gives another insight into the scene.