There’s a fantastic range of laptop computers available to buy online, with a variety of features to suit different needs and uses. Here are some useful hints and tips about things to consider when choosing a laptop.

How to Choose a Laptop

Laptop computers - also known as notebooks - offer the same features and specifications as desktop computers but in a portable form. A laptop’s portability makes it much more flexible to use than a desktop computer, and the long lasting, rechargeable batteries offer freedom and convenience.

A laptop computer consists of one unit, usually with a keyboard and hardware in one section, and a screen section connected to it, so the laptop can be opened and closed in a ‘clam style’ fashion. Most laptops will fit into specially designed bags and cases for added protection when you’re on the move.

One of the first things to do before you start looking for a laptop computer is to decide what you want to do with it. Will you need it for studying, running a small business, for entertainment, or a combination of activities?

Features to Look for When You Buy a Laptop

It’s important to remember that a laptop’s uses will be largely governed by its specifications. Those specifications differ widely between the models of laptop computer available to buy online or in the shops.

Here are the features and specifications that will make a difference on your laptop:

• Operating system: This is the basic software that makes use of the laptop’s processing system. There are two main types of operating system - Windows, from Microsoft, and OS X, from Apple Macintosh. Both systems perform well and run most common software applications, including Microsoft Office, media players and internet browsers. Windows is the largest selling operating system in the world, but while most laptops come with Windows, OS X is popular for its graphics and publishing capabilities.
• Processor: Processors are composed of chips that drive and control the laptop’s functions. Intel and AMD manufacture the main types of processor. Your laptop will usually come with a powerful processor, though it’s worth comparing the different types.
• RAM: This is Random Access Memory, which is used to run software. Most laptops will come with at least 512 - 1024 megabytes of RAM, which is adequate for most users. Consider buying more memory if you want to run several large software programs at the same time.
• Hard disc drive: This is where all your files, software applications and other data are stored. While desktop computers usually have larger hard drives, most laptop hard drives are up to 80 gigabytes in size. If you are planning to store large amounts of music, video or other data on your laptop, consider buying extra hard drive storage space
• Optical drive: This is usually a combined CD and DVD drive, and is used for both playing and recording onto CD and DVD, though some laptops will be cheaper if the DVD option only plays. If you are planning on recording movies or storing large amounts of data then consider a DVD recorder drive.
• Wi-Fi: Wireless Fidelity enables your laptop to connect to the internet without using wires. Wi-Fi ‘hot spots’ exist in many towns, so you can access the internet while you’re on the move. You can buy wireless routers for your house too, so you can move around with your laptop and still remain online.
• Ports: For printing, music amplification, and connecting to other devices, laptops use ports as well as wireless connections. USB ports are the most versatile, so the more of these the better. Firewire ports are ideal for camcorders, and Ethernet ports are great for high-speed internet access.
• Battery: The battery life between charges determines how much usage you can get from your laptop while away from mains power. Battery life is usually up to about 10 hours, but it does vary between laptop models and depends on whether you run powerful software applications.
• Screen: Screen display sizes on laptops vary from 10 inches to over 17 inches. Usually the bigger the display, the more you will pay for your laptop.
• Accessories: Laptops can come with a range of accessories, or they may be available to buy separately. Accessories include: carry bags and cases - essential for protecting the laptop when on the move; speakers - to improve sound amplification; and web cams - unless your laptop has a built-in web cam, you will need to buy one if you want to use your laptop for video conferencing.

Do I Need to Buy an Extended Laptop Warranty?

Once you’ve decided on the specifications you require, try to keep within a set budget, and don’t be distracted by features and specifications that you don’t need.

Look out for laptops that include the types of software that will suit your needs. Apple Macintosh computers come with a range of useful software already installed, but can be more expensive than Windows laptops.

Before choosing your laptop, find out what type of warranty is offered with it. A warranty will cover the cost of repairs or replacements under certain conditions for at least a year. Sometimes it’s worth paying extra for an extended warranty, especially if you are buying a more expensive laptop.

Online retailers hold regular sales and discounts on laptops, so by taking advantage of these offers and comparing laptop prices between different retailers, you might end up with a better model of laptop for your money.

Laptop or notebooks are full featured miniaturised computer that are mobile and function on inbuilt batteries or AC/DC adaptors which charge the batteries while providing power to the computer hence making the utilization of power more efficient.

Laptops and Notebooks, often considered to be one and the same have a few distinguishing features which set them apart. Laptops are heavier, cheaper and larger than their slimmer, sleeker and more expensive counterpart. However both serve the same purpose and have same advantages over the traditional computers.

Man`s inherent desire for improvisation and technical breakthrough led to the innovation of laptops from computers. IBM and Epsom introduced the first laptop in 1983. At present the market is flooded with many top brands that offer laptops with excellent features and competing prices.

The introduction of Windows 95, which was compatible with the Notebooks, completely revolutionized the world of notebooks, which could now give a tough competition to personal computers. It resulted in improved technology - batteries with longer life, no need for acid and a compatible operating system consequently leading to lower prices and higher demands of notebooks. Notebooks now consumed lower power and could store large amount data.

Notebooks can be broadly classified into three categories on the basis of their weight, thickness and size. Mainstream notebooks weigh between 5 and 7 lbs (2.3 -3.2kg) with a screen size of 14.1 or 15.4 inches diagonally. Desktop replacement are larger, bulkier laptops weighing around 5-7 lbs and more than 1.5“ thick, with relatively low battery capacity but powerful components and screen size as large as 17-20 inches (13“x11“) diagonally. Because of its powerful components its serves as an excellent gaming machine.

Sub notebooks are available in different sizes and thickness. Thin and light notebooks weigh between 5-7lbs and 1 - 1.4“ thick with a screen size 11-14“ x 11“ while Ultra portable sub-notebooks weigh less than 4 lbs and are less than 1.3“ thick with a screen size 11“x10“. Tablet PCs, palmtops, PDAS are as small as the size of a palm and weigh less than 3lbs and serve both as mobile phones and computers.

No doubt a notebook scores over a personal computer because of portability but because notebooks are in its initial stage of conception its various producers have not decided on standard features of the laptop which makes upgrading a laptop a very difficult process.

Some important points with regard to its various features should be kept in mind while deciding on which notebook to buy. With regard to size and weight, it is to be remembered that lower the weight and smaller the size, lesser the features. Slimmer and lightweight laptops might not have drives.

Notebook processors perform like desktop processor. Dual core processors carry multitasking and are common. Notebook processors have a direct effect on the battery life and the performance of computer. In case of Intel premium processors, the higher is the number, the faster is the processing.

The speed of the computer is also affected by the rotational speed of the disk. The size of the RAM varies with different notebooks. For Windows XP and Mac OS , at least 256MB is required. Optical drives are if vital in notebook computers. It scans a simple CD Drive or a high definition DVD ROM. However most notebooks are equipped with dual level DVD burner.

Notebook computers consist of video processors and displays which consist of native resolution and screen size. Though the portability of the notebook adversely affects the largeness of the display but still wide screen display are in demand. Performance of PC gaming and 3D graphics will be determined by graphic processor Notebook computers come with four cell, 6 cell, and 8 cell batteries.

Normal battery life is 2 to 3 hours. However 5 or 6 hours battery life is also available these days. Generally, the bigger the notebook computer, the lower is the battery life. It must be ensured that you get at least one year warranty for your notebook. In case you are going to use your notebook extensively try to buy a notebook, which offers a warranty for a longer period.

If you are shopping for a new computer system, most branded computers today have really come down in the market yet still seem very expensive. It might seem puzzling or you might be sceptical as to why prices have dropped in certain manufacturing sectors that create PC parts of computers. The prices of a memory card have hit an all time low as improvements in technology has afforded manufacturing volumes of memory cheaper and more affordable to make a PC.

As well, the price of other assorted computer parts like audio cards and motherboards have also declined considerably. If you are a sceptic, rightly so. Bear in mind that a brand computer manufacturers are also in the industry to make profits and grow their business too. So even though we have seen a drop in the price of parts high-quality computers still remain high-priced.

Yet there are many ways, fortunately these days that you can still get a good computer system by tracking down specialized dealers who wholesale computer parts. Building their own computer and out sourcing equipment through wholesale computer parts, you might like a lot of people, think that these are in some way inferior to branded computers.

Personally, I use to believe that cheap parts manufactured used in wholesale computer was to get rid of their inferior overstock to innocent buyer like you and me. But, now my views have changed since my computer crash. When I brought my computer to be fixed to an authorized dealer I was quoted a price that was beyond anyone could reasonably afford; might as well buy a new computer. I had no other alternative other than to go to a local wholesale computer parts dealer out of desperation.

I was totally flabbergasted that this wholesale computer parts dealer had their own service department and I got a quote for repair at a fraction of the cost of the authorized dealers. You can imagine I was naturally curious to find out how could there be such a huge price difference so I sceptically surveyed the wholesale computer parts on their counter display. The dealer came out and showed to me a computer and the replacement parts needed to fix mine. They were exactly the same as my existing computer. He patiently took the time to put in plain words how the wholesale computer parts business works.

Computer parts manufacturers commonly make more parts than necessary by an order for a branded computer so that it guarantees an unexpected burst in demand or if any defective parts can be process quickly and efficiently. This is an in-built quality control measure put in place by the manufacturer. When a bulk order is purchased without recall or customer support problems, the surplus computer parts are then pass on to dealers and resellers for a enormous discounts and then these perfectly good quality computer parts are then sold for a lesser discount to users like you and me. So, check out wholesale computer part dealers and manufacturers to save time and money.

Ever wonder if your keystrokes are being recorded? I don’t know about you but every time I log into my bank account I wonder. Key loggers can become installed on your computer without your knowledge, and record every keystroke you make. So who is spying on you?

Some businesses or commercial office buildings will install key logging software to keep an eye on their employees. They may even inform you that your activities may be monitored, so watch what you do at work. More and more people are getting fired for inappropriate computer activities on company time. While you may be able to detect a key logger on your work computer, you will probably not be able to remove it. I would not recommend that you remove it even if you could, it would probably result in your termination.

Now your home computer is a different story. You may have downloaded and installed a key logger program that came bundled in some other innocent looking software. Like a screen saver or maybe a game. These are the dangerous ones you want to avoid. These are made for collecting your information, bank account log ins and passwords, Social Security numbers, and other important information and then sending it off to someone to be used against you. A logging program may be running on your computer right now and you would never know it.

So how do you tell? The detection software to be used for this is the same as spyware detection. Most windows versions do not have any tools to detect this. Windows vista came with Windows defender, but it really won’t do the job. You will have to download and install a third-party program to do this. While there are some free ones that work okay, I usually don’t recommend them. Why you ask? They really don’t do a complete job, it’s possible they are designed that way so you buy the full version or upgrade to their pro version.

You may have already been through this, but here’s a test you can run. If you have a lot of free time. Go ahead and download one of the free scanner/cleaners and run it. Delete everything it finds and downloading another program. I can almost guarantee that it will find instances that the first program have missed. You can probably download a third one, and repeat the process, and it will find more. Get the idea?

I would rather invest in a good professional version for spyware removal, knowing that it does a thorough job the first time and that my PC is safe from future attacks. Plus you get lifetime updates and excellent support, if you ever need it. A decent spyware removal tool is a good investment for any computer owner, plus you can use it on all your other PCs around the house. Do you feel safe when you log into your bank account? Identity theft has become a major problem, so be careful on how you protect your information.

Any Windows Registry must be cleaned. That is, if you want your computer to continuously run efficiently. No matter how upgraded your PC is, even if you got all the good hardware installed, if your registry is all cluttered with unnecessary files, your computer will still not be at its best performing level. Having a dirty registry full of corrupted and obsolete files is tantamount to having a PC that is not working. Your computer will not last long with the continued freezing and crashing.

How often must I can my registry? It is suggested to scan your PC with the registry cleaner at least once a week. There is actually no rule as to the fixed schedule of cleaning your registry. It will depend on how often you use your computer. Cleaning your Windows Registry must be in proportion to the frequency of your computer usage. If you use your PC for like a few times in a month, and you scan it weekly, then it has no significant effect. But if you use your machine 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, that sure needs a scan very often because the errors continue to pile up. You have to catch up with these or else it might be too late to repair the damage.

If you are totally careful in using your computer, then you might not need a registry cleaner. By totally, it means 100%, not 99% or 98%, but 100%. That entails being very careful in the commands that you give to the computer because every action that you take can cause errors in the registry entry. The more commands that you enter, the more prone to errors your computer will be. If you only do a few things. Very few things like not installing or uninstalling programs, applications, not downloading stuffs, then you might not get errors in your registry. It is like saying do not use your PC! What are the chances of not getting errors? It is impossible to not the things just mentioned. So chances are remote. After all, only one error is needed to trigger your system. Once that one error happened, it will continue, and if you do not do anything about it, your PC will deteriorate, crash, freeze and soon, unusable.

These things do not happen in just one setting. It takes a few weeks or months before you will notice that your machine is moving sluggishly and errors start popping out of nowhere. These errors will lead to another, and then another until your computer is so full of them. If you do not take action, your computer will soon be full of junk.

Below are a few tips for safely cleaning your registry:

1. When you uninstall applications or programs, do it properly.

2. Do not manually edit your registry. It can cause more damage to your computer.

3. Always do a backup of your registry before running your registry cleaner. Most cleaner have an option to back up before starting a scan.

4. Make it a habit to scan you computer. This is to ensure that whatever Trojans or viruses are in your PC, they will be removed. These malicious threats are a danger to your system.

5. Check to be sure that the registry cleaner that you are going to use is built for Vista. Some other software is not yet compatible to run for Vista. This can pose a problem.

As we grow old, and as I realise that inevitably, I shall pile on the years and age shall catch up to me, I realise I am not as fast as I was when I was a teenager, nor am I flexible, nor did I remember having those aches and pains as before. I like to apply this logic to anyone who has ever owned a desktop or laptop computer - it was fast, furious and a cutting edge machine the day you bought it; but now as dog years is to computer years, few short months down the road, it has become old, irritable and constantly complaining of such gobbledegook as runtime errors and blue screen messages that prelude a suddenly all familiar crash. How can I make my computer run faster, I asked myself often and looking at myself, I feel the answers are obvious.

Clutter. I liken it to fat deposits that seem to appear magically after a good week’s meal. After a few months of installing and uninstalling programs, some of them junk and fast fixes to a digital diet, a quick craving for something that catches our eye on a download link - we leave traces of their existence, even when we try our best to uninstall them. Free floating files, temp files and unused DLL’s are just some of the clutter that they can leave behind. They choke the arteries and tubes of your Windows OS and cause it to wheeze and blither at every turn. Time to give it a crash diet. Remove programs you are not using, delete those that are eating a lot of memory and customise your start ups so that a minimum amount of programs are loaded at any one time.

Viruses and malware. When we get sick, we aren’t exactly at the top of our game. Computers get sick as well, and there are a host of pandemics that are floating around cyberspace just waiting for their moment to get their claws on your computer. They eat away at your memory, install bogus programs, launch background applications, send emails, steal your passwords - all at the cost of some serious performance. Once they get into the ram sectors of your drive and start fiddling around with crucial DLL’s and virtual memory banks - you will either get a slow or dead computer. Go to the doctor and get an antivirus program that reveals to you these viruses and worms you didn’t know you had in your computer. Clearing them out will do you a world of good and speed things up pronto.

Your registry. It is the brain of your computer. And I wouldn’t be the first to say the brain is the most important part of our body. The registry can be rife with missing shared DLL’s, unused file extensions, active X issues, obsolete software, bad registry values - all caused by bad program installs or members of the malware and virus families leaving their footprints all over the nerve cells of your registry. Get a good registry optimiser and cleaner, they have the delicate hands antivirus programs do not to fix a rampant problem in all slow PC’s.

These are the ways you can make your computer run faster, and there are many more issues you and know one else knows about. It’s a start, a good one, to gaining back some speed in your machine.

If you are experiencing frequent Windows XP crashes or the dreaded blue screen error here’s a few things you can try before taking a sledgehammer to your PC. Getting a fatal error on your computer can be very annoying. Especially when you’re in the middle of a large project and lose all your work.

In most cases you will have no idea what is causing the errors or crashes. You may have received a general error message, which basically tells you nothing. Unless you work for Microsoft. Some computers may just shut off and reboot on their own for no reason. The first thing you can do is start by doing general maintenance on your computer, which you probably haven not done in awhile anyways.

Go to my computer and select your hard drive, perform a general clean up to start with.
Then update your anti virus definitions and run a full scan. You want to make sure you don’t have a virus hiding in the background. Next you’ll want to scan and clean your PC of any spyware or other such programs that do not belong on your hard drive. If you do not have a program for this you will have to download one.

The biggest reason why Windows will crash or get the fatal blue screen is because of registry errors. Repairing the registry manually can be a pretty daunting task even for experienced computer technicians. It’s usually not recommended to do this manually. If you do want to attempt that you can access your registry through rededit in Windows. The biggest problem is scrolling through the thousands of registry keys trying to find the right one. And remember, if you change or edit the wrong file you can do more damage than good. Delete or change the wrong one and your computer may not be able to restart.

The easy way to repair or clean a corrupted registry is with a third-party software program. In my opinion windows should come with one, but it does not. A good registry repair program is a wise investment for any computer owner. With few clicks of your mouse you can begin your scan and automatically find and repair errors safely. Plus you can schedule regular scans to perform maintenance for you automatically in case you forget. Preforming a registry cleaning will find any corrupt or orphaned files which you no longer need and remove or repair them for you. It’s like giving your computer a tuneup. After you reboot you’ll be surprised at the increased speed and performance.

Your Windows operating system needs to reference the registry every time it starts up or loads software. Having files with errors or that try to reference software that is no longer installed on your computer can cause crashes and errors. It will also cause your system to become sluggish, jerky, or run at a snails pace.

If none of the above suggestions helped your problem you may have a hardware problem, like bad memory or your hard drive may be failing. Overheating could also be a problem, so make sure your unit is getting enough ventilation.

Looking for ways to get quality DVD downloads? The answer is right at your fingertips. The best DVD download on Zune movies can be had from all sorts of different sites. It’s all a matter of just choosing a site and then downloading files in a trial and error fashion. But movies are large files and a person will be wasting a lot of time if he or she downloads a bunch of movies only to find that more than half of them are of the worst quality ever.

Pirates on the Net - This is usually the case if a movie is pirated or is from not so reputable sources on the Internet. Here are ways to make sure that you get quality downloads onto your Zune player every time you sync it up to get a movie.

Study Links

Know the links and your source. Although once can get quality video clips, images, music, and games from a Zune download site, it is still not a source for big movies that are licensed by huge studios. One will have to turn to third-party websites for full-length movie downloads. There are many third-party websites but not all of them are accredited and licensed to distributed material that can otherwise be pirated.

Get smart. By studying a site, one can see if it is the kind of site that offers legitimate content and if it’s worth spending money for. Then, one can continue to try registering for the site to see what sort of payment options are available. Payments accepted via credit card usually are a sign that a site is legitimate in its services

Download Packages - The packages give members access to millions of files that can be used on the Zune. When it comes to quality DVD download on Zune, one can expect to pay a little more for access to their libraries of movies as well.

Preview Then Sync

Review the quality on PC first. This is a good way to make sure that you are getting a DVD quality movie for your Zune, to first watch it on you r PC before you sync it on the device. The beauty of the Zune is that it accepts three formats: MPEG, MOV, and WMV.

Correct Format - These formats can easily be played on computers and so you can easily preview what you download to determine if you have a good download. Of course this may be a tedious process because you have to download the whole movie first but at least you will be sure of the quality before going around carrying what may have been pirated.

Convert It - Lastly, the one way to make sure that you have quality movies is to convert your already existing DVD collection into a digital format best suited for the Zune. This is a tedious process but at least you will have back ups of all your DVDs that you can carry around on your portable player. These are the major ways to make sure you get Quality DVD download on Zune.

Call it GenT, the Twitter and texting generation. We are all becoming ADD, to the point where we can’t spend large blocks of time concentrating anymore. We are so over-stimulated, what with 10,000 Web sites (or is 10 million, I can’t accurately say) a minute being added to the collective cosmos, and updating all of our social network feeds, and whatnot.

Twitter, for those of you stuck back in the old school world where you still use your computer for communication, is the “micro-blogging” service that sends a 140 character line of text to your friends and followers who subscribe to your postings. You can use your mobile phone or a traditional Web page, and the information is sent almost instantaneously, at least when the service is running. I am not yet a fan. Texting I don’t think I have to explain anymore.

But with texting and Twitter, what has happened is that we have created the first entirely post-email generation. Look at both of our presidential candidates: one doesn’t use it personally, and the other has gone so GenT that he doesn’t need email to get the word out to his supporters. (An aside: the current issue of Technology Review has an interesting article about Obama’s use of social networks.)

Those of us that grew up on email back in the quaint text-only, pre-Web days all know the reasons why we went with email: no phone tag, near-time responses, planet-wide connectivity, flattening organizations, micro-targeted responses. Yada yada. Well, those same reasons are being used by the GenT’ers: in the time it would take me to compose a reasonably simple email message, I could have texted someone and gotten a response, posted it on my Twitter feed and had thousands of my closest “friends” tell me what they think, and moved on to my next activity. Email is so five minutes ago.

And email tag is just as much of a productivity drag - in some cases worse than voice mail hell. We have all gotten those endless threaded messages where we don’t even remember what the original question that started the whole shooting match was about. Even exchanging Instant Messages is not fast enough, especially if your correspondents forget to turn on their “Away message” when they by chance get up from their chair for a few moments off-screen. You wonder what has become of them, and why aren’t they not answering your IM?

When my daughter was in her early teens, it was IM that kept us connected. Now if I really need to find my kids, it is via text. Email is usually the worse way to try to get their attention. None of them have Twitter feeds yet. I consider myself lucky.

Another trendlet: Thanks to all of these GenT services, now having a single monitor attached to your PC isn’t enough screen real estate. You need at least two, and sometimes three LCDs to show all your scrolling feeds, IM buddy lists, and up-to-the-moment “tweets” in addition to the normal email and word processing windows. (I keep calling them “twits,” that must be a Freudian slip.) When was the last time you sat down for a couple of hours and got into a book? You know, those funny things that you buy from Amazon that don’t have any electronic interface that you actually have to turn pages, and read every word? Talk about quaint, grandpaw. Back in my day, we used to walk five miles in deep snow to school, carrying these objects, too.

Nicholas Carr talks about this in his article in Atlantic this month entitled, “Is Google making us stupid?” Don’t be misled by the hed. He talks about how his concentration wanes after reading a few pages, and “deep reading has become a struggle. The more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing.” Indeed, I was fighting just getting to the end of his story, and that was only 4,000 words. Try tweeting all of that! http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google

But we aren’t stupider, I mean less smart, because of Google or all the GenT tech: we are just more impatient. One network manager at a small college told me how he deals with peer file stealing: rather than turn it off, he just adds a few seconds delay into the connection during the work day, so that the students bail out of the connection and come back at night when he turns off the delays. If he just shut it off, they would be motivated to figure out a way around the block, but most of the students are too ADD to abide by the delays and move on to something else, knowing they can come back at night to grab their files.

This post-email GenT stuff is ironic for me to say the least, especially to someone who wrote a book on Internet email, let alone reads lot of them still. Years from now we will look back on this period much like we examine other accidents of history, like the Truman Doctrine and the Dred Scott decision: things that seemed important at the time, but now are mostly the subjects of junior high research papers. Yes, email is still around for us old fogies that insist on using all of our hard-learned touch-typing fingers to communicate, but it won’t be long now. In the meantime, you can subscribe to my feed here and keep up with all the important moments in my life: http://friendfeed.com/davidstrom.

Many, many years ago - well, in the early 1990’s! - desktop digital ID card printers did not exist. In order to make ID cards, people used old-fashioned ‘cut-and-paste’ systems to make ID cards - these would typically involve a complicated process…
• Taking a picture with an instant camera
• Taking another picture because the first one was not to the liking of the employee!
• Sticking the picture on a piece of card that had a company logo and the person’s name pre-printed on it.
• Laminating the card with a manual laminator, without burning your hands!

The resultant cards were of course easy to tamper with, peeled around the edges, and faded. But it’s all we had. The digital camera has come along to make this process a bit easier, but the lamination process is much the same.

You would think that this strange process had died out in the 21st century. But no, it’s still a very common method for making ID cards! Why is this? It’s because people think that they cannot afford to buy and run a desktop ID card printer.

But in most cases they are wrong - if you look at the real costs, including the initial purchase, consumables, and especially the useage, desktop ID card printers are very affordable. In many cases, they have very similar costs to cut-and-paste solutions. When you consider that the quality, durability and security of a plastic card are far superior, the desktop printer route is by far the better.

PRINTERS ARE NOW MUCH MORE AFFORDABLE
Desktop ID card printers are now available at around the US$1,000 mark, end-user price. This buys you a proper dye-sublimation printer, suitable for printing less than 200 cards per month, which is a very reasonable volume for many organisations. Dye-sublimation is the preferred method for printing plastic ID cards, as it ’sublimates’ the color image into the plastic of the card, and then protects the card with an overlay layer, which means that card images are resistant to fading and scratching.

Desktop ID card printers of course need to work with a PC, and a digital camera if you are going to use photo ID. You also may need some simple ID badging software. So, the entry cost for an ID card printer package is around the $1000 to $1500 mark.

High-volume printers with fast print speeds, hoppers and stackers, and sometimes the ability to print double-sided cards in one go are of course more costly, and start around the $2000 mark, going up to $4000-$5000 or more for double-sided versions, but the important change in the last few years has been the introduction of $1000-$1500 entry-level printers that still use high quality dye-sublimation print engines.

It is true that basic cut-and-paste solutions can be bought for around $500, but if you look at a specialist laminator, software to produce the card, a camera etc, you can easily exceed $1000.

COST OF CONSUMABLES
There are two types of consumables required to make ID cards with a desktop printer; cards and dye-sublimation ribbons.

Card costs of course vary enormously, depending on the technology involved. Plain blank cards can be bought for as little as $0.10 or even less in large quantities; sophisticated contactless cards can cost a few dollars each in low volumes. An important point is that a desktop ID card printer will print on most card types; from plain cards, through magnetic stripe cards, and including contact chip and contactless cards. This means that the initial investment in the printer is not wasted as the user moves up to more sophisticated card technologies.

Ribbons used for dye-sublimation printing vary in cost depending on the number of prints per ribbon. Typical costs are around $0.35 to $0.60 per single-sided color print. A monochrome print is much less - a single-sided black print is typically only around $0.02 to $0.05. Other monochrome ribbons in colors like silver and gold are also available. For a double-sided card it is typical to print one side in color and the other in black.

LOWER COST OF USE
Where desktop ID card printers really score over other methods is in the cost of use.
• It’s quick to produce a card. Once you have setup your card design, it’s a case of taking a picture, checking it, entering personal details into the card software database, and printing the card.
• There is less wastage due to card lamination not sticking, or making a mistake in the card production process.
• The life of a digital ID card is much longer than cut-and-paste cards, due to the robustness of the card, the fact that the cards don’t peel or come apart, and the image being sublimated into the card surface. This means that a typical card lifetime of 5 years can easily be twice as long as for a cut-and-paste card.
• There is always a need for replacement cards due to people losing cards or cards being damaged. With a desktop printer, it takes less than a minute to print a replacement card.

OTHER BENEFITS
For many applications, card types like contactless (proximity), contact chip or mag stripe cards are required, which cut-and-paste methods often cannot produce.

Also, ID card printers can produce accurate bar codes and other machine-readable features on the card.

The security of the card issuance system is much higher with a desktop printer. Some printers can be locked to prevent unauthorised use, and password control of a PC is of course easy to set up.

The higher image quality of cards produced by ID card printers is usually seen as an important benefit in portraying a professional corporate image, and in encouraging employees to look after their cards because they are pleased with their photo and the overall look of the card.

CONCLUSION
ID cards produced on a desktop ID card printer are generally agreed to have far superior quality, durability and security than other more manual methods of production. The big change in recent years is the affordability of ID card printers. With complete printer/software packages now around the $1000-$1500 mark, and consumables being very competitive, organisations that only want to print a few cards per month can still afford a professional solution.