Exploding HP Printers Turn Out to Be Not So Explosive

It was an image so sensational it was destined to make headlines. "Could a hacker from half-way around the planet control your printer and give it instructions so frantic that it could eventually catch fire?" asked MSNBC's Bob Sullivan in November. That's right: your seemingly harmless printer, sitting innocuously beside your desk, was a ticking time bomb. So was it all much ado about nothing? Yes and no. It probably was unlikely that HP printers were ever going to burst into flames and burn down your house due to the malicious actions of a hacker across the world. But there's an underlying lesson to be learned here: that certain of our connected devices are often less well protected than others, and that we would do well to begin to take their security seriously. As

3-D printing becoming affordable

University of Washington professor Mark Ganter sees the future, and it's printing apple pies. And maybe vital organs, furniture and buildings. Ganter experiments with using alternative materials to print three-dimensional objects, part of growing efforts to make 3-D printing more diverse and accessible to consumers. The machines print layers of material to produce the models. Some printers add layers of powder and liquid binder, while others melt layer upon layer of plastic.

Easily View TIFF/TIF Fax Files on iOS

Corporate Smalltalk Consultingd. has announced Fax Viewer 1.8.7 for iOS, a feature update to their document viewer app that allows the user to either view the TIF files generated by standard office fax machines, or convert them to PDF documents for other apps to use.
As faxes are increasingly emailed to save on paper costs, Fax Viewer works by supplementing the existing document display logic found in iOS 4.x and 5.0, which will only display the first page of a fax but not allow access to subsequent pages. The app includes newly enhanced page manipulation features to allow the sizing and rotation of pages as fax pages sometimes arrive in various orientations, tap areas for paging, and adjustments to swipe to scroll. Bookmarking support is provided on a page basis to allow navigation within the document, but also external bookmarking allows for opening an existing fax to a page by tapping a custom URL received in the Mail.app or copy/pasted into Notes.app.
Fax Viewer enables viewing of multi-page faxes by first importing the entire file into its storage area. Once imported, the file undergoes one-time pre-rendering that ensures the fax is optionally re-scaled to be optically correct and to provide the fastest possible rendering when viewing as a multi-page document. The user can copy documents into Fax Viewer by using iTunes to copy files into, delete, or copy them out of the app, or a manual process to move files from Mail.app into Fax Viewer. Fax Viewer 1.8.7 is $4.99 (USD) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Utilities category.

HP LaserJet Firmware Update Now Available

On Nov. 29, HP announced that the potential existed for a certain type of unauthorized access to some HP LaserJet printers and confirmed it has received no customer reports of unauthorized access. HP  now has built a firmware update to mitigate this issue and is communicating this proactively to customers and partners. No customer has reported unauthorized access to HP. HP reiterates its recommendation to follow best practices for securing devices by placing printers behind a firewall and, where possible, disabling remote firmware upload on exposed printers.

Vomela Specialty Company Achieves G7 Master Certification

Specialty Company has achieved G7 Master Certification status. G7 Master Status is earned by printers who "use the most modern technology, techniques, proofing and press controls, and standards required to produce a close visual match from proof to print." G7 Master Printers are certified annually by IDEAlliance. G7 Master Status indicates that the printer's facility has calibrated its equipment and systems to G7 gray balance and neutral tone curves and is capable of delivering G7 proofs and print products.
"We consistently strive to provide our valued customers with the highest quality products. Now; with our color management systems calibrated and qualified using G7 methods, we provide an even greater level of assurance that critical print projects or brand creative will delight customers and consumers" said Mark Auth, President of Vomela Specialty Company in statements made today.
For Brand Owners and Print Buyers, G7 Certification indicates a printer's ability to consistently hit and maintain predictable results when color matching during the print process. With Vomela, its recent G7 Master Certification is supplemented by its long standing certification as a 3M Scotchprint Certified printer.
Vomela Specialty Company and affiliates, with annual revenues of $135,000,000, is based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and employs 700 people in manufacturing and/or sales operations in 18 cities in the United States and Canada.

Students make computer design 3-D reality

What do Yoda, the Tower of the Americas, a block of cheese and a snowflake have in common? Students at St. Luke's Episcopal School have been able to “print” small sculptures of each with a Thing-O-Matic 3-D printer, one of the few in use at San Antonio campuses, according to the school. Mark Reford, who heads the school, and Michael Zeigler, the school's technology director and a teacher, said a new course marries the worlds of art and technology for middle school students, promotes higher-order thinking and gives kids insight into the future of manufacturing.

Kindle iPad Update Adds Print Replica Textbooks, PDF Support

Amazon has updated the Kindle app for iPhone and iPad, adding some basic improvements to the standard assortment of reader functions. These include the addition of “print replica” textbooks so students can follow along with the paper copy in class as well as improved PDF support and a personal document system that lets you send files to an Amazon address for conversion.

A technology awaits its iPad moment

The idea of creating your own plastic objects using a 3D printer is very cool. Imagine, for example, being able to print Christmas gifts at home. Looking for a special toy? No need to visit the toy store when you can download that race car design file from a library of toys on the Internet and send it to your 3D printer. Or perhaps you'd like to customize the item first by opening the file in a simple 3D modeling program and add a few personal touches. That's the vision. The reality is a bit different.

TransAct's Epic 950 Printer Selected Exclusively by Revel

TransAct Technologies announced that its Epic 950 printer was selected exclusively by Revel in Atlantic City, New Jersey to be installed in all of the casino's 2,389 slot machines. Revel will be the first new resort to open in Atlantic City in nine years, with a scheduled grand opening date of May 2012. Bart C. Shuldman, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of TransAct Technologies, said: "Revel chose our Epic 950(R) printer for its advanced technology and features which include quick disconnect, reliable ticket burst, low ticket sensing and the proven casino industry quality."

Indian printer market grows further

The combined serial inkjet and page printer, copier and multifunction product (MFP) market in India totalled 666 859 units in the third quarter of 2011, a 2.4% increase over the year-ago period, according to research firm Gartner, reports The Economic Times. “Business activities in the banking, financial services and insurance, manufacturing, IT and IT-enabled services sectors, and notably the government sector, lead to a growth of peripheral devices like printers and multi-functional devices,” Gartner research analyst Amrita Choudhury says. Overall, HP, Canon, Epson and Samsung continued to be the top four vendors accounting for 93% of the total India printer market in the period under review.

Foxit Launches PhantomPDF 5.1

Foxit Corporation, a leading provider of solutions for reading, editing, creating, organizing, and securing PDF documents, today announced PhantomPDF 5.1, the newest release of business-ready PDF software which allows users to create professional documents and forms quickly, affordably, and securely. Foxit PhantomPDF comes in three different editions to meet the diverse needs of our users -- PhantomPDF Express, Standard, and Business. This new release provides more PDF creation and customization options, converts to additional file formats, and provides support for Bates Numbers.
New capabilities provided in PhantomPDF 5.1 include: PDF Conversion In addition to supporting PDF to Microsoft(R) Word conversion, PhantomPDF 5.1 adds conversion of PDF to the entire Microsoft Office suite of applications, Rich Text Format (RTF), and Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) formats. Bates Number Support Used in many vertical markets such as the legal and medical industries, Bates Numbers are identification numbers used on images and documents as they are scanned or processed for identification and protection purposes. And PDF Creation and Customization Enhancements allow users to easily customize PDF documents to create a consistent look and feel.

Edmonton Commercial Printer Builds Business with Kodak Press

When Henk DeJong's father announced that he would soon retire from leadership of DeJong Printing, Ltd., in Edmonton, Alberta, DeJong knew that the time had come to make some significant choices for the family business.
"We were faced with the decision of whether we would continue in the printing business, dwindle down, or sell," DeJong explained. After decades of leading the local market in offset printing, DeJong Printing had not yet made a serious move to digital. "We had a small digital printer for a number of years -- just a glorified laser printer," he said. "We tossed ideas back and forth, and eventually we decided that in addition to our traditional services, we needed to be able to produce the best digital printing in town."
DeJong and his 15-member staff did their homework, and all of their research led them to one conclusion: the KODAK NEXPRESS SX2700 Digital Production Color Press, with the award winning KODAK NEXPRESS Fifth Imaging Unit Solutions, would provide them with the advantage they needed to differentiate DeJong Printing from its competition and realize their digital goals.
The KODAK NEXPRESS SX Platform can help printers drive more jobs per shift and more profit per page by consistently and reliably producing market-leading image quality from job-to-job and day-to-day. Its long-sheet option -- up to 26 inches -- allows printers to print six-page brochures or three-up letters, and the optional expanded feeder and in-line finishing modules help printers complete jobs in fewer steps, maximizing productivity while minimizing waste. In an independent study by SpencerLab, the KODAK NEXPRESS SX Digital Production Color Press achieved an overall highest rating in print quality, demonstrating the best all-around performance across the majority of attributes.
The NEXPRESS Fifth Imaging Unit makes it possible for DeJong to provide unique in-line dimensional coating, gloss and spot color, in-line watermarking, or coating in a single pass -- a range of applications and options that no other printing company in Edmonton can currently match.
"Our customer base is heavily ad agency-oriented, and they are very excited about all the options the NEXPRESS Fifth Imaging Unit Solutions give them," said DeJong. "They're particularly interested in the dimensional clear option, which prints a raised 3D image in clear ink instead of just a flat spot varnish -- and it does it right in the first pass. We can also offer RGB color for the most accurate spot color matching, in addition to the standard CMYK. We're considering the red fluorescing ink feature for some security and transit clients."

Kodak announces a new family of Premier Papers

Kodak announced a new family of silver halide-based media, KODAK PROFESSIONAL ENDURA Premier Paper and KODAK PROFESSIONAL ENDURA Premier Metallic Paper, which leverages advanced breakthroughs in Kodak imaging science research. This media yields a new cyan dispersion and enhanced emulsion technology and as a result, offer benefits for both portrait and commercial labs. Benefits include a larger color gamut with the capacity for more saturated color, while at the same time maintaining accurate skin tone reproduction, highlights and shadow detail.

Panasonic Introduces Two Laser-Class "Fit Anywhere" Multifunction Printers

Panasonic System Networks Company of America today introduced the KX-MB1500 series of value-priced A4-format Multifunction Printers (MFPs). Offering fast, high-quality monochrome laser printing and copying, full-color scan to PC, and paper/paperless faxing(1), the KX-MB1500 and KX-MB1520 share a slimmed-and-trimmed form factor that reduces the space and volume needed for installation and operation by approximately 25 and 40 percent respectively.
Both the KX-MB1500 and the step-up KX-MB1520 are highlighted by a reduced-size print engine, an inner paper-exit tray, front-panel access to consumables such as toner and paper, and a side-mounted power connector. Taken together, these features deliver a lightweight (20lb.), small footprint, All-In-One workhorse which can be installed flat against a wall on a crowded desk, or upon a shelf, bookcase, or file cabinet.
"According to the most recent Census Department figures, more than 14 million Americans are currently operating a business from their homes, with about 4.5 million of them generating 100 percent of their income from those businesses," Bill Taylor, President, Panasonic System Networks Company of America, noted. "Even more surprising, the Census Bureau also reports that the annual median family income of a home-based business owner is $17,000 higher than that of the general population working traditional jobs."
"That is a huge, constantly growing market that deserves -- and is demanding -- office products designed for a business environment where the kitchen doubles as a conference room and the 'printer stand' might be one end of a shelf holding balls, bats and skates," Taylor added. "With its space-saving design, robust feature set, and Panasonic durability-by-design build quality, the KX-MB1500 series is the latest example of our commitment to providing Fortune 500-quality office machines to entrepreneurs with small-business budgets."
Using Panasonic's proprietary Easy Print Utility, a no-cost software bundled with each KX-MB1500/1520, end users sitting at their PCs can merge files created in different applications into a single print job, rearrange the order of pages immediately prior to sending them to the print queue, and instantly reformat the whole document to print multiple pages (up to 16) on a single sheet of paper.
They can also add headers, footers and/or watermarks to their pages before deciding whether to send the job directly to the printer or output it as a PDF file.

Google Cloud Print Connects 6M Printers Via Chrome

Google said Google Cloud Print has connected more than 6 million printers via the Google Chrome Web browser, the first time the search engine giant-turned business computing provider has released statistics for its Web-based printing service. More importantly, the new Chrome 16 build lets anyone using the browser on Windows, Mac and Linux computers will print any webpage to Google Cloud Print. Previously, this capability was only available via Chromebooks.

Foxit Reader Safe From Latest "Zero-Day" Vulnerability

Foxit Corporation says its Foxit Reader is not vulnerable to the latest zero-day (CVE-2011-2462) vulnerability. Users who are concerned about this much publicized issue should feel safe in downloading the Foxit Reader to meet their PDF reader requirements. The CVE-2011-2462 malware has been reported by users to crash their PDF program and open up a new file which attempts to make registry changes and contacts an external URL. The malicious code also tries to take control of the affected computer. The issue has been reported by Lockheed Martin's Computer Incident Response Team and MITRE.

Océ JetStream 1900 printing system offers speed, versatility and minimal footprint

Océ has extended its continuous feed portfolio with the launch of the new Océ JetStream 1900printing system. This innovative printer is part of the Océ JetStream Compact series, offering highest versatility at minimal footprint.
The Océ JetStream 1900 system offers a printing speed of 127 mpm in digital full color. A member of the scalable Océ JetStream Compact series of high-volume duplex printers, the Océ JetStream 1900 expands the range from two field upgradeable speed bands of 75 and 100 to even faster 127 mpm by increasing productivity by more than 25%. This makes the Océ JetStream 1900, the high-end product of the Océ JetStream Compact series, the ideal solution for cost-effective personalized, full color printing.
For print jobs with short production windows and tight cost constraints, the performance mode of the Océ JetStream 1900 operates at 127 mpm (417 fpm), which translates to 1,714 A4 (1,818 letter) images per minute, at 600 x 480 dpi resolution and multilevel dot modulation. For top quality requirements, the premium mode enables printing at 1,200 dpi perceived image quality with 100 mpm (326 fpm) or 1,350 A4 (1,428 letter) images per minute.
Transactional applications, direct mail documents or short-run newspapers are often characterized by tight production windows and very high peak loads. This is where the Océ JetStream 1900 reveals its strengths and economic advantages. For cost-effective production, the performance mode facilitates substantial ink savings. Users also benefit from the reliability, print quality and media range associated with the Océ JetStream family.

Gold Competency Status for Server-Based PDF Creation, Conversion & Development Tools

activePDF Inc. has attained Gold Competency status in the Microsoft Partner Network in the ISV/Software Solutions category. This status recognizes activePDF's expertise and impact in the marketplace for its enterprise PDF developer tools and solutions. activePDF has demonstrated expertise with Microsoft technologies and proven ability to meet customers' needs, and thereby receives a rich set of benefits including technical services, software and developer resources, training, and sales and marketing support, giving them a competitive advantage in the channel.

Lantronix Launches xPrintServer

Lantronix, Inc. announced the launch of its new patent-pending xPrintServers, the first Apple iOS print server compatible with the iPad 2, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, and virtually any device running Apple's iOS mobile operating system. The xPrintServer is available for pre-ordering now at store.Lantronix.com. The product will begin shipping in the first calendar quarter of 2012, and will also be available on Amazon, NewEgg, Buy.com, and MacMall websites. Lantronix will be showcasing the xPrintServer at Digital Experience on January 9, 2012, the evening prior to the 2012 International CES in Las Vegas.
The xPrintServer, roughly the size of an iPhone, is an easy-to-use hardware solution that utilises the iOS native print menu and requires no additional applications, software downloads, or printer driver installations. With automatic printer discovery and no configuration, printing is easy and hassle-free. Simply open the box, plug the xPrintServer anywhere into the network, and print wirelessly from any iOS device running iOS version 4.2 or later, to virtually any network-connected printer.
Current market estimates peg iPad users at more than 73 million around the world today, with more than 50 percent using the device for business purposes. With more than 900 million iPads forecasted to be deployed globally by 2015, the xPrintServer is designed to close the loop on the missing print function for driving business usage and productivity for the iPad and iPhone community in office settings.
The xPrintServer currently supports thousands of printer models from leading printer families including HP, Brother, Epson, Canon, Dell, Lexmark, and Xerox. In addition to in-house testing at Lantronix and third-party testing, validation was conducted by QualityLogic, Inc., a provider of software quality test tools and testing services for printer and printer-related companies including HP, Canon, Dell, Microsoft, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, AT&T and many more companies. As new printer brands and printer models become available, Lantronix will post updates on www.Lantronix.com .

Printer cartridge investigation stepped up

The Australian Primary Industries Department has hired a private investigator to get to the bottom of a printer cartridge scandal. There are 41 South Australian Government agencies embroiled in the scandal over purchase of printer cartridges at heavily-inflated prices in exchange for gifts. A State Parliamentary committee has heard Primary Industries staff have identified 134 invoices from suspect suppliers over four years.

Xerox offers printer management service

Sick of forgetting to order toner or cartridges for your company’s printers and multifunction devices? Xerox has created a managed service that reminds smaller companies when its time to replenish supplies. The free service, called Xerox eConcierge, works with networked devices — and its doesn’t matter whether that hardware comes from Xerox or another printer hardware vendor. The application can be downloaded to either a Windows or Macintosh system. Once set-up, it seeks compatible devices on the network, captures the part numbers and starts keeping tabs on the state of all the consumables that printers and all-in-one multifunction devices use on a regular basis.

Black Hawk County officials buy copier for state agency

The purchase of an office machine left some Black Hawk County (US) supervisors grumbling this week. Board members voted unanimously Tuesday to buy the $7,995 copier and scanner for the Iowa Department of Human Services in the county's Pinecrest Office Building. But they questioned why county property taxpayers must pick up the tab for a state agency's office equipment.

Google Patent Application Details Cloud Printing Service

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has published a patent application from Google that seeks to secure the rights to a cloud printing service. The document, which was filed in March of last year, describes the Cloud Print service as one that is integrated into Google's Chrome web browsers. "A print server may include an application manager configured to receive a print request over a network from an application executing on a device, and configured to provide, over the network, a print dialog to a user of the application […] A print job router may be configured to route the print job over the network from the print server to a print client associated with the selected printer, for printing by the selected printer, using the printer-specific format."

Fraudsters Now Using 3D Printers To Make Authentic Looking ATM Skimmers

What looks like the card slot from a Chase Bank ATM is actually a sophisticated card skimmer removed from a branch in West Hills, California. And police believe a 3D printer may have been used to create it. Those green bulbous card slots that were supposed to make it very difficult for a card skimmer to be attached to an ATM have turned out to be just a minor inconvenience for sophisticated thieves. Investigators believe this skimmer—which perfectly fits over the ATM's regular slot— was created from a mould that came from a 3D printer. Which means those behind this particular ATM scheme had some very expensive tools at their disposal.

BellHawk Cloud-Based MES System Adds Automated Barcode Label Printing

BellHawk Systems announces the availability of an improved product labeling module for its BellHaw Cloud-based web-mobile Manufacturing Execution System. One of the major issues with moving Manufacturing Execution Systems to the Cloud is how to efficiently print out barcode labels on barcode printers in local manufacturing plants from a remote server, which is running the MES system, over the Internet. With the release of BellHawk V6.2 this problem has been solved. BellHawk uses BarTender Automation from Seagull Scientific for label layout and to provide the print drivers for a wide variety of barcode printers. This is installed on a Windows 7 Professional computer in each plant and can serve a number of barcode printers.

NASA Looks to 3D Printing for Spare Space-Station Parts

A first step toward space factories may come from NASA's recent selection of a U.S. startup's proposal to build a 3D printer for the space station. Such printing technology could build any number of objects, layer by layer, based on designs uploaded from mission control. Astronauts would only need "feedstock" material, such as plastic or metal, to make new tools or spare parts on the fly.

Avery Dennison App for Easy and Convenient Label Printing

The Office and Consumer Products Group of Avery Dennison, a global leader in office products, unveiled a new app for use with the iPhone mobile digital device. Avery Templates Everywhere makes it easy for consumers to import contacts from an iPhone to place on Avery mailing, shipping and return address labels.
Users can simply choose which Averylabel to use and select the desired contacts from the contact list in their iPhone-- the address labels or shipping labels are then automatically formatted into the correct layout for their Avery product.
The AveryTemplates Everywhere app makes it easy to add new contacts as well, since users can scan addresses from envelopes, business cards and more quickly update their address book. This is a great way to update holiday mailing lists by scanning the return addresses on holiday card envelopes.
The easy-to-use app offers the flexibility of printing directly with a compatible printer, saving the project online to a MyAvery account for printing later, or sending the label project by email for later use. Avery Templates Everywhere is available free at the AppleApp StoreSM online store.

Printer Reliability and Satisfaction: Not Good

Not one printer maker stood out in a PC World survey of readers about their experiences with printer reliability and their satisfaction with features. Samsung received high marks for its printers’ reliability and copy speed, but poor ones for photo and graphics printing quality. Participating readers esteemed Xerox for its machines’ printing speed and network connectivity, but bashed it for their poor reliability. Only Canon, Brother, and Epson had especially strong showings in both reliability and feature satisfaction; and of those three, only Canon also graded high in service and support.

Inkless printing company Zink receives funding

Zink announced Tuesday a $35 million funding B series, led by investors Genii Capital. Former board members Mary Jeffries and Ira Parker have also been hired as co-CEOs of Zink, in conjunction with this recent investment. Founded in 2005, Zink's research and development labs arebased in Bedford, Massachussets, with a manufacturing outlet in Whitsett, North Carolina.

Realize Inc. Expands Stereolithography Capabilities With iPro 8000 Printer

With the addition of an iPro 8000 SLA Production Printer, Realize Inc. continues to emerge as a leader in the rapid prototyping industry. "The 8000 gives us more large part capacity," said Todd Reese, President of Realize. "It also allows us to expand our material offerings for large pieces."
Based near Indianapolis, Realize creates customized rapid prototypes of products for clients in numerous industries, including consumer electronics, automotive, health care and education. The company has created prototypes for a vast variety of products -- from gaming figurines to wind tunnel automobile models and intricate machine parts.
Customers use these prototypes for design verification; they can use the custom model created at Realize to determine if their design is valid before incurring the expense of going into full production.
Realize has become a national leader in Stereolithography (SLA), which involves using lasers to selectively and successively cure thin layers of specialized liquid resins -- creating a precise, custom prototype reproduction of the 3D modeled design. The company's new iPro 8000 is a state-of-the-art SLA machine that increases the company's production capacity, including the ability to react more quickly to aggressive delivery requests.
Realize now has a total of 11 Stereolithography machines in its SLA lab, each affectionately named after a supermodel. These machines include seven Viper SLA systems, two SLA-5000 Systems, the iPro 8000 and an iPro 9000. While the iPro and SLA-5000 systems handle larger parts, the smaller Viper systems can reproduce small parts with extremely fine detail, and are capable of a high resolution mode that can reproduce even finer detail.

Kodak Launches Document Cloud Printing App

Continuing to make printing from smartphones and tablets easy and accessible, Kodak launched its free KODAK Document Print App for Android OS Devices. Consumers can now send documents from their ANDROID OS device directly to their KODAK All-in-One Printer using Google Cloud Print.
Supported files include web pages, MS Office documents, PDF and text files, as well as image files. In addition to printing files that are located locally on an Android device, files can be accessed on Google Docs, Dropbox and Evernote sites. Web pages can be accessed using the KODAK Document Print App's built-in browser.

Recycle your used printer toners

What do you do with your printer toners after they run out of ink? For most of us, it’s straight to the trash for these spent cartridges. But did you know that they can be recycled and re-made into useful products? To encourage such a practice, five major printer brands – Brother, Canon, Dell, Epson, and Lexmark – have come together in a joint initiative to offer collection points for these used inks and toners. Called Project Homecoming, the initiative is supported by the National Environment Agency (NEA) and National Library Board (NLB). The collection boxes will be placed at public libraries island-wide, starting immediately at these 13 branches:

Fujifilm next-generation inkjet digital press

Fujifilm announced the launch of the next-generation inkjet digital press Jet Press 720 for the Japanese market. Fujifilm Jet Press 720 is the first printer in the world that achieves high-speed printing with 4-level grayscale at 1200dpi on B2 sized sheet (maximum paper size: 750mm x 530mm), delivering image quality exceeding offset printing.

Folded Business Cards Printing for Small Businesses

New York Printer and Online Printing pioneer 4OVER4.COM has launched folded business cards printing for small businesses. Folded business cards allow businesses to get creative and do more or say more with their business cards because of the extra room. Another advantage of the folded cards is the fact that they are more stylish and eye-catching that traditional business cards, and are more likely to be retained by prospects. 4OVER4.COM provides digital and offset printing in the areas of card printing, poster printing, custom labels printing, vinyl decal printing, corporate signage printing, and other custom printing applications.

Enolsoft Upgrades PDF to TEXT for Mac with OCR Capability

Enolsoft PDF to Text for Mac is a simple yet useful tool which specifically tailored for Mac users to reuse and edit contents from PDF files to get a head start on new projects with no Acrobat or Acrobat Reader applications required. Just add the PDF files to Enolsoft PDF to Text for Mac and hit “Convert”, Enolsoft PDF to Text for Mac will convert the PDF files to Text at high speed and with good accuracy. Besides, it also supports to batch convert multiple Adobe PDF documents at a time, as well as convert any specific pages.

PageTech Announces Release of its New PCLMagic Printer Drivers

PageTech, the leader in PCL print stream transformation, extraction, and re-engineering software, announced the release of its new PCLMagic Printer Driver. It embeds searchable text into PCL print streams before the printer driver generates them, saving all the text in its natural unscrambled state. Both the monochrome (PCL5e) and color (PCL5c) PCLMagic drivers call our custom programs to insert Unicode and UTF-8 text values into the print stream to circumvent the way in which Windows printer drivers "scramble" the text in PCL print streams.
"Our exclusive ability to extract text before it's scrambled and use it to create text searchable PDF files from complex PCL is what truly sets us apart from the competition," says Robert Pooley, president of PageTech. "The PCLMagic driver enables us to capture text in any language and extract it later downstream for file splitting, auto-indexing, converting to fully text searchable PDFs or re-purposing into TransPromo documents".
Our PCLMagic printer drivers are included in PCLTool SDK v11.61 and install as the PCL2PDF and PCLPrint drivers for demo purposes. PCLTool SDK v11.61 live evaluation is available from the pagetech.com website.

3-D printer creates bone-like material

U.S. researchers say they've optimized a 3-D printer to create a bone-like material that can be used for orthopedic and dental work. Washington State University researchers said they used a ProMetal 3D printer with an inkjet that sprays a plastic binder over a bed of powder in layers about half the width of a human hair. The printer creates a channeled cylinder the size of a pencil eraser that can act as a scaffold for actual bone to grow on.

The Little Printer

HP Smacks Down Printer Fire Report

Hewlett-Packard has refuted what it called "sensational and inaccurate reporting" suggesting hackers could use a newly discovered security vulnerability to spark a fire in some HP LaserJet printers. Even the Columbia University researchers who discovered the security flaw said today they were not able to set a printer on fire. The researchers do believe the vulnerability could potentially be used to disable printers and steal personal information. HP acknowledges a security problem, but says no customers have reported unauthorized access to its printers.  The company is working to close the hole.