The Versatility Of A Home Printer

Gone are the days when your home printer was used to print reports on low quality paper. The printers of today are multi-use machines that can perform myriad tasks.

What can you expect of, and do with, your home printer? Here are a few items to consider:

• You can print photos. Using canvas paper, you can print out your beloved family photos and display them.
• Instead of using a handheld label maker, you can print labels right from your computer. Why print labels? For use on CDs, gift jars, shipping labels, file folders and more.
• Make your own business stationary. If you run a business you know the need for unique, professional business cards and stationary when communicating with clients. You can print your own, high quality professional letters at home, saving the expense of a trip to the local printing company.
• If you have more than one printer in your home it is easy to network them all so that anyone can use any printer. Why is this valuable? If you have multiple printers you can load each with various types of paper and when someone needs to print, they simply choose the printer that has the type of paper they need and viola, printing job complete!
• Create calendars. You can print personal, family calendars or you could print calendars that you will give to your clients to remind them of specific dates or events they have coming up. You can print the calendar on card stock so that it is sturdy enough to stand up to a month’s worth of additions and changes!
• Use your printer to make a newsletter. If you have a mailing list, chances are you send everyone an e-newsletter, right? How about setting your business apart by sending an actual paper newsletter? If you have an extended family, consider starting a tradition of sending a family newsletter around the holidays as a way to share news and keep in touch.
• If you love the look of scrapbooks, but don’t have the time or desire to put together a traditional scrapbook, use your printer for the project. Arrange pages as you would if you were doing a traditional scrapbook, arrange the photos, decorate it then print them out on high quality, heavy weight paper, punch holes in it then put them in a binder.
• If your children have run out of coloring books and you don’t want to run to the store, print out pictures you find online and give them to the children for coloring! You could even take one of their favorite photos, print it out and cut it into puzzle pieces (use cardstock for this project) then let them play with putting it together. Print out photos of a favorite vacation or a pet and let them put them together in a collage.
• Step away from the computer screen. If you have a document to read but don’t want to sit in front of the computer reading it, print it out. Relieve eye strain and relax!

There are many other unique uses for your home printer and we’d love to hear yours! Be sure to have a good supply of replacement printer ink before you start these projects so you don’t run out of ink!