For me, printers are one of those things that I’ve always thought I could do without. Once I had one, however, I then realised just how darn useful a printer can be to have around.
For the longest time (say, five years or so), I didn’t bother. I proofed all of my writing on screen, read all of my research directly off the screen, and didn’t bother printing out work-related emails and PDFs. The few times that I ever did have to print stuff out – largely when going overseas and needing a paper copy of my itinerary and various bookings – I would go to an Internet cafe and pay 20c per page to print.
Being a technology journalist, however, I was eventually given a printer to keep, at which point I thought ‘well, I may as well use it, given it’s taking up so much space!’ And you know what? Now I’m not sure that I could live without one! Yes, I have multiple mobile devices that can call up any old document, email or webpage whenever I need to, but turns out having a hard copy in particular instances is so much more preferable.
Here are the ways that I find a printer indispensable:
1. Printing recipes. I’m always trying new dishes, but I don’t bother with a cookbook – I just Google a particular dish or meat, find a good recipe, then print it off. Yes, I could just call it up on my iPad, but I don’t particularly favour spilling oil and other foodstuffs on my iPad’s screen while I’m cooking! The other benefit of printing out the recipe is that if the dish turns out well, the hard copy of the recipe makes it into the ‘recipe drawer’, where either myself or my partner can re-use it.
2. Printing grocery lists. Every Monday, I write up the weekly grocery list in Evernote and then print out a copy to take to the supermarket, which then gets passed between myself and my partner as we wander the aisles. Again, there’s an electronic way to do this: I could have the list open on my smartphone and turn it into a ‘shared’ note so my partner could access it on his iPhone as well, but it’s just so much easier to check items off a piece of paper than fumbling with a smartphone while trying to maneovure a trolley! I’ve actually dropped my iPhone once doing this – never again, paper all the way!
3. Printing tickets of any description. This could be a flight itinerary, hotel booking, cinema tickets, concert tickets, or whatever. The powers-that-be always seem to expect hard copies at such things, and I’ve found it’s never a good idea to assume that they’ll be happy to read your details off a tiny smartphone screen! Plus, some places do insist that you have a hard copy.
4. Story outlines. When I’m writing a story – especially a long feature – I always do an outline to break up the different sections that I’ll be writing about. I do this on-screen, with lots of empty space between each section by hand. I then print that outline out, and go nuts with my pen and brainstorm all of my ideas for each section. I guess this is my version of a ‘mind-map’, and I find it so much easier to be ‘creatively-uninhibited’ with a pen in hand than I am typing away on a keyboard.
5. Proofing stories. There’s no way around it: proofing copy is so much better when doing it off paper than on-screen. I don’t know what the psychology is behind it (if it is indeed a psychological phenomena!), but I’ve always found myself to be sharper and more accurate in marking up copy when I have a printout in front of me. Being able to underline things, cross things out, insert extra passages in the margins – all of this could technically be done on-screen, but is just so much more free-flowing when done on paper.
I’ve actually just gotten a new printer in to play with: the sexy HP Envy 100, which supports Apple AirPrint and Google CloudPrint. I’ll be putting it through its paces this week and have a review up by next week – stay tuned!
Finally, just like with an eBook reader, I can have dozens of magazines to read but not have to deal with the weight of each individual magazine – just the 600g or so of the iPad 2!
Plus, using Wi-Fi hotspot functions on a phone really sucks up the batteries, and I also get GPS functionality with the 3G. Also, knowing me, I’d probably end up using all of the storage if I knew I didn’t have much to use, just to spite myself!
