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Web App of the Week: The Printliminator

Florence Ion — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:45:02 -0500

Perhaps one of the most frustrating points of owning a printer comes down to what is actually getting printed. Driving directions always end up with a few extra pages barely containing even a sentence worth of ink, rendering the single sheet of paper practically useless. Fortunately, The Printliminator helps eradicate these exasperating situations by converting any webpage into an economical, simple to print document.

The Printliminator toolbar hangs out in the top right hand corner of your browser window.

The Printliminator is a bookmarkable link that makes any webpage to print. Once you click the link, this simple tool shows up in the top right corner in your browser window with options to remove any extraneous elements from the page and irrelevant graphics for economical printing. You can select “Remove all Graphics” to quickly zap out any video previews and high-resolution color images.

We should note that this function also removes the background on some sites, which can make the text indecipherable. In this case, if you still have The Printliminator tool box available in your browser window, you can simply eradicate images, sections, and table spans from the website. Or, you can select “Apply Print Stylesheet” to simply print out a blank page with text and the occasional left over advertisement (you can also get rid of photos and table spans after selecting this mode).

This is what a page at Maximum PC looks like devoid of any layout.

So, if you’re looking to be more economical with your printer ink and are a stickler for text-only print outs, Printliminator will be sure to cut straight to the chase and take out all that is weighing down your printer.

Get the Printliminator applet here

Every Thursday, we pick a new Web App as our favorite of the week. Have a Web App that you can't live without? Send suggestions to florence [AT] maximumpc.com with "Web App" in the subject line.

Shapeways Introduces Private Beta for New Online 3D Printing Service, 250 Maximum PC Readers Invited! (First Come, First Served)

Paul Lilly — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:05:06 -0500

"Petunia" 3D Object Designed by Dolf J. Veenvliet

We still have a ways to go before being able to print out an entire PC's worth of components ordered through Newegg, but imagine taking that killer motherboard layout you've been brewing in your head and printing out a 3D mockup. Then the only question is do you send your design to your favorite motherboard maker, or start up your own company and show the competition what a real enthusiast's layout is supposed to look like? Forget about Fatal1ty, and slap your own forum nick on your custom mobo!

Sound farfetched? It is, but only because of the high costs associated with 3D printing. Looking to break that barrier is Netherlands-based Shapeways, an ambitious startup who hopes to help you transform your 3D modeling designs from software creations into hard printouts, all without breaking the bank. After submitting your object, Shapeways decides whether or not it can be produced and provides a real-time cost estimate, which the company claims usually runs between $50-$150.

It's all part of Shapeways' private beta for a new online consumer co-creation community and do-it-yourself 3D printing service. The site beta has just gone live, but the only way you'll get to try it out is with an invite. That's no problem for Maximum PC readers, as we've secured 250 exclusive invitations! But first, let's get familiar with how this is all made possible.

Production Process

While you don't need a custom scanner or specialized printing tools, you do need 3D modeling software to flesh out your ideas. Shapeways accepts formats in STL, Collada, and X3D, all of which should be familiar to any CAD guru. Once submitted and approved, budding 3D designers can select both the size and material, and within 10 working days the company says it will have a tangible product "produced and delivered to the consumer globally."

Such a quick turnaround without an enormous price tag might sound too good to be true, and while it normally is, Shapeways says they're able to do this by creating a large community. But how exactly does the technology work?

"Man-in-Man" 3D Object Designed by Sacha Goedebure

Selective Laser Sintering

To bring your 3D creations to life, Shapeways uses an additive production method called Selective Laster Sintering (SLS). This entails spreading extremely thin layers of a nylon-based powder just 0.1mm thick on the build platform, which a laser then melts together. Once a layer is completed, a new one gets stacked on the top of the model and the process starts anew.

The overall size of the model depends on the machine being used, and Shapeways says their limit currently stands at about 70 x 38 x 58cm. Details up to 0.1mm can be printed, and all walls should be at least 0.4mm thick to ensure the structural integrity of the object and avoid any Humpty Dumpty-like catastrophes.

Fused Deposition Modeling

Another additive production method Shapeways employs is called Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM). Instead of a nylon-based powder, FDM models feed ABS thermoplastics through the machine as a wire. Once inside, the material gets heated through a nozzle and then squeezed out like toothpaste (don't try sticking it in your mouth). To make the model structurally intact, support material is used during the building process to support unfinished parts, and then can either be broken away once the model is complete or dissolved in water.

Using FDM, Shapeways can create slightly larger models checking in at 91 x 61 x 91cm, with details up to 0.25mm. Want to see the process in action? Shapeways has posted a video on YouTube detailing a 3D creation from start to finish, and it even comes with snazzy music.

Groovy, I Want to Try!

Hey, this is Maximum PC, and if the site could communicate without human mediators, it would say "Do you know who I am? I don't know how to put this, but, I'm kind of a big deal. People know me." That's not lip service folks, and Shapeways has given Maximum PC 250 exclusive invitationss to access the beta site. But hurry - these invites are first come, first served:

Image Credits: Shapeways

Pantone HueyPro

Katherine Stevenson — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 12:37:17 -0600

You don’t need to be a graphics professional to care about the color of your prints—even casual digital photographers take pride in their work. But what’s a user to do when the image he sees on the screen bears little resemblance to the printer’s output? Many screens provide manual control over individual color channels, but tweaking them to match your printer’s color can be a tedious and time-consuming affair. An alternative is to color calibrate your monitor with a hardware/software package made for the task.

Pantone’s Huey line of consumer calibrators promises professional-grade results with a price and user-friendliness that will appeal to even hobbyists. Both the standard Huey and the HueyPro function similarly: You load the calibration software, connect the cigarillo-size calibrator to your USB port, and then follow the software’s simple steps, which take little more than a minute to complete.

For this review, we focused on the HueyPro because unlike the standard version, the Pro will calibrate more than one monitor on a single workstation. Per the software’s instructions, we stuck the suction-cupped calibrator to our screen and watched as the device measured the screen’s color temps with a show of LEDs. In the end, our screen took on a dramatically different appearance that was warmer and redder than its previous state—it’s fun to toggle between the before and after results. The newly calibrated screen looked very unnatural to our unaccustomed eyes, so we compared it with a multicolored print that we ran off on our company’s production-grade printer, which gets regularly serviced and calibrated. And sure enough, the calibrated screen was a much closer match to the print—nearly identical, in fact.

The HueyPro lets you select from a few different white-point and gamma settings to suit your personal preference without disrupting the color balance. And you can opt for the device to measure the room’s ambient light at all times (from its wee cradle) and make appropriate adjustments to your screen on the fly.

For folks who do a lot of color printing, this product is a real boon; the trade-offs are a screen that likely looks very different from what you’re used to and a lag time whenever you boot and the color profile is reloaded.