If you think that the only thing you can do with a printer is print, you’re right. But, you’re also wrong! You see, it’s all about what you can print (or scan). If you own one of the new-generation printers, chances are you might spend a lot of time playing with their functionalities. Canon office copiers, for instance, tend to have more advanced features and higher paper capacity, while HP printers are known for their wide range of models and compatibility with various printing technologies. However, both brands offer high-quality products with a range of features and price points to suit different needs. The possibilities are almost endless, so if you’re reading this with your child, consider yourself warned, as they will definitely want to play around with your printer a lot more after they’re done reading. As for you, if you’re worried this next list has nothing for you, rest assured that everything here is adult-friendly, too. So, without further ado, here are five surprising things you can do with a printer.
Print Posters
You don’t need a specialized printer to make one of those giant posters. If you need it for work, this next method won’t work for you, unless your goal is to get fired. For a fun birthday party, however, this technique will work every time. Pick any design or picture you want, and make sure it’s a high-definition one. Then, go to a block poster website or application and upload the image of your choice. The editing platform will then divide your poster into pages, allowing you to print each part on a separate paper. You can also choose your type of paper, and the size of your poster. After printing, it’s up to you to stick all the pieces together, and for that, masking tape works best.
Play Board Games
Whether you forgot your favorite board game back home, or your dog got a little over-excited and tore it to shreds, it doesn’t matter if you have a printer. You might need to scour the internet a little in order to find your game of choice, then you can either enlarge it, use the previously-mentioned poster technique, or print it as is. After that, it’s time to get creative with your board pieces and your dice. Board pieces are easy, but dice are where it gets a little complicated. Thankfully, you can find printable dice templates online, right?
Print Coloring Pages
Coloring books are overrated, these are our two cents on the matter. It’s a bunch of black and white pages glued together. Why should you pay for that if you’ve got a perfectly functioning printer? You don’t even need a computer. If you’re not up to date with the latest tech, you’d be glad to know that you can send images from your phone to your printer over the internet. So, instead of buying a dinosaur-themed coloring book, a dog-themed one, and a sea-themed one, why not print the designs you want on-demand! On a particularly stressful day, you can also benefit from coloring your way through a mandala or an intricate pattern.
Design Stylized Paper Bags
If you truly want to rise against the system and destroy the paradigm, then printing on those lifeless brown paper bags is what you need. As long as you find a paper bag that fits in your printer, you can print any design you want for yourself, your children, or even your business. On your computer, make sure the design fits on the surface of your bag. Then, tape the bottom flap to the side of the bag, and tape the bag’s opening shut. From here, the process is like any regular printing job. Click print and watch what comes out on the other side.
Create Temporary Tattoos
While hardcore body art fanatics won’t be too happy about this one, for a young child’s parents, paper beats the needle every single time. Back in the day, we could only find temporary tattoos inside gum packets, but the times have changed. Now you can print as many tattoos as you want with your printer. All you need is temporary tattoo paper and your favorite set of designs which you can find anywhere on the internet. Before you start printing, though, make sure you do a trial run on a normal paper before you do the real thing to avoid wasting tattoo paper. First, you want to make sure that your design is of a suitable size and, if you haven’t used your printer in a while, you’d want to make sure that the ink cartridge hasn’t dried up.
As you can see, there’s no limit to what you can do with your printer. As long as you have enough creativity and imagination, you can be the true master of your printer. Having a basic knowledge of Photoshop won’t hurt, either. All in all, printers are a great, cost-effective way to have fun, get in touch with your artistic side, and bond with children. Rather than letting your printer collect dust under a pile of unused books, buy some new ink and fire that baby up! You’ll never know what you’re missing out on until you’ve printed your first poster.
