work from home Archives - Brother Malaysia Blog

June 25, 2021July 15, 2022

The Perfect Printer To Suit Your Lifestyle or Business

Which Printer Should You Buy? Fit Them To Your Lifestyle Or Business Needs

Are you still searching for the perfect printer? Which printer should you buy for your family at home, a home office, a corporate office with multiple users, or factory?

Having too many choices can be confusing. This is why we’ve done the legwork for you and curated a list of Brother printers that perfectly suit these 7 different personal and professional uses:

Families with school-going kids
Home office (work from home)
Corporate office with multiple users
Industrial/Manufacturing production work
Budget friendly
Techies
Photography fanatics

1.Families with school-going kids

Growing up in a household equipped with a printer makes family and school life so much easier. You can print out handwriting/colouring worksheets, mazes, and puzzles for your younger kids, while your older children can print articles and school assignments at the click of a button.

If you have school-going children under your wing, your ideal printer should be able to handle a wide variety of needs, such as:

Printing in colour
Photocopying worksheets and assignments
Scanning artworks and articles
Printing multiple pages of reports, double-sided
Printing from a mobile device

Considering the diversity of needs, an all-in-one printermay be your best bet.

Brother MFC-T920DW Ink Tank Printer

Able to print, scan, copy, and fax
Has up to 6 sec (Mono) / 6.5 sec (Colour) first print-out time
Has automatic 2-sided printing
Holds up to 150 sheets in the standard paper tray
Holds up to 80 sheets in the Multi-Purpose Tray
Holds up to 20 sheets Automatic Document Feeder
Has wireless connectivity
Supports mobile printing with Brother iPrint&Scan, Apple AirPrint, Mopria, Wi-Fi Direct
Has up to 1,200 x 6,000 dpi print quality

Say goodbye to expensive printing costs from print shops! With this versatile printer, your family can enjoy effortless printing at home.

2. Home office (work from home)

The best printers for home offices are ones that are able to keep up with your business workload. You may need to scan invoices, print reports, photocopy documents or fax secure information to a coworker, a client or a supplier. Having a printer that can support your workflow will maximise your work efficiency and save you unnecessary headaches.

In choosing the best printer for your home office, you should keep an eye out for the following qualities:

Fast printing speed for work efficiency
Automatic duplex printing and scanning for productivity
Large paper capacity to reduce frequency of reloads
Printing from different devices—mobile, laptop & tablet

To achieve optimal work efficiency and productivity, you should choose a multifunction printer.

print scan photocopy fax all-in-one printer

Brother MFC-L3750CDW Laser Printer:

Able to print, scan, copy and, fax
Has automatic 2-sided printing and scanning
Has fast colour print speed: up to 24ppm
Has fast scan speed: up to 27ipm
Has multi-tasking capabilities
Holds up to 250-sheet default paper tray
Holds up to 50-sheet Dual CIS Auto Document Feeder
Holds up to 30-sheet manual feed slot
Has integrated NFC and USB reader
Has wireless and mobile connectivity
3.7” LCD touchscreen to support easy-to-program shortcuts

With this printer in your home office, you can look forward to enjoying a fuss-free and more productive workflow.

Corporate office with multiple users

In a workplace with multiple staff, you’ll need to be able to set up a large printer network for different users. Each user may have different needs, ranging from printing and photocopying, to scanning and faxing.

Your printer will also need to be easily accessible by users across the office, either through wired or wireless network connections. The perfect printer for medium to large enterprises also needs to cater to many users and be able to keep up with multiple print jobs.

Essential things to look out for include:

Network connectivity for multiple users
Printer sharing across multiple users
Fast printing speed for work efficiency
Automatic duplex printing and scanning for productivity
Large paper capacity to reduce frequency of reloads
High-volume & low-cost printing
Reliability to prevent downtime

To ensure maximum efficiency and minimal fuss, the best printer for your corporate office is a multi-function centre or a business printer.

Brother MFC-J3930DW Inkjet Printer:

Has automatic 2-sided print, scan, copy, and fax
Connectivity includes: Wireless Network, Wi-Fi Direct, Mobile Print, WebConnect, Brother Cloud Apps & NFC
Print speed of up to 22ipm (mono) and 20ipm (colour)
Copy speed of up to 12ipm (mono) and 9ipm (colour)
Scan speed from 2.7 seconds (A4 size, 100×100 dpi)
Fax speed 33.6 kbps
Holds up to 250 sheets Input Tray (Standard)
Holds up to 250 sheets Lower Paper Tray
Holds up to 100 sheets Multi-Purpose Tray
Holds up to 100 sheets (A4) and 50 sheets (A3) Output Tray
Super high-yield ink cartridges available (BK up to 3,000 pages & C/M/Y up to 1,500 pages)

Investing in a reliable printer will help to create a seamless experience for your staff and boost the productivity of the company.

4. Industrial / Manufacturing production work

When your business heavily relies on printing work, the quality of these prints is of the utmost importance. The costs can easily add up when printing large volumes of fliers, brochures, posters and pamphlets. Hence, you need to carefully balance between the cost-efficiency and the quality of these prints.

The ideal printer should be able to keep your print quality high and running costs low.

High print quality to ensure business standards
Fast printing speed for production efficiency
Versatile print trays for different-sized prints
Multiple types of print media
High-yield cartridges to keep high-volume printing affordable

The perfect printer to keep your production work running smoothly is a high capacity multi-function centre.

Brother MFC-L6900DW Laser Printer:

Able to print, scan, copy, and fax
Automatic 2-sided monochrome printing
Has up to 50/52 ppm print speed
Has up to 1200 x 1200 dpi print quality
Has N-in-1 Printing
Media types include: Poster Printing, Watermark Printing & Header-Footer Printing (Windows® only)
Holds paper sizes of 76.2 to up to 215.9 mm (W) X 127 to 355.6 mm (L)
Media sizes include: A4, Letter, A5, A5(Long Edge), A6, Executive, Legal, Folio, Mexico Legal, India Legal
Ultra high-yield toner available (up to 20,000 pages)
Drum available (up to 30,000 pages)

Alternatively, if colour is required, you can consider the following:

Brother MFC-T4500DW Ink Tank Printer:

Able to print, scan, copy, and fax up to A3
Automatic 2-sided monochrome / coloured printing
Has up to 22 ipm (mono) & 20 ipm (colour) print speed
Has up to 1200 x 4800 dpi print quality
Holds up to 250 sheets Input Tray (Standard)
Holds up to 100 sheets Multi-Purpose Tray
Holds up to 100 sheets (up to A4/letter) & 50 sheets (over A4/letter) Output Tray
Media types include: Plain, Inkjet, Glossy (cast/resin), Recycled
Media sizes include: A3, A4, LGR, LTR, EXE, LGL, Folio, A5, A6, Photo(102x152mm/4×6″), Indexcard(127x203mm/5×8″), Photo-2L(127x178mm/5×7″), C5 Envelope, Com-10, DL Envelope, Monarch
Ultra high-yield ink available (BK up to 6,500 pages & C/M/Y up to 5,000 Pages)

Owning such a printer might mean a bigger upfront investment but lower running costs and improved productivity.

5. Budget friendly

Looking for a pocket-friendly printer? Do not just rush to buy the cheapest printer on the market. Here’s why: The costs of consumables can add up to a hefty amount over time!

Instead, you should carefully consider both the printer cost as well as the cost of its consumables to find out which printer is the most economical over a specific timeframe.

Your usage of the printer may not be heavy duty, but you still need one that is cost efficient. Hence, the printer you choose should have these characteristics:

Low average cost of printer and consumables
Low-maintenance printer
Small in size

A low cost and reliable printer may be just what you need:

Brother DCP-L2550DW Laser Printer:

Able to print, scan, and copy
Automatic 2-sided monochrome printing
Has energy saving mode
Has toner saving mode
High-yield toner available (up to 3,000 pages)
Drum available (up to 12,000 pages)
Dimensions: 410 x 398.5 x 318.5 mm (W x D x H)
Weight: 11.8kg

Brother DCP-T420W Refill Tank Printer:

Able to print, scan, and copy
Ultra high-yield ink available (BK up to 7,500 pages & C/M/Y up to 5,000 Pages)
Dimensions: 435 x 439 x 195 mm (W x D x H)
Weight: 9.7kg

The good news is you won’t be burning a hole in your pocket with these printers!

6. Techies

Do you want a technologically advanced printer that makes your life easier, more productive and fuss-free? In this digital age, connectivity is one of the defining successes of our era.

Maybe you want a printer that can print anything from anywhere or one that can easily manage your print jobs according to your everyday tasks.

With various technologies combined, this printer should have advanced features to meet all your modern needs:

Network connectivity in multiple forms like wifi or the ethernet.
Control remotely, possibly through your mobile device
Intuitive (so you can avoid reading the manual!)
Modern technology such as touch screen
Memory function for repeated tasks
Automated tasks to replace usual manual ones
Fast printing speed

Meet the most advanced printers in our collection:

Brother MFC-L8900CDW Laser Printer:

Automatic 2-sided print, scan, copy, and fax
Connectivity includes:
- Hi Speed 2.0 USB
- Gigabit Ethernet (10Base-T/100Base-TX/1000Base-T)
- Wireless (IEEE 802.11b/g/n)
- WiFi Direct (IEEE 802.11g/n)
- WebConnect (Brother Cloud Apps)
- NFC (Card Reader / Print&Scan / Link to Solutions Center / NFC Shortcut)
Up to 31/33 ppm print and copy speed
Up to 28/28 ipm scan speed
2.5 sec fax transmission speed
600 x 600 dpi, 2,400 dpi class (2,400 x 600) print quality
Has secure print function
Display: 5.0″ TFT Colour LCD Touchscreen
1GB memory space
Supported Operating Systems include:
- Windows: Server 2008 (Network only), Server 2008 R2 (Network only), 7, 8, 8.1,
- Server 2012 (Network only), Server 2012 R2 (Network only),10, Server 2016 (Network only)
- Mac: OS v10.10.5, 10.11.x, 10.12 (Download only)
- Linux: CUPS, LPD/LPRng (x86/x64 environment)

Brother MFC-J3930DW Inkjet Printer:

Able to print, scan, copy, and fax up to A3
Automatic 2-sided printing and copying
Connectivity includes:
- Wireless Network (IEEE 802.11b/g/n)
- Wi-Fi Direct (IEEE 802.11g/n)
- Mobile Print (Brother iPrint&Scan, Airprint, Mopria, Google Cloud Print)
- WebConnect (Brother Cloud Apps)
- NFC (Card Reader / Print&Scan / Link to Solutions Center)
Up to 22ipm (mono) and 20ipm (colour) print speed
Up to 12ipm (mono) and 9ipm (colour) copy speed
From 2.7 seconds (A4 size, 100×100 dpi) scan speed
33.6 kbps fax transmission speed
Up to 1200×4800 dpi print quality
Display: 3.7” LCD Touchscreen
256MB memory space
Supported Operating Systems include:
- Windows: Vista / 7 / 8 / 8.1 / 10 / Server 2008 / Server 2008 R2 / Server 2012 / Server 2012 R2
- Mac: OS X v10.9.5 / 10.10.x / 10.11.x

With these printers, you will be breezing through your print jobs in the least amount of time and effort!

7. Photography fanatics

As a photographer, colours, shadows and light are key elements in your photographic art pieces. In order to do justice to these details, the quality and resolution of your printer is of the essence. As such, your needs are specific to its output quality.

Vibrant and high quality colour prints
Photo quality inks that are long-lasting and smudge-proof
Allow printing across a range of sizes
Allow printing from camera, laptop, phone, tablet

The following printer will help to bring your photographs to life.

Brother HL-T4000DW Ink Tank Printer:

Able to print up to A3
Automatic 2-sided printing
Up to 1200×4800 dpi print quality & 1200×6000 dpi PhotoCapture Centre print quality
Allow for borderless printing
Allow for colour enhancement (Brother image enhancement)
Connectivity includes:
- Hi Speed 2.0 USB
- Wireless Network (IEEE 802.11b/g/n)
- Wi-Fi Direct (IEEE 802.11g/n)
- Mobile Print (Brother iPrint&Scan, Airprint, Mopria, Google Cloud Print)
Media types: Plain, Inkjet, Glossy(Cast/Resin), Recycled
Media sizes: A3, A4,LGR, LTR, EXE, LGL, Folio, A5, A6, Photo(102x152mm/4×6″), Indexcard(127x203mm/5×8″), Photo-2L(127x178mm/5×7″), C5 Envelope, Com-10, DL Envelope, Monarch

Using this printer will guarantee that the quality of your artworks will never be compromised.

January 8, 2021March 22, 2021

Working From Home is the new normal. But what’s missing?

Even as businesses rush to embrace a Work From Home (WFH) culture due to the pandemic, the benefits of having employees working virtually from their homes are significant enough to see this trend continuing in the post-COVID-19 world. While it may be simple enough to have a notebook pc with a webcam set up for remote working, you’ll find that employees without a printing solution available are very likely to face a huge productivity void.

When bigger is not necessarily better

In the past, business printers were huge, floor-standing copiers that would take up a massive footprint. Although they delivered superior prints and connectivity features, they were simply too big, cumbersome, and costly to effectively deploy across your employees’ homes. On the other hand, traditional desktop printers just couldn’t match the performance, print quality, and cost-effectiveness of their larger counterparts – until now.

Small and mighty is the new normal

Today, that’s all set to change with a new breed of print solutions that are compact and feature-rich – ideal for deploying across home environments. What’s more, the best laser printers and multifunction centres from Brother are capable of delivering razor sharp text and exceptional graphics printouts at a lower cost-per-page compared to floor-standing copiers.

Best of all, these compact print solutions are capable of fast print and scan speeds, as well as cost-saving and productivity features such as automatic 2-sided printing, comprehensive paper handling, automatic document feeding, and much more – all packed into a tiny footprint that fits comfortably on a home office desk.

Staying connected means staying relevant

In today’s fast-paced world, time is the greatest commodity, and businesses that are able to connect, print, and share important information will enjoy a distinct business advantage. This is especially true in a home-based work environment, where the ability to collaborate with co-workers, clients and partners in a timely fashion can prove to be challenging.

That’s where a quality home-based printer comes in, and Brother’s latest range of compact laser printers feature mobile printing support for iPrint&Scan, Apple’s AirPrint™ and Mopria™ to ensure optimal productivity whenever you need, wherever you are. Furthermore, the free suite of Brother Cloud Apps on these devices means users can readily access the cloud to upload scanned documents or to print documents directly from an online storage site without a computer, making it easier than ever to share and collaborate.

A new norm without compromises

Brother has been trusted by enterprises and organisations around the world for over a century, and while the trend of remote working and working from home has only recently started to gain traction, Brother has always been a leading innovator for compact, decentralised print solutions that are highly flexible without compromising on features, reliability and cost effectiveness. Take on the new norm with a trusted partner by your side. Discover Brother’s extensive range of work from home-ready solutions here

October 16, 2020March 22, 2021

Getting organised at home

With many of us now settling in to our new work from home lifestyles, we’re still looking for ways to make our new-found workspaces more functional, easy to use and ultimately a space that encourages productivity. An essential way to encourage productivity in your new workspace is to get organised! When everything has its place and is easy to find, completing your work tasks at home becomes less stressful and time consuming. With our range of labels and label printers, organising your workspace and around the home has never been so easy.

Your work from home setup

Did you know that labelling your supplies and belongings can prevent them from being misplaced or accidentally disappearing off your desk? Although you may not have to ward off your colleagues from stealing your favourite pen at home (maybe instead it’s a family member, house mate, partner, curious cat…), labelling your office space or your desk can give you that sense of fulfilment from being organised, and in turn enhance and support your productivity. A Brother P-Touch machine will make itself right at home – with its durable, laminated tapes you can easily label your folders, books, pens and computer cables – the possibilities are endless!

Your kitchen/pantry

It only takes a few quick scrolls through Instagram, Facebook or Pinterest to see how creative people are getting with organising their pantries and kitchens into organisational masterpieces. Why waste time trying to figure out if it’s plain or self-raising flour in that container? How many times have you heard your partner/children/house mate exclaim “I don’t know where that goes” in a bid to get out of washing up or unstacking the dishwasher? Although aesthetically pleasing, having a well organised kitchen and pantry is hugely beneficial to help keep your kitchen clean, tidy and save you time doing chores when you’d rather be doing something else.

Kids’ stuff

With isolation restrictions beginning to ease in most areas, children are beginning to return to school – which means that you’ve likely spent a small fortune on a long list of things to get them ready for the new school term…90% of which is probably going to go missing before the term is over. Although by no means a new concept, labelling you child’s belongings such as back packs, clothes, stationery… anything you can stick a label on…in a bid to prevent their belongings being lost is a huge advantage to having them returned to you. Our TZe laminated labels come in a range of colours and designs and have been tested to the extreme so you know that these fun, personalised labels not only look great, but are made to last.

Your bathroom

When you have to share a bathroom with a number of people, the morning rush can be particularly chaotic. Minimise the chaos by labelling a caddy in the bathroom with your name and put all of your products in there so you can be more efficient in the mornings. By giving everyone their own caddy for their products and accessories, you’ll no longer experience that overwhelming sense of frustration that comes from rummaging through the cupboard while looking for what you need – save the time, mess and stress! It may also stop others from pinching some of your expensive cleanser you’re not willing to share too.

Your shed

If you don’t have a shed full of stuff that you’re not sure what to do with, half-finished projects, and tools laying around all over the place – you probably know someone that does. Getting your shed organised in a way that allows you to find what you’re looking for not only saves you time (so you can finish off that cubby house you’ve been putting off for months…) but also money. Ensuring that everything has its place means that you don’t accidentally purchase the same tools twice, and you know where to find them when you need them. Having a well labelled area for your tools also helps you store them safely and can prevent any accidental injuries due to improper storage.

So, if you’re working from home and feeling unmotivated or disorganised in your surroundings, take a little break from your desk, grab a P-Touch label printer, your favourite TZe labels and accessorise, personalise and organise a space around your home today.

This article has been republished from Brother Australia.

The original article can be seen here: Getting organised at home

October 9, 2020March 17, 2021

Common Home Learning Challenges And How To Overcome Them

Home learning is a concept that has never had to carry as much weight as it does today. With the COVID-19 pandemic confining people around the world to their homes, school districts have embraced remote classes and distance learning en masse. Unsurprisingly, considering how new learning at home is to many families, there have been some distinct challenges to overcome.

If your kids are learning at home, you’ve likely already encountered some of these issues, or will soon. Fortunately, none of the difficulties associated with distance learning are insurmountable. With the right combination of technology, focus and attitude, your family can make it through this crisis without the kids missing out on key parts of their education.

3 challenges of home learning

The following are three of the common issues that students, parents and teachers across Australia have had to grapple with through the first few months of mass home learning. By taking a few sensible steps, you can minimise the impact of these trends and turn your family’s schooling experience into a success.

1. Home learning and work from home go together

If you had whole days’ worth of free time to supervise your kids in their studies, home learning would be a much easier process. There is a chance, however, that all the adults in the home may be working at their jobs, contributing remotely. Parents sharing their experiences with ABC News reported mixed results matching their kids’ schedules with their own. In some school districts, there is a need for supervision, which has caused the parents’ work schedules to shift – this has led to the unpleasant experience of working until 2 a.m. or on weekends.

The challenges are greatest among parents of primary school-aged children, with many respondents telling ABC they have students under the age of 10 who require constant supervision or would be too disruptive of their parents’ work to allow both to occur side by side. The challenges and stress associated with keeping these young ones on task can be relieved or compounded by communication. When communication is lax or overbearing, the result may be greater worries.

Resolving the issue

For parents trying to work from home while their kids are present and learning, collaboration with schools is one of the main ways to improve conditions. As ABC News explained, since kids are not truly being home schooled, parents are within their rights to communicate with teachers about difficulties. Parents who are only able to perform their own work when their children aren’t learning can ensure their home offices are stocked with efficiency-building technology and their time-management strategies enable them to get a good night’s sleep.

2. Time management is tough

There are unique difficulties in cases when kids have flexible schedules and can hand in assignments when they’re ready instead of at the exact end of a school day. While this level of scheduling freedom helps families avoid the struggles of clashing work and school time, keeping students motivated in the absence of classrooms and teachers is a new challenge, one that may become worse over time. Queensland University of Technology professor Rebecca English told The Guardian afternoons can be especially challenging, with students sometimes losing steam and focus after lunchtime.

Amanda Dawkins, principal of Five Dock public school added that parents should be realistic in what they expect kids to accomplish at a sitting. Adults have to remember that students are not likely to sit down for six consecutive hours working. Getting them to do smaller blocks of work can suffice, and parents should not criticize themselves too harshly if their children become restless and have to stop.

Resolving the issue

One of the keys to time management is not being too harsh, English told The Guardian. When parents and their kids join together to work on the schedule for the day, the students get a sense of agency. Just having hard limits laid out for them could cause kids to become restless. Parents demonstrate trust in their young ones when they work with them rather than against them on a home learning schedule, and the results may be accordingly better.

3. Technology is necessary

One of the major issues associated with distance learning is that it is managed digitally. If families don’t have all the technology tools they need, and if schools are unable to provide them, it can be hard to meet requirements. A Victoria parent told The Age her family is having tech-related distance learning problems because they are presently staying in a temporary apartment, with little room and no printer.

It’s important for Government, Schools and Families to collaborate, to close the technology gap a little. For instance, The Age described solutions such as dedicated web portals and customised videos for students. Sometimes, families will find they don’t have enough devices for everyone in the household to get their work done simultaneously.

Resolving the issue

A home office well-stocked with affordable technology tools such as multi-function printers and scanners can help students keep handing in their work without missing a beat. Easy connectivity between these devices and computers or tablets is an important feature, because being slowed down by tough-to-use tech is not a good way for either children or parents to spend their days at home.

Succeeding in the home learning age

The current situation, with distance learning en masse and in-person courses for kids who cannot stay at home, is a compromise to deal with an unprecedented situation. You and your family can make it through this time, as there are ways to address all of the issues rising to the surface through the first few months of social distancing.

With the right attitude toward setting a schedule, support from the schools and access to effective technology, you can combine a work-from-home model with the new educational needs of your family. Until restrictions are relaxed, becoming familiar with distance learning is essential. Whether your family is currently working from home, learning from home or both, Brother has a range of award winning multi-function printers and scanners that can help you make work a little easier, visit our website to find out more.

This article has been republished from Brother Australia with minor changes.

The original article can be seen here: https://empowers.brother.com.au/2020/05/22/common-home-learning-challenges-and-how-to-overcome-them/