Having a printer is essential 自家列印機最實在

Before May this year, I did not have a printer and I used to visit shops that offer printing services. Whenever I needed to scan, copy and print documents, I visited some shops to get things done. It was time-consuming but I thought it was a better choice to take a minimalist approach: pay and use others’ printer instead of keeping one for myself.

This approach worked in the past but lockdown in towns due to the pandemic makes things very difficult. When I need to print and scan documents for certified translation for NAATI and Malaysian Translators Association, I find it to be very troublesome because the shops are closed. Also, when your documents have a lot of tables and graph, the lines on printed papers might differ and sway away from what you see on computer screen. Some words are even misplaced.

In other words, the safest thing to do is to have your own printer to print the papers and check the arrangement to make sure they are well-arranged on printed papers. And of course, keep one set of colour ink to make sure your own printer never run dry.

今年五月之前，我還沒有自己的列印機，所以常常光顧提供列印服務的店家。若有文件需要掃描、影印、列印，我都去到店家解決。確實是耗時間，但我一直以為精簡對策是上上之策，那就是付錢使用人家的列印機，而不是自己花錢擁有一台列印機。

這方法在之前確實有效，但是因為防疫結果封城或者經濟活動慢了下來，這方法就行不通了。若要將翻譯後的文件列印出來作澳洲或馬來西亞翻譯協會認證，那就很麻煩了，因為店家都關門了。再者，若文件中有很多表格和圖表，列印出來的紙上可能走位，電腦螢幕上呈現的文字可能無緣無故移動了位置。

簡單來說，最安全的做法就是擁有自己的列印機列印文件，檢查排版以確保在列印紙本的版本上面依然整齊美觀。當然，時時準備多一套墨汁以免自家列印機乾枯罷工。