If you've ever collected a printed page from a printer and found that there's a line running down the page, or that your neat Arial font has been replaced with smeared arabesques and curlicues, then you know the pitfalls of a dirty printer.

Every time a page gets fed into a printer it carries room and paper dust in with it.
Eventually this dirt, coupled with stray toner or ink from the printer itself, can create severe problems. Redback Studios is selling an Australian product that effectively cleans out that gunk, by following the page path through the printer.

Imagine the fuzzy tape used in cassette or VCR head cleaners that you have to apply cleaning fluid to before inserting in a player.

CleanPrint is similar, although it comes in large A4 sheets instead of strips.You can get pages for cleaning Inkjet and laser printers, as well as fax machines. Each box comes with a reusable sheet,Windows compatible software and a small squeezy bottle of cleaning fluid. CleanPrint is an extremely easy to use product, you apply the cleaning fluid, run the software and pop the sheet in the printer, and you're off. Depending on how much gunk it picks up, each sheet can be reused a few times.

Darren Ellis