FastBack P31 Powis Printer Spine Printer
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FastBack P31 Powis Printer Spine Printer

Part #: PPP31
Brand: Powis Parker
16 Questions, 16 Answers
  • Average Printing Time: 20 seconds
  • Strip length: A5, 8.5", 9", 11", A4, 14", 14.875"
  • Direct Input Device: Powis Printer Typewriter Keyboard
  • Resident Fonts: Times, Bodoni, Palatino, Univers, Univers Condensed, Avant Garde, Clarendon Condensed, Gill Sans Condensed, Microstyle, Zapf Chancery
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Product Description

Print personalized spines in foil with the amazing PowisPrinter. When a document is on the shelf, its spine becomes its most important asset. The PowisPrinter

Product Details

  • Machine Dimensions: 14"W x 12"H x 9.25"D
  • Maximum weight: 22.25 lbs (10.2 kg)
  • Average Printing Time: 20 seconds
  • Strip length: A5, 8.5", 9", 11", A4, 14", 14.875"
  • USA: 120V, 50/60 Hz, 7A
  • Approved by UL, CUL, CE, MITI.
  • Direct Input Device: Powis Printer Typewriter Keyboard
  • Resident Fonts: Times, Bodoni, Palatino, Univers, Univers Condensed, Avant Garde, Clarendon Condensed, Gill Sans Condensed, Microstyle, Zapf Chancery.
  • Computer Interface: Direct Connection: RS-232 Serial USB/Serial Port converter cable compatible
  • Macintosh: No native support of OSX
  • Warranty: 6 Month Manufacturer Warranty

Staff Review

Fastback P31 PowisPrinter Spine Printer Review

Powis Parker makes a number of innovative products including the Fastback P31 PowisPrinter. This is a device that can print customized spines for all the documents you produce with a Fastback binding machine. Here’s a look at its strengths and weaknesses so you can decide if this product is right for you.

Strengths:

  • The PowisPrinter makes it easy to create customized spines for all of your bound documents. All you really need to do to operate this device is turn it on, type out the text you want on your spine, and then print it out.
  • This device can produce results very quickly. You can type your text right into the machine with the included keyboard. It only takes about 20 seconds to print out a spine, so it’s a great machine to use when you need to make spines for a lot of books.
  • When used on its own, the PowisPrinter can produce a number of terrific fonts. Some of the ones it can print include Palatino, Zapf Chancery, and Bodoni. It can also print the ever-popular Times font. However, if you hook this printer up to your computer, you can print any font you want.
  • The type can range in size from 8 to 84 points so your text can be as large or as small as you want. Your text can be printed in a number of different metallic colors and can be vertical, horizontal, and stacked.
  • You can use this machine to print spines for documents of a number of different sizes. Some of those sizes are 8.5”, 14”, and A5.
  • This printer isn’t very big so you’ll be able to find room for it on your work surface. Its dimensions are 14” (width) x 12” (height) x 9.25 (depth), so it’s actually a bit smaller than a typical ink-jet printer.

Weaknesses:

  • The PowisPrinter’s largest weakness is that it’s not really compatible with Macs. There’s no support for OS X, so you really need a PC to use this device. (You can use a USB cord to hook this printer up to your computer. Various versions of Windows are compatible with this device including XP.)
  • This little machine can only print spines. If you want to make your own customized covers, you need to use the Fastback FoilFast printer.
  • The PowisPrinter doesn’t have a particularly good warranty. It only lasts for 6 months which is baffling because this is a pretty expensive device.

The Fastback P31 PowisPrinter is a good machine, especially for users of other FastBack products. This device makes it easy to create customized spines for your documents. It can print a number of great fonts, it works with different sizes of spines, and it’s not too big so it won’t take over your desk. However, it’s really disappointing that this device can’t be used with Macs. (Perhaps there will be a driver for Mac use in the future.) The warranty could be better too. Nonetheless, if you want to print your own spines for your documents, the PowisPrinter is definitely worth some consideration.

If you’d like to purchase the PowisPrinter P31, you should really visit MyBinding.com. They have this product available at a great price and they also have a wide selection of other Fastback Equipment. Plus, you’ll get free shipping on all orders over $75.00. If you’d like to learn more about these types of products, you can read all about them at MyBindingBlog.com. Check it out for yourself now!

Helpful TIps

Using the Fastback PowisPrinter P31 Spine Printer

The Fastback PowisPrinter is an extraordinary new printer that lets you print directly onto a Powis Parker binding strip. It prints colored text on up to three different locations of the strip, in a variety of orientations, and accepts different lengths of narrow, medium and wide Binderstrips. So not only can you print on Binderstrips, but you have complete flexibility in how you do it.

If you need even more printing options the PowisPrinter comes with a Windows compatible software to expand your printing capabilities. Once you set up the PowisPrinter to your computer, you can use any of your computer’s installed fonts, print bitmap images for logos or styling, store hundreds of document titles for later retrieval, see the entire Binderstrip as you design it, and use your computer’s full size keyboard.

And there’s more! With a simple service modification to your Fastback 15xs binding machine, you can dock the PowisPrinter to a Fastback binder, and the two machines work together. This allows the P31 spine printer to print on the book’s spine immediately before binding. Using this feature, you can print and bind in one easy step.

If you are new to the Fastback PowisPrinter and are wondering how it works, it is very easy. Here are some fast and easy instructions for binding a document with the Powis Printer. Of course there are lots of other features that you can use. However, these instructions should help you to print a simple title on a strip in a matter of minutes.

1. Turn the Power Switch “ON”. The Power Switch is located at the lower left on the back of the machine. The green Power ON light on the front of the machine will blink. The keyboard display will show “Printer self-test.” When the warm-up cycle is completed, the green Power ON light will remain on, and the display will show a blank screen with two squares on the left hand side. This screen is called the “text screen”

2. Type a few words – for example, “hot dog.”

3. Press PRINT.

4. The screen prompts you for a book width. Type “s.” Then type “35″ (as though you have 35 sheets of paper).

5. Press ENTER.

6. Insert a narrow strip into the Binderstrip Feed Entry, adhesive side up.

7. The printer will now print the Binderstrip, and eject it from the Feed Exit.

Using these simple instructions you will now have added a title to your first Fastback strip. Of course you probably don’t have a lot of use for strip that reads “hot dog”. However, you can use the same procedure listed above to add a different type of title to any PowisParker binding strip.

Using your P31 PowisPrinter you can also change the font, choose a different location for the title to print and even change the orientation of the print that appears on your strip. These topics are too complex to deal with in this article. However, you can look for other articles in the future that will provide instructions for these applications.

If you are interested in more information about the Fastback PowisPrinter P31 Spine Printer or are looking for Fastback Binding Machines or Fastback Binding Strips you should visit MyBinding.com. They are the largest online dealer for Powis Parker Fastback products in the United States. In fact, they carry the entire line of Powis Parker Fastback binding products.

Questions & Answers

That quick message alerts you that you have too much text to print on the strip, and tells you how to fix it. Depending on the situation, the printer offers you up to three solutions: reduce your font size (or AutoFit), change the orientation of the text, and/or delete some text. See the section, A Few Words About Printing (p. 17), for more details.

Answered by MyBinding.com
8 years and 1 months ago ago
No. The printer holds only one color cartridge at a time, which limits you to one color for each strip. For example, if you’ve loaded a gold cartridge in the printer, it can only print gold ink. While there’s a rainbow of cartridge colors to choose from, you can only use one at a time. However, there is a way to get more than one color on the strip. Conceivably, you could print a strip in gold, change the gold cartridge to silver, then reprint the strip. You would then have both gold and silver on your strip.

Answered by MyBinding.com
8 years and 1 months ago ago
Sure. In fact, you can change the screen text to any of nine languages: English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian! Simply press MENU, press the right arrow key three times, and press “U” for User Settings. Select 1 for Language, and choose your preferred language. Now press ENTER, then ESC, to activate the language.

Answered by MyBinding.com
8 years and 1 months ago ago
Press MENU. Press the right arrow key to move to the next screen. Press 7 (REVIEW TITLE). The display screen now shows you the text in each zone, followed by the orientation, font type, size, and style you have selected.

Answered by MyBinding.com
8 years and 1 months ago ago
Yes! Not only can you enter text in all three zones, but each zone can be oriented differently. You can also have different fonts, font sizes and styles in each.

Answered by MyBinding.com
8 years and 1 months ago ago
Yes. Simply press MENU, press the right arrow key three times, and press “U” for User Settings. Now press the right arrow key once to move to the next screen. You should see options to set the default font and style. Select the font and style you prefer, and the printer will now use these as the default formats.

Answered by MyBinding.com
8 years and 1 months ago ago
The default formats are the built-in settings for the font type, style, and size. For the PowisPrinter(TM), they are Univers Condensed, Normal, and AutoFit. Each time you turn off your printer, the machine assumes these settings. For example: if you change the font to 12 point Times, Bold-Italic, and then turn off the machine and turn it back on, the machines resets, and the formats revert to Univers Condensed, Normal, and AutoFit.

Answered by MyBinding.com
8 years and 1 months ago ago
Yes. Press MENU. Press the right arrow key to move to the next screen. Press 7 (REVIEW TITLE). The display screens now shows what font types, sizes, and styles you have selected for each active zone.

Answered by MyBinding.com
8 years and 1 months ago ago
Not really. You can print a title like this if you’re using your computer, but only by using two zones very close together. But whether you’re using a computer or the PowisPrinter keyboard, you can use only one style per zone. While you can’t use two styles in one zone, you can use different styles in different zones. So your top zone could be bold-italic, the middle zone normal, and the bottom bold. (This also applies to font style and size. While you can have different sizes and types in different zones, you can only have one size and type within each zone.)

Answered by MyBinding.com
8 years and 1 months ago ago
Press MENU. Press 2 (FONT SIZE). Enter the font size you want. If you want the PowisPrinter to automatically size your text to fit the strip, press A for AutoFit. If AutoFit is already on the screen, the screen will not change when you press A. The PowisPrinter registers your AutoFit choice. Press ENTER.

Answered by MyBinding.com
8 years and 1 months ago ago
Press MENU. Press 1 (SELECT FONT). Press the number of the font you want. The screen now asks if you want to change all the zones or just one of them. Make your selection. If you don’t choose any – and just press ENTER – the PowisPrinter changes the font only in the zone you are currently in.

Answered by MyBinding.com
8 years and 1 months ago ago
The zone lights mean two things. A flashing zone light indicates what zone you are currently in. A constant zone light indicates where you have entered text.

Answered by MyBinding.com
8 years and 1 months ago ago
That book, and the adjacent buttons, depict the zone and orientation keys. There are three buttons on the spine of the book, representing the three different zones. You can put text in each of these three zones. The buttons above the book are the orientation keys, which format how the text orients on the spine.

Answered by MyBinding.com
8 years and 1 months ago ago
Asked by John
Pressing the MENU key opens a menu of keyboard options. Here you can change the Font Size, Style, and Type; Save and Recall Titles; Review titles; and set the Language, Measurement Units, and the Default Styles. Simply press MENU to utilize these options.

Answered by MyBinding.com
8 years and 1 months ago ago
In most instances, ESC serves as an undo button. If you accidentally hit a button, hit ESC and it will usually take you back to the Text Screen.

Answered by MyBinding.com
8 years and 1 months ago ago
As long as you insert the Binderstrip adhesive-side up, into the feed entry (the purple chute on top of the PowisPrinter), you’re fine. While you shouldn’t jam the Binderstrip into the entry, you should guide it until the Printer grabs the strip.

Answered by MyBinding.com
8 years and 1 months ago ago

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