Printer Multifunctionals
February 1, 2008
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Don’t be fooled by declared ink jet speeds. They are for draft mode printing in low resolution, and they slow down the more graphics there are on the page. Laser speeds are generally accurate no matter how much is on the page.
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Photo printing features are nice, but they are not needde by most offices.
- If you need to do more than a few dozen copies at a time you should buy a copier multifunctional, not a printer multifunctional.
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Resolution is not an issue for the majority of offices; it should not determine your choice.
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Take monthly duty cycles with a grain of salt. Use them for comparison purposes only, but don’t expect to get the full page count month in and month out.
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The street price of a printer is usually in inverse proportion to the price of toner or ink. The cheaper the machine, the more expensive per page.
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Cost per page is based on an industry standard coverage of 5% in black-and-white, 20% in color. If you use lots of graphics or print Web pages and/or photos, your costs will be higher.
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PostScript is a must if you use illustration or page layout programs. For other office uses PCL or host-based printing is fine.
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Extra memory is a big plus if you use PostScript and it is needed if you run multipage and multicopy jobs (electronic collation); it adds nothing to host-based printing.
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Beware of machines that offer faxing but no document feeder, as they make faxing a major chore.
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