Choosing a business printer is as hard or easy as you make it be. There are many printers that include a wide series of features on the market. The important thing in making a decision is establishing exactly what you need out of such a device. For example, some offices may be very interested in cost cutting, specially during the recession. Purchasing a printer that may cost more upfront (most likely a laser) but has very low maintenance costs might be a very good idea. Some printers out there have a very low initial price tag and attract you instantly.

But when you start using them you discover that they chug ink like a train and the ink also costs a lot to replace. Printers with individual color cartridges are also a good deal since you won’t have to replace all of them at the same time.

A good office printer should be a multifunction one. Color lasers generally offer better text quality and most of the times they are faster. For any office that mainly needs to print out documents with the occasional image thrown in, laser is the best choice. Offices who need to print out images more often however, and who might need good photo quality as well are better off with an inkjet all-in-one.
Other features you might be interested based on what environment you need a printer for include:

-Versatility of connectivity – it’s great to have wireless and Ethernet on top of the standard USB cable connection. If a lot of users rely on the same printer for print jobs throughout every single day, it’s important that the printer works fast and well in a workgroup. A PictBridge slot is extremely useful for people who need to print straight from a digital camera. While this feature might be more important for the home user or amateur photographer, there are plenty of offices (real-estate, media, etc) who might need this kind of functionality as well. A media card reader is also a bonus, and some offices might want to be able to print straight from a flash memory stick (while it’s not needed most of the times, it does come in handy on the odd occasion).

The speed of printing is obviously another very important aspect. Some time ago lasers were renowned for their printing speeds. Now inkjets have almost caught up in terms of speed, sometimes even surpassing lasers. Speed might not be an issue for some offices, but for the ones who care a lot about this particular detail, it’s important to also take the printer’s warm up time into account.

Low printing volume means you’ll catch the printer warm up on every single print job, further adding to the wait time. Two extra features that come in handy would be the duplexer, that allows printing on both sides of paper (which translates into saving time, paper and costs) and the auto document feeder which allows you to scan multiple pages without having to manually insert each single page.

As a conclusion, regardless of what an office needs, there’s a business printer out there that can offer exactly that. A list of important features to use when going through options is really helpful and time saving.

The Canon Pixma MX350 all-in-one Office printer was announced not so long ago and is meant to be a middle of the road offering, in between the affordable MX340 Canon printer and their more popular yet expensive MX870. The design of these multifunction color printers isn’t outstanding but manages to be very functional. You’ll get to see a standard printer with round edges and a curved body.

Right on the front of the device you’ll find the control panel that includes a LCD screen. The 2.5 inch LCD is accompanied by an Easy scroll wheel on the right side for proper navigation. Also on the control panel you can find 15 keys for quick functions, the on/off button and a numerical key pad.

Measuring 18 x 17 x 8 inches with a weight of less than 20 pounds the MX350 is average sized. Although the top of the printer seems completely flat, it does fold out into an automatic document feeder with a capacity of 30 sheets.

The ADF will allow you to scan or copy a higher number of pages without having to manually insert each and every one of them. Instead you can just leave the stack in the printer and go get yourself some coffee while the printer gets the job done. While the maximum dimension of paper supported by the ADF is 8.5 by 14 inches, due to the fact that it’s adjustable you can use it with smaller sized paper as well. On the right side of the printer you’ll also find three memory card reader slots that offer support for SD, MMC, Compact Flash, Microdrive, Memory Stick and variations. Right under the card reader, a PIctBridge slot ensures that the user can print photographs straight from a compatible digital camera.

Connectivity offered includes Wireless, Ethernet and USB 2.0. So you may connect this printer to a single computer via USB and use it like that or you can very well share the printer among two or more PC’s and create a workgroup. All-in-one printers are a great thing to have for an office and you’ll be pleased to know that within this relatively reasonable shell (as size) you’ll find printing, scanning, copying and faxing functions.

Setup of the printer is relatively easy. This refers to both the exchanging of consumables and installing the software/drivers on a computer. To get to the print head and ink cartridges the user will have to fold out the output tray (located on the front side). There are two ink cartridges, a black one and a color. As you receive the printer you’ll be getting the PG-210 black and CL-211 color ink cartridges, but the printer also works with the high capacity versions offered by Canon.

As a conclusion please do consider these multifunction color printers if you're looking for a regular priced all-in-one inkjet (retailing for about $150) that offers good printing quality and look somewhere else for a purchase if you want a fast printer – since this one is rather slow compared to competition- or if you're interested in keeping costs down for using it.

With everything becoming portable nowadays, from computers, digital cameras to possibly even houses in some areas of the world (not the usual thing to have but I bet they're working on it), it's normal for the consumer to want to have and ask for a portable printer that they can take along with their digital camera or laptop when traveling. A travelers life, specially if it's for business purposes is rather unpredictable meaning that you never get to know whether you'll find a way to print where you're going even if you're attending a meeting or presentation of some sort.

So it's no wonder that the idea of taking along a small compact printer in your luggage along with a laptop sounds like an extremely good idea. And manufacturers are starting to provide a lot of options that enable customers to do so. Canon is one of the top companies that offers portable computer printers. The company's new Selphy line of printers is the top of the line when it comes to such products. But where did the company start and what was the beginning like in the development of compact and portable printers?

The Canon BJC-80 is one of their portable products that borrows many features from its bigger desktop brothers and scales them down appropriately to fit into a compact and easily movable shell. It's very important to say that this printer is very old on the market and can be seen as one of the ancestors of today's portable computer printers.

Back in the day it actually came with all the features a traveling professional might ever need. This sound a lot like the statement Bill Gates once made, claiming that '640k ought to be enough for anybody'. Weighing a bit under 1.5kg it's not a major inconvenience to carry. Because it features an infrared port the user can comfortably print without cables. Of course, the world has reached the point where Bluetooth or Wifi is a more viable choice, but back then IrDA was a viable and very exciting technology.

Now when it comes to wired connections this printer may seem a bit old for most people who have already moved on to the convenient world of USB 2.0. The BJC-80 offers connection through a standard parallel port so an adapter will be needed for anyone who's using it with a notebook and not your old desktop from 1999. For the time it was released the BJC-80 offered great quality printing. It could produce around the same quality prints as normal sized desktop printers. It came with color and black cartridges and produced deep and realistic blacks. Another thing that was plain amazing back in the day when people actually still were curious of what was in the devices they used rather than just sitting them on the table and using them is that the ink cartridge in this printer could be replaced with a scanner head. This lead to the printer working as a scanner and allowing up to 300dpi scanning in 24-bit color. While it might be old it will run just fine with a Windows XP system. Unfortunately the product has been discontinued, but people who still own one are probably continuing to enjoy the features it offers.

As soon as a certain type of technology is perfected, the next step for manufacturers is to take the said technology and shrink it to fit a smaller device. How small their devices will become and when they plan to stop, nobody knows exactly. The problem with this kind of thinking is that, at least at first, to fit such technology into a much smaller shell than initially planed means to give up some of the quality, or sometimes all of it.



This is a pretty good rule for netbooks, the small notebooks that are flooding the market as well as for portable printers. Although mobile printers often mean slower printing speeds and not such good photo quality, Canon's printers often managed to be an exception to this rule.

These Canon photo printers were among the first mobile printers released with a 9600 dpi resolution. It continues a long linage of popular inkjet printers, and the direct 'successor' to the IP90v. The Pixma IP100 has a silver matte finish outer shell, complimented by glossy black panels on the side. Its design was borrowed almost completely from its predecessor, the IP90v.

Both the paper tray and the front lid fold up conveniently and the printer becomes easily portable in a matter of seconds. Since it weighs 4.4 pounds, it can be considered a bit heavier than most of the devices of this type; but it makes this up by a slightly more compact form factor and measures 12.7 x 7.2 x 2.4 inches. The input tray can hold 50 sheets of paper, and sizes supported include 2 by 3, 4 by 6, 5 by 7 and 8 by 10 inch.

Aside from printing straight from a PC, the IP100 also offers a PictBridge port that will allow direct printing from any compatible digital camera. Sadly there is no memory card slot or Wifi. A Bluetooth adapter can be bought separately, however, which will let you print sans wires from either a mobile phone or laptop. For these Canon photo printers an enhanced 5 ink system was used.

This system is meant to maximize print quality for both photos and documents. The 5 inks include a photo black ink for rich contrast and good photo printing. A separate Pigment black can be used for sharp text and office documents. Documents are printed at good quality. But it's the photo quality that really impresses. Photos look vivid and detailed even on larger paper.

Now it's commonly known that portable photo printers have embarrassing print speeds. It's not the case here. The IP100 can print out a 4 by 6 inch photo in about 50 seconds and a 8 by 10 inch in a bit over two minutes and a half. While it's not mind-blowing and you'll still find it slow as wait time, it's considerably better than most other portable photo printers. Finally, the IP100 retails for about $250. It's greatest disadvantage is the lack of a memory card slot. Other than that it offers great quality, portability and speed.

The general impression is that laser printers are best suited for an office environment. Most people also believe that to purchase a good quality color laser printer you’ll need to spend a large amount of money. Samsung, a manufacturer that specializes in almost any type of electronic or machinery, begs to disagree with that statement.



To prove this, the company is offering the Samsung CLP 300 printer, a small and highly affordable color laser, for only $250. This printer comes with no networking features, but if you’re looking for a workgroup printer you’ll also find one in Samsung’s product lineup. The CLP-300N retails for an extra $100 and is still highly affordable comparing to similar products.

Of course, the cost of this printer means you’ll have to compromise on some aspects. The CLP-300 is neither the fastest nor the highest quality laser on the market. In fact, if you stop to consider your options a bit, you just may be better off with a cheap all-in-one inkjet printer that offers a huge set of features and maybe even some good photo printing. But if you’re the type of user that doesn’t have high expectations or printing needs, and would rather pay more attention to costs, Samsung’s CLP-300 may be exactly the device you need. This printer is remarkably small for a color laser. It measures 15.4 x 13.5 x 10.4 inches and weighs 30 pounds. What does this mean, aside from more desk space for you?

It means lower paper capacity. You’ll find a single 150 sheet paper tray on the front of the device. It can hold several sizes of media, from 3 by 5 inch to legal-size paper. The output tray can be found on the top of the CLP-300. Since costs had to be cut to keep the price so low, there is no LCD or much navigation. However, you’ll find the cancel button as well as four LED indicators that let you know when it’s time to replace the toners.

Aside from low paper capacity, the small size of this printer is also due to a unique toner setup. Samsung managed to separate the drum from the toner and shrink the overall size of consumables. The four toners (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) all plug into the front of one drum. This manages to save space as well as money and the process of replacing consumables is simplified.

Since this Samsung clp 300 printer was manufactured to be affordable, obviously its speed isn’t the best you can find on the market. You’ll be getting black text printing at about 14 pages per minute, black graphics at a slow 4 pages per minute and color for around 3-4 pages per minute, for both graphics and text. Add to that the warm up time and you really shouldn’t be in a hurry when using this printer. But as mentioned before, if you want to cut down on the price you pay for equipping your office with a printer and you don’t have great expectations from the said device, the CLP-300 does quite well.