Multifunction laser printer buyers guide

Multifunction laser printers can act as laser printers for a computer but can also scan, copy and fax. Their multi function printing capabilities give them their name multifunction laser printer but they are also called all-in-one-printer.

Scanning, faxing and printing can be handled with one tool

They first entered the market as an option for the small office environment of a laser printer that doubled as a fax machine, but could also copy, although at the same cost per page as a laser printer. This multifunction printing capability quickly cemented the multifunction laser printer as a viable product and now there are three key types of multifunction laser printer

The Small Office Multifunction Laser Printer

This is the type of multifunction printing that most mirrors the original multifunction laser printer. You will still find it in the small office, costing about a third to a half more than a laser printer of the same specifications but also being able to double for a fax machine and copier it does save you money in the long run

The Medium Multifunction laser Printer

The medium multifunction laser printer adds more copier function to the basic multifunction laser printer (a laser printer sheet costs in the vicinity of ten times the cost of a photocopier sheet). The medium multifunction printer has the ability to be on a network, however, providing the three vital office services to a small number of people.

The larger Multifunction Laser Printer

The large multifunction laser printers are dinosaurs of the dot com boom where over funded and poorly managed IT projects could afford change control by offering intermediate stages of project roll outs. Situations arose in those over financed days where the large queues of the photocopier were being dealt with on the work group level. These machines became very clever in the end and in terms of laser printing one copy and photocopying the rest. As the primary source of information shifts over the next few years from paper to digital the large multifunction printer will remain only in museums.

Multifunction laser printers can offer some great advantages in certain environments and the functionality faxing jokes to friends on a Friday from your desktop cannot be ignored.