Can your printer fax, scan and copy?

All-in-ones are better and cheaper than ever, but still not for everyone

By Abe Konigsberg

Until the dawn of the utopian paperless practice, investing in a decent printer, photocopier and fax machine shouldn't be considered a luxury. Without them your practice could very well descend into chaos. So when the time comes to replace one or more of your office workhorses, one question you'll face is "Should I stick to stand-alones or take the all-in-one plunge?" Also called multifunction devices, all-in-one printer/fax/scan/photocopy machines have in recent years improved so much, and dropped drastically in price, that they're finally worth serious consideration for small office use. But separate components are still usually better than all-in-ones in terms of reliability and performance. (See the box, right, for more on the pros and cons of both options.)

COLOUR ME BLUE
Other than the all-in-one versus stand-alone decision, the other important consideration is black and white versus colour. Unfortunately colour printing or copying instantly makes things way more complicated and expensive. Colour laser printers — which generally do a fine job on charts and signs but flounder on photos — require four toner cartridges (cyan, magenta, yellow and black). That being said, colour laser printing is great for little signs around the office and for eye-catching patient handouts.

Inkjet printers are not reliable enough to recommend for general office use, but if you only occasionally need to print in colour you might want to have one on hand. Cannon, Epson and HP all have models available for under $100. But remember, their insatiable appetite for ink means they can cost a dollar or more per colour page.

SHARE & SHARE ALIKE
If you opt for a low-end printer or multifunction device that doesn't have built-in network capabilities, you can still set it up so everyone in the office can use it to print. The easiest way to do this is to install Apple's free Bonjour program (available for Windows; it comes pre-installed in Macintosh computers) available at www.apple.com/bonjour on everyone's computers. This utility will allow you to easily share a printer without built-in networking.

JUST THE FAX, MA'AM
Fax machines are a necessity in most MDs' offices. But many businesses have moved away from faxing — web forms and email are quicker, cheaper and often more convenient — which is probably why many multifunction devices often treat their fax component as an afterthought. If you need a new fax, make sure you steer clear of any model that requires your PC to process the faxes. Look for machines that say "standalone fax" on the box.

Universal headaches
There are a number of annoying 'gotchas' that are common in both dedicated printers and multifunction devices.

Starter toner cartridges: Nearly all manufacturers of laser printers and all-in-ones ship their products with nearly empty toner cartridges euphemistically dubbed "starter."

Ink will get you coming and going: It's well established that the makers of cheap inkjet devices make a great deal of their money selling expensive ink cartridges

Need for print speed: Laser or inkjet, dedicated or all-in-one, they'll all share one common trait — misleading print speed claims. We didn't bother to list any company's "page per minute" stats because they fail to take account of the often long time it takes to warm up the printer for the first page.