Peripherals

The Print Revolution

Picking the right stuff for your organisation from the numerous options on sale can be a daunting task. By Varun Aggarwal

Printers have become an essential part of evaery organisation now. Falling prices in this segment have led to more people opting for colour printing and laser technology. Even dot matrix printers now offer better speed and print quality.

Print applications vary from basic bill-printing to printing business documents and high resolution images. For every specific need there is a printer that meets it. As a general trend, dot matrix printers (DMPs) are preferred for high transaction environments primarily in accounting and finance departments. They have long been the preferred choice because of their rugged nature and low cost of printing.

Although the cost per page of lasers is less than that of inkjets, DMPs still score on this point. They are more prominent in the finance and accounting departments where print quality does not make much of a difference. However, in organisations where printing volumes are low, inkjet and laser printer are already gaining ground.

The colourful world of printing

The demand for colour printing is driving the inkjet and the laser printer segments. There is increased awareness among organisations that colour can bring great benefits to their businesses. However, with the high initial cost of colour laser printers, inkjets remain a preferred commodity. Vendors are introducing products that will offer better print speeds, quality and consistency of print, which would enable a number of businesses to print their colour documents in-house. The hold of inkjets amongst SMBs can be attributed to pricing that starts as low as Rs 2,500. However, laser printers are catching up with entry-level lasers coming for a price tag of Rs. 4,500 (although colour laser printers continue to be relatively expensive).

The MFD market, which is prominent in large enterprises, is growing at a snail’s pace in the SMB segment. While vendors are positioning MFDs as a solution that can reduce total cost of ownership when it comes to printing, the product has been a tad slow to catch up with small businesses. Inkjet MFDs are still growing rapidly vis-à-vis their laser counterparts. This is despite the fact that laser MFDs prove to be more cost-efficient than their inkjet counterparts. It is better to buy a separate product for a particular function because a dedicated printer or a dedicated scanner for that matter can provide better quality than an MFD. However, if space is a constraint and volumes are low, then an MFD will make sense.

You need to consider a number of points before buying a printer for your organisation. Apart from factors like ownership cost, higher print speeds and better resolution, the more important factors could be cost per page, after sales services and an organisation’s print volumes.

DOT MATRIX

Epson LQ300+ The printer has versatile top, bottom and rear paper feed. It handles up to four part forms (one original and three copies), prints up to 300 characters. per second and has a 64 KB Input Data Buffer. Its other features include standard parallel and serial I/F and an optional Ethernet Print Server and USB external I/F, eight built-in bar code fonts. Price: Rs. 11,300 Contact: Prabagaran Telephone: 080 30515000 E-mail: praba@eid.epson.co.in Website: epson.co.in

TVS Electronics Pro VX3810 With 380 cps print speed, a PTFE Coated Print head and TVS Inkbank Ribbons the printer offers a low cost of printing, two paise per page. Its other features include a built in printer stand and roll paper holder, front feeding and a self lubrication mechanism. Price: Rs. 7,500 Contact: Mahadevan N V Telephone: 044 42275126 E-mail: nv.mahadevan@tvs-e.in Website: tvs-e.in

NETWORK LASERS

HCL Konica Minolta MC2530DL With print speeds of 5 ppm for colour and 20 ppm for black and white, the printer supports a maximum resolution of 2400 x 600 dpi. It has a network interface and supports a monthly load of 35,000 pages. Its other features include Fast Ethernet and USB 2 interfaces. It also comes equipped with a PictBridge-enabled USB 1.1 Host Port to print colour photos directly from a digital camera—no PC or additional software is required. Price: Rs. 30,000 Contact: Kishore Krishnan Telephone: 0120 2532829 E-mail: webhost@hcl.in Website: hcl.in

HP LJ 2600n  With up to 8 ppm colour as well as black and white printing and up to 600 x 600 dpi print resolution the printer has 16 MB of RAM, HP ImageREt 2400 print technology, USB 2 and built-in Fast Ethernet connectivity. Its other features include a front-panel LCD with a two-line, 16-character display, standard single-sheet priority feed slot and 250-sheet input tray capacity. Price: Rs. 19,999 Contact: Neena Kapur  Telephone: 0124 2566111  E-mail: nkapoor@hp.com Website: hp.com/in

MFD

Brother MFC 7420 The device combines laser printing, flatbed copying and colour scanning plus a full-feature fax in one product. It has a 35-page auto document feeder for copying, scanning or faxing multi-page documents. It offers print and copy speeds of up to 20 ppm with up to 2400 x 600 dpi print resolution. Its other features include USB and parallel interfaces and16 MB of standard memory that stores up to 500 pages in memory for faxing and can handle multiple print jobs and copying. Price: Rs. 19,800 Contact: Riya Jiandani Telephone: 022 40988900 E-mail: info@brother.in Website: brother.in

Epson CX6900F Features: The device provides printouts that are water, smudge and fade-resistant with DURABrite Ultra and prints at up to 5760 dpi resolution. It provides fast monochrome and colour printing at up to 27 ppm, photo correction with EPSON PhotoEnhance and Print Image Matching III and Exif Print support. Its other features include a 1200 x 2400 dpi resolution scanner, copying at up to 27 cpm for both black and white as well as colour documents, print a 4R photo in 29 seconds and send or receive faxes with a 33.6 Kbps colour fax modem. Price: Rs. 11,500 Contact: Murthy HSN Telephone: 080 30515000 E-mail: murthy@eid.epson.co.in Website: epson.co.in

HP LJ 3052 AIO  It provides black and white printing, copying and colour scanning with up to 18 ppm print speed, up to 18 cpm copy speed (black, draft quality, A4) and up to 1200 x 1200 dpi print resolution. Its other features include 250 sheet paper input, 50 sheet ADF, up to 19200 dpi scanning resolution, 600 x 600 dpi copy resolution (black graphics), 264 MHz processor speed and 64 MB of standard memory. It has built-in 10/100 wired Ethernet network connectivity with a RJ-45 port as well as a USB 2 port. Price: Rs. 19,999 Contact: Mahesh Kumar Soni  Telephone: 0124 2566111  E-mail: mahesh.soni@hp.com Website: hp.com/in

Panasonic KX-FLB852CX Features: The device can scan, copy, fax and print in one compact unit. It features a three bin sorter, colour scanning (600 x 600 dpi resolution) with flatbed and automatic document feeder (50 sheets). It has laser printing speed of 18 pages ppm, up to 18 cpm of copy speed and a built-in 33.6 kbps fax modem. It works with Microsoft Windows 98/Me/2000/XP, has a multifunction tray and offers an Error Correction Mode (ECM). A paper tray for 500 sheets and network interface (LAN board) can be attached to the unit as an option. Price: Rs. 20,999 Contact: Sandeep C.Yederi Telephone: 022 40032300/01 E-mail: s.yederi@npi.panasonic.co.in Website: panasonic.com

Canon –Image CLASS MF 8180C* This colour laser all-in-one printer comes with 128 MB RAM. It gives the print quality of 2400 x 600 dpi (enhanced). It can print 19 pages per minute in mono and four pages per minute in colour for both copying and printing. It has super-G3 faxing facility with large fax memory of up to 256 pages (with a 40 minute memory backup in case of a power failure). This MFD uses CCD Colour scanning method for 3D true images at 9600 x 9600 dpi (enhanced). It has a built-in network interface for printing/faxing and comes with easy toner cartridge replacement. Price: Rs. 76,995 Telephone: 011 26806572 Website: canon.co.in * Source: www.canon.co.in