hether you're scanning old family photos, personal documents, or a company memo, the streamlined LiDE 25 is easy to use. Three buttons automate the entire process, so you can effortlessly...
This 18.8 by 10.7 by 4.5 inch, 8.9 pound flatbed color image scanner has a maximum resolution of 12,800 by 12,800 dpi, and comes backed by a limited 1-year manufacturer's warranty.
The DocuMate 252 is the fastest and most cost effective duplex scanner in the workgroup segment and is more than twice as fast in color as other black and white scanners at 50% less price.
From forms and vouchers to contracts and color documents, the DR-2080C provides a quick and easy way to handle a wide range of documents. Its full array of software features ensures...
Welcome to the digital age with Hewlett-Packard's HP 9100C digital sender. This desktop device looks a printer/scanner combination, but it is a communication device that converts paper...
With a high scan rate of up to 57 ppm/114 ipm (300 dpi), onboard JPEG compression, and duty cycle of up to 8,000 documents per day,
The Strobe XP 200 is the ideal solution for business users who need a fast scanner with a small footprint. The Strobe XP 200 fits perfectly between a keyboard and monitor and scans...
The DR-3080CII scans at speeds up to 86 images per minute. It offers a wide choice of scanning modes-24-bit color, 256 levels of grayscale and black and white modes, even advanced text...
The Strobe XP 100 is the ideal companion for the mobile executive. It's compact enough to fit neatly on your desk, or to pack easily alongside your laptop or in your briefcase. It's...
The Fujitsu fi-4120C2 scanner brings the perfect balance of speed and versatility to distributed and front-office scanning environments. The fi-4120C2 lets you scan in color, grayscale...
NeatReceipts helps you get rid of paper by scanning and organizing everything in a database on your computer. NeatReceipts is committed to helping you stay organized without the paper...
The HP Photosmart S20xi photo scanner is a film/photo scanner provides high-quality scanned images from all 35 mm film formats; positive and negative strips, mounted 35 mm film and...
Nikon SF-210 Auto Slide Feeder. By simply attaching the optional SF-210 SLIDE FEEDER to the SUPER COOLSCAN 5000 ED, batch-scanning of up to 50 mounted slides becomes possible, giving...
The scanner uses a Contact Image Sensor (CIS) to achieve its smaller volume and lighter weight, and also requires less power consumption and lower maintenance than a traditional CCD....
Pandigital Photolink Mini Scanner, Scan Image Sizes Up to 4x6, Connect to Digital Photframe via USB, Transfer Photos to memory Card Using 6-in-1 Car Reader, JPEG Output, 300 dpi, Up...
The QuickLink Pen is an electronic highlighter that enables you to scan, store and transfer printed text, barcodes and small images to your PC, laptop or PDA. Up to 1000 pages of scanned...
Planon's newest scanner, the DocuPen R700, includes a rechargeable feature that allows the DocuPen to remain perpetually charged without utilizing a separate charging unit. Once a user...
The Bottom Line
For the money (about 50 bucks), it's hard to raise a complaint about this HP Deskjet printer. The Deskjet F4280 is an all-in-one that did an excellent job on black-and-white as well as color graphics, and photos look great as well. While it lacks a fax and is made for casual use only, it still performs as requested. For heavier use, though, the consumables (replacement inkjet tanks) might eliminate any initial cost savings.
Pros
Very inexpensive
Sharp printing, even at large sizes
Very inexpensive
Sharp printing, even at large sizes
Cons
Some muted colors in photo prints
Slow scanning
Description
80-sheet paper input tray
Color printer, copier, scanner
Ink level lights on the machine, showing how much color/black ink remains
Guide Review - HP Deskjet F4280 All-in-One PrinterFor casual home use, the HP Deskjet F4280 printer comes recommended. It also comes cheap, or even free, if you happen to find a deal when you buy an HP desktop system. That's how I ended up with the F4280, and I've no regrets.
Remarkably few complaints as well. This little printer (it weighs just over 10 pounds) does a fine job, as long as you don't ask too much from it. HP claims as many as 26 pages per minute, but of course that depends on whether you print at draft quality. At normal quality printing a black-and-white document, the first page was out in about 28 seconds, with subsequent pages out about eight seconds each. Large (72 point) fonts looked excellent under a magnifying class, with crisp, sharp lines and edges and very little bleed.
Three very colorful graphics pages at normal quality took 1:39 at normal quality. Considering the F4280 uses only two ink tanks, colors were remarkably nuanced on the graphics. A 4x6 color photo at normal quality took 28 seconds to print. The greens were perfectly true to the original, and while there was no obvious problem with the other colors, I found them less vivid than the original, so it may pay to use the printer's photo optimizer when printing photos.
Scans took a long time (1:10 for a single color graphic page). Like most scanners it expects to use the software suite that was shipped with the printer (in this case, Photosmart), but if you don't use that, changing options (such as scanning to a PDF) become tricky.
The printer lacks some items that are familiar on more expensive all-in-ones: an LCD screen, a fax, an automatic document feeder, and a large paper tray. But its onboard ink lights are a handy feature, showing you how much ink is left in the two tanks.
Laser printers are great for printing black-and-white text and graphics. They're more expensive to buy than inkjet printers but are cheaper to run.
How They Work
Laser printers put images on a piece of paper by melting plastic toner powder onto paper. Here's how it works. Inside the printer is a rotating drum is positively charged with static electricity that attracts toner powder to it. As the paper is pulled through the printer, it receives a negative static-electricity charge and then slides across the drum. This pulls the toner off the drum and onto the paper. The paper then is squeezed between heated rollers that melt the toner to the paper.
Consumables
Just like an inkjet printer’s ink tanks, laser printer toner has to be replaced. This is a pretty easy process, involving not much more than opening the printer, pulling the old toner cartridge out, and sliding the new one in.
New toner cartridges don’t come cheap (you’ll spend around $60 for a replacement), but they do last a long time. For example, HP claims its LaserJet cartridge will last for 2,000 pages, and all evidence is that they’re right. That’s a lot of printing for $60! And you don’t need any special paper to make your documents look their best, as you do with an inkjet printer.
Laser printers are pretty fast, putting out a page of text in 10-15 seconds (be skeptical of manufacturer claims of how many pages can be printed in a minute; often those refer to print jobs run at low quality). Because there’s no ink, there’s nothing to bleed into the paper, so text and graphics come out looking sharp. Laser printers are also a lot quieter than inkjet printers. So what’s not to love about them?
Price
Well, price is probably the biggest drawback. You’ll pay a lot more up front for a laser printer than you will for an inkjet printer. Entry-level prices for a decent monochrome laser printer start about $160, and about $200 for an entry-level model with some decent features. Still, that’s twice what you’d pay for a color inkjet printer or even an all-in-one machine that includes a fax and a scanner.
Color laser printers are getting cheaper (Dell offers a decent one for about $230) but low-end versions are still light on features such as duplexers that allow printing on both sides of a page. Color laser printers use multiple toner cartridges, so you’ll spend big when it finally comes time to replace them (each one runs about $60).
Bottom line: If you print documents with text and graphics, and you don’t need to print photos, a monochrome laser printer is a good bet. The up-front cost is steeper than with an inkjet, but you’ll get a lot of printing done before you need to change toner. If you need an all-in-one or do a lot of photo printing, then stick with an inkjet.
Printers that come ready for networking typically have a network adapter installed. Check your printer’s manual for more information, but printers that are ready to be connected to a wired network have a special jack called RJ-45 installed, which looks similar to a regular phone jack, just bigger.
In simplest terms, printers connect to wired networks through the router. One of the plugs goes into the router, and the other end goes into the printer’s jack. When all the pieces are restarted, you’ll need to install a print driver on all the PCs that will use the printer. This can usually be found on the CD that came with the printer (as well as on the manufacturer’s Web site).
Wireless
If your printer is wireless-enabled, you don’t have to connect any cables to it at all. You will need to get it recognized by the network, meaning that if you have security features enabled on your wireless router (and you should), you’ll need to share those with the printer. Consult the printer’s manual for the details, as this process is different from printer to printer.
Print Servers
Even printers that aren’t network-enabled out of the box can often be networked by using a print server, a device that connects to your router and your printer. This lets the printer be shared by any computer on the network.
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a short-range wireless protocol that many PCs and cell phones use (for a wireless headset, for example). You can find many printers that can be Bluetooth-enabled as well, so you can print from your phone or (if you're not too far away) your laptop. It's unlikely that a printer will come with Bluetooth built in, so you'll need an adapter. These are thumb drives that plug right into the printer's USB port. If you intend to print from your phone, Bluetooth is a handy option.
Sharing a Printer
The Printing Preferences menu for your printer will give you an option to share the printer if it’s network ready. This process is usually quite simple: open the printer’s properties (in Windows you’ll open the Control Panel, choose Printers and Other Hardware, and then View Installed Printers) and look for a tab called “Sharing.” You’ll need to give the printer a name so that the other computers on the network can find it.
Bottom Line: If you have multiple computers that need to access a single printer, make life easier for yourself and look for a printer that’s network ready out of the box. It’s an add-on for many printers, so make sure you pick up any networking accessories that aren’t included.
PictBridge is a global standard that allows a digital camera to be connected directly to a camera, without having to go through a computer. Most new printers are PictBridge compliant, so it’s not something you have to pay extra for, but if you’re a shutterbug and like to print your photos, make sure the printer you look for has the PictBridge logo on it.
Photo printers often feature a large LCD screen that can be used to select a picture and, in many cases, to edit the image (for example, removing red-eye). But even printers that don’t have the big LCD screen can be PictBridge compliant. Simply attach the camera to the printer with a USB cable and use the camera itself to select the pictures to be printed and any available options.
My Pixma MP530, for example, a multifunction printer, has no screen for viewing photos but I can still print photos directly from a PictBridge-compatible digital camera. Once connected to the printer, the printer allows some basic choices (such as compensating for backlit photographs), and then I can start printing.
So if you take a lot of photos and like to print them out, make sure the printer you buy is PictBridge-compliant. Look for the logo seen on the right.
You'll pay twice as much for this Canon Pixma all-in-one as for the Pixma MX330. So what do you get for the extra dough? A lot. Wireless / wired network printing. A built-in duplexer. Up to 9600 x 2400 dpi color printing. Truly outstanding colors. Is it worth it? While the cost of replacing five tanks can be huge, the quality is so good that I'd pay the extra money, since I tend to print a lot. If your printing tasks are few, and particularly if you don't print in color often, I'd go with something cheaper, since replacing five ink tanks gets pricey.
The HP Officejet J4680 is a decent, and very small, all-in-one printer. Set up for wireless networking was a breeze, and that's not always the case with wireless printers. It has a relatively small footprint, though it lacks a versatile LCD screen. With only two print cartridges it may not be first choice for heavy-duty or serious photo printing, but otherwise this is a handy, useful, and compact office tool.
With built-in wireless, this handy all-in-one is perfect for a small (or even not-so-small) office. It's roughly the size of a vintage microwave, and it doesn't handle duplex printing, but it can print up to 11x17, something that a lot of other printers can't do. Small-office managers will appreciate the security features that can help prevent printer abuse, and they'll certainly appreciate the ease in which the wireless feature can be set up. Keep in mind, though, that print times can sometimes suffer when printing wirelessly compared to printing via a USB cable.
Dell wisely understands that the people who purchase all-in-one printers (particularly small/home businesses) are likely to have networked computers, and thus wireless or Ethernet connectivity is a key requirement. This printer does a fine job with all the basics and the wireless and other networking features help boost it above the competition. It warms up fast, is easy to set up, and has an automatic document feeder. A duplexer would be nice--there's one available as an option--and the awkwardly placed paper-exit tray could be a bit tougher, but those are minor quibbles.
I really enjoyed playing with this versatile printer. It was easy to set up (including the wireless networking), its large and tiltable LCD made photo editing a snap while the touchscreen keeps the machine button-free, and the print quality--particularly for photos--was outstanding. A duplexer (available as an option) would be welcome, and there were some glitches in getting all the bells and whistles to work across the network, but overall this is a best buy.
The Pixma MP610 does a fine job at scanning and printing photos as well as documents with graphics, though it was at times frustratingly difficult to use. It offers some real conveniences, like the very handy scroll wheel and the extra-large tilt LCD screen. While printing quality was fast and an overall positive experience, trying to edit photos on the machine itself was unnecessarily frustrating. Still, it's a Pixma, and for the price, you can still do your photo editing on the computer.
This Epson WorkForce 600 got extremely high marks for its ease of use and thoughtful small touches, such as the tiltable control panel. The "microbusinesses" that are the intended market will find it an excellent tool, since quality is high and it's fairly fast. However, since the ink tanks seem to drain fairly fast as well, make sure you either use the "draft" printing for less-important prints or keep a few extra tanks on hand. For the price, a great value.
This excellent laser all-in-one from Brother can be networked via a wired or wireless (802.11 b/g) network. Setting that up was easier than I thought it would be, and the printer, scan, copy, and fax functions can all be accessed remotely. Sure, it's a monochrome printer; but if you have a networked home office and your printing needs tend to be Office documents (and, perhaps, you have a dedicated photo printer for your other print jobs), then this Brother all-in-one might be just what you're looking for. At about $300, it's priced the same as a top-of-the-line inkjet printer, but the crispness of the prints makes it superior to those machines.
This pricey Epson photo scanner uses a Dual Lens System, where the scanner automatically chooses from two lenses to give the best scan resolution. It also features easy ways to digitally remove dust and scratches from film to make retouching simpler (and comes with additional image-editing software). With 48-bit color depth, there’s no question that you’ll get rich images. The unit can hold 12 35-mm slides or 24 35-mm film strips. Epson’s suggested retail price is $549.99, and for that price it’s not surprising that it makes an effort to provide some all-purpose scanning capability, with features like optical character recognition. Epson photo scanners typically get great reviews, so it may be worth the investment.
If money is no object, and you need the top-of-the-line scanner for film and photographs, the Nikon photo scanner might be the right one for you. Nikon is known for its lenses, and this scanner has an Extra-low Dispersion glass lens that help handle contrast better. It also uses a proprietary LED illumination technology, an important bonus since the quality of light is one of the big factors in scanning. Nikon says the Coolscan has 4,000 bit true optical resolution, meaning that it’s going to give richly colored and sharp results. It can hold multiple slides or film strips and there’s even an optional slide glass for microscopes. Image-editing applications come bundled with the scanner. The Coolscan retails for $599.99.
This Epson photo scanner gives great value for under $200. It comes with great bundled software (including Adobe Photoshop Elements) and holders for slides and negatives. The holders feel a bit flimsy and the automatic document feeder is extra, but otherwise this did a great job of digitizing some old negatives and photographs, and helping me get them looking new again. With a little more paper documentation, this Epson photo scanner would be even better, but it's still a great deal.
The HP Scanjet G4050 photo scanner can make prints at up to 4,800x9,600 dpi resolution not only of photos but also documents, though scanning something at that resolution is going to take some serious time. This photo scanner really shines when it comes to photos. It comes with a high-capacity adapter that can scan as many as 16 35-mm slide or 30 negative frames, with each saved as separate files. It includes software to remove red-eye and enhance dark images as well as restore color to old photos. The scanner can make other fixes, such as removing dust and scratches from photos, happen with the touch of a button (you can also scan directly to PDF for e-mailing ease). It has a retail price of $199.99 direct from HP.
Photo courtesy Epson
Both cheap and good, the Epson Perfection V300 Photo Scanner delivers a lot of value for a little money (under $100 at last check). It comes with optical character recognition software, and it performs its scans extremely quickly and with excellent results. All in all a best bet!
Yes, it was strange to type that title, but thanks to Shapeways, which allows you to create your own jewelry, ringpoems, and other fun stuff using a 3D printer, you can in fact create your own custom cufflinks (with your initials on them), in silver. Or a ringpoem, a ring of silver made of the words of your favorite poem. The links are only $99, the ringpoem (makes a handy napkin ring) $129.
Want to start your own 3D scanning studio, and get any shape you want printed in 3D (including a monkey statue, as used in the demo)? Then you'll want to check out the DAVID 3D Starter Kit, reviewed on the Shapeways blog. For less than $300, you can start scanning stuff at home and turning it into 3D digital models. Monkey not included.
The Lexmark X204n is a monochrome laser printer that sells for well under $300. It's also networkable, fairly fast, eco-friendly, and has a relatively small footprint for a laser printer. Check out the Lexmark X204n Review for more specs on this new monochrome laser printer from Lexmark.
HP has several new printers that I'll be looking at soon. The HP 6500, according to HP, is fast, economical, and eco-conscious--it uses as much as 40 percent less energy than a laser printer, the company says. At under $100, the HP 6500 printer is likely to be a great buy. The big-brother version of the HP 6500, the HP Officejet Pro 8500, can print color documents for up to 50 percent less per page, HP claims--and, if you're using HP's high capacity cartridges, you'll save money on consumables compared to laser printers. Read more about the HP 8500 specs.
Shutterbugs have it easier these days than when I was a kid, hauling around a rock-heavy Canon single-reflex camera--and then shelling out big bucks to see the results of my experimental shots, which were all too often disappointments. With digital cameras affordable, and photo printers downright cheap (not to mention excellent, and often free, digital editing software), once the first investment is made, there's no reason why aspiring photographers can't keep trying till they get what they like. But finding the right photo printer is not always easy. I've got a list of the Top Budget Photo Printers, which can help those with an eye on the bottom line, and a full set of in-depth photo-printer reviews for you to peruse. PC Mag has some more suggestions. M. David Stone's How to Buy a Dedicated Photo Printer asks the questions that should be asked before you invest in a dedicated photo printer, such as: How much do you print? Do you need to print in color or black and white? And how are you going to connect? Thanks again to David for his excellent articles!
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