Expanding its lineup of industry-leading laser devices, Lexmark International, Inc. (NYSE: LXK) today announced a new monochrome laser multifunction product (MFP), the Lexmark X204n, which has the smallest footprint in its class*. Designed especially for the desktop, this monochrome laser MFP meets the needs of customers who seek professional, business-class output, but face the challenge of smaller working environments or conserving desk space.

"Although it has a small footprint, the X204n provides both the technological innovation and reliability that Lexmark's customers have come to expect from our products and services," said Marty Canning, Lexmark vice president and president of its Printing Solutions and Services Division. "This desktop-friendly MFP is easy-to-use, packed full of features and will help any user or small workgroup drive efficiency and move their productivity ahead."

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One of the big problems with printers today isn’t that they print too slowly or that they can’t print images. The big problem is the cost of the printer and ink. Often you can replace your whole printer for the price you pay for new ink cartridges alone. I once owned a printer that cost about $50 to replace the ink tanks.

Epson has announced a new line of all-in-one printers called the NX series that offers nice features at low prices. All of the printers will copy, scan, and print. The line all use Epson DURABrite inks as well. The line includes the NX115, NX215, NX415, and NX515 models.

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It wasn’t long ago when copier dealers were peddling MFPs with a sales pitch still focused on speed and price. If a dealer wanted to jazz up the sales pitch, they might highlight the new affordability of color output and the inclusion of fax capability. The afterthought of these sales pitches was, almost invariably, the seemingly obligatory, “Oh yeah, and it scans, too.”

So, that was then. Fast-forward to today, and you can see that there has been a near 180-degree shift in thinking. Unlike just a few years ago when copier dealers were still selling MFPs based on the output capabilities of copy, print, and fax, savvy dealers today are beginning to understand the value of document imaging. Those that do are capturing greater sales by bringing the scanning functionality of these devices to the forefront. Is this bad news for traditional scanning VARs? Only for those that continue to ignore the popularity of the MFP.

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Canon has received the prestigious Multifunctional Printers (MFP) Line of the Year Award from Buyers Laboratory Inc. (BLI), a testing and intelligence body in the imaging industry, for its imageRUNNER and imageRUNNER COLOR multifunction printers.

Canon has also won four End of Year Pick Awards for its MFPs.

The MFP Line of the Year Award is given to products that meet the strict standards of BLI and pass the rigorous two-month laboratory evaluation. The biannual “Pick” awards, meanwhile, recognize outstanding product performances in specific categories.

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HP's Photosmart D7560 color inkjet printer is one of the better inkjet printers we've tested. It offers pleasing print quality and features galore, making it an excellent choice for the home user and amateur photographer.

Not surprisingly, the approx. $159 (as of 4/2209) Photosmart D7560 excelled at printing color output on HP-brand photo paper, showing natural, though slightly yellow, images. On plain paper, the same photos and graphics exhibited some graininess and dark colors, but text samples looked nicely black and uncommonly crisp. Print speeds were average or better for all but one test.

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HP's Photosmart D5460 inkjet printer is a bargain that you can brag about. Though it's a bare-bones printer in most respects, it has a few standout features that any photo enthusiast would love to have.

In lab tests, the Photosmart D5460 pushed paper quickly, managing a swift 11.4 pages per minute when printing text-only pages and 3.4 ppm when printing graphics. The main input tray holds just 125 sheets (lower than average), however, and it doesn't accept legal-size media.

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The Canon Pixma MX330 is a printer with print, scan, copy, and fax capabilities. It was the more affordable of two Office Jet models released by Canon last February.

Canon Pixma MX330At first glance, it will look very much like the Canon Pixma MP620, except that it is done in opposite colors. It is an average-sized printer, and will not make that big of a difference if it is placed in a small office. It can, however, perform most office-related tasks, albeit at a smaller scale compared with most heavy-duty office printers.

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The Oki Printing Solutions MC560 color LED multifunction printer (similar to a color laser MFP) has inexpensive toner and generates great-looking text pages. Even so, this huge model has too high a sticker price ($999 as of April 6, 2009) and needs too much special attention to be worth your while.

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If you can afford it, this fast, full-featured multifunction inkjet printer will suit any small business or home office.

Considering the price (C$400 as of 4/15/09), the Canon Pixma MX7600 color inkjet multifunction printer had better be good--and it is. It offers plentiful features, fast performance, and vivid output, making it a great choice for small businesses and home offices.

In our tests, the Pixma MX7600 printed black text on plain paper at an above-average rate of 9.8 pages per minute (ppm). It was also fast in generating graphics--managing 3.7 ppm, for instance, in printing a small photo on plain paper. The quality was consistently high regardless of the kind of paper we used (although on plain paper, (SEE THIS)s had a slight orange cast). Copies of a text sample closely resembled the original. Scans of text and photos looked slightly fuzzy but otherwise accurate. HP's OfficeJet Pro L7680 All-in-One is a lot faster, but its output quality isn't quite as good.

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Ecopreneurist has been testing out the HP Officejet Pro 8500, a brand new wireless printer from HP. This is one of the first jet printers we have seen that provides photo quality output. Given that this printer is significantly cheaper than laser printers, this “All-In-One” machine might just be the perfect solution for small businesses.

Now by “All-In-One,” we refer to four key functions that are part and parcel of every small business: printing, scanning, faxing, and copying. This means saving up to 50% of the energy used to do all of these jobs individually.

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