BizNet OnLine Magazine, Multi Function, Things Your Mama Never Told You.

Multi Function
Things Your Mama Never Told You.

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We all know about those Multi Function Machines out there. You’ve seen the ads. They print, scan, copy, fax, and do it all in one desktop package.

Well BizNet Online Magazine is here to tell you some of the things you need to know before buying one.

Lets start at the top of the machine.

Sheet Feed or Flat Bed?

A Sheet Feed will automatically feed multiple sheets of paper without you having to stand there.

A Flat Bed will let you "scan, copy, etc." books or other tall or odd shaped objects including small pieces of paper.

So how do you decide? You need to look at the items you’d be faxing, copying etc. the most. If you really need to do books etc, then it’s the Flat Bed for you. Need to copy, scan, etc. lots of sheets of paper, then it is the Sheet Feed for you. Don’t worry, no matter which one you get, at some time or the other, you will wish you had the other one. With this in mind some individuals go with the Sheet Fed, then get a cheap (under $60.00 on sale) scanner for the Flat Bed Stuff.

The next big choice is Laser or Ink Jet?

All the units I know of are "Plain Paper", but the two printing methods in use are Ink Jet or Laser.

Without a doubt, the output quality of both is great. So who cares of you should go with an Ink Jet or Laser? You should! If you plan on sending the printed output to a client, plan to save the output for later usage, or are going to just do a lot of printing, do yourself a favor. Spend the extra money and get a Laser unit.

If your document is important and you print it with an Ink Jet, at some time or another it is going to get wet. Remember a very small amount of water (a drop or two) can totally destroy the image you’re trying to make when the print on your document "runs".

I know it sounds gross, but just spit on any Ink Jet output. The results show why you should stick with a Laser for any important output.

The next reason to stick with a Laser is MONEY. Yes the laser is more to begin with, but over time you will save on supplies. A $50.00 toner cartridge prints a lot more paper than $50.00 in Ink Jet toner.

The next thing to think about is on the fax side of things.

If you are going to be sending a lot of faxes, get a machine with built-in dialing. A machine that needs an external attached phone is not as productive as one with built-in dialing. Built-in dialing means that the machine can do things like recalling a busy number without you having to be standing over it.

The bottom line is, look at the differences from model to model, and then think about how you will use it. Some little differences can make a big difference.

Here at BizNet we have been playing with a Hewlett Packard HP 3100. It is a plain paper laser unit that can fax, scan, copy, etc… It has a Sheet Feeder and built-in dialer. One nice design feature is that on faxing it scans and stores the document to internal memory as it dials out. This saves a lot of time so we can send out more faxes faster. The unit can also handle receiving an incoming fax at the same time it is printing. The unit also lets you receive a fax to your computer or send from the computer. This includes the ability to tell the system to send your outgoing faxes after hours.

For more information on the HP 31000: http://www.hp.com/printers/lj3100/index.html

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