Copiers, Faxes and Combos

Today's copiers are networked and also act as printers. Printers are adding copying abilities. Fax machines can copy and scan. And now workers can send images from a fax machine via e-mail. Single-function machines are going the way of the dinosaurs. It's only a matter of time until all these functions are accomplished by one machine, and you'll never have to get up from your desk again-except to stretch.

Speeding Ahead

Until copying, faxing and printing merge entirely, manufacturers are improving the individual functions. In copying, the transition from digital to analog is speeding ahead faster than many anticipated. Many copier manufacturers have stopped introducing analog models.

Digital copiers scan an image once and then make copies from it. The result is faster copy times. Analog copiers must scan the original for each copy. Digital machines can be wired into a network, so workers can run copying jobs from their desks. Digital technology also produces higher-quality images and allows users to manipulate and edit images.

Low-volume copying machines (less than 20 pages per minute) are furthest along in the transition to digital. The transition is slower for higher-volume machines because the technology is more complex and the machines have a longer life span.

Digital models are priced the same as their analog forebears or, in some cases, a little lower. "There's a bit of a price war," says Jonathan Bees, editor of industry-rater Better Buys for Business. "Prices are very soft." Notable mid-volume machines-the kind found in most offices-are the Canon imageRUNNER line and Xerox's Documentcentre family, Bees says.

Not only is the price of digital technology falling, but the cost of adding functions has become insignificant as well. For example, the cost of adding fax capability to a copy machine is about $1,000. To get same level of technology, including 33.6 transmission times and state-of-the-art image compression, in a stand-alone fax would run about $3,000. The cost of adding printing also is declining, Bees says.

The Network Advantage

Use of networks is increasing, which saves time and energy by boosting productivity. With a networked copier, workers can print right to the copy machine at 20 to 40 pages per minute. Users don't need to print an original of a document at six pages per minute (a common laser printer speed) and then make multiple copies on a separate machine. Even low-volume copiers average around 15 pages per minute, and the mid-volume machines found in most office hallways and copy rooms run at about 40 pages per minute. The copiers also can collate and staple.

Digital On-Ramp

In the fax world, dual-line faxes (two phone lines, two modems) are pushing their way into the market, allowing users to send and receive simultaneously.

Internet faxing also is on the horizon. Using a fax machine, users can scan in a document and send it as an e-mail attachment. This approach has some advantages: The new type of fax machine resembles the one workers use today. Since fax use is virtually universal, people will be comfortable with the new technology. Also, it eliminates long-distance charges.

"Some people say fax is dead," Bees says, "but 1.5 million plain-paper fax machines are sold each year." Soon workers will be able to fax via the Internet on copiers, and people with a paper copy of a document will have myriad choices of how to transfer it into a computer file. Both copiers and fax machines are based on scanner technology, so workers can use either to convert the document to digital form, then reroute it to colleagues.

Most multifunctional machines based on fax technology lack a glass-plate scanner bed, and they tend to have slow (six page-per-minute) engines, so they are not the best choice among multifunctional machines.