It seems like centuries ago when the sight of bulky office equipment dominating a workspace was considered normal, and it took several employees to perform various tasks. Secretaries typed noisily away at manual or electric typewriters. Office clerks stood alongside waist-high copy machines, whirring away and taking forever to warm up. Receptionists sent and received documents on a facsimile machine via the telephone line. In reality, it has only been decades since personal computers and printers made typewriters obsolete. Stand-alone copiers - in those days often referred to as "xerox" machines when the Xerox brand became synonymous with copiers - and fax machines are still around but are slowly giving way to a new breed of office equipment: the all-in-one copier/scanner/fax/printer machine.
Canon's evolution from SLR cameras to all-in-one multitasking machines was a natural one. Its image capture technology extended from SLR cameras to digital cameras, then onto photo printers and eventually computer printers. Its multifunctional laser printers compete head-to-head with rival brands in price, speed. and efficiency as well as text and image quality. Let's examine the top three specimens in the ImageCLASS line.
The most outstanding feature of the Canon ImageCLASS D480 Multifunction Laser Printer, which is a little over a foot high, is its all-mode duplexing capability. Most printers have the duplexing feature that allows you to print on both sides of a sheet of paper, but they are mostly limited to printing and copying. This one can even print incoming fax receipts and scan your documents back to back. The 50-sheet automatic document feeder saves you from having to manually monitor printing and copying jobs. How fast does it produce copy? You'll have the first copy in your hands in less than 10 seconds! Its output speed is a respectable 23 pages per minute. Its paper tray can hold up to 250 sheets, so you won't have to reload often.
The slightly larger Canon imageCLASS D1120 Laser Multifunction Copier/Printer holds up to 500 sheets of paper on its tray and delivers prints or copies at the breakneck speed of 30 pages per minute. Though the output is always in black and white, it can also scan color images. The absence of a fax feature actually works to its advantage since it doesn't interrupt incoming faxes or vice-versa.
The Canon imageCLASS D1150 Laser Multifunction Copier has the same weight, dimensions, and features as the full-bodied D1120, with one major difference. This one also functions as a fax machine.
All three machines can be networked to other users, use a single cartridge system for both toner and ink to make replacement easier, and switch to energy-saving mode when you're not using them.
Just imagine how much you save on costs, time, energy, and manpower by owning one of these. Each device is less than two feet high yet it can single-handedly manage the functions and heavy workload that used to require several different people and machines to accomplish! Office technology has certainly come a long way.
