Buying Guide for Copiers


A copier makes photocopies of printed or graphic matter and has become an indispensable device in every office, business centre, educational institution, industrial sector and other corporate places. A good copier can provide a helping hand to your business in many ways and will play a main role as long as papers are involved for documentation purpose.
from: In the Office

The use of copier dates back to 1940s when Xerox introduced the first xerographic copier. Photocopiers are undeniably more convenient than computers for the very common task of creating paper copies of documents and other visual images quickly and cheaply. Whether you have to copy small numbers of documents, such as accounts or bills or you need to copy huge volumes of print, you have a variety of copiers available in the market.

Know the copier types

Analogue, ink jet, electrostatic, digital and xerography are some output technologies of copiers. Most current photocopiers use a xerography technology. You can choose the type of photocopier you need based on the volume, type of copying you do each day and the copy speed.

Black and white copier – This type of copier is mostly preferred everywhere for its versatility, cost and durability. Such copiers require less maintenance compared to the other types. CANON FC290 Portable Copier for use at home or small office is lightweight, portable with built-in carry handle and features instant warm-up, 4 copies per minute copying, easy to maintain all-in-one toner cartridge and 50-sheet paper capacity. It offers the convenience of on-site copying at a very affordable price. CANON PC950 Copier is light, compact, has multiple paper feeding and can copy 12 A4 pages per minute or produce about 100 copies at a time.

Blueprint copier – This type of copier is usually used for copying large construction and architectural drawings. A blueprint copier can be used to expose pin graphics and to draft overlays or for other jobs like for light sensitive screens, film negatives or positives and sepia prints. There are several types of blueprint copiers, with most using eighteen fluorescent lamps at 65 watts each for exposures.

Copier with digital technology – This type of copier consists of an integrated scanner and laser printer. The advantageous features of such copier are automatic digital collation, automatic image quality enhancement, the ability to "build jobs" or scan page images independently of the process of printing them, high-speed scanners and this allows you to send documents via email or local area network. Digital technology is being adopted in all new photocopiers, replacing the old analogue technology.

Colour copier – Such copiers are in use from the 1950s and a full colour copier was introduced in 1968, which used a dye sublimation process unlike the normal electrostatic technology. In recent days this type of copier is mostly preferred for all official works, though this type is a bit troublesome for the governments as it makes counterfeiting currency much easier.

Points to be considered before purchasing a copier

Clarity – You should keep in mind to check the resolution of the photocopier as resolution determines the quality and sharpness of an image. Resolution is measured in dots per inch (DPI). Photocopiers with 500 DPI have 500 x 500 dots per square inch. Many copiers can offer an extremely high resolution, which gives detailed prints.

Memory – Copiers usually have memory in the range of 4 MB to 256 MB and higher of random access memory (RAM) and you can install additional memory to boost productivity and enable more memory-intensive features. In some copiers a single larger cache is shared between functions such as copying, printing and faxing. Make sure that you check how the memory is allocated in the copier. If you intend to use any image editing features or frequently produce complex documents with more than 20 pages, you should go in for copier with 16 MB memory.

Price and space constraint – You can choose a small copier in case, if price and space are a constraint.

The above details will help you get a better knowledge while shopping for a Copier at Getprice.
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