Choosing tools for the not-so-paperless office

It's been over 35 years since the term "paperless office" first appeared in print, yet the paperless office is still far from a reality. Sure, we now keep a variety of material--from financial records to photographs--in electronic form, but that doesn't seem to have reduced our need for hard copies. This means that for the typical home office, a printer is still a key piece of equipment. Some may also need a scanner, for converting hard copies to electronic form, and a copier, for making duplicates of all those papers. Fortunately, a multifunction printer, or MFP, can combine all those pieces of equipment in one--in some cases, with a fax machine thrown in for good measure.

The majority of printers sold today are MFPs, and for good reason. If you bought them all as separate pieces, the top-rated printer, scanner, and fax machine recommended by ConsumerSearch would set you back more than $500--and that's without even including a copying function. By contrast, our top-rated MFP, the Canon Pixma MX882, gives you all four functions for $150, and will take up considerably less space in your office. But that doesn't mean that a multifunction printer is a must for every office. Before you rush out to upgrade your regular printer to an MFP, ask yourself a few questions:

• Do you really need all four functions? If you definitely need a printer but can live without a scanner or a copier, then you can save a significant chunk of change by choosing a single-function inkjet printer, such as the HP Deskjet 1000 (*Est. $30), rather than an MFP. If you don't need to scan or copy documents but you do occasionally need to send faxes, you might spend less on a plain printer plus an inexpensive fax machine, like the budget-priced Brother FAX-575 (*Est. $50). Or, you could consider a fax-to-email service, which lets your computer receive faxed documents in PDF form.

• How much will you use each component? If you run a business and your printer, copier and scanner will all see heavy use, then having just one device handle them all could lead to work pileups. On the other hand, if you need to print frequently but scan and copy only occasionally, an MFP could be ideal.

• How much quality do you need? While the top-rated all-in-one printers all do a good job of printing, they can't necessarily match the performance of a dedicated machine when it comes to scanning or copying. According to ConsumerReports.org, the scanners included in most MFPs generally don't have as many features as single-function scanners. Also, Macworld magazine cautions that an MFP's built-in scanner probably won't be up to the job of producing professional-quality photo scans. As for copying, most MFPs do fine in terms of reproduction quality, but they can't match the speed of a full-sized photocopier.

When it comes to choosing office equipment, one size definitely doesn't fit all. Each office has its own needs, so consider yours carefully before you make a purchase. Then choose a top-rated product that will serve you for many years--and you can hope that by the time it wears out, the truly paperless office will be a real possibility. See our recently updated report on multifunction printers for more details.