Things to Look for in a New Color Copier

Whether you develop a small business or manage a large enterprise, choosing and purchasing a new business-grade photocopy machine is never a small task.

And that’s not only about buying a new copier in your price range and within your budget. While the cost is an important aspect of buying a new copier, many other business factors should be considered and can influence your purchasing decision.

There are several aspects you should keep in mind when purchasing a photocopy machine that will best fit your business’s unique needs.

Image Quality and Color Capability

Let’s start with the most obvious one – image quality. This is one of the most important things to be considered when looking for a new copier.

If your company relies heavily on high-quality documents, brochures or even photos, what you should consider is a color photocopier with high resolution. However, if your business uses color documents, but with only small graphics, purchasing a photocopier with moderate resolution might be just enough for the business’s needs.

One thing that should be remembered is that color copies usually increase reader attention span, and although many organizations debate whether a color copier is necessary, most businesses could benefit from having a color photocopy machine over black and white copier.

Using color to highlight important information will always increase reader’s attention message recall. Also, using color in business documents gives your business a more professional look.

Print Volume

The print volume is maybe the second most important aspect when considering what type of copier you should purchase. If you are aware of the average volume of printing and copying your office is doing every month, this will help you make a more educated decision.

Larger photocopiers with higher page-per-minute speeds or just higher-capacity paper trays would always be beneficial for enterprise-level businesses where there are multiple users with large print volumes.

Many auditing tools can help you to determine the average print volume of your office. Or you can review previous printing service agreements and only then finalize your selection for copier choice.

Nevertheless, this would be a step that offers a better understanding of the actual printing needs of your business, therefore locating the right copiers work-group best suited for those needs.

Mobile Printing

These days everything is being pushed on the cloud or mobile, everyday work is done faster than in the past. As such, mobile users like to be free, and with that, appreciate the convenience of printing work-related documents on the go, everything from the comfort of their devices.

The benefits of allowing mobile printing in your office could be substantial, positively affecting the speed and time needed for reviewing documents, the ability to sell, customer satisfaction, etc.

Smartphone users frequently use their phone cameras to scan business documents, so mobile printing could eliminate that added step of sending images to the desktop computer and only then sending them to print.

Equipment Integration

Another aspect that is worth considering, although sometimes tends to be forgotten, therefore creating headaches later, is the copier’s integration, i.e. how this new photocopy machine would fit with the rest of the document production equipment you have in the office.

Seamless integration would offer a range of benefits, including minimal or no disruption of ongoing projects, as well as minimal impact on IT infrastructure or worker productivity.

Even the user interface could have an important impact on the integration efforts as new UI usually requires significant retraining of its users, and therefore affecting the overall print volume and productivity.

Upgrade Options

Parallel to equipment integration, the possibility of an upgrade is also something to have in mind. Most of the modern copiers come with a good list of standard features.

However, the room for upgrade is always present, especially if the office’s printing will experience evolving stages throughout the ownership course. Take into consideration any add-on features that could enhance the copier’s capacities, which would also improve the overall office productivity and efficiency.

Depending on the work your business is doing, common add-ons can include finishing options for pamphlets or booklets, card readers, Larger output trays for high-volume copying or even hard drive encryption with wipe options for improved security.

Design

The last characteristic, although far from crucial, can be of importance depending on the office size. And that is the design of the photocopy machine.

These machines can range quite a lot in size, so a big and poorly designed copier could be quite an eyesore. Employees spend 8 hours a day in one place, so choosing something that is not bad to look at will be welcomed.

Plus, make sure you consider the space where you plan the new copier to be installed. Is it an open area, facing a window, or is it just next to the door?

These are matters that should be addressed and considered before finding the right copier.