While a splash, or even a dollop, of colour can add an attractive, eye-appealing look to your printed work not every document needs such a fillip.  Many business and even some personal documents are equally effective when presented in black and white format.  When you factor in the needs for superior print quality and operation speeds into the equation, the possible solution could well be a mono laser such as the Samsung ML-2525 model currently taking up a portion of my work space.

It is 48x42x40cm with cables inserted, the light grey colour with black area around the control panel will certainly not ingratiate it to the ‘lounge police’ so the wireless ability of this unit could have it stashed away in a cupboard say under the stairs so as not to offend. The stated weight in box is 29kilos it certainly felt heavier to me. The main difference between a laser and an inkjet (apart from the weight) is that the claimed print speed will be achieved.

In the past I have checked out and worked with a number of Lexmark printers and multi-function devices.  All these various models were based on inkjet technology.  Now it is the turn of a Lexmark mono laser product, namely the E260dn, which is currently taking over my general printing tasks.  The E260dn is network ready via a Fast Ethernet connection. Decked out in two-tone grey, this box shaped unit measures 260 x 406 x 370mm (H x W x D).

The Canon i-SENSYS LBP 5050n is 38x4325cm and as printed pages are delivered face down on the top of the unit no extra space is required. It weights around 18kilos so should be easily moveable if required. When I removed it from the box I noticed there is a cardboard sling that makes removing it easy.

In many cases a well laid out document in black and white is all that is required to get a message across to interested parties.  As a result monochrome printers, especially of the laser variety, have an important role to play in the creation of certain types of documents.  The Canon i-SENSYS LBP3360 falls into this category. Designed more to give a feeling of solidity rather than an overall stylish appearance, the LBP3360 is a boxed-shaped unit.

In the past the majority of network laser printers have been both too heavy and too expensive as they were intended for heavy-duty office use. Everything has changed with the introduction of products such as the HL-2170W, which is the most versatile of Brother's HL-2100 series of compact mono laser printers. Providing both wired and wireless network connections as well as USB it offers a range of facilities that will fit the needs of many users who have more than one computer.

The Canon i-Sensys MF4010 is 42x38x30cm and it weights only 12.7kilos. Of course it is creamy grey so may or may not pass the lounge police. Installation is from two different CD’s the driver files etc are on one and these took 50MB of hard disc space. Omni Page (for OCR) and Presto Page Manager together take around 300MB but the whole install is less than five minutes. The print speed is 20PPM and it does this for as long as there is paper in the open tray at the base of the unit.

This is called a business mono laser -at this stage I was not concerned- but it is small and many home offices would benefit from it. It is 40x37x23cm with all leads inserted, assuming you use the built in paper tray you need no more space than this as pages are delivered face down on top of the unit. It does have a manual paper feed and this with paper loaded would increase the first figure the depth by 20cm.

While inkjet printers can product excellent results with regards to quality, the running costs of such a device can quickly mount up as replacement cartridges are required on a regular basis.  An economic and viable alternative, especially when colour is not called for, is a desktop mono laser printer.  Compact in size, a fast print speed and quality output plus high capacity toner cartridges all add to the appeal of such a device.

It is 39x32x15cm and that includes the slight protrusion at the back for the power lead. You will need a few centimetres of space above to lift the lid to place items on the flatbed. You need to allow space in front for pages to come out and also access to the small paper tray at the base. When you first switch on there is no great whirring and churning noises, in fact the only way you know it's on is a blue light.

The Lexmark X502n All-In-One is certainly a substantial piece of kit.  Measuring 534 x 482 x 437mm (H x W x D) and weighing 35kg, it is the type of unit that is unlikely to be moved around too much as it provides print, copy, scan, fax and ADF (Automatic Document Feed) capabilities whether connected to a network or local computer using either Fast Ethernet or USB 2.0 connectivity.

First the dimensions it is 40x55x42cm and weights 32kilos. So its bigger dimension wise and heavier weight wise than the HL-4040CN. The software install is quite quick and takes 420MB of hard disc space. It can be connected by Ethernet or by USB. There are two CD's one for PC and one for Mac.

First the all important dimensions. The Brother HL-4040CN is 48cm deep with power plug inserted, 41cm wide and 30cm tall. It is close to 30kilos when the toners are inserted. Some recent units state fast warm up or time to first page, no such luxury here it is at least 90 seconds before you get 'ready' from first switch on and then the first job will print quite slowly maybe only 6ppm but from then it is all systems go and colour or black/white is 20ppm.

Image Courtesy of Dell Inc. Should this come with a PC from Dell then they may well have already installed the required software. However it is one of the simplest software installs I have done. First however the packaging in the printer needs to be removed. It is supplied with the toner cartridge already inserted, however you need to remove it to remove the various bits of packing around it.

There are in fact three models all bearing the 1022 label this the cheapest that is USB, the next with an N for network at the end of the 1022 that can also connect via Ethernet and the top of the range 1022NW that is network and wireless. Apart from the connectivity the units themselves are identical. The one thing you can always say for a laser printer is that it will always print textual pages at the speed stated.

So size first, it is 47x39x32cm - remember this is an All In One - and is easy enough for an adult to move at around 22kilos. The top has a landscape lid that you place items to be scanned under and to the right of this 15 buttons and the five position joystick as well as a 4x3cm TFT display that can either sit flat or lift up to any position to around 85 degrees meaning that the viewing angle can suit either desk or floor use.

The main difference between a laser and an inkjet is that almost all the time the claimed print speed is met. This unit claims 22PPM and while this is for letter mode I got very close to 20PPM for A4. It matters not if you have a couple of sentences on the page or 50 plus lines of small text. I can assure you that any inkjet would produce vastly different speeds if given those two pages.

One thing you can say straight away about the Brother DCP 8060 unit is that it is not a shrinking violet with regards to its presence in your working environment.  Alright there are several larger units available but the DCP 8060 is big enough for me.

Thinking about it, there is one particular job that I would not fancy tackling due to the heavy work load.  That would be the task of keeping a check on all the various printers developed, currently and in the past, by Hewlett Packard.  With the number of years that the company has been in the printer manufacturing business, there has to be a sizeable number that would need to be catalogued.

Image Courtesy of Dell Inc. The Dell Laser Printer 1710 is no shrinking violet.  Designed for the home or small office user, this printer has a solid and permanent appearance, emphasised by its 396 x 355 x 247mm (W x D x H) dimensions, giving you the reassuring feeling that this piece of kit should be able to cope with whatever printing tasks you aim in its direction.