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HP OfficeJet LX Printer

How it hangs together Hewlett-Packard, recognising that a common technology applies to these products have come up with the HP OfficeJet - one machine that is a combined printer, fax machine and photocopier. Not only is there a cost saving by eliminating the duplication of the rather similar technology in each piece of equipment, there is the added advantage of space saving and the benefit of using plain paper output. This machine is basically HP's well-known and proven DeskJet 520 ink-jet printer with the scanning and fax equipment added to create an all-in-one unit. When you unpack it you need to remove the usual bits of sticky tape, and install the print cartridge. Connecting all the bits together is very simple. A printer cable to the PC, another cable to the phone plug, plug in the power cable and it's ready for work. Recognising that everyone has different phone arrangements, HP provide diagrams and full instructions of how to connect your shared or dedicated phone line, and even how your answering machine should be installed. Two diskettes and detailed instructions are provided for the installation of software printer drivers for Windows as well as general and specific DOS-based programs. The paper tray holds up to 100 sheets of paper, and although we normally use A4 in Australia, it will handle up to 216 x 356 mm sheets. Paper weights up to 135 gsm are acceptable, and I was able to produce business cards for myself without creating any problems for the printer. So how does it perform in its various roles? Printer As a printer with its 600 x 300 dpi quality it is just as you would expect from the HP DeskJet 520 printer, producing up to 3 pages a minute of clean text. It is a good reliable printer that would adequately meet most SOHO user's needs. Envelopes are printed "sideways" fed from the paper tray without the need for any special adjustment. In fact the whole paper path is very straight-forward designed to minimise jams and misfeeds. There are six inbuilt typefaces for DOS users, a further 14 TrueType scalable fonts for those using Windows, as well as specific drivers for many DOS-based applications such as 1-2-3 and WordPerfect. The replaceable ink cartridge has a quoted life of 1000 sheets and costs $56. Fax machine As a fax machine it is very flexible. For those who prefer to prepare a document and transmit it directly from the word processor without scanning, there is a software interface using a customised version of Eclipse Fax software. This software also enables you to receive a fax directly into your PC, work on it and then print or fax out a revised version. Unfortunately the Eclipse software was not provided with the review machine and I was unable to test this facility. Hardcopy material can be scanned and faxed from sheets stacked in a document feeder holding up to 20 sheets. The hardcopy material I transmitted was very good using the fine resolution available for scanning. There are two degrees of resolution for the scanner, standard (203 x 98 dpi) and fine (203 x 196 dpi). The option to adjust the contrast is also selectable. About 20 percent of the manual that comes with the machine is devoted to the setup of the fax system. Here, you can set your fax header, assign speed-dial codes to individual numbers or to groups of numbers, set multiple fax numbers, auto redial, send at a later time, arrange for incoming faxes to be reduced to 75 percent to suit your paper size, and even permit the machine to send a fax on request from a remote fax machine. There is provision to store about 24 pages in memory should you receive faxes after running out of paper. It will also receive faxes while you are printing another job. Most importantly it can be left running to receive faxes without the PC switched on. Wow! Photocopier With all the hardware and software there, HP probably thought that they might as well add on a photocopier. It is best described as a convenience copier, providing acceptable copies at relatively slow speed from sheet-fed material. It does not have particularly high scanning resolution, but as a SOHO machine it is more than adequate with a copy rate producing just over one per minute. Multiple copies can be made, up to 99. An unexpected bonus is the ability to reduce down to 70 percent in 5 percent stages, although tests showed an error of about 2 percent in these values. This is not that important in the SOHO environment, but having some type of photo-reduction is very convenient. Scanner The scanner uses the Twain protocol and I believe there is the facility to be able to scan material for loading directly into your PC for graphics and desktop publishing work. I assume the use of this must be detailed with the fax software which was not provided, as a thorough read through of the manual provided no information on its use or capabilities. Conclusion Hewlett-Packard has always had a good reputation for quality equipment, and has become increasingly active in the SOHO field. Now it has created a very handy multipurpose machine for the SOHO market, and it is particularly attractive when considering the RRP of $1814 - far less than you would have to pay if buying each item separately.