A new colour printer from Xerox, the Phaser 8860 brought to South Africa by Bytes Document Solutions, features a breakthrough in solid ink technology that, for the first time, makes colour printing as affordable as monochrome.
The consumables for the Xerox Phaser 8860, the new crayon-like ink sticks, have been developed to last longer, and by increasing the total number of colour pages the ink sticks produce, Xerox has reduced the price of colour printing.
"When comparing the cost of the device and the ink, printing on the Phaser 8860 is one-third the cost of equivalent laser printers from other manufacturers," says Ernest Leong, Office Printing Business product manager at Bytes Document Solutions.
Better Buys for Business, an independent US-based office equipment analyst firm, named the printer an Innovative Office Product of 2007.
Designed for organisations with print volumes of between 1 000 and 10 000 pages a month, the Phaser 8860 colour printer is ideal for companies - such as real estate agencies, marketing firms, design agencies and contractors - that depend on colour for business proposals, collaterals and reports, as well as every-day documents such as e-mail, spreadsheets and more.
"Our customers tell us that they want and need high-quality colour printing to support their business, but that price has been a barrier to adoption," says Leong.
"By focusing our research on advancements in solid ink, we can now make printing a page in colour as inexpensive as black-and-white and at total costs that are much lower than comparable printers from other companies. Now, businesses can take the locks off the colour printer and depend on the affordable advantages of Xerox printers for all their printing needs - in any colour. And, they can do it knowing the environmental advantages, as solid ink significantly reduce waste."
90% less waste
With Xerox's cartridge-free solid ink technology, the ink sticks, which are simply dropped into the colour-coordinated ink trays, require minimal packaging and generate 90% less waste than comparable laser printers.
"The new Xerox cartridge-free solid inks are each only one-third the cost of the monochrome supplies. It means that now - for perhaps the first time in the history of workgroup office colour printing - you can print almost any document in full colour on this desktop printer for the same cost as printing it in black-and-white," says David R Spencer, president of the SpencerLab Digital Color Laboratory, which has independently tested the Phaser 8860.
With print speeds as fast as 30 pages per minute in colour and black-and-white, a 750MHz processor and true Adobe PostScript3, the Phaser 8860 produces colour prints that are Pantone-colour approved, meaning the image quality matches the tough standards of Pantone's colour system.
Automatic two-sided printing and N-up printing, which enables users to print multiple pages onto one, allow more images to fit on a single sheet of paper.
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Bytes Document Solutions, previously known as Xerox South Africa, is the authorised Xerox distributor to 24 sub-Saharan countries. Bytes Document Solutions is engaged in the marketing and servicing of the complete range of Xerox document equipment, software, solutions and services. The company operates through an extensive network of distributors, dealers, concessionaires and channel partners. Its products include printing and publishing systems; digital copiers; laser and solid ink printers; fax machines; digital multifunctional devices (MFDs), which can print, copy, scan and fax; document-management software; and supplies, such as toner, paper, and ink. The company also provides software and workflow solutions to businesses for printing books, creating personalised documents for their customers, and scanning and routing digital information.
With black economic empowerment partner Kagiso Trust owning a 27% stake of the business, it is a wholly owned member of the Bytes Technology Group.
For more information on Bytes Document Solutions and Xerox, visit www.xerox.com/news.
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