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Review
Created: December, 1999
Inkjet printers have long offered reasonably
priced, quality printing to small business operators unable
to afford a laser printer.
Entering the "easy on the pocket"
color inkjet printer market is the Xerox DocuPrint C8, at a
cost of only $70 US ($130 Canadian); .
Weighing in at a modest 9.9 pounds, the DocuPrint C8 is lightweight
and trim. This printer occupies modest space, with rear-slanting
input and output paper trays and a footprint equivalent to a
piece of legal-size paper.
The DocuPrint C8 can handle letter, legal, executive, A4, A5,
and B5 paper sizes -- sufficient for printing flyers, invoices
or correspondence. It also takes perforated business card paper
and several envelope sizes. The paper input tray holds 100 sheets
of paper, perhaps not a professional printer capacity, but suitable
for most small business print jobs.
Under the hood, the DocuPrint C8 utilizes four ink cartridges
(cyan, magenta, yellow and black) or a high-capacity black ink
cartridge (not tested for this review) that must be purchased
separately. The use of individual color cartridges is very cost-effective
because you can replace only the cartridges that are empty.
The DocuPrint C8 relies on software to control the printer,
rather than using printer-based controls, handy if you've networked
the printer.
Now, the bad news.
Assembly of the printer's paper input tray was an exercise in
frustration. It was awkward and required more jostling than
most people would be comfortable with, for fear of breaking
the tray.
Also, the separate purchase of a parallel port printer cable
(not included in the package) is necessary.
The DocuPrint C8's performance was disappointing. Tested with
a four-page Microsoft Word document, on a Pentium II 350, the
printer did not match the claimed maximum print speed of five
pages per minute but came in at around an average speed of 3.7
pages per minute.
Print quality also left something to be desired. Draft text
quality was banded and uneven, though relatively dark. Normal
quality text was a bit jagged, especially when using elaborate
fonts. High quality text proved to be quite sharp, with occasional
irregularities.
On plain paper, the DocuPrint C8 printed reasonably crisp and
bright graphics at high quality, with no paper saturation and
some bleeding of ink. Overall print quality was run of the mill.
Print speeds for color graphics, at all print qualities, were
irritatingly slow.
An 8-by-10-inch color photographic image was printed on Kodak
Inkjet Photo Paper at high quality. The DocuPrint C8 required
10.5 minutes to complete the job. Colors looked flat and washed
out and there was a bluish-purple tint to the picture, as well
as a significant amount of horizontal banding.
It should be noted that the inks used by this printer are definitely
not fast drying, so rushed photographic print jobs will be completed
with smeared disappointment.
The printer was also noisy, potentially a distraction in a small
business space.
The Xerox DocuPrint C8 offers no distinctive or useful features
to a small business operator. It is exceedingly slow, even at
draft speed.
Print quality, such as the level needed in generating a brochure
for a client, also has nothing to recommend it. The DocuPrint
C8 does the job, but nothing more. It does not outshine its
rivals in the generation of color graphics, fails to impress
in its ability to print photographic images and, it must be
stressed again, it is tediously slow.
At $70 US ($130 Canadian), "easy on the pocket" is about all that the DocuPrint C8 has going for it. If you have a small business to operate, you'd be better off spending a few more dollars for a printer that offers a better return by way of speed or print quality.
Reviewer's rating: 2.5 / 5
Comments: Slow and disappointing. The Xerox DocuPrint C8 offers no rewards or pleasant surprises and is, at best, an average printer. Appropriate for home use but has nothing to offer small business operators.
Price: $70 US, $130 Canadian
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