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Roundup: 25 multi-function printers for your home

A multi-function printer is a growing a necessity in every home

Printing was always known as equipment for an office or a commercial organization. Not too long ago, a printer became the necessity for homes too. From drafting basic letters to printing official documents while working from home, a printer has taken its place at homes too.

While printing is not the only necessity, filing documents and creating a paperless desk is the need of the hour. Converting physical documents and photographs into digital content has become a necessity, not only to share them over the Internet, but also to safeguard the originals. Creating images of important documents not only creates a paperless storage, but one can also search through a huge number of records in seconds. The scanner is the only present imaging peripheral which can create true and high-resolution images for documents.

Scanners were heavily used in large organizations, but due to reducing prices of the printers and scanners, they had merged into a single unit to save on space. Thus a multi-function printer was born.

A multi-function printer is an all-in-one equipment, which can scan, print, copy and fax. Multi-function printers are popularly known as an MFP or an MFD (multi-function device). MFPs are becoming highly compact, thanks to technology reducing the size of almost everything that goes into making the hardware.

More and more schools and colleges are opting for technology integration into the syllabus. This means that your child or sibling, who is in school or college, is given assignments and projects to work from home. These assignments include printing reports, thesis, analytics, and more and also scanning of stuff, as and when required. Hence, an MFP has become a basic requirement of almost every home.

MFPs were expensive before. Now, they are available in under Rs 5,000 too. MFPs come in different variants, which start from basic inkjet-based scan/print/copy, to high-end laser ones that additionally feature fax, network/wireless printing, and even remote printing from the Internet.

We present to you a roundup of 25 budget and mainstream printers within Rs 15,000. Presently, there are four major players in this segment—HP, Canon, Epson and Brother. Other brands are also available, such as Xerox, Panasonic and a few others, but are not preferred by most since they are into enterprise level segments.

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This article is only to highlight the MFPs available under the Rs 15,000 price bracket. All these MFPs feature a scanner and printer and can be used for instant photo copies. Colour inkjet MFPs can also be used to print lab-quality photographs. A few MFPs featured in this article also include an ADF (automatic document feeder), which can scan/copy/fax multiple pages one after the other, without the need for any user intervention. Some are wireless MFPs too, which feature Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, including remote printing from the Internet.

We have listed the MFPs in ascending order of their price. For more information about the product, please refer to their respective websites. You can also check with your local dealer for a possible demo.

Please note: Prices are as per September 2014. Prices are subject to change without prior notice. Prices will differ from city to city and country. All prices are MRP. Check with your local dealer for street prices and any available discounts.

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