Lexmark Z82 ‘MFP’

Printing, scanning and copying with the Lexmark Z82 ‘MFP’

Introduction
The Lexmark Z82 is a Multi-function Product (MFP) device, capable of functioning as a scanner, printer and copier. Weighing 7.8 kg, it occupies 444 x 369 x 258 mm of desk space, and draws 35 Watts of power in operation, and 15 W in standby mode.

As a printer, it outputs both colour and black-and-white pages and is capable of a maximum resolution of 1200 dpi. It interfaces to a Windows PC via a parallel or USB connection.

When scanning, it handles documents and photographs, via a letter-size (A4) flatbed scanning surface. The unit's optical resolution is 300x600.

Its copier functions are particularly strong. It supports full-colour and black copies, adjustable contrast/resolution, reductions and enlargements, multiple copies and even collating functions. The unit's paper input tray holds up to 150 sheets of paper at a time. A manual feed slot is also provided.

What's in the box
The unit comes with the obligatory driver CD, containing printer installation software for Windows 95 and 98, and a Samsung-developed utility called SmarThru 2, which allows the unit to use a connected PC to send faxes and emails with scanned attachments. The software also provides optical character recognition services, allowing printed documents to be converted back into editable text.

The package also includes colour (CMY) and black ink cartridges, a pair of good quality manuals, a parallel cable, power cable and an offer to buy two additional software titles (including some pretty good ones, such as CorelDRAW SE and WordPerfect Office 2000) for only US$8.99 (Canadians must pay an additional $2.)

Performance
The performance of the unit as a photo printer is decent, but unspectacular, due to its rather large .18 picolitre drop size. It is capable of three different resolutions: 300x600, 600x600 and 1200x1200, in draft, normal and best mode, respectively. The Z82 supports, but does not include, a photo cartridge, designed to improve the unit's photo-quality output. We observed no visible banding in full-page colour output at the unit's highest quality setting in either printer or copier modes.

In the copier's black mode, however, it was a different story, with significant banding across images with large areas of solid shading. As a copier, it manages 4 copies per minute (cpm) in black and white, and 1.5 cpm in colour. A variety of paper sizes are supported, ranging from 4"x6" (postcard) to 8.5"x14" (legal), and a variety of common envelope and label types. The unit does not support multiple-sheet forms.

The driver software allows the unit to be recognized by Windows programs as a TWAIN scanning device. This allows the scanner to be available to third-party programs such as Corel Photo-Paint, JASC Paint Shop Pro, Adobe Photoshop, or virtually any other photo-editing package on the market. The included SmarThru 2 software provides basic image editing features, allowing cropping, resizing and rotating, as well as adjustment of a number of parameters such as brightness, contrast and saturation. Several effects are supplied, too, for sharpening, embossing, posterizing and (ugh!) "mosaicking" images. The software can import, export, scan and print images.

When sending scanned pages to the SmarThru 2 software's AnyPage Lite OCR engine, you can configure it to process pages a batch at a time, automatically or manually. Text can be saved as TXT, RTF or HTML. The RTF mode produces the best results (well, on some pages, anyway), as it allows you to save not only text, but also information about the page layout, pictures and tables.

System requirements are not at all hefty. The company says the unit will work on a 486DX2 100 or better, with 16MB or more RAM, and Windows 95 or 98. (Windows 98/Me or later is required for USB support.) Macintosh and Windows NT are not supported.

Although the software on the supplied CD does not support Windows 2000, a driver for this operating system can be downloaded from Lexmark's web site (www.lexmark.com). To our delight, this driver also worked under Windows XP (Release Candidate 1). We tested the unit's USB connections using the standard USB 1.1 interfaces built into most PCs, and also with a new USB 2.0 add-on card from Orange Micro. It, too, worked perfectly.

Image Quality
The driver software provides several options that can help you derive the best possible quality from this unit. You can choose "Vivid" or "Natural" colours and choose whether you want "airbrush" shading (technically, a type of error-diffusion dithering known as a stochastic screen) or "matrix" shading. You can also adjust the brightness and contrast (rather more crudely than is possible in a program such as Photoshop) and, of course, choose various resolutions, paper types and sizes.

Colour accuracy in "Natural color" mode was good; shifted ever so slightly to the red side of the spectrum -- probably a design decision intended to flatter Caucasian complexions. Lexmark says most the "Vivid color" setting is intended for charts, graphs and other types of artwork with large areas of solid colour.

Conclusion
The Z82 is a good general-purpose MFP for small office or home office users at a reasonable US$299 price. The black copy quality was substandard, but the quality of colour copies was excellent. OCR functionality is not as integrated as we'd like.