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10-22-38 Astoria

Who thinks of this stuff?

What does "10-22-38 Astoria" have to do with copiers? A lot actually, 10-22-38 is the date that the first photocopy was made. Astoria was the location. Oh and the line of text, 10-22-38 Astoria, was the first photocopy done on a glass slide by Chester Carlson.

Carlson, a victim of arthritis, worked in a patent office and was responsible for the painful process of making thousands of copies. Eventually, Carlson teamed with a photo-paper company, Haloid. Haloid changed the name from electrophotography to the more unique Xerography. The word, Greek for 'dry writing,' would be trademarked as Xerox in 1948.

Copiers, copiers everywhere and I don't know what to think!

When it comes to copy machines, features are key. Buying a copier for convenience can often lead to frustration if you find more useful functions on others over yours.. On the other hand, you should bear in mind what you don't need when purchasing a copier.

Paying for, and being perplexed by, features that you will never use can easily kill productivity to the extent that you would have likely been better not to have purchased the device in the first place. What to look out for:

Duplexing means that you are able to print on both sides of the paper at once. Unless you are doing this constantly, feeding the paper back through and doing this manually can be as efficient in a small office environment while allowing you to purchase a much simpler machine.

Sorting means that you can feed documents into the machine in succession and print multiple copies. These are either paginated documents or a bunch of separate jobs that are sorted and distinct from one another. This function can be a major time savor and should be carefully considered, often convenient for printing multi-page reports.

Versatility should always be a concern. Will you be printing transparencies? Will you be printing legal size docs or index cards? How about resumes or other jobs that require heavier high quality papers? What about a Canon color copier?

Speed kills when you have an approaching deadline. You may not find yourself under the gun very often, but if so, you want to make sure that you can handle it. Keep in mind color copiers are quite slow.

Also when looking for a copier, leasing should be discussed with your accountant. You may be able to write off the depreciation and other aspects of copier use on your taxes. All of the top copy manufacturers; Sharp, Minolta, Canon, Ricoh and Panasonic all have programs. Leasing can also help to avoid buyer's remorse.

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