Functions of a Photocopier

Overview:

Functions of a Photocopier

As technology advances, photocopiers are becoming increasingly more innovative with a vast array of functions to help speed up the process of office work. Today, the office photocopier is almost always a multifunctional device, offering printing, scanning and photocopying as standard. But there are further functions of a photocopier which you may not know about.

1. Scan to email

The majority of photocopiers now have scanners embedded on the device, meaning you can easily send documents from the photocopier to your own email or to a clients. You can set your own email as a contact and shortcut button on the photocopier, so you can easily send scans to yourself without having to key your email in every time.

2. Scan to searchable PDF

Many photocopiers have Optical Character Recognition (OCR) function enabled, which means that when you scan your document, the scanner reads the letters and words and can save the document as a ‘searchable PDF’. This allows users to search for the document based on words within the document, rather than the title, making documents easier than ever to find.
Learning more about photocopier scanning

3. USB / SD Card printing

Many photocopiers have USB or SD card ports which means that if you have a document ready to print on a USB or SD card, you can walk straight up to the device and print it, without the need for a print driver on your laptop.

4. Enlarge or reduce

Got an A3 document that would be better suited on A4 paper? Or a photograph that isn’t quite the right size for a frame? Did you know a common function of a photocopier is the ability to enlarge or reduce your documents so they are the ideal size? This can be a very useful feature for many office tasks and usually comes as standard with most new photocopiers.

5. Duplex

Duplex printing is a feature that many photocopiers and multifunctional printers offer, allowing the printing of two pages onto one sheet, by printing on both sides. This is one of the best ways of reducing your print costs, as it simply halves the amount of paper used! If you are printing portrait documents then, you need to duplex on the ‘long edge’, if printing landscape documents, such as spreadsheets, then the duplex would need to take place on the ‘short edge’ in the print driver.

6. Collation

Got multiple documents, such as hand-outs for a meeting to print? It can be quite time consuming to manually separate each bundle into a separate pile. Photocopiers have a ‘collate’ option, which slightly shifts each bundle of documents, so you can easily see where one copy ends and the next one begins. This is very useful for schools and classrooms as well as in the corporate business world.

7. Staple / hole-punch

There are many finishing options that can be added to a photocopier to help reduce manual tasks. By adding a staple or hole punch unit, users can produce high-quality stapled and hole punched documents at the click of the button. Not only does this save time, but it ensures that the staples and hole punches are in the exact same place each time. There are numerous options for where you can staple your documents and similarly you can choose from 2, 3 and 4 holes, dependent on the make and model of your device.

8. Booklet printing

By adding a saddle stitch finisher to your photocopier, you can print documents that are folded in the centre with two staples along the fold. This means you can print booklets quickly and easily in-house on your office photocopier, without having to pay for outsourced printing.

The new Sharp MX-6500/7500 range takes booklet making to the next level. It not only produces booklets, but it also prints them edge-to-edge, meaning that you don’t have the white border around your booklets.