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Preethi J.

Beijing April 17 "Most common issues that reach our help desk are on how to clear a paper jam, or how to change toner," said Mr Paul Lim, Business Development Manager, Edgeline Enterprise Printing, Imaging and Printing Group, HP Asia Pacific/ Japan, demonstrating AutoNav.

AutoNav is a patented function — a simple video that works the user through how to solve a problem with digital breadcrumbs on a 10-inch screen. While AutoNav is currently only being included in multi-function printers, it could trickle down to the basic printer at your home, a few years from now, said Mr Gary Cutler, Vice-President and General Manager, EdgeLine Technologies, Imaging and Printing Group, HP, speaking at the launch of the firm's new MFPs CM 8060 and CM 8050 in APAC.

The two MFPs will be available in June.

Many changes

Printers are changing in many ways. You can now mail a document from a printer directly to your e-mail id, using the QWERTY keyboard that pops out below the tray. You could send a print command from the tenth floor to the first, in a networked environment and possibly across countries.

They now come fortified with local language support, stapling, and various usage modes that assure the buyer savings.

Edgeline technology

The `incidental colour' mode, for example, pardons small usage of colour (a logo or a Web site). It charges the user the price of printing a monochromatic page. With `general office colour' mode, the colours printed are less intense - useful for internal print jobs - and 25 per cent cheaper than that of full colour prints. This control of ink is possible only due to Edgeline, the new technology that represents a major leap for the firm in ink-based technology.

It works by moving the paper around the print heads, instead of vice versa.

Multi-function printers now have hard disk drives to store your data and archive them. Searching for documents, even the text in them, is also now possible.

With embedded OCR, the printer can identify language scripts too. These devices are on their way to becoming formidable and essential node of a network. And are being made secure (by plugging the ports); hackers will not find their way into the office network via a printer.

Will these printers be the death of copiers? "With the growth in digitised information, the hard copy industry will be turned upside down," said Ms Kelly Tan, V-P, Enterprise Printing, Imaging and Printing Group, HP Asia Pacific and Japan.

So when you need to get a photocopy of your ID card, you will probably scan it, instantly print a copy, store a digital copy and mail it as an attachment, all within a few minutes.

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