When you are buying a copier or multifunction printer it will be easier to compare components and features if you are familiar with the terminology involved. Copiers are complicated pieces of equipment and the complex sounding terms might confuse you before you have even begun your research. In addition to educating yourself and helping you navigate your copier decision, it may also help you complete a better deal if the sales person thinks he is speaking to a knowledgeable customer!
The following are some terms that may be useful for you when discussing copier features.
• ADF – Automatic Document Feeder: This feature allows you to feed multiple pages through the feeder for copying without having to manually pass through each page individually. The documents are placed in the feeder and each page is fed automatically into the copier machine.
• DADF – Duplex Automatic Document Feeder – This is basically the same feature as the ADF but it can feed and read double sided documents and copy them automatically. The D stands for duplex.
• AMCV – Average Monthly Copy Volume – Also referred to as Average Monthly Print Volume (AMPV). This is an estimation of the use of a machine. The way this is determined is by how many copies or documents are printed monthly. Many vendors calculate total costs based on this estimate.
• Clicks – An industry term for the number of pages printed per month. Many copier machines come with a meter that will calculate the number of copies output each month.
• CMYK – This stands for Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black (I know, the K is for Black – very confusing) which are the colors used for copying and printing.
• CPM – Copies-per-minute – Sometimes referred to as PPM – Pages Per Minute. This is the number of prints a machine can produce in one minute. eg 45 CPM would mean, 45 pages printed in a minute.
• Duty Cycle – this is the number of prints a machine is capable of printing in its entire “life span”. This will tell you the amount of time you can except your printer to last, depending of course on how heavily you use it. Don’t get this confused with the Monthly Duty Cycle, which is the total recommended output for the printer in one month.
• Finishing Options – Included in finishing options are a wide range of paper finishing features that can be performed by a copier such as collating, folding, and stapling.
• RGB – An acronym for Red-Green-Blue, a different way of generating color which usually produces higher density colors than CMYK.