Affordable printing for home and education

: Compact and affordable

: A little slow, especially for printing photos

The most popular printers tend to be all-singing, all-dancing 'multifunction' devices with a built-in scanner and copier, and some even have wireless networking and other fancy features.

A3 in an A4 slot

The Ricoh looks too small to be a full-duplex A3 printer, but once the paper tray has been extended to accommodate the A3 paper it starts to look a little more like it.

A better-quality inkjet printer and scanner

Canon believes it has solved the problem of the lack of clarity in inkjet printers compared to lasers with its MX7600 multi-function device, which uses a new pigment-reactive ink technology: the printer starts by coating the paper with a layer of special

Truly portable pictures

Excellent quality for both text and pictures Portable

Not very fast Very expensive

Truly portable photo printers are quite rare these days, although Canon has long produced them.

A better-quality inkjet printer and scanner

: Versatile High-quality Network connectivity Double-sided printing

: Big Heavy Expensive

Multifunction devices, which combine an inkjet printer, scanner and copier in a single unit, are useful for small businesses, people who work from home and consumers who want to save space.

The latest printer in Canon's range cuts the price but loses some features

Innovative printing technology, but high running costs

Inkjet printers can cost anything from £50 to £300 or more, but one problem that tends to afflict them all is the ink bleed that occurs when the inks seep into the porous fibres of a sheet of paper, causing a loss of fine detail in both text and graphics....

HP gets into cheap laser printing

: Clean, black text and smooth greyscales Easy to maintain Single-piece cartridge Small footprint when closed up Easy setup Well-designed driver

: No cover for paper in input tray

Laser printers are getting smaller, and HP claims that this is the smallest model it's ever produced.

Print your own plastic cards with this convenient desktop device

You might be able to get away with printing the odd business card using a standard desktop laser or inkjet, but there's little point trying to extend that to employee ID, gift, loyalty or any other kind of plastic card - it simply can't be done.

Print, scan and copy in high-quality colour