Types of Multifunction printer

MFP manufacturers traditionally divided MFPs into various segments. The segments roughly divide the MFPs according to their speed in pages per minute (ppm) and duty cycle/robustness. Despite this, many manufacturers are beginning to avoid the segment definition for their products, as speed and basic functionality alone are often not sufficient to differentiate the many features that the devices are capable of. Two color MFPs of a similar speed will be in the same segment, despite having potentially very different feature sets, and therefore very different prices. From a marketing perspective, the manufacturer of the more expensive MFP would want to differentiate their product as much as possible to justify the price difference, and therefore the segment definition is avoided.

Many MFP types, regardless of the category they fall in to, also come in a "printer only" variety, which is the same model without the scanner unit included. This is even the case with devices where the scanner unit physically appears to be highly integrated into the product.

Today, Multifunction printers are available from just about all printer manufacturers. They are designed for home, small business, enterprise and commercial use. Naturally, the cost, usability, robustness, throughput, output quality, etc. all vary with the various use cases. However, they all generally do the same functions; Print, Scan, Fax, and Photocopy. In the commercial/enterprise area, most MFP have used Laser Printer technology, while in the personal, SOHO environments, Inkjet Printer technology has been used. Typically Inkjet printers have struggled with delivering the performance and color saturation demanded by enterprise/large business use. However, HP has recently launched a business grade MFP using Inkjet technology.

In any case, instead of rigidly defined segments based on speed, more general definitions based on intended target audience and capabilities are now becoming much more common. While there is no formal definition, it is common agreed amongst MFP manufacturers that the products fall roughly into the following categories:

AIO

An AIO is a small desktop unit, designed for home or home office use.

Generally the features an AIO has focus on scan and print functionality for home use, and may come with bundled software for organising photos, simple OCR and other uses of interest to a home user. An AIO will always include the basic functions of Print and Scan, with most also including Copy functionality and a lesser number with Fax capabilities.

AIO devices are usually not networked and are generally connected by USB or Parallel.

An interesting note about AIO devices is that they often have features lacking in the larger devices, due to their target towards home users. These functions include smart card readers, direct connection to digital cameras (e.g. PictBridge technology) and other similar uses.

The print engine of most AIOs is based on either a home desktop inkjet printer, or a home desktop laser printer. They may be black and white or colour capable.

On some AIOs, like the Hewlett-Packard Photosmart C8180 printer, have a DVD burner and Lightscribe functionality where the user could burn DVDs and create an image on a special Lightscribe DVD or CD using special software like Roxio or Nero AG Software Suite to create the image. To create a Lightscribe image, it takes about 10–25 minutes to make.

SOHO MFP

A large desktop or small freestanding unit, designed for Small Office/Home Office use. Often, the form factor of the MFP (desktop or freestanding) depends on the options added, such as extra paper trays or so on.

Generally a SOHO MFP will have basic Print, Copy, Scan and Fax functionality only, but towards the larger end of the scale, may include simple document storage and retrieval, basic authentication functions and so on, making the higher end of the "SOHO" scale difficult to differentiate from the lower end of the "Office" MFP scale.

SOHO MFPs are usually networked, however may also be connected via USB or, less frequently, parallel. SOHO MFPs may have basic finishing functionality such as duplexing, stapling and holepunching, however this is rare. In general, document output offset, sorting and collation are standard capabilities.

By comparison to an AIO, a SOHO MFP is more likely to have an automatic document feeder, greater fax capabilities and faster output performance. Most SOHO MFPs have their history in low end black and white photocopiers, and the print engine is therefore based around this type of technology.

Office MFP

A mid-sized freestanding unit, designed as a central office system.

These units are usually the most fully featured type of MFP. They include the basic Print, Copy and Scan functions with optional fax functionality as well as networked document storage with security, authentication using common network user credentials, ability to run custom software (often a manufacturer will supply a Software Development Kit), advanced network scan destinations such as FTP, WebDAV, Email, SMB and NFS stores, encryption for data transmission and so on.

Office MFPs usually have moderately advanced finishing functions as options such as duplexing, stapling, holepunching, offset modes and booklet creation.

Office MFPs are almost always networked, however some have optional or standard (but infrequently used) USB and parallel connections. Most Office MFPs have their history in mid range photocopiers (both colour and black and white), and the print engine is therefore based around this type of technology, however, Hewlett-Packard recently introduced two Office MFPs based on fixed head Inkjet technology.

Production printing MFP

A large sized freestanding unit, designed as a central printing device or reprographic department device.

These devices, while far larger and more expensive than Office MFPs, generally do not have all of the advanced network functionality of their smaller relations. They instead concentrate on high speed, high quality output, and highly advanced finishing functionality including book creation with cover insertion (including hot-glue binding) and so on. Production Printing itself is often further divided into "light" production printing and "heavy" production printing, with the differentiating factor being the speed. A 100ppm device for example, falls into the light Production Printing category by the standards of most manufacturers.

Because of the focus on printing, while most Production Printing MFPs have a scanner, it is infrequently used and often only has very basic functionality.

There are a variety of different print engines for Production Printing MFPs, however in the "light" end of the Production Printing market, most are based on the large Office MFPs, which themselves are based on photocopier technology as described above.

Production Printing MFPs may also be known as "Print on Demand" devices, or "Digital presses". This latter term can also be used to refer to the print controller controlling the MFP however.