Side-by-side comparison
| Desktop printer | Office photocopier (MFD) | |
|---|---|---|
| Main job | Printing from devices | Copying, printing and scanning for a group |
| Volume it is built for | Light to moderate | Moderate to very high |
| Paper sizes | Usually A4 (some A3+) | A4 and A3 on most models |
| Paper capacity | One small tray | Multiple cassettes, often expandable |
| Document feeder | On some all-in-ones | Standard or optional, often duplex |
| Purchase price | Lower | Higher |
| Cost per page | Higher on most models | Lower |
| Servicing | Rarely serviced, often replaced | Designed to be serviced and maintained |
When a printer is the right choice
- A home, a shop counter or a small office printing a few hundred pages a month.
- Colour photos or documents at low cost, where an ink tank printer has the lowest cost per page.
- A single user who needs fast black text, where a laser printer fits.
- Space is tight.
When you need a photocopier
- Several people share one machine and it runs most of the day.
- You copy multi-page documents, books or files, and need a document feeder.
- You print or copy A3: drawings, ledgers, notices, booklets.
- You scan to email or shared folders as part of daily work.
- Cost per page matters more than the purchase price.
See our A3 photocopiers or the small business photocopier guide.
The middle ground: business all-in-ones
Between the two sit A4 business multifunction printers such as the Canon imageCLASS MF-series, the Kyocera ECOSYS M2040dn and the Canon MAXIFY GX6070. They print, copy and scan with a document feeder, take moderate volume, and cost far less than an A3 copier. For many small offices they are the right answer. Read what a multifunction printer is.
Questions about your own machine? Send the model and a photo, and the team in Kacheripady will reply.
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