While they've lost much of their novelty as combination devices, and become much more routine, multifunction printers are still a fascinating trade off; an attempt to turn your local USB printer into some sort of electronic Swiss Army Knife, capable of copying, faxing, printing and scanning all in one gadget. These generally aren't as effective as the most advanced specialised devices at performing the individual functions, but they do have some significant advantages, and if you're nursing along an old printer, they make a compelling case for upgrading.
The first major advantage is that they take up less space; this is a concern for home based offices, and people working in dormitory rooms out of college, but it's even important for small offices outside the home. Finding a place to put your scanner, copier, fax machine and printer on one desk or one work surface has raised a significant challenge.
The second advantage is price; these devices have plummeted in cost as their hardware components have been commoditised and then some. Usually a good multifunction device will cost about 50% more than a standard printer and associated components of the same capabilities.
A third advantage is upgradeability; while you can't really upgrade, say, the dots per inch on the scanner bed, you can often upgrade the amount of RAM in one of these devices, or on higher end models, replace the flash based short term storage with a small hard drive to increase the capacity for storing faxes or images for reprints.
While these devices exist in both home office (ink jet versions) and professional (high end copier functionality), the exact mix of features will vary from model to model. With just a bit of research, it's entirely possible to find one that will handle most of your business printing or copying needs. For bigger businesses, some of these printers can handle 50 to 70 pages per minute, with deep paper drawers capable of handling large print jobs without the need to refill.
The ultimate choice when it comes to deciding between models is ultimately based on the total printing you intend to do. If you're just printing off receipts for customers, an inkjet based model may be sufficient; if you're using this as a means to print off products for sale (as a do it yourself print shop), you'll want to go with a laser system. Don't immediately rule out color laser multi-function printers; their cost per print has come down considerably in the last four years, and the color correction technology, including use of paper and printer profiles, have expanded considerably. They can churn out quite professional results if you're willing to a little extra money into the gear.
You will also need to decide how much you're going to use the fax or scanning functions; copiers and fax machines are close cousins in terms of what they do, and they habitually are the least useful of the functions on the printer, and often the hardest to get the full functionality out of. Even so, multifunction printers can do a lot of good for your business, and as such are still an indelible part of the modern office.
