These twenty-four hour period , you could get a color laser printer for about as much as , or less than , what a black and white laser cost a few eld ago . regard Lexmark ’s $ 499 C522n . One of several new low - price colour optical maser , this pressman include high - final stage feature of speech like built - in networking and PostScript funding , as well as optional upgrade to computer memory , paper tray , and wireless networking .
A little taller than many of the sub-$500 people of colour laser we ’ve brush up , the Lexmark C522n is aimed at small to medium - size of it businesses . To that remainder , the printing machine fare with a couple of useful feature . The Lexmark Coverage Estimator assist company figure out the rough monetary value to publish a given Thomas Nelson Page . The printer also offers several room to control the use of color — for instance , you may go under it up as black and white - only or use ColorSaver , which is Lexmark ’s toner - saving draught mode .
Setup was straightforward . The four toner cartridges fare pre - instal in the printer , though you still need to remove some backpacking materials . After I set up the drivers , link up the printer to the Ethernet meshwork , and started it up , the C522n mechanically appeared in my Bonjour ( Apple ’s zero - configuration networking protocol ) printing machine list . A bank note to multitude in little offices : This printer makes a comely amount of stochasticity , which could be disquiet in cramped quarters .
Overall , the C522n ’s printed output was very honorable . Text looked excellent — blank and very legible , even at small point in time sizes . Fine lines and gradient print well , with no obvious shift or jump .
The pressman did have trouble publish a PowerPoint document bear some PostScript Type 1 fonts — a family named Agenda — substituting them with other fonts that made a fix of the demonstration . Lexmark tech livelihood recommended a workaround : rather of using the Lexmark gadget driver , they suggest going back to the Apple Printer Setup Utility , adding the printer again , but this time using the Generic PostScript Printer gadget driver that appears in the Print Using drop - down menu . After I did this , the problem baptistery printed just fine . To see if this was an isolated trouble , I tried another 30 fonts , a mix of standard Mac OS X case as well as a caboodle of case 1 fonts . All of those printed just fine using Lexmark ’s number one wood , so this trouble may be bound to the Agenda case family .
The C522n ’s photographic output looked honest , but a bit noisy when compared to output from other late reviewed colour optical maser , such as the Konica Minolta Magicolor 2450 ( , October 2005 ) , with visible colored dots appearing in lightheaded areas of picture . Of course , the great unwashed looking for a photograph printer will want to buy an ink - blue jet , but if your plain paper print projects do contain photographic images , the C522n ’s exposure print caliber could be significant to you .
In terms of speed , the C522n was one of the fastest inexpensive color lasers we ’ve try out , submit about 17 second to publish a one - page Microsoft Word document and just 44 seconds for a 10 - Thomas Nelson Page Word file . The only exception was our 22 M Photoshop image , which take closely four minutes to print — quite a turn longer than most units we ’ve tested .
timed trials
jury tests
exfoliation = Excellent , Very Good , Good , Flawed , Unacceptable
SPECIFICATIONS
- Leontyne Price is high-pitched if you do n’t return used cartridges .
Macworld’s buying advice
Lexmark ’s inexpensive color optical maser offers immediate photographic print speeds , Bonjour support , and gamey - end features like Ethernet and PostScript 3 emulation . Though I go into trouble printing one typeface family , and it may be a tad trashy for stiff workspaces , the C522n is an affordable mode for small- and intermediate - size businesses to add colour to documents and presentation .
[ James Galbraith isMacworld ’s lab managing director . ]
