Samsung SF-531P FAX/Copier/Printer Review

Small business fuels the country; and if we look for example at the Canadian economy which grew by 3.2% in 2002, and is projected to grow a further 3.4% this year, it is easy to see why manufacturers are targetting the SOHO segment heavily. As consumer confidence remains high, and the Canadian unemployment rate at a low 7.4%, things are going very well indeed. This prosperity has done well to support the many individuals running a small business (aka SOHO) in the technology sector, or perhaps in even more traditional fields. For those individuals there are a few basic tools and resources that typify themselves as "must haves".

The most important of which aside from a computer (and internet connection :), are generally the fax machine and printer. Invoices, RFP's, PO's, I/O's, and other business correspondence still need authorizing signatures that necessitates pen-to-paper.

Despite all the advancements that email has brought in improving communication between businesses, when timely access to these authorized documents is required it is a hundred year old technology which reigns supreme - the fax machine. Invented by a Scottish mechanic named Alexander Bain in 1843 the fax machine is as ubiquitous as the telephone nowadays.

SOHO environments faced with the choice of buying a fax, printer, telephone, and copier generally bulk at the idea and opt for a three in one, or similar device which combines faxing, printing, document coping and phone services into one small unit. Buying each of these machines separately can be expensive, but doing so generally means each device will be a little more specialized then units which combine everything under one hood.

Samsung make the SF-531P 6-in-1 Laser MFP which tackles laser printing, document scanning, document copying, fax and phone services. All this comes with a price tag of about $300USD making it a pretty cost-effective solution for moderate document-volume environments. The laser printing is capped at about 600x600 dpi with 8 pages per minute, so if you tend to print significant amounts throughout the day a dedicated printer would be a good investment.

However, since inkjet printer/faxes have been on the market for sometime, the SF-531P offers a much better solution in the long run as toner is less expensive then new ink cartridges, and doesn't smudge when the paper gets wet.

samsung sf-531p printer/fax/scanner
	Ships with the following: Toner Cartridge Power Cable Phone Cable Driver CD Utilities CD User Manual USB A-B cable (Parallel printer cable not included)

Document Scanning and OCR

Since there are so many features built into this little unit we're going to break things down a bit and touch on the features consumers are likely to use most often. Document scanning and copying can be a very handy tool especially if it is combined with an OCR (optical character recognition) program. Samsung ship the SF531P with a set of programs which fall under the title "SmarThru2". These programs include a utility for scanning in documents in black in white or grey scale at 300dpi or 600dpi resolutions, for use in subsequent faxes, for printing, or for emailing to another individual.

If you have received a few pages of text, or for example there is an article in a magazine you wish to forward around via email there are two tools to choose from. The first method would be to scan in the document or magazine article and distribute the black and white image. Since large email attachments can take a long time to send, and are even blocked by some companies fire walls, sending the plain text of the document or magazine article would be preferable in some cases.

In the old days converting the text from a printed document back into digital form usually meant retyping everything back in. These days an OCR program can process the image and extrapolate the text (usually with a high degree of accuracy) back into digital format.To test this out we scanned in a plain paper document with text on it using the SF531P. Up next we take a clipping from a magazine article to see just how well the unit can handle and process the printed word.

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