Versatile HP printer a solid choice

Small businesses and high-end consumers who need high-speed color printing need look no further than HP's new CM1017. This is a great, multifunction laser printer that does it all.

I once spent about $600 for a black and white dot-matrix printer that used ribbons, so I am amazed at the price of printers these days. For a list price of $699, HP is delivering color laser printing, color copying, color scanning, color direct digital photo printing, black-and-white printing, black-and-white copying, black-and-white scanning and black-and-white direct digital photo printing. (Missing is fax capability.)

If you have a small office with color printing needs beyond a deskjet printer, this ought to be your first stop. (It has a recommended rate of 500 to 1,500 copies a month)

The printer is heavy, about 50 pounds, so make sure you have an adequate work surface. It's also pretty tall (about 21 inches) so don't expect to stick it on a shelf somewhere.

Unpacking the box is simple. After you install four print cartridges (black, cyan, magenta and yellow) and install the software, you're ready to go. (Oops, no you're not because HP has neglected to include the $1 cable ... a major pet peeve of mine. I agree that some offices may need more than a six-foot USB cable or even use the built-in Ethernet, but even so, throwing a cable or two in the box would be a nice gesture.)

Installing the software takes a while, but it went fine on Windows XP and Mac OSX. (You also can install it on Linux, but I didn't try it.)

Color output was exceptional on this printer when compared to my deskjet printers, as you'd expect from a color laser. (The trick for this in a small office is to keep people from printing all manner of personal stuff on it and making your cartridge bill go out the window.)

Of course the trick to saving money on toner, which is the way printing companies make money, is to print everything except the final version in draft-quality black and white. HP, like nearly everyone else, buries the printer settings so it's not terribly easy to make a draft copy but once you get the hang of it you can set that as the default and change to high-quality color only when needed.