Printers & Photocopiers
Printers and photocopiers are office essentials. They are powerful tools required for workflow and drive productivity across every industry.
What can printers & photocopiers do?
It may seem obvious, but a printer’s job is to print, and a photocopier's is to duplicate a document.
Sharp has a range of office printers which are designed to meet the needs of businesses or departments that have no need for photocopying or scanning functions.
Business today often need to do more than simply print and photocopy, so technology has advanced to consolidate printers and photocopiers into multifunction devices, which can do much more. They fax, scan and share information, with functionality such as scan-to-email. You can also add extra finishing options to your multifunction printers, like hole-punching, stapling and booklet making.
From pixels to paper
There are plenty of things to consider when looking for the perfect device. Do you need access to colour printing, or will black & white be sufficient? Do you want to print in just A4 or would an A3 device help you to achieve more?
There’s also the matter of speed. For small teams, a desktop printer or multifunction printer should be more than fast enough to take documents from screen to print, but for offices that print high volume, something like a high-speed advanced feature device may be best.
Do printers need document & print management software?
To make sure your multifunction printer or photocopier is being used properly and productively, make sure you use document and print management software. This ensures printer access will only be given to team members who need it most. For example, it can enable certain departments to access colour or duplex printing while preventing others, such as those who don’t require those functions from doing so. The best management software also allows you to add user authentication to the printer, keeping sensitive data secure and reducing wasted paper, in turn limiting our impact on the environment.
It can also help improve document management, secure document storage and more, for a fully optimised workflow.
Do all-in-one or multifunction devices need security?
Yes. You might think printers don’t need security, but they do. They contain a hard drive just like your laptop or computer – printers and photocopiers can be targeted by hackers in the exact same way.
The best devices feature security measures that are designed to protect your sensitive data. Look out for:
- Self-healing firmware that backs up settings and aids recovery in the event of an attack
- Whitelisting that monitors access attempts and only grants access to applications and firmware on approved whitelists
- S/MIME encryption that prevents the interception of data during email transmission
Explore our range of Printers, Photocopiers & Software
Learn more about the different types of printers and photocopiers available and discover our full range.
