All-In-One Printer

Last Updated: December 20, 2016

Definition - What does All-In-One Printer mean?

An all-in-one printer is a device made up of multiple peripheral functionalities and capabilities, including printing, copying and scanning.

All-in-one printers provide centralized document management for large and small enterprises. Manufacturers segment all-in-one printers by page-per-minute (PPM) speed, and cost varies by output quality and usage.

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Techopedia explains All-In-One Printer

All-in-one printers include one or more of the following features and components:

Printing
Copying
Scanning
Faxing
Stapling
Duplexing
Hole punching
Color and/or black and white printer compatibility
Extra paper trays
Photo organization software
Optical character recognition (OCR) software

USB or parallel port all-in-one printer types are as follows:

Small Office, Home Office (SOHO): Small units with print, copy, scan and fax functionality, basic finishing (stapling, duplexing, hole punching) and USB connections.
Office: Mid-sized units that serve as centrally networked office systems with integrated security, full features, document storage, advanced finishing (stapling, hole punching, offset mode), custom software and advanced network scanning, including email, Server Message Block (SMB), Network File System (NFS) and File Transfer Protocol (FTP).
Production: Large and expensive units with high-quality output and advanced finishing. Serve as centrally located network printers that may not include advanced functionalities and also may be known as print on demand (POD) or digital presses.

All-in-one printers also have basic input/output (I/O) features:

Input: Built with network drivers for different operating systems, page description languages, parallel connection/printing types, direct interpreters and USBs.
Output: Built with printing speed/technology, paper formats, dot-per-inch (DPI) resolution and duplex and direct printing.