Analog Vs. Digital Copiers

Is this digital or analog?

Since the appearance of photocopiers in the 1950s, these machines have become indispensable in every office. They have constantly evolved to be faster and incorporate more features, making office tasks easy and smoother. There are two main types of copiers, analog and digital, and each comes with its own benefits and downsides.

Costs

While analog copiers are cheaper, the higher price of digital copiers will be attenuated in time with the lower operating costs, since the ink for digital copiers is cheaper. The ink cartridges in digital copiers also last longer when compared with analog photocopiers.

Efficiency

While analog copiers will scan a document for every copy it needs to make, a digital copier will only scan the document once and save it in its memory and hence can print countless copies of the same document faster.

Quality

Digital copiers output higher quality than analog devices, usually being almost impossible to tell the difference between the original and the copy.

Features

Analog copiers are designed with just one thing in mind: to copy. Hence, they don’t incorporate any features. Digital copiers feature memory to store scans of a document, and they can send those scans directly to a computer, fax or even phones.

Advantages and Disadvantages

The only main advantage of an analog copier is its simplicity. However, using a digital copier is not hard either, and once you get a grip of it, your productivity will increase. Analog copiers have a lot of moving parts, so the breakdown possibility is higher, making these machines less reliable. By not having so many moving parts, digital copiers are both more reliable and silent. Easy integration with computers, fax machines and other devices is also a great plus for digital copiers.

Considerations

Because of the obvious advantages of the digital copiers, many manufacturers stopped producing analog copiers, so support and replacement parts for these devices tend to become harder to find. This should be taken into consideration when buying a new machine, as you might find yourself in a difficult situation in the case of a breakdown.

References

• Copier: All About Digital Copiers
• Buyer Zone: Business Copiers Introduction

Resources

• The History Of: The History of Photocopiers
• Top4Office: Top 10 Things to Look for When Buying Photocopiers