Recently, Scott R. wrote to ask for more information about multifunction printer/scanners: "I am trying to go more paperless at home (not an office) and most of the scanners are out of my budget. I am looking into various MF printers as I need to replace a failing printer as well. It would be nice to have some information on using MF printers for the scanning."

Here's Joe's take on multifunction devices: "I have two main problems with most multifunction devices: they usually don't do duplex scanning (and when they do, it almost always requires two passes), and they're usually comparatively slow. Also, you're less likely to find them bundled with good OCR software. For all those reasons, they just aren't ideal for turning an office paperless. The portable Fujitsu ScanSnap I discuss is one of the cheapest duplex scanners, and really quite a nice one—plus you can probably find it at a discount if you search a bit. Other than that, all I can really say is that yes, there's some expense, but you'll recoup it in saved time. Good luck!"

—Posted by Michael E. Cohen on April 13, 2011