Cheap Xerox DocuPrint C8 Personal Color Inkjet Printer (Electronics) Price

To set up the DocuPrint C8, we plugged in the AC power, connected the parallel cable (not included), turned on our PC, inserted the CD-ROM, and followed the on-screen setup instructions. After restarting Windows, the New Hardware Wizard requested that we locate the printer driver, which we found on the CD-ROM in the \langus\win 95 folder.

To print a test page, we started the Xerox DocuPrint C8 Status Window application and clicked the Maintenance tab, where we found options to print a test page, to clean or change the ink cartridges, and to perform alignment. Total setup time, including cleaning and aligning, was about 15 minutes.

In our test of the C8, we printed text in a variety of fonts, sizes, and colors. Using the printer's three modes--Draft, Normal, and High Quality--we printed five Draft pages of mixed color and black text in 336 seconds (0.9 pages per minute), five Normal pages in 315 seconds (1 ppm, faster than Draft), and two High Quality pages in 735 seconds (0.2 ppm). We also printed half pages of black text--five Draft pages in 90 seconds (3.3 ppm), five Normal pages in 145 seconds (2.1 ppm), and three High Quality pages in 136 seconds (1.3 ppm). (To reach the printer's stated 5 pages per minute, we had to print blank pages.) Draft text was banded and uneven. Normal text demonstrated marked improvement but was still a bit fuzzy, especially on italic fonts. Best text was quite sharp, with only a few tiny, stray dots.

We also printed an 8-by-10-inch color photo. The Draft sample required 91 seconds (0.7 pages per minute), Normal required 165 seconds (0.4 pages per minute), and Best required 619 seconds (0.1 pages per minute). Our test printer had a color ink flow problem, which affected the tint. We were unable to correct this problem by cleaning the head or by adjusting settings in the software, but our photo print samples were still very sharp.

Overall performance of the Xerox C8 was commensurate with a very low price, although the printing speed slower than we expected.

Pros:

• Good value for a low price
• Compact, lightweight design

Cons:

• Slow color printing
• Extremely slow color-photo printing
• Printer cable not included