The times when the appearance of a new office device became an Event in the company are gradually becoming a thing of the past. Where nothing is needed from such devices, except for printing and copying many A4 documents, they look at replacing a used printer or copier in almost the same way as changing a cartridge: a routine but necessary operation. Nobody perceives office equipment as a curiosity, and rightly so - the purpose of creating all these printing and scanning assistants was only to speed up and simplify the process.
For this reason, we simply do not notice a good working device: at the right moment it does its job without attracting too much attention to itself. If the device is so simple that your complex tasks are solved on it only through a headache, then the device needs to be changed. However, if the device put to service can do everything, but at the same time it is too complicated and, in order not to get confused in the settings, a well-known art is required, this, alas, is also a reason for finding a better solution.
The ideal machine is "sharpened" for all your tasks at the same time, it does not need to be told every time how to handle tasks of the same type, it does not come with a coupon for six months of training in the simplest actions and the need to hire a qualified technician. After installation, the device should immediately be of use, and not take time from you and your employees. There is no ideal, and this is not news. However, in the struggle for the client, equipment manufacturers bring more and more new applicants to our court. So it makes sense not to stop looking for something better and even more useful for your company for a long time.
Today, in our field of vision, the Océ ColorWave 300 is a multifunctional device that has recently appeared on the market and is designed to process documents up to and including A0 (914 mm).
The ColorWave 300 should be of interest to architectural and design workshops as well as commercial printing companies. These and other firms that constantly need to process wide-format documents of various types will definitely (and perhaps in the first place) find it useful that the ColorWave 300 is really, without any exaggeration, one device. That is, of course, there are configurations in which only the printing part is presented, but adding this simple version to a full-fledged one will not turn your printer into a pair of interconnected devices that take up twice as much space.
The Dutch manufacturer probably spied on the main design idea from the city planners of the Middle Ages: in conditions of high land prices, owners could not make their houses wide, but the necessary space for housing could be obtained on a small piece of land, pulling the house up. With the ColorWave 300, it's about the same story: all the nodes of this MFP, from the media compartment to the output tray, are structurally oriented not horizontally, but vertically. So, adding to the device the upper receiving tray (optional), you will not lose even a tiny patch of space in your office: the length of 198 cm and the width of 74 cm will remain unchanged, the device will only grow from 128 to 172 cm. Convenient? Undoubtedly.
Additional savings in expensive office space will be achieved where two different printers were used for color and black-and-white printing, and those who now also need a separate copier will benefit.
You can easily find among competing models those that take up little space - the idea of compactness was not born yesterday. However, before comparing devices by this indicator, ask yourself the question of how the problem of receiving printed documents is solved in different models: whether it is necessary to put the receiving table, whether it is necessary to pull out the tray half a meter. And at the same time, specify exactly what steps need to be done to replace the media. Oftentimes, changing the roll requires additional space next to the printer (or behind the device, which also requires easy access). The ColorWave 300 allows you to replace a cartridge or charge a new roll from the front, without the need for a lot of space. By the way, in many cases, changing the roll or cartridge is possible without stopping the execution of tasks. The finished prints will also be folded in front.
It is worth noting that this single compact device is not divided virtually into two (printer and scanner) and for the remote user: ColorWave 300 has a single interface for connecting to a local network and one IP address.
Whether you are printing a strict monochrome drawing or a complex color map, with the ColorWave 300 you simply send a print job, and the proprietary Dynamic Switching technology, without your participation, determines the optimal printing mode not only for each document, but also for each part of it. The device understands all commonly used file types: HP-Gl / 2, PDF, DWF, JPEG.
The ColorWave 300 prints using thermal inkjet technology, which, of course, has its drawbacks. However, it will not require you to mess with harmful toner, and besides, you will forget about such a concept as warming up the device before printing. If you use several of these devices in your work, savings on electricity will be significant for you. Losses in quality (if they will be noticeable at all) are insignificant even on serious tasks requiring scrupulous elaboration of details. The print resolution is 600 dpi in both directions. Printing is four-color, with duplicate color printheads and three black printheads in a row to speed up printing.
The ColorWave 300 treats your work time as gently as it does your workspace. You can only find fault with the fact that the scanning module requires preheating - there are products that are similar in functionality, where such a problem is absent. At the same time, the ColorWave 300 is one of the best models on the market in terms of speed and first print time. The machine spends 41 and 61 seconds on an A0 print in monochrome and color, respectively. In addition, not all models have the ability to process print, copy and scan jobs at the same time. The ColorWave 300 is trained in this wisdom.
Templates are provided for common, frequently performed tasks on the ColorWave 300. By using them, you avoid the need to configure the MFP every time: the device is ready to "get used" to the peculiarities of your office. Indeed, does an intelligent employee need to explain the same thing over and over again?
The ColorWave 300 can be controlled either through a web interface that does not require software installation on a computer, or from a single panel for all procedures on the printer itself, which is very easy to adapt to, unless, of course, you are printing or scanning for the first time in your life. In the same place, without leaving the MFP, you can send the necessary files to print from your USB flash drive or write scanned copies of documents to it - without using a computer at all.
The ColorWave 300 is designed to print on a wide variety of media types, from recycled paper and photo paper to film. Media weight can be varied from 56 to 175 g / m2. You can fill the device with two rolls up to 120 m at once.
The listed features of the ColorWave 300 do not reflect all the pros and cons of this device. A caustic potential buyer, which, perhaps, should be any person who intends to give a tidy sum for one of the main working tools, he can easily catch the details that are important for him. Someone will appreciate the electronic shredder, while others may not like that the control panel on the ColorWave 300 does not support touch-screen technology. The ideal still does not exist, but there is no doubt about the usefulness and modernity of the approaches of the "authors" of ColorWave 300.
