Usable all-in-one offers a lot of optiou That may well explain the intimidation factor for me. too. This machine lets you do so much that you really need to expand your wants and desires — and know-how — t o keep u p with i t all. There are all the standard items — fax. scan. copy and print, but you can also print double-sided. print directly from digital camera memory cards and print high q u a l i t y c o l o u r prints. How it does all that may leave t h e user slightly p e r p l e x e d . What's also initially quite mind-boggling — and is explained by the fact the unit is so allout digital — is that i t plays around w i t h u p and down i n ways I've never experienced. For example. put a piece o f paper on the glass facing east-west. b u t t h e copy comes o u t north-south. Insert a stack of new paper. but place it good side down. Ditto the original when you're planning to copy double-sided. In fact. it rakes a while to feel comfortable wnh the carious openings and ins-and-outs o f this unit. all
By MARA GULENS I'm still trying to figure out exactly why this all-in-one intimidates me. • I t could have something to do with the size. This looks and feels way more comi menial than other units I've reviewed led overwhelms my work area in ways ethers have not. A t 5800. it also could have something to do with the price. HP Officejet 7130 is intended for than just typical home office use has 517 : . ! w r i t t e n all over it But their:. t r a i l business? The nursery d a u g h t e r attends uses a similar HP all-in-one. and there are only one people — mom and pop — using it. It's definitely a booming small business — hundreds o f kids resolve in and out the door each week. But when it ;:a-nine and faxing. as no more anyene . the technolog:. . -...._robe amble by ar.y zr.e. Does the HP G ' ' 7 : 3 Q meet those s i t e s ? Basics : the nursery. their unit. ta su- t.7:eu esery thaw,-
because it's doing so much in the confines of one relatively little box. Like virtually a l l a l l -in-ones these days, the HP Oflicejet 7130 allows you to do what you want either via the computer or via the front panel. In a weinl way. this both lets you appreciate how far we've come since the days o f dotmatrix printers and is a reminder o f how nice it is to just push a button w i t h o u t l o g ging on. Initially, I lost a week of review time while the unit was hooked u p t o m y work machine — a Mac. On the Mac, the interface was a boring box that left me with m o r e questions than answers, and scanning was a chore. When I moved the HP Officejet 7130 over to the PC.1 started to get a feel for what this all-in-one is truly capable of. Up popped the cheerful HP Director with its live interconnected balloons that let you view images, fax, scan pictures, copy or scan documents.
I s t a r t e d s c a n n i n g 1 0 0 -year-old postage-size photographs in super high resolution (scanning these was only something I considered once I received the unit). Soon I had a beautiful, glossy sepia print of my grandmother when she was younger titan I ant today. Not a reason f o r a small business t o buy this machine, but a definite advantage. Given t h e smarts o f this machine, readers still probably not be surprised to discover that the two scan settings — scan pictures and scan documents — really mean what they say. My favourite test document is the Enbridge gas bill. Scan it as a picture and print It out, and you get an absolute reproduction. Scan it as text and send to Wonlpad, and you get a desperate attempt to make sense of the letters and numbers. Oops — not quite. Scan in a regular text docuMent, on the other hand, and you get pretty much what you put on the glass. •
MPOfficejet 7130 5799.99 Ilistlett.Pachard
www.hp.ca
Computer Sclam-L-2 Wholesa23 racnafiil e*OtiZate,4 Cal f o r wholesale price list
1 V Al; kinds of SCSI cable & adaptor SCSI I, II, Ill, Ultra SCSI, Ultra 2 (..7-.1..;1 l_ /D available
°IN
Enquiries
( 9 0 5 ) 4 1 5-0 2 2 9 w
o
o
r
.
,
"S..50117.1,./11.4 7,11From1.7:6 4.111.s4/..1'.. r....n.A.1:c ve.A.greolditttl.f.,..m
J-j_,
•-6
e l
c
1/.,,r. ; a t : 9 -6 S u n d a y Close • • , / : , • 4 Merlarri, OfsWry,, Carasda 11;1111A1 ,6Voes.-• //,e‘.1.> Kf.fdo.,1/ ittyouto f o u t u i l i s i J u n i i o n s
r on•lislue.opuirt.rorn