Fuji Xerox's latest offering is the environmentally friendly DocuPrint C1110, a colour laser printer targeted at small office users. For a relatively low price point, the C1110 offers surprising quality in colour printing for graphics documents, as well as a fast printing speed that is sure to enhance the work productivity in many small and home offices.

The DocuPrint C1110's footprint is slightly larger than its competitors, but at 445mm(L)x389(W)x400(H), it remains a manageable size for most offices. The beige design prevents it from standing out in the office. The menu interface for the C1110 is restricted to a small monochrome LCD, though this is sufficient for simple networking and maintenance tasks. Navigating the menu is achieved through a simple four-way pad, and users can access the printer's settings and toner usage meters.

Unlike the majority of colour laser printers at this same price point, the C1110 offers users the option of both USB 2.0 and Ethernet interfaces for printing. During installation, setup defaulted to communicating over the Ethernet port, despite the printer being locally connected through USB.

Fuji Xerox has built a number of workgroup functions into the printer in order to maximise network performance, such as Auditron and Secure Print functions. The Auditron function allows workgroup administrators to customise the number of allowable prints at a given time, while Secure Print caches the document inside the printer's memory allowing it to be printed later through a pre-determined password.

Printing speeds are adequate. Testing with text only and text documents with graphical elements, the C1110 managed to print at 12 pages per minute at standard quality for both documents. A4 sized photos were printed at 5.4ppm, which, while slower than average, is still an acceptable speed for a laser printer intended for graphics and text.

Quality was also acceptable. The C1110's standard setting produced reasonable results. For documents featuring both text and graphics, the text was crisp and the colours were accurate with no evidence of blotchiness. In initial testing, we did notice a halo or drop-shadow effect on text in graphics documents; however, this was easily rectified through the printer's maintenance functions.

Colour reproduction in A4-sized photos wasn't outstanding, but nonetheless adequate given that the C1110 isn't a dedicated photo printer. Colours were acceptable, despite some evidence of minor pixelation, as well as feint lines in the photo background.

The C1110 has a rated maximum monthly print of 40,000 pages, which may be a little low for some office requirements. Nevertheless, it's adequate for most circumstances. The sole paper tray is capable of holding 250 sheets of plain paper. Unfortunately, the C1110 lacks an auto-duplex feature, which may make it not suitable for all office situations.

With a cost per page of 25.5 cents, the C1110's running costs may be slightly too high for some small businesses users. However, given the price tag and relative print quality offered by the unit, it is definitely a printer worthy of your consideration.