Selecting a work group color laser printer starts with determining how many users will be accessing the printer. Most printers have a limit on the number of users that can utilize its functions and is determined by its internal processing power and memory. The connection to the network has little or no effect on this, but should be examined to provide the best compatibility and speed of sent data over the network. The next important feature or specification is the monthly duty cycle. This is the specification for the maximum number of printed pages the printer is rated for. Your print volume should be less than this figure.

Expandability is another feature a work group should consider. The printer’s capability of expanding will allow it to grow as needed for your business or office. Such additional or expandable aspects are memory, paper trays, dual sided printing and finishers for professional documents. This is, of course, completely dependent upon the requirements of the work group and work load being delivered to the office. A minimum of 32MB of memory should be used for work group color lasers, but this will only deliver minimum results. High color document printing needs will need much more memory and should be expandable to at least 320MB for best results.

Check to make sure the printer is compatible with your platform; not all color lasers work with every network platform, along with this pay special attention to the supported printing languages. A good work group color laser printer will support several printing languages including at least Post Script 2 or 3. Should your office require a variety of media to print on, a close examination of supported media types and sizes should be on your check list. At a bare minimum card stock, envelopes and transparencies should be supported in addition to standard sizes and weights.