The AirPrint feature of iOS 4.2 promised to let you print, wirelessly, from your iOS device to any printer shared by your Mac. Unfortunately, AirPrint ended up working with only a few specific, AirPrint-enabled printers. One of the most popular recent Mac Gems, especially around the Macworld offices, is Printopia, a utility that delivers on Apple’s unfulfilled promise—and does much more.

I originally reviewed Printopia a year ago. As I explained then, Printopia takes over where AirPrint leaves off, letting your Mac share all or any configured printers, no matter how they’re connected to your Mac, with iOS devices on your local wireless network. In any iOS app that supports printing, you just tap the Print button, choose one of those printers, and print! And Printopia works with Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion), 10.6 (Snow Leopard), and even 10.5 (Leopard)—and even with PowerPC Macs—making AirPrint available to anyone with a recent Mac. (Your iOS devices must be running iOS 4.2 or later.)

But Printopia had a number of other tricks up it virtual sleeve that made the utility useful even if you never actually needed to print. A special Send to Mac printer let you save—by printing—a PDF copy of a document, or a JPEG or PNG version of an image, to a Printopia folder in your Mac’s Documents folder. And a Send To Dropbox On Mac printer let you save a document to your Mac’s Dropbox ( ) folder, where the file is instantly synced to all your other Dropbox-enabled devices. These features were great for, say, saving receipts from online purchases made on your iPad or iPhone, and for transferring iOS screenshots to your Macs.

Since that review, Ecamm Network has released several significant updates to Printopia, including version 2.0 in April and version 2.1.5 earlier this week. Those updates have included a number of new features that have made Printopia even more useful. For example, you can now create an unlimited number of Save To Mac and Save To Dropbox virtual printers, each of them saving documents to a different folder on your Mac or inside your Dropbox folder, respectively. You choose which of those folders to save to by simply choosing a different virtual printer when printing.

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The Epson Stylus Photo R2000 is a wide-format inkjet printer that uses seven pigmented inks to print beautiful color photos as large as 13-by-22 inches, and even longer if you use the included roll paper adapter.

As the successor to the Stylus Photo R1900 ( ), the R2000 offers a number of improvements. While the R1900 was USB-only, the R2000 has multiple connection options, including USB 2.0, 100Base-T ethernet, 802.11 WiFi, and a PictBridge port. Expanded connectivity isn't the only change for the better, however. The R2000 also has higher capacity ink cartridges, which when printing poster-sized photos, can come in very handy.

Epson's marketing materials claim photo longevity of up to 200 years using Epson’s Watercolor Paper—Radiant White. The company doesn't specify the print yields of the R2000's eight cartridges, but claim up to 50 percent more prints than the R1900. Epson representatives say they are waiting for the impending release of an ISO standard test page for photographic print speeds. This makes sense, as the standard test files are meant for general purpose printing on plain paper. Unfortunately, this makes it difficult to come up with an accurate price per print and to compare the cost of printing at home versus sending your files to a photo lab.

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These days, color laser multifunction printers don't come at much lower prices than the HP LaserJet Pro 100 Color MFP M175nw. At just $350, it offers print/scan/copy/fax capabilities—and a lot of connectivity—in a compact, shiny-black package. Unfortunately, the machine is rather slow and limited for busy home- or small-office users, and its toner is expensive.

The LaserJet Pro 100 Color MFP is pretty easy to install via USB or ethernet; though the WPS-only Wi-Fi setup is relatively bothersome, you'll need it to enjoy the machine's compatibility with cloud-printing services from HP and Dell.

Using the 1.0 version installation CD, we encountered smeary-looking output when printing on heavier paper (including HP's own 220g glossy paper for color lasers). The problem arose only with certain applications, including Microsoft PowerPoint, and Adobe Acrobat, Illustrator, and Photoshop. HP has incorporated a fix into the 1.1 version of the installation CD (you can also find the fix online) but we wish that HP had made the update available for automatic download during installation.

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Installation is pretty smooth on both the PC and the Mac. On the latter platform, you have to add the printer manually (as is the case for most printers, unfortunately). Ethernet and USB connections are available. The HTML-based user guide installs automatically and is pretty thorough, but as it covers multiple models, it can sometimes be confusing.

The ML-3712ND has an office-ready standard configuration, including a 250-sheet input tray, a 50-sheet multipurpose tray (MPT), and a 150-sheet top output tray. An optional 520-sheet input tray costs $200. Automatic duplexing is standard. In a commendable show of support for saving paper and toner, Samsung also offers an Eco mode, which can be enacted from the driver or the control panel and automatically prints in 2-up mode (two reduced-size pages printed per sheet) and duplex. The control panel is minimal: a two-line, 16-character monochrome LCD, and a few buttons with inscrutable symbols rather than word names (except for the labeled Eco button).

Performance was better than average. The ML-3712ND printed plain text at speeds of 22.2 pages per minute (ppm) on the PC and 22.6 ppm on the Mac. On the PC, basic snapshots exited at a rate of 5.8 ppm. On the Mac, a four-page PDF of mixed text and graphics printed at a peppy rate of 6.6 ppm. Photos showed a surprisingly smooth quality, distinguishing the ML-3712ND from most other laser models in its price range.

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The ability to print on specially coated CDs or DVDs is still pretty rare. The Pixma MG5320 comes with a caddy that inserts into a slot above the output area; also included is an adapter for 3.15-inch discs. Canon offers no on-machine storage for the caddy, which is inconvenient. And the disc-printing process involves a specific sequence of steps that is confusingly covered in two places: under the loading/unloading media discussion in the Printing section of the documentation, and under the layout and printing explanation in the documentation for the bundled Easy-PhotoPrint EX software. The printer also takes a few minutes to prepare itself to print on a disc.

Paper handling is generous for an MFP in this price range. The MG5320 has a bottom drawer for holding up to 150 sheets of letter-size plain paper; a rear, 150-sheet vertical tray takes everything else. Duplex (two-sided) printing is automatic. The 50-sheet output tray is adequately sized, and it opens automatically when you send a print job. Other features include both USB and wireless connectivity, a USB/PictBridge port, and slots for MultiMedia Card, Memory Stick, and SD Card.

The scanner lid incorporates the control panel, which includes a 3-inch, tiltable color LCD. Navigation is a little more complicated than usual: A scrollwheel moves through menus, and an OK button chooses an item. Canon also adds three function buttons for selecting items that show at the bottom of the display. The overall setup feels like a few too many buttons—but as with many things, once you get used to the arrangement, it’s workable.

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Xerox's WorkCentre 6505/DN offers better speed and print quality than many color laser multifunction printers we've seen, for a good midrange price of $749. It possesses all of the strong features of the Xerox Phaser 6500 standalone printer on which it's based, but also the one notable flaw: expensive toner.

The WorkCentre 6505 was easy to install. Unlike the similarly priced Oki MC561, it permitted scanning across our network right out of the box. The printer supports both USB and ethernet. The control panel is well laid out, and we had no problem understanding the menu structure or navigating through the various options.

The Xerox MFP's paper-handling features include a 250-sheet paper cassette with a manual-feed slot and a 150-page output tray. An optional second 250-sheet input tray costs $199. The unit has a letter/A4-size scanner platen, and the 35-page automatic document feeder accepts up to legal-size documents. Scanning through the ADF is simplex (single-sided) only, but duplex (double-sided) printing and copying are standard. With the 6505's slightly more basic, $649 cousin, the Xerox WorkCentre 6505/N, duplexing is manual and is available only through the PCL driver.

Speed is a highlight of the WorkCentre 6505. Its 533MHz processor and 256MB of RAM (upgradable to 768MB) give it more than enough power to serve a typical workgroup. Plain-text pages and our monochrome newsletter exited at a rate of just over 15.1 pages per minute on the PC and at 14.3 ppm on the Mac. On the PC, snapshot photos arrived at a faster-than-average rate of 3 ppm at default settings on plain paper and at a slower-than average 1.4 ppm at better settings on glossy paper. A full-size photo printed on the Mac took a hair under 2 minutes to emerge.

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The Canon Pixma iX6520 is a wide-format inkjet printer meant for small offices wanting to produce colorful, printed marketing materials or large spreadsheets up to 13 by 19 inches.

The piano-black iX6520 weighs 16.7 pounds and, due to its tabloid-sized print capabilities, takes up a considerable amount of room when the trays are fully extended. You connect the printer to your Mac via USB 2.0. Setup includes installing a separate print head and five individual ink tanks: cyan, magenta, yellow, black, and pigment black.

Replacement cartridges are $66. Based on Canon’s yield claims, 4-by-6 photos use about 24 cents worth of ink, and letter-sized documents with both graphics and text use about 13 cents worth of ink. These costs are about average compared to other inkjet printers.

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Linotype's FontExplorer X Pro has long been a fine font manager for graphic designers and publishing pros. Despite its professional target market, the program is easy to use and thoroughly customizable. FontExplorer X Pro 3, a recent upgrade, provides additional improvements over the previous version—if that's possible—while maintaining the same intuitive, iTunes-like interface that made version 2 a superlative font manager.

New features for type specimen pages

Version 2 was already chock full of features, such as drag and drop addition of fonts; creation of both general sets and application-specific sets; auto activation; the ability to purchase fonts needed for specific documents; backup and cache cleaning; font technical data; server-side management; and more.

Updates to version 2 facilitated the direct printing of type specimen (sample) pages while keeping the program simple enough for beginners. The excellent sample pages feature offers the five most-commonly used specimen page layouts, but also lets you design your own.

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Brother calls its HL-2280DW is a monochrome laser printer with "convenience copying and color scanning capabilities," though manufacturers of a handful of similarly configured models call the units multifunction printers. (In all such models, the scanner collects color information but can't print in color except on a color printer.) Whatever it is, it sells for the low price of $200, meaning that a small office might be able to tolerate its above-average toner costs--especially after factoring in its useful additional features.

The HL-2280DW supports USB, ethernet, and wireless connectivity. The simple control panel includes a two-line, 16-character monochrome LCD and a handful of labeled buttons. The CD-based installation is well documented and progresses very smoothly.

Paper handling includes automatic duplexing (two-sided printing); a somewhat bendy 250-sheet input tray; and a front manual-feed slot, discreetly hidden behind a shiny logo panel. The 100-sheet input tray lurks in a small, dark hole beneath the scanner unit. The letter/A4-size color scanner has a telescoping lid. You can scan to your computer or copy with the usual assortment of scaling and layout features. A Duplex button on the front control panel walks you through two-sided copying via LCD prompts.

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Anyone who has tried to identify a font from a printed or online source (such as a poster, billboard, or movie credits) knows how difficult it can be. With tens of thousands of fonts in circulation, it's almost impossible to pinpoint a font ID without some kind of help.

Several Websites offer free services that attempt to identify a font from a sample you upload, including Whatfontis.com, and the WhatTheFont feature at MyFonts (which also has a free iPhone app). If you prefer to describe the font by answering questions about the shapes of unique letters in the font, try Linotype's Font Identifier or Identifont.

While online services are free, they may not identify the font unless it is sold by that Website. A more universal source is FontGenius 2, a desktop application.

Here's how the program works:

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Epson's WorkForce 840 All-in-One Printer is a $299 color inkjet multifunction printer (print/copy/scan/fax) for small offices. At that price, MFPs tend to offer a full array of features. In the WorkForce 840's case, highlights include plentiful paper handling and a touchscreen control panel. When matched against comparably well-equipped machines, the WorkForce 840 falls short of the HP Officejet Pro 8500A Plus ( ) in speed and overall print quality. For its part, the Lexmark Pinnacle Pro901 ( ) has lower paper capacity, but supercheap black ink and a five-year warranty.

You can connect the WorkForce 840 via USB, ethernet, or Wi-Fi, and the machine is easy to install. Note that if you opt for "first time" setup, you'll have to wade through a lot of dialog boxes that step you through unpacking, removing tape, hooking up cables, and the like. The walkthrough is useful if you don't know how to complete the process on your own; but skip it if you do.

The WorkForce 840's touchscreen control panel comes with amber-lit controls that appear contextually—that is, only when needed. This feature is nicely done, though we sometimes missed the tactile feedback that real buttons provide. Also on board are CF, MS, SD, and XD memory card slots, as well as a USB/PictBridge port for offloading scans or for printing directly from cards.

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If posters, calendars, or fancy brochures are in your small office's future, check out the Brother MFC-J6710DW color inkjet multifunction printer, which can print, copy, scan, and fax at media sizes up to 11 by 17 inches (called ledger or tabloid, depending on the orientation). At $300, it costs the same as the HP OfficeJet 7500A Wide Format e-All-in-One, but it's faster and has some better features, as well as much cheaper inks.

Setting up the MFC-J6710DW is easy on both the PC and the Mac. USB, Wi-Fi, and ethernet connectivity are provided, as are Memory Stick, SD, and USB/PictBridge ports. Brother includes software to take care of all the multifunction chores; it's utilitarian in appearance, but extremely efficient and capable. You also get ScanSoft PaperPort version 12 for Windows and Presto Page Manager for the Mac.

Both the control panel and the general design are very efficient; all of the buttons are well placed for easy access. If you're still faxing, you'll appreciate the quick-dial buttons on the left side of the panel. The 3.3-inch LCD sports generally well-thought-out menus, though occasionally it leaves you guessing as to whether a menu entry is a command or leads to a submenu. The HTML configuration interface (which you can find by browsing to the printer's IP address) is easy to use, as well.

The MFC-J6710DW can't help but be large, given that the unit houses an 11-by-17-inch scanner platen, a 35-sheet automatic document feeder, and two 250-sheet, ledger-size paper trays. While the capacity is impressive, the bottom tray takes only plain paper, and the trays and guides feel cheap. Duplex (two-sided) printing is automatic and supported on both the PC and Mac. Unfortunately the MFP offers no duplex scanning, and the Duplex Copy feature is manual.

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Every once in a while, I come across an application that does so much, and so well, that I can't understand how it can have such a low price. At $40, SOHO Labels 5.0.3 is an unbelievable bargain.

Hundreds of features

Apple's Address Book does a good job of printing labels and envelopes, but if your labeling needs extend beyond occasional use, a dedicated label application will pay for itself very quickly. SOHO Labels goes far beyond mere label printing, into the realm of scrapbook pages, name badges, disc labels, and more.

The feature list is astounding: it integrates with Apple's Address Book for mail merge functions (including Groups), and if your list is in a different program such as FileMaker or Excel, you can export your data as a text file and SOHO Labels will automatically identify fields such as name, address, and company. Once the program chooses your data, it can automatically fit that information to your labels, regardless of length.

It can help you create many other kinds of projects, including greeting cards and invitations, file folder labels, name badges, and individually numbered raffle and admission tickets. You can design and print CD or DVD labels and inserts, business cards, and scrapbook pages.

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The Canon Pixma MX420 lies in that tricky-to-shop-in, midpriced range of color inkjet multifunction printers. Costing just $150, it offers print, copy, scan, and fax capabilities, but certain missing features limit it to low-volume small or home offices. Its black ink is pricey, too

Call us old-school, but we prefer a set of well-organized and clearly labeled button controls, such as those found on the Pixma MX420, over the cool but sometimes confusing space-age touchscreens and panels found on some more-expensive units. The 2.5-inch color LCD is small but easy to read. You can even scan to a computer from the MFP's control panel—a rare ability at this price.

Setup on the Windows platform was easy. USB, ethernet, and Wi-Fi connectivity are available. The only hitch occurred during Mac installation, which presented us with two separate entries in the Add Printer dialog box: one listed as Bonjour-connected and the other on 'canonijnetwork'. Even though we could use Safari to browse to the MFP's HTML configuration pages with either listing, only the 'canonijnetwork' listing functioned properly.

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The Canon Pixma MX882 is one of many color inkjet multifunction printers offering full print/copy/scan/fax functionality, plus Wi-Fi, for about $200. The Pixma MX882 has versatile paper handling, as well as a stylish design.

Canon's control-panel design scores big points for creativity, but it sacrifices utility for cleverness. The culprit is a four-by-four grid of buttons that accompany the 3-inch color LCD, and light up or darken according to function. The lit symbols aren't centered, but rather offset to the left. The overall effect is somewhat disconcerting; even after we got used to it, the spread of the buttons remained a bit uncomfortable to use.

The Pixma MX882's features will easily accommodate a small or home office. USB, ethernet, and Wi-Fi connectivity are standard, along with slots for Memory Stick, SD Card, and XD-Picture Card media, plus a USB/PictBridge port. Paper handling includes a 150-sheet bottom-mounted input tray for letter- or legal-size plain paper, as well as a rear vertical feed for thicker media or another 150 sheets of paper. The MFP also has a 35-sheet letter/legal automatic document feeder and a letter/A4 flatbed platen. The Pixma MX882 can print, copy, and scan automatically in duplex (two-sided), but only on the PC.

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The Canon Pixma MG6120 color inkjet multifunction printer offers a lot for the money, including impressive performance and features, plus the same shiny-black, touch-panel design. A few trims to the Pixma MG6120's features compared to the Pixma MG8120 result in a high-style MFP for a comparatively bargain price.

The touch-sensitive control panel is a lot of fun and easy to use. The only physical button you'll find on the Pixma MG6120 is the power button. All other controls light up as you need them on the glossy-black panel that comprises the top of the machine. Even the scrollwheel is nonmechanical, as you just sweep your finger along its circle. The design is engaging and simple to understand. Note that the 3-inch color LCD (a small step down from the 3.5-inch display on the Pixma MG8120) that tilts upward from the panel and shows menu choices is not touch-sensitive; it took me a while to train myself not to touch it.

A lot of features come with the cool design: The MFP offers USB, ethernet, and Wi-Fi connectivity; two 150-sheet input trays; automatic duplexing for both PC and Mac users; and slots for CompactFlash, Memory Stick, SD Card, and XD-Picture Card media, as well as a port for USB thumb drives and PictBridge-connected devices. The 50-sheet output tray unfolds automatically from the front when you start printing--a nice convenience. Note that the letter/A4-size flatbed scanner on the Pixma MG6120 uses contact-image-sensor (CIS) technology; the scanner on the pricier Pixma MG8120 uses charge-coupled device (CCD) technology, which is more sensitive but heavier.

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The HP Officejet 100 Mobile Printer is a color inkjet printer specifically designed to be a portable model for mobile users such as real-estate agents or insurance agents. It delivers, but for a high initial price, as well as high ongoing ink costs.

Offering features that are tuned for simplicity and portability, the Officejet 100 is small and solidly constructed. It weighs 5.5 pounds including the battery, so carrying it is about the same as toting around an all-purpose laptop. If you know that you'll always have AC power available, you can shed about 6.4 ounces by leaving the battery behind. USB and Bluetooth connectivity are standard. The top cover folds back to create a 50-sheet rear vertical feed, but the printer has no output tray. Controls are minimal, limited to power, cancel, Bluetooth on/off, and paper feed.

Speed is not the Officejet 100's forte. Printing black text and simple monochrome graphics at default settings, the unit averaged a lackluster 3.6 pages per minute on the Mac and 3.7 ppm on Windows. Printing small color photos on plain paper, it managed a competent rate of 2.7 ppm, but moving to nicer settings on photo paper slowed it considerably to 0.5 ppm. Our full-page photo printed on the Mac clearly pushed the OfficeJet 100 past its comfort zone, as it took a tortoiselike 5.5 minutes. An anecdotal switch to draft mode sped things up considerably: Text pages literally flew out the front.

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A color inkjet multifunction printer, Epson's WorkForce 635 earns its $200 list price with its impressive speed, print quality, and features. Even better, its inks are reasonably priced. The WorkForce 635 has the edge in speed and print quality compared with the HP OfficeJet 6500A Plus e-All-In-One ( ), though the HP's high-yield inks are slightly more economical.

The WorkForce 635's control panel is a bit busy-looking but straightforward, with separate controls for copying, faxing, and scanning. The menu structure displayed on the 2.5-inch color LCD is logical and concise. USB, ethernet, and Wi-Fi connections are available.

Paper handling includes a bottom-mounted, 250-sheet input tray and a 30-sheet automatic document feeder that accepts legal-size documents. The flatbed platen is letter/A4-sized. Automatic duplexing (two-sided printing) is available for copying and scanning as well--and it's peppier than we've observed on some other models. Two slots take CF, MS, SD, and xD media; you also get a USB/PictBridge port.

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Dell's V313w color inkjet multifunction printer is priced at a mere $100, and it seems to receive regular discounting on Dell's Website. But while it looks like a good deal (especially in view of its integrated wireless functionality) it's ultimately a mediocre product overall, with expensive inks.

The V313w's few nice features are tacked onto an otherwise unremarkable machine. The Wi-Fi works fine, and the front of the unit includes both a USB port and a card reader for MMC, MS, SD, and xD media. Though the control panel is easy to use, the buttons are inexplicably small, given the vast amount of space available. The panel tilts upward for easier viewing, but you have to bend the underbody of the panel to retract it.

The rudimentary paper handling features on the V313w consist of a 100-sheet rear vertical feed and manual duplexing. An extra sheet prints out with a duplex job to guide the refeeding process; you can disable this assistance if you don't need it. The A4-size scanner lacks an automatic document feeder to expedite scanning multipage jobs, but the lid telescopes a good inch to accommodate thicker materials.

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Setting up the 1355cnw was easy via USB and ethernet. Wireless setup requires attaching the unit via USB, which is not unusual, but its handling of IP addresses made us pause. The 1355cnw supports both the current IP address standard (IPv4) and the upcoming IPv6. However, on Windows, instead of creating one printer device with both and IPv6 and IPv4 addresses, the install created two printer devices: one with an IPv6 address, and another with an IPv4 address. We knew what to do (eliminate the IPv6 dual-stack option), but most users will need more help than the documentation provides.

The control panel is straightforward for a multifunction device, with a numeric keypad and buttons to summon each primary function. The four-line monochrome LCD lets you view menu options, which you navigate using standard four-way controls.

While the 1355cnw has a solid-looking chassis and a 30,000-page duty cycle, the paper-handling features are minimal. A measly 150-sheet main input tray sticks out from the front of the unit—a vulnerable position, although it does ease paper loading somewhat. A plastic piece that acts as a partial cover for the main input tray is also the 10-sheet multipurpose feeder; you must remove it to adjust the guides. The pull-out output arm is a mere 3 inches wide and can't hold a lot of paper, but it makes grabbing what comes out easy. You also get a 50-sheet automatic document feeder for the 1355cnw's letter-size scanner. Duplexing (two-sided printing) is manual and available only on Windows.

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In our tests, the LaserJet Pro CM1415fnw was disappointingly slow. It has a habit of calibrating or initializing for minutes on end when all you want it to do is print. On plain black text, the easiest kind of printing, it worked at a sluggish rate of 7.3 pages per minute on the Mac and 7.4 ppm on Windows. Snapshot-size photos printed on letter-size paper averaged a subpar 1.7 ppm on the PC platform, while a full-page, high-resolution photo printed on the Mac took almost 80 seconds (0.8 ppm) to print. Scans and copies were similarly poky.

The quality of the output offers some consolation. Text looks clean and precise. HP touts its ImageREt 3600 technology for images, and it seems to work, to an extent. Viewed from normal distance, the photos looked rich, though a bit dark. Upon closer inspection, fine horizontal banding spoiled some of the effect, and some of the contours in faces were hard to discern. Scanning was a mixed bag: Plain monochrome copies looked good, but a color copy seemed overly bright and somewhat uneven. Color scans from the Mac appeared richer than those from the PC, but on both platforms monochrome scans showed jagged lines and loss of fine detail.

The construction of the CM1415fnw has a slightly flimsy feel, but as long as you keep the office trolls away from it, the unit should hold up. The mounting for the 150-sheet input tray seems insubstantial, but that's the only really worrisome physical detail we noticed. You get a 50-page automatic document feeder for the integrated flatbed A4-size scanner and a 125-sheet output tray. The lack of automatic duplexing (two-sided printing) is disappointing for an office-oriented machine. Wireless, ethernet, and USB connectivity are available. A plus is the 3.5-inch color LCD touchscreen control panel; the on-screen menu structure is intuitive and easy to navigate, though a bit overcrowded at times.

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Dark, sharp-edged, and monolithic, the 2150cdn has a no-nonsense look that reflects its features. Standard paper handling includes a 250-sheet paper cassette, a manual-feed slot, a 150-sheet top output bin, and automatic duplexing (two-sided printing). Dell sells an optional second 250-sheet paper cassette for $150. The printer comes with 256MB of RAM (upgradable to 768MB) and carries a one-year warranty. Toner cartridges are easy to reach via a side panel, and the entire front of the printer folds down for easy access to paper jams (with removal of the drum). The control panel‘s two-line LCD and small cluster of buttons are simple to use, and the LCD's messages, while curt, are only occasionally confusing.

The 2150cdn provides middling speed. In tests, plain-text pages printed at 13.7 pages per minute on the Mac and  15.1 ppm on Windows. A full-page, high-resolution photo printed on the Mac exited at an underwhelming 0.8 ppm. A half-page photo on the PC printed at 2.8 ppm at default settings and 1.24 ppm at finer settings.

Although we liked the output quality from the 2150cdn, we had to work hard to achieve it. Our test model suffered color-registration problems: The colors weren't lining up, resulting in fuzzy or off-kilter images. The printer's own automated registration-adjustment tool was unable to correct the issue. Several tedious rounds with the manual registration controls were necessary to set things right. Once we tweaked the settings, color graphics looked realistic and mostly crisp, with just a little fuzziness in finer details. Text was nearly impeccable.

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The Phaser 6010 is compact and simple to use. Even its printing technology is simple: A stationary LED array, rather than a moving laser, creates the images. Paper handling consists of a 150-sheet front input (really a foldout door with width and length guides), a ten-sheet manual feed tray directly above it, and a 100-sheet top output tray. Duplexing (two-sided printing) is, unfortunately, only manual on the PC, and it isn't available on the Mac at all. A side panel opens to reveal the four keyed toner supplies. USB and ethernet connections are available.

The control panel is straightforward, consisting of a two-line, 16-character monochrome LCD, a four-way cursor, and the usual buttons. It's logical and neatly laid out, and the menus are easy to navigate. The HTML configuration pages that offer another way to view printer status and settings are equally simple to use.

The Phaser 6010 performed competently in our tests, compared with other low-cost models. Text pages exited at a brisk 9.6 pages per minute on both Mac and Windows. Half-page color graphics, printed at default or finer settings, emerged at almost 2 ppm. A more-complex photo rendered on the Mac took about 2 minutes, or 0.5 ppm.

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The Phaser 6500DN provides the usual workgroup-level features: USB and ethernet connectivity; a 250-sheet main input tray and integrated manual-feed slot; and a top, 150-sheet output tray. An additional, 250-sheet input tray costs $199 from Xerox. Duplexing (two-sided printing) is standard, but Mac users must enable it manually. The Phaser 6500, a lower-cost model without duplexing, costs $399.

In our tests, the Phaser 6500DN delivered midrange speeds overall. Mac performance was slower than average: 13.1 ppm when printing plain text; 2.7 ppm when printing a document with mixed text and graphics; and a sluggish 0.4 ppm when printing a high-resolution, full-page color photo. On Windows, the performance improved; it produced 14.8 pages per minute of plain text, and 1.8 ppm of snapshot-size color photos on letter-size paper.

Though the unit's print speed numbers weren't bad, our sample output revealed a few print quality challenges. Plain, black text was perfectly crisp, but solid areas in either grayscale or color showed slight banding on prints from a Windows computer, and inkjet-printer-like graininess on prints from the Mac. Color quality was realistic, but initially we encountered registration problems (the four colors failed to line up), making images look blurry or off-kilter. The printer has automatic and manual methods for fixing this, but after a couple of rounds of attempted corrections, we still couldn't perfect it. Per Xerox, it might take two or three cycles to set things straight.

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It's unusual to find creative software that is valuable to both experts and beginners alike. TypeDNA 2.0 is one of these rare products that help users of all levels find the right fonts from their collection. As its name implies, TypeDNA performs its magic by analyzing the shapes and other details of your fonts so it can suggest fonts that are appropriate for common uses. It can also show you fonts that are similar or complementary, or that contrast with a chosen font—even among fonts that aren't currently active on your system.

I'm an unabashed font geek, and have been since the Mac's beginnings. However, like many designers with thousands of fonts, I'm often overwhelmed when I need to choose fonts for a project. I may remember a specific font that I think would be suitable, but can't remember the names of similar fonts that may work even better in the project. TypeDNA aims to help by suggesting fonts in my collection that are similar to the one I remember.

At other times, I know which font I want to use for a headline, but need suggestions for fonts that would complement that font when used for body copy (paragraphs of text). TypeDNA helps by suggesting complementary fonts.

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Setting up the Selphy CP800 is easy enough, but we had to read the documentation to figure out that we needed to flip back the top of the 18-sheet input cassette for it to fit into the printer. The flipped lid creates an output tray for holding a small number of photos—clever, but not entirely intuitive. Beyond that, the tilt-up 2.5-inch LCD provides all the feedback you need to print directly from the CompactFlash, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick, SD Card, and XD-Picture Card slots on the front of the unit. Controls are minimal, nicely arranged, and sufficient for all the required actions. You can use the printer exclusive of any computer connection, but PC and Mac drivers are available.

The Selphy CP800 is styled in matte black (though the input cassette is incongruously white), which seems more appropriate for a professional setting than the family den. In contrast, the bundled Selphy Photo Print software is definitely kid-oriented: fun, easy to use, and ready to step you through the print process. It even talks to you—not something most adults would want. The software's chirpy personality fits in better with Canon's beach-bucket-shaped Selphy CP790 ( ) snapshot model.

Photo output from the Selphy CP800 arrived a little slower than average, with color photos emerging at 0.7 pages per minute and grayscale items printing at 0.8 ppm. Print quality was generally good: Flesh tones seemed smooth and natural, sports shots appeared bright and detailed, and grayscale images looked subtle. The printer struggled a bit, however, with the complex foliage patterns in a landscape shot; everything looked flat.

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Even under the best of circumstances, font management is complicated. Fortunately for creatives, the formerly crippling font problems in Mac OS X have mostly been ironed out by the current crop of font management software.

Products such as Suitcase Fusion 3 capably weed out problem fonts and duplicate fonts, organize and categorize your fonts, and can auto-activate necessary fonts when you open a document. As with all professional font managers, it lets you create sets of fonts for various purposes, manage system fonts, preview and export fonts, explore technical font details, and so on.

So, what's left for a company such as Extensis to add to their font manager? First, a few features were added to catch up with the competition: you can now create application sets that activate specific fonts whenever a particular application is launched, you can export a .png image file that shows your custom text in any font (with transparency), you can clear the font cache files to resolve font display glitches (including caches for Mac OS X, Adobe applications, QuarkXPress and Microsoft Office), and auto-activate fonts in Photoshop CS4 and CS5 documents.

But two new features are unique to Fusion 3: QuickMatch and WebINK integration. QuickMatch lets you explore your font collection to find fonts that look similar to a selected font—a tremendously helpful feature for people who are new to choosing fonts, as well as for deadline-driven designers who have more fonts than they can remember. To use QuickMatch, you simply choose a font in your library and choose Edit -> QuickMatch. Fusion 3 then examines the shape of the glyphs in your selected font and searches your selected library for fonts that are similar in appearance. You can then adjust the number of results you want to see, and whether you want to search your local fonts or Extensis' collection of WebINK fonts (see below). I found the QuickMatch feature to be accurate enough to be useful, as well as joyfully addictive.

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