From personal printers to home office colour, we put 12 lasers through their paces. Some are lightning fast; others produce dazzling colour. Some are tiny, and some are surprisingly cost-effective.

70 per cent ink price cut shakes industry.

Taking photos is only half the fun. Touching them up on your PC and printing them is the other half. PC Authority takes a look at some of the best photo-printers on the market.

Once upon a time not too long ago, your average inkjet printer had a single tricolour ink cartridge. Of course, the print quality was fairly ordinary, but it did the job. Today, with digital cameras the norm and home users wanting to print their own photographs, your photo printer may have as many as eight different ink cartridges.

For a laser printer manufacturer, GCC has an unusual history. Formed in 1981, the company originally developed enhancements for coin-operated video games such as Ataris Missile Command and also brought us PacMan.

The Kodak EasyShare Printer Dock 6000 is a tiny photo printer-cum-camera dock for Kodak EasyShare CX/DX 6000 and LS600-series cameras. Although it's designed to print 4 x 6in borderless prints, the dock is capable of a lot more. The abundance of functions this dock can perform boggles the mind. Ranging from slide show streaming, three-hour camera Li-Ion battery charging, multiple print runs and PC file-synching, this printer does it all.

The market for specialised compact photo printers remains relatively small, but as prices come down for printers and digital cameras, they are becoming more popular. As digital camera prices come down and more cameras have direct printer connectivity, a small photo printer becomes a viable accessory.

Printer sales in Australia fell 12 percent in the fourth quarter of 2003 to 390,000 units, and are expected to fall another 13 percent for the full year 2004, IDC said.

A good quality and speedy colour laser printer, but the running costs are unsettlingly high.

The second most expensive printer to purchase, Epson’s C900 outlay cost is quite high given its fairly low quality results; as a consequence, this printer’s value rating suffers. Saving face, it managed to finish fourth overall for the speed portion of our testing. Surprisingly, for a printer of this cost, it is another unit to lack integrated network connectivity, although it is available as an expansion option.

Surely, this can't be right – a full-colour laser printer for only $1,800? You'd better believe it, The catch is that the 2300W is a GDI (graphical device interface) printer, so it doesn't have an internal processor and relies on the host system to do all the legwork in preparing the pages. Furthermore, it's parallel and USB 1.1 only and it can't accept a network card. That aside, the printer offers a fine set of features for the price. There's a 600 x 600dpi resolution with a 1,200 x 600dpi Fine ART mode, along with 4ppm colour and 16ppm mono print speeds.

The C5600n handles colour-related tasks well and at a price that makes it affordable for small businesses.

The Lexmark P6250 is a not just a photo printer as such, it's also an all in one multifunction device: printer/scanner/copier and media reader. You might be nodding to yourself with the obviousness of an all in one printer winning out over tiny single use photo printers in this roundup, but to be honest the distinction is not just made because of the broad functionality and applicability of the Lexmark P6250.

We’ve examined the data from more than 8000 readers to reveal exactly what sort of reliability, customer service and satisfaction you can expect in 2007.

You don't have to settle for printer that just prints. PC Authority tests six of the latest all-in-one devices.

A workgroup printing workhorse that delivers classy mono and colour print quality

A workgroup laser with a good turn of speed and low running costs, but we expect better quality at this price.

TCO, or total cost of ownership, is virtually a mantra when it comes to volume printers. Unlike other peripherals, like monitors or scanners, the initial purchase price of a printer represents only a small proportion of its overall cost over its lifetime. Consumables, like toner and replacement image drums, add to the cost, and some printers with low initial purchase prices can easily turn out to be significantly more expensive than more pricey units, after a couple of years.

It is all well and good selecting expensive printers based on the quality of the photo prints they produce, but the general home user often wants something that can do basic print jobs well, and make the kids' homework look good.

an Australian product that effectively cleans out the gunk, by following the page path through the printer.