Although light on fax tasks, the HP OfficeJet 6110 is still a versatile multifunction printer.

Hewlett-Packard's OfficeJet 6110 provides almost everything a small office might need in one machine. The OfficeJet 6110 integrates an inkjet printer, a colour scanner, a 35-page automatic document feeder (ADF), a copier, and a fax-modem. And unlike most multifunction printers we've seen, it's even Macintosh compatible. So what does this multifunction printer lack? It doesn't have the full list of fax features you find in other multifunction printers, such as the HP LaserJet 3330mfp; or even the Lexmark X6170. But if you can live without capabilities such as faxing from your PC, the OfficeJet 6110 is a reasonable choice for a small office.

With its battleship-grey scanner lid and matte dark-grey base, the HP OfficeJet 6110 is pleasantly small for a multifunction printer, measuring only 49.5cm wide by 39.3cm deep by 30cm high. Installing the OfficeJet 6110 is a breeze: simply insert the CD and watch it grind for a while, then plug the USB cable (not included) into the printer when instructed.

The OfficeJet 6110's printer handles letter- or legal-size paper. Despite the A4-size scanner glass, the automatic document feeder actually scans, faxes, and copies up to legal-size documents. The OfficeJet 6110's control panel commendably opts for function over flash, with carefully grouped and clearly labelled buttons for faxing, copying, and scanning. Also, there's even a Set View Angle command in the Maintenance menu to find the optimal LCD viewing angle. The LCD doesn't move, but it alters the contrast so that it's more visible when you are either standing up or sitting down.

Lifting the scanner bed exposes the entire paper path and gives your hands plenty of space to replace ink or clear paper jams. Dual telephone jacks on the back side allow you to daisy-chain the fax-modem with an answering machine. The OfficeJet 6110 distinguishes between fax and voice calls, routing them accordingly.

The OfficeJet 6110 has a couple of minor design flaws. The output tray sits on top of the paper tray; to add paper, you have to remove the output tray. Also, the scanner lid does not come off or slide on its hinges. This makes scanning thick documents inconvenient and scanning extra wide documents, such as newspapers, impossible.

HP provides several full-function standalone features in the OfficeJet 6110. For example, like any standalone fax machine, this OfficeJet includes a telephone keypad to enter and store fax numbers. You can use the keypad to spell out names associated with the numbers, retain up to 75 speed-dial numbers, and create 20 groups of numbers in memory for broadcast faxing. You can scan a fax and postpone sending it until lower night or weekend telephone rates are in effect; store incoming faxes in memory if the printer runs out of paper; and detect distinctive ring patterns. In a nice extra, HP set aside six button labels for the OfficeJet 6110's one-touch speed dials.

Unfortunately, the OfficeJet 6110 lacks some useful features for business travellers. It has no fax-forward feature, for example, so your faxes can't catch up with you while you're travelling. Nor can you fax directly from your PC, a major drawback. You could print documents, then fax them manually, but you'd do so without such office fax standards as custom cover-page design and use of a PC-based address book.

The copy function collates multiple copies of black ink or colour documents; reduces an image and prints it several times on one page; or reduces each set of two pages in the document feeder to print side by side on one page. It also shifts the margin to make room for a binder or three-hole punch. Mac users will appreciate the scanner's ability to export images in 48-bit colour.

The included software offers tools for working with scanned photos. HP Director, a desktop control app, configures the scanner, runs the automatic document feeder, and opens and prints scanned image files. HP Director includes HP Creative Printing, an application for producing wallet-size copies, stickers, T-shirt transfers, banners, and other special jobs. HP Photo Print, an image-editing application, has fairly deep tools for cropping, correcting exposure and colour, and so on. From within Photo Print, jump to a separate application called HP Image Editor, with additional features such as red-eye removal and the ability to superimpose text labels and titles. Or branch off to HP Album Printing, which provides a big assortment of malleable photo-album templates. We were impressed by how easy it is to produce competent photo documents by moving among the applications within HP Director. HP also includes ReadIris Pro 7.5, a full-featured OCR package that converts paper text into computer files.

For ordinary printing, the OfficeJet 6110 uses two cartridges: one black and one tricolour (with cyan, magenta, and yellow). For printing high-quality photos, however, you'll need to replace the black with a photo-ink cartridge. Fortunately, the OfficeJet 6110 automatically detects cartridge changes and realigns its heads to simplify the switching task.

If you want to expand the OfficeJet 6110's capabilities, pop an optional duplexer into a slot in the back or attach the optional Ethernet interface. The latter lets your workgroup print but not use any of the other functions.

The OfficeJet 6110's performance is a mixed bag. It lags on some tasks but performs as well as other multifunction printers do on others. It prints high-resolution glossy photos in a reasonable 5.1 minutes, and it copies colour documents at a rather zippy 8.4 pages per minute. On the other hand, the OfficeJet 6110 prints ordinary text at the painfully slow rate of 1.5 pages per minute, as opposed to the HP OfficeJet 2210's speedy 4.1ppm. The OfficeJet 6110 also spends 22 seconds scanning a monochrome page, more than twice as long as comparable systems. We also noticed that the OfficeJet 6110 wiggles noticeably while printing.

The OfficeJet 6110's output quality was similarly mixed. On greyscale scans, it wowed us by capturing subtle gradations in shades and showing precise detail. Its colour scans have smooth textures and shading and accurate colours with no mysterious detritus, although they lose a degree of detail. The copier also printed black ink and colour copies that are difficult to distinguish from the originals.

But prints made on ordinary 20-lb. photocopy paper didn't look so great. Printed text had a shadow or fuzzy outline, and colour images looked somewhat washed out and had rough textures. Coated inkjet paper improved both text and image print quality, yet we were disappointed with the results on glossy photo paper, which showed good detail but came out dark with patchy colours.

Ink costs, based on our cartridge drain tests, run to around AU$0.06 cents for a page of black text and 30 cents for a lightly covered page of colour graphics--average for an inkjet.

HP provides a stellar documentation set for the OfficeJet 6110. A clearly illustrated poster shows the proper setup and installation for Mac and Windows machines. An 80-page printed manual provides an introduction to each component and covers maintenance procedures. And an onscreen PDF manual provides additional in-depth information on using the software and control-panel features.

HP OfficeJet 6110
Company: HP Australia
Price: AU$648
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: 13 23 47

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