Printers Manuals

OVERVIEW:  For 2-sided color printing, faxing, copying and scanning in a networked office environment, it’s the Samsung CLX-6240FX. A full-house, all-in-one color laser printer that not only offers faxing, scans, copies, printing, but also direct USB flash drive printing, duplexing and network connectivity.

PROS:
The husky, 82-pound CLX-6240FX has a height of 26”, with compact, square features that allow for placement without additional space. Sitting on a sturdy, low table, the height and size of the CLX-6240FX is just right for someone standing next to it to manually use the on-screen display for making copies or to fax using the speed-dial or address book features on its panel.

If you like buttons over a touch-screen display, you’ll get your wish with the CLX. All print, copy, and faxing can be performed without the need for a computer. The control panel on the CLX-6240FX provides functions for the copier, scanner, and fax including a programmable phone book list and 15 one-touch buttons for 30-speed dial numbers. To save on color toner, the “Black Start” button allows printing in B&W. A pass-through external phone jack on the back of the printer allows for plugging a telephone or an answering machine.

A USB port is on the printer that allows printing any image (TIFF, BMP, JPEG, PDF, PRN files) from a USB Flash drive. Information stored in the CLX-6240FX memory can also be backed up and restored using a USB Flash drive. The CLX also allows you to delete, format, or list properties of your USB drive.
A 50-sheet automatic document feeder can handle the copying, scanning, and faxing of your 2-sided originals, be they in color or in Black and White. On the front, a 100-sheet multi-purpose paper flip-tray handles papers and envelopes of various weights and types.

The CLX-6240FX can print up to 30 ppm on single-side paper, 21 ipm in duplex mode. 2400 x 600 dpi resolution with single-pass color printing allows color printing to be as fast as in B&W mode. Manual color registration adjustments can be performed to correct some minor alignment issues the printer has.
Having built-in Ethernet network support and a hi-speed USB, this multifunction is right at home either in the middle of an office floor or connected to a secretary’s computer. The built-in 256MB of printer memory enables the CLX-6240FX to easily handle workloads as a network printer. To reduce workload on the printer’s RAM, print jobs can be queued into the built-in 80GB hard disk drive.

Understanding the printing needs of today’s businesses, Samsung has installed print emulators that should satisfy the most diverse office. Emulators include PostScript3 as well as HP PCL6. If you ever had to do try to print Adobe graphics on a color printer without PostScript, the “ghost” images that appear from transparency and drop shadow effects can drive you nuts.

CONS:
It takes 80 seconds for the CLX-6240FX to warm-up, with 19 second delays between print jobs. Fortunately this Samsung series has single-pass color printing, keeping total job times reasonable. In operation, the 4-in-1 produces 54dB of sound and 32dB when idle. Think of 54dB as the sound of low conversations and 30 decibels as a quiet room.

For this to be the top of Samsungs CLX-6000 series, Samsung skimped a little on the cassette tray. A 250-sheet paper tray is woefully undersized for where this printer is likely to be used. It’s typical for even a small office to go through a ream of paper in a single day.  If your office or department is going to depend heavily on this printer, it would be a good idea to buy the 500-sheet second tray.
Colors can be oversaturated and show a slight misalignment. The in maximum resolution, color prints on the CLX-6240FX won’t be as sharp as with the higher resolution monochrome lasers.

Software support is weak for Mac OS; having to rely on Mac’s OS or 3rd party software for scanning functions and advanced printing features.
For desktop publishing of color 8½ “x 11” booklets or catalogs, it would be nice if the printer could support 11” x 17” ledger-sized paper.

INK / TONER NEEDS:
Just like with color inkjet printers, when it comes to color laser printers, print yield is sacrificed for color printing. The CLX-6240FX requires 4 toner cartridges—one for each of the CYMK colors.
Out of the box Samsung includes the standard 2,500-page yield black cartridge, and three 2,000-page yield color cartridges, one for each color (Cyan, Yellow, Magenta).

The cartridges can be purchased separately, especially if the black toner gets depleted at a higher rate than the other colors. High-yield combo-packages are available to save costs at 60% more capacity.
Other consumables you’ll need to consider purchasing are waste toner containers, and replacement of the Paper Transfer Belt every 50,000 pages.

SOFTWARE:
Being a multi-purpose printer, one would expect the software to provide all the functions across multiple computer platforms.  The software in the CD-ROM is primarily for Windows compatible machines. For Windows users, the SmartThru software provides the most features, supporting not only scanning and printing, but offering an advanced printing section that allows for booklet printing, creating a large poster mosaics, and watermarks.
The Linux software package is not included with the CD and has to be downloaded from Samsung’s website to support printer and scanning functions. The Linux Unified Driver Configurator software allows for scanned images to manipulated and edited.

 For Macintosh users, the CD-ROM has a couple of basic drivers for printing and a TWAIN driver for scanning. There is no additional software support: you either must have a 3rd party application that manages scanners or use the Mac’s own Image Capture (only available on Mac OS 10.4.7 and higher).
To remotely change network printer configurations and notifications, Samsung’s SyncThru Web service allows printer changes to be made using your IE, Safari, or Firefox browser. The software is not part of the CD and has to be downloaded from Samsung’s web site.
A firmware update had been released on 9/15/9 Samsung recommends to be installed in the printer.

The Samsung CLX-6240fx is a color multifunction laser printer that is big in size, and in features.

The multifunction device arena is a tough one. With competitors such as Brother and Xerox dominating the market, it is a hard nut to crack. Samsung have made a valiant effort with the CLX-6240fx, and it is definitely a worthy contender. It is a full duplex machine that can output both color and monochrome prints at a rate of 25 pages per minute.

Print quality is good, especially in mono. Text is clear and sharp, with edges appearing straight and accurate. Images and pictures were understandable average. Color documents and charts had a tendency to come out light, but a minute with the control suite soon sorted that one out. Then color was printed accurately and with perfect tone and contrast.

Scanning is also good, and it has the added bonus of being able to scan from or to USB flash drives, the network or directly connected PCs. The scanned images are of good quality, and color reproduction seemed clear and true.

The fax is a straightforward affair, being controlled from either the desktop or the control panel. It has the usual redial, memory, fax from desktop and other features and includes just about everything an active scanner would need.

The CLX-6240fx also includes an 80Gb hard drive, which is a nice feature. It means that you can load print jobs and let it get on with it while you do something else. Normally this is done from memory, but this feature offers a lot of flexibility. You can also schedule print jobs, so if you have a lot that needs printing, but don’t want to monopolize the printer, you can schedule it for during the night or the next morning.

Paper and toner is loaded from drawers in the front. The paper drawer can only hold 350 sheets, but an additional drawer can be added to take it to 600. The toner and drums are easy to replaces, merely opening the case and unclipping them, before replacing them the same way.

Overall the CLX-6240fx is a solid performer. It does everything a multifunction should do, with a quality you would expect from a company like Samsung. A worthy entry into a market that is already competitive. It offers enough features to keep even the busiest and most demanding offices happy, while remaining economical enough to not have to worry about the cost every time you print something.

OVERVIEW: Now days, most of the “all-in-one” printers in stores today don’t have “all” the features of earlier models. As printers have gotten smaller and sending scanned documents via e-mail has become acceptable in many businesses, the fax feature has been replaced with slots for flash memory media.  However, there are still times when you run across a client or a business that will only accept faxed documents. The Samsung CLX-3160FN is an all-in-one color printer that not only offers faxing, scans, copies, printing, but also direct printing from USB flash drives, and network connectivity.

PROS:
The CLX stands for “Color Laser Multifunction”, the FN for “Fax and Network”.  If you don’t want to turn on the computer every time you want to make a copy, a fax, or e-mail a scan, you don’t have to.  The CLX-3160FN has a full control panel with an on-screen menu for printer setup and operation without the need for software.  There is also an option for choosing whether to print only in B&W to save on color toner. It even has a USB socket that allows you print image files directly from any USB flash/memory drive.

A pass-through external phone jack on the back of the printer allows for plugging a telephone or an answering machine. 15, one-touch programmable keys allow speed-dialing for up to 30 fax numbers. An address book function allows for more frequently used fax numbers to be stored and retrieved. To protect unwanted access, received fax pages can be stored in memory and retrieved using a 4-digit security password.

As a copier, the 5-in-1 can zoom from 25% up to 400%, and make up to 99 copies in color or B&W. The color scanner portion of the CLX-3160FN is compatible with TWAIN & and XP/Vista’s WIA standards.  Under TWAIN, the 1,200 x 1,200 dpi resolution can be increased to 4,800 x 4,800 dpi.
The CLX-3160FN comes standard with a 150-sheet cassette tray that can support letter or legal-size sheets, with a 1-sheet multi-purpose tray to handle transparencies, labels, post cards, envelopes, 3” x 5” postcards up to 8½” x 14” legal paper of various bond weights. On top of the CLX-3160FN is a 50-sheet automatic document feeder for quick single-sided scanning, faxing, and copying of multiple pages. If 150-sheet capacity is a little thin, a 250-sheet cassette can be added on for more paper capacity.

You’re giving the choice of USB or Ethernet connectivity. The 128MB of built-in RAM allows this multi-function printer to easily handle the print demands of networked computers.

After a quick 35-second warm-up, the CLX-3160FN prints and copies up to a modest 17 pages per minute in Black and White, 4 pages per minute in color. In operation, the all-in-1 produces 52dB of sound and 35dB when idle. Think of 55dB as the sound of low conversations and 40 decibels as the level of whispering. At a maximum print resolution of 2400 x 600 dpi, the CLX-3160FN keeps text reasonably clear--and does a decent job with basic graphics.

CONS:
One of the things you need to consider when you decide to get a color laser printer is if you want a “multi-pass” color printing or “single-pass” printing. The CLX-3160FN is a color multi-pass printer: color printing is 4 times slower printing because the paper has to pass through each of the 4 toners. It’s similar to the way t-shirts and posters are manually silk-screened. If you plan on a lot of color printing, you might want to opt for a single-pass printer instead.
The CLX-3160FN only offers Samsung’s SPL-C print emulator.  While the SPL-C will handle most jobs, imaging problems like “ghosting” can occur if trying to print certain graphics created by Adobe’s Photoshop or Illustrator without PostScript emulation.

INK / TONER NEEDS:
The CLX-3160FN comes with a 75% full black cartridge, and 70% full color cartridges. The standard yield cartridges can be purchased separately, especially if the black toner gets depleted at a higher rate than the other colors. Combo-packages are available to save on costs.
Other consumables you’ll need to consider is replacing the waste toner container every 1,250 pages, and replacement of the Imaging Unit every 20,000 passes.  One color page goes through 4 toner passes, while a B&W page only has one pass. So if you only do color printing, your time to replace is shortened up to a factor of four.

SOFTWARE:   
Being a multi-purpose printer, one would expect the software to provide full functions for all the computer platforms Samsung claims it supports.  The software in the CD-ROM is primarily for Windows compatible machines. For Windows users, the SmartThru software provides the most features, supporting not only scanning and printing, but offering an advanced printing section that allows for booklet printing, creating a large poster mosaics, and watermarks.

To remotely change network printer configurations and notifications, Samsung’s SyncThru Web service allows printer changes to be made using your IE, Safari, or Firefox browser.