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"   Kids are heading back to school, and you know that means: school projects, essays, consent forms, medical releases, and other document-based tasks on the horizon. Wouldn&amp;#039;t it be great to save space and money with one product that can do your scanning, copying, and printing? Because we know you&amp;#039;ll say, &amp;quot;Yes!&amp;quot; the Good Housekeeping Research Institute reviewed multi-function printers (aka All-in-One or AIO Printers). Want a sneak peek at how we arrived at our recommendations? Read on to find out what tests we put the printers through to find the best ones for you! Our aim in testing was to simulate the kind of use a printer will actually get when it&amp;#039;s installed in your home. To ensure an even playing field, all models were tested on the same PC with an up-to-date operating system, Windows 7.   Ease of Use: Were the buttons and touch screens responsive to a single touch and could we access the settings like paper size, print quality, magnification, and reduction, without pulling our hair out? What about the accompanying software? Did it simplify the process of scanning and saving documents? Speed: Out came our stop watches. How long did it take to print text and photos as well as scan and copy? We timed each task three times to check for consistency. Quality: A degree in engineering doesn&amp;#039;t automatically qualify me to be an expert in print quality. So we called in our art department to assess the sharpness and color quality of prints, copies, and scans.  Sound: Because we know you&amp;#039;re a multifunctioner too, we tested how much noise each machine makes, using a sound meter in our sound chamber. You shouldn&amp;#039;t have to miss an American idol judgment just because you&amp;#039;re making copies of PTA announcements.  As we work, we make sure to note things that aren&amp;#039;t necessarily good or bad but that you may want to take into consideration in making a purchasing decision. We tell you for example if it&amp;#039;s an automatic document feeder, something you may find helpful if teens with lengthy term papers are in the household but that may not be worth the extra space they take up if you still have tots in grammar school. Check back soon for a complete review of multi-function printers online, or see it in September&amp;#039;s magazine on newsstands now. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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