Affordable color lasers have multiplied from discounted old stock through new, slightly more compact, models a year later to today. When every small office and workgroup can enjoy a workhorse, high-volume alternative to inkjet printing and every vendor offers a color laser priced low enough to tempt even solo, let alone network, users.

The Xerox Phaser 8560 printer uses not laser but solid-ink technology to deliver gorgeous, smooth color at superior speed, plus PostScript compatibility and color-tweaking you can't get from an entry-level color laser. It's something of a compromise. No match for a laser for cranking out lots of black and white pages, and not quite up to an inkjet for photo-quality images, but it's a very cool one.

As a Phaser 8560 solid ink also known as wax-jet or phase-change printer, the Phaser 8560 ink works something like an offset printing press, or a cross between an ink-jet and a laser. It's yellow, cyan, magenta, and black ink come not in liquid or powdered form, but in waxy chunks or small cubes. Actually, not cubes but four slightly different, drop-in shapes, and carved toddler-toy-fashion to fit into the proper slots underneath the hood of the printer.

The fact that Phaser's software driver and front-panel LCD don't have a gauge to show the ink remaining can be uncomfortable to people used to regular ink and toner cartridge. The LCD does have a low-ink warning light. However, you can see the ink level by simply lifting the front hood of the printer, and can add more ink at any time without the uncertainties that come with newly installed cartridges.

Phaser 8560 ink is friendly to the environment because there are no waste tanks or consumable cartridges to discard. Instead, a single plug-in imaging-drum lubricator or plug-in maintenance kit supplies all the ink that the printer will use for 10,000 to 30,000 pages. There is also a waste tray that needs to be occasionally emptied and replaced.

The short crayons melt within the printer, and the ink flows into a reservoir. The Xerox Phaser has a signifcant environmental impact because it draws up to 1500 watts, but Xerox says it averages less than 300 watts. A 600 by 600 dpi print head with 1236 nozzles sprays the ink onto a turning, warmed drum that transfer the ink to the paper in a sinle pass, compared to the four separate passes more cheap color lasers require.

The ink dries off immediately on the page, and unlike inkjet there is no seeping and this won't blot on the paper, also it would not smear when swiped with a damp finger, however this can be removed if scratched with a fingernail. Hence the printout when dry would appear damp. The printout would practically look like having been painted on with rich, glossy shades and the negatives like banding that inkjets and to an extend laser printers have are eliminated here.