In Living Color Color copiers give customers one more reason to choose you over the competition.

If you're willing to invest a serious portion of your officeequipment budget in an all-out effort to edge out the competition,consider buying a color laser copier. While they cost severalthousand dollars on average, over the long haul you'll save atleast that much doing all your own color copying and printing andhaving control over content if you want to make last-minutechanges. Some commercial copying centers charge as much as $1.50for a single color copy, so if you need several hundred or a fewthousand copies a month, buying your own machine will probably bejustified.

"It's not necessary to pay an outside printer to handlea variety of color orders these days, when top-quality colorcopiers are now accessible to all sizes of businesses," saysRick Taylor, vice president of marketing for Toshiba'sElectronic Imaging division, whose FC-70 state-of-the-art colorcopier is among the quietest on the market--a factor to consider ifyou have a small office.

The most sophisticated color copiers for small offices arehighly versatile. They combine digital laser technology withnetwork connectivity, can copy transparencies and photographs, canhandle oversized and heavyweight paper, and have printing andcopying capabilities. Most offer as close to original color andimage perfection as possible and print at high speeds. LanierWorldwide's 5603DC color copier, for example, can copyledger-sized materials and has three photo modes: printed, glossyand copied. Minolta's CF900 can color-copy books andthree-dimensional objects as well as full-bleed 11-by-17-inchsheets.