Typically designed as tabletop high machine with a top feed mechanism, these copiers allow the user to easily feed large documents past the printing and scanning heads to be saved to the attached computer and subsequently reprinted in as many copies as are needed. This intermediate step of saving to computer makes the software that operates the copier and which allows editing the document before reprinting especially important.

This specialty software ensures that color reproduction is accurate (a problem endemic with large format copiers), allows splicing together multiple scans of unusually large original documents, helps maximize paper usage, and allows saving popular settings if you're going to be scanning documents in several different wide formats.

The stand on which the copier sits is also removable which allows mixing and matching the copier with the stand, monitor, and computer on which it depends. One computer setup can also be linked to several copiers and/or scanners so a separate computer is not needed for every copier. However, not every stand accommodates every type of copier so be sure to check the model names and numbers of the particular copier you're shopping for to ensure compatibility.

Large format copiers are used extensively by banks and brokerages, architects, construction contractors, petroleum and chemical companies, and many governments. They're especially useful in cases where accurate color is needed - a place where typical blueprint printers and scanners can't serve as an adequate replacement.

Whatever your need you'll find several large format copiers from companies like Ricoh, HP, Xerox, and ColorTrac that will meet your needs. A little comparison shopping will make sure you find the best copier for your application at the best possible price.

Gone are the days of storing past architectural designs, advertising campaigns, or other creative work on perishable media like paper, vellum, or even plastic. Not only are these medium subject to water, fire, and general age related damage, they also take considerable storage and cataloging to archive. Even with the large format copiers that make reproduction of these assets possible, maintaining them for future reproduction and/or editing remained problematic until the advent of large format scanners.

With their wide format capacity, these sheet or roll fed scanners can accommodate very large documents like blueprints, architectural plans, photographic prints, posters, or nearly any other printed media up to several feet in height and width. After they've been scanned in, these documents can then be preserved for future printing, editing, or re-purposing in future projects. Not only does this save the storage space and logistical headaches involved in tracking these documents, it makes your company assets readily and instantly available to remote teams across the country or even around the world.

Companies like Oce, Xerox, and HP produce these large format scanners for both small business and more industrial uses. Varying in their feed type (roll, sheet, or flat), document size capacity, and scanning speed, a quick look around the internet is sure to provide several options that will meet your scanning needs. Despite the considerable size of most large format scanners, free shipping is often available from online retailers or manufacturers. The market for these wide format devices and their associated supplies is competitive enough that these websites aren't going to take the chance that you'll go to a local office supply or specialty store to purchase just to avoid the shipping fee.

Even if you're not in one of these industries, though, you should still consider large format plotters if you routinely print documents that exceed two feet in length or need to print on a diverse range of materials or textiles. Available in color and black and white versions, these plotters provide the wide format necessary to print even the largest architectural or structural drawings up to six or more feet in width.

In addition to these more traditional uses, large format plotters are becoming increasingly common with colleges, marketing agencies, and even large retailers. Once the purview of professional printers, they're now an affordable investment for the average small business that needs to reproduce larger documents or promotional materials. Although the initial outlay is more than one would pay for a traditional sized plotter, if your business needs to generate large prints on a regular basis the cost savings can be substantial in the long run.

An additional consideration for investing in wide format technology is the ability to archive and store your intellectual property in a manner that not only preserves it completely and indefinitely but also makes it instantly available to team members no matter their physical location. Instead of maintaining physical copies of your archived work product, you can use large format scanners to produce and store their digital equivalent then faithfully reproduce past work instantly and on demand with large format plotters.

Large format printing used to be the exclusive domain of the local specialty printer. Handling oversized documents was infrequent enough that investing in large format printers didn't make financial sense for most businesses. Today, with so much data being saved, tracked, analyzed, and presented during meetings and conferences, even smaller businesses run into the need to print large documents, advertising materials, and other intellectual property. Rather than run these wide format jobs down to their local printer every time, they're instead purchasing one of the wide variety of affordable large format printers available from companies like Oce, Xerox, and Canon.

A hidden benefit to these printers is a reduction in the amount of physical storage required for archived projects, plans, and advertising materials. With the ability to scan large documents into digital storage using large format scanners, a digital archive can be created that allows instant review, editing, and printing of these documents any time of day and permits access by remote teams anywhere in the world. You may still want to keep around certain pieces of physical media for public relations or historical reasons but, with large format printers, a 100% accurate reproduction of these wide format documents is only a button press away!

Equipped with specialty ink systems that reproduce an incredible color palette, these printers feature fine printing heads and high quality ink designed to maintain color over a variety of paper stocks and through wear and age. Typical is an eight color arrangement that delivers extremely high quality reproductions of wide photographs without the need to invest in professional photo printing equipment like you might find at your local camera store or specialty retailer.

Although it may seem like a large format inkjet printer would only be for professional photographers, the price range for this equipment has come down in recent years so as to be affordable to even amateur and hobbyist photographers as well. Instead of trying to make do with a small general use printer than can only handle 5 by 8 prints or taking your files down to the local printer for reproduction you can now print high-quality wide format photographs from the comfort of your own home with an large format inkjet printer from Oce, Canon, HP, or Xerox.