Ricoh 3260C User Manual

Ricoh Aficio 3260C

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RECOMMENDED

RECOMMENDED

20

07

07

20

®

45 PPM Color/60 PPM Black
Copier • Printer • Scanner

Test duration: Two months, including a 150,000-impression

durability test.

JANUARY 2007

Ricoh Aficio 3260C

BUYERS LABORATORY INC. Lab Test Report

A Comprehensive BLI Laboratory Evaluation

Reliability .............................................Very Good

Multitasking ........................................... Very Good

Administrative Utilities ............................. Very Good

Feedback to Workstations ........................... Excellent

Ease of Network Setup .............................. Very Good

Print Drivers .......................................... Very Good

Applications Compatibility .......................... Excellent

Scan Functions ....................................... Very Good

Color Print/Copy Quality .................... Very Good/Good

Black Print/Copy Quality ................................. Good

Color Print/Copy Productivity .............. Good/Very Good

Black Print/Copy Productivity ....................... Excellent

Ease of Use .................................................. Good

Feature Set ........................................... Very Good

Toner Yield ............................................. Excellent

Cost per Page .................................................... *

Value ...........................................................Fair

* Cost per page could not be calculated as pricing is set by

dealers and was not provided by Ricoh.

1

Maximum monthly duty cycle: 150,000 impressions.
BLI’s recommended monthly duty cycle for peak usage: Up to 100,000 impressions.

BLI RECOMMENDATION

With manufacturer-rated speeds of 45 ppm for color and 60 ppm for black, the

ALSO INSIDE

 Test Procedures

 Specications

 Certicate of

Reliability

Ratings scale:

Excellent, Very

Good, Good, Fair

and Poor.

LAB TEST

This report has been reproduced with the written permission of Buyers Laboratory Inc. Any duplication of this report, in whole or part, in any form or manner,

© 2007 Buyers Laboratory Inc. WARNING: This material is copyrighted by Buyers Laboratory Inc. and is the sole property of Buyers Laboratory. Duplication of this proprietary report or excerpts from this report, in any man-

without the written permission of Buyers Laboratory, is unlawful and violators will be prosecuted. © 2007 Buyers Laboratory Inc. To purchase reprints,

ner, whether printed or electronic (including, but not limited to, copying, faxing, scanning or use on a fax-back system), is illegal and strictly forbidden without written permission from Buyers Laboratory. Violators will be pros-
ecuted to the fullest extent of the law. To purchase reprints of any BLI reports or articles, contact BLI at [phone]. Buyers Laboratory Inc., 20 Railroad Avenue, Hackensack, NJ 07601. Contact us at [e-mail].

Ricoh Acio 3260C proved to be a strong overall unit during its two-month lab
assessment at BLI. Earning Very Good to Excellent ratings in many aspects of
performance evaluated, the Acio 3260C, which has standard copy, network
print and scan functionality (fax capability is not supported), displayed sound
multitasking ability throughout testing. The unit offers very good administrative
utilities and a range of print drivers, including an optional Adobe PostScript 3
driver. While color print quality was very good as tested with Ricoh’s controller,
users with more exacting color output needs can outt the Acio 3260C with an
optional Fiery controller, which will provide more precise control of color output
and improved performance for graphics-intensive applications. Furthermore,
the unit is productive, garnering ratings ranging from Good to Excellent. Also
noteworthy is its four 80-GB hard drives (320 GB total), which is tied with
several other devices for the highest capacity in the competitive group, as well

contact BLI at [phone] (x17) or at [e-mail].

as its new toner bag technology, which is environmentally friendly. Although
the unit’s suggested retail price tag is among the highest when compared to
business color models in this speed range tested to date, BLI recommends the
Acio 3260C for monthly volumes of up to 100,000 impressions.

PERFORMANCE OVERVIEW

, — and  represent positive, negative and neutral attributes, respectively.

Ricoh Aficio 3260C

Buye rs LaBorator y Lab TesT RepoRT

RELIABILITY

MULTITASKING

VERY GOOD

 The Acio 3260C proved to be highly reliable throughout its 150,000-impres-

sion durability test. Although it misfed 13 times for a misfeed rate of one per
11,538 impressions, no service of any kind was required.

 The unit’s photoconductor yield of 300,000 impressions is competitive for

business color models in this speed range tested to date.

VERY GOOD

 Up to nine copy jobs can be programmed ahead while a print or copy job is

in progress. Some other devices in this speed range enable the programming

ahead of more jobs or an unlimited number of copy jobs.

— The user must select the New Job key, which is small and may be over-

looked, to program the next copy job, whereas some systems don’t require

users to press a key.

 The number of print jobs that can be sent to the Acio 3260C is limited only

by memory capacity.

 Up to nine copy jobs can always be programmed, regardless of how many

print jobs may already be in the queue.

 The next copy job can be programmed once all the pages of the previous

copy job have been scanned. However, a scan job can be programmed ahead
while the pages of the copy job are still being scanned.

 An administrator can establish a priority mode, which can either be copy,

print, the function that corresponds to the function currently on the control

panel display or the order in which jobs are sent. Interleave, in which the

LAB TEST

This report has been reproduced with the written permission of Buyers Laboratory Inc. Any duplication of this report, in whole or part, in any form or manner,

© 2007 Buyers Laboratory Inc. WARNING: This material is copyrighted by Buyers Laboratory Inc. and is the sole property of Buyers Laboratory. Duplication of this proprietary report or excerpts from this report, in any man-

without the written permission of Buyers Laboratory, is unlawful and violators will be prosecuted. © 2007 Buyers Laboratory Inc. To purchase reprints,

2

ner, whether printed or electronic (including, but not limited to, copying, faxing, scanning or use on a fax-back system), is illegal and strictly forbidden without written permission from Buyers Laboratory. Violators will be pros-
ecuted to the fullest extent of the law. To purchase reprints of any BLI reports or articles, contact BLI at [phone]. Buyers Laboratory Inc., 20 Railroad Avenue, Hackensack, NJ 07601. Contact us at [e-mail].

contact BLI at [phone] (x17) or at [e-mail].

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system alternates between producing a set number of pages of a copy job
and a set number of pages of a print job, is a fth option.

 When job order is set as the priority mode, jobs are handled on a rst-in,

rst-out basis, which BLI technicians nd to be the most efcient. When copy

is the priority, a print job pauses to output a copy job and then resumes;

similarly, when print is established as the priority, a copy job that is running
will pause to allow output of a print job.

 The Interrupt hard key can be used to interrupt either a copy or a print job

to program a copy job with access to all features. A print job is interrupted
immediately, while copy jobs continue until the Start key is pressed, which
is more efcient.

 Once the interrupt job is complete, the interrupted job automatically

resumes.

ADMINISTRATIVE UTILITIES

 SmartDeviceMonitor allows conguring and monitoring of the unit and other

Ricoh devices on the network from a client PC. The version for administra­tors also monitors other manufacturers’ devices on the network, but it pro-

vides more detailed information on Ricoh devices.

 SmartDeviceMonitor provides real-time status information on the Acio

3260C, including busy/idle, paper and toner levels and the current setup.

VERY GOOD

SmartDeviceMonitor—Administrator Version

LAB TEST

This report has been reproduced with the written permission of Buyers Laboratory Inc. Any duplication of this report, in whole or part, in any form or manner,

© 2007 Buyers Laboratory Inc. WARNING: This material is copyrighted by Buyers Laboratory Inc. and is the sole property of Buyers Laboratory. Duplication of this proprietary report or excerpts from this report, in any man-

without the written permission of Buyers Laboratory, is unlawful and violators will be prosecuted. © 2007 Buyers Laboratory Inc. To purchase reprints,

3

ner, whether printed or electronic (including, but not limited to, copying, faxing, scanning or use on a fax-back system), is illegal and strictly forbidden without written permission from Buyers Laboratory. Violators will be pros-
ecuted to the fullest extent of the law. To purchase reprints of any BLI reports or articles, contact BLI at [phone]. Buyers Laboratory Inc., 20 Railroad Avenue, Hackensack, NJ 07601. Contact us at [e-mail].

contact BLI at [phone] (x17) or at [e-mail].

Ricoh Aficio 3260C

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 E-mail alerts, although not sent to users upon copy or print job completion,

are sent to the administrator or up to four key operators when an error
occurs with the Acio 3260C or consumables are depleted.

 Electronic meter reads that track the total number of copies, prints and

scans printed are available through SmartDeviceMontior.

 The unit’s embedded Web page—Web Image Monitor—enables administrators

to monitor and manage the Acio 3260C via a Web browser.

 Web Image Monitor allows users to view and manage les on the system’s

Document Server, plus manage user data in the unit’s e-mail address book

and scan-to-folder locations.

 The Web utility has a Printer Job History page that enables users to view

print jobs that have been processed, as well as jobs in the queue.

 Ricoh makes plug-ins for HP Web Jetadmin available for its product line so

administrators who already use this popular utility to manage their HP print­ers on the network can also use it to manage their Ricoh devices.

 Although DeskTopBinder Lite allows for direct printing of PDF les without

having the application they were created in open, users must have the Post­Script option enabled. Moreover, PDF Direct Print offers pop-up message for
job status and error warnings.

 Ricoh’s @Remote, which enables automated meter readings, is available for

this model but only with the Ricoh controller.

Web Image Monitor

LAB TEST

This report has been reproduced with the written permission of Buyers Laboratory Inc. Any duplication of this report, in whole or part, in any form or manner,

© 2007 Buyers Laboratory Inc. WARNING: This material is copyrighted by Buyers Laboratory Inc. and is the sole property of Buyers Laboratory. Duplication of this proprietary report or excerpts from this report, in any man-

without the written permission of Buyers Laboratory, is unlawful and violators will be prosecuted. © 2007 Buyers Laboratory Inc. To purchase reprints,

4

ner, whether printed or electronic (including, but not limited to, copying, faxing, scanning or use on a fax-back system), is illegal and strictly forbidden without written permission from Buyers Laboratory. Violators will be pros-
ecuted to the fullest extent of the law. To purchase reprints of any BLI reports or articles, contact BLI at [phone]. Buyers Laboratory Inc., 20 Railroad Avenue, Hackensack, NJ 07601. Contact us at [e-mail].

contact BLI at [phone] (x17) or at [e-mail].

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Error Alert

FEEDBACK TO WORKSTATIONS

 The unit’s document monitoring utility offers pop-up messages, including

job completion notication and error conditions.

 Color changes to the icon for SmartDeviceMonitor on the taskbar alert users

to changes in status; when users move the cursor over the icon, they get
brief information, but when users open the utility, they can obtain very spe­cic information.

— No audible alerts are available.

 Device status is available via the taskbar, utility, pop-up messages and the

Web page, which provides the most extensive details.

 Paper size status, as well as paper and toner gauges in increments of 25

percent, can be viewed from the Web utility and SmartDeviceMonitor.

— The print drivers do not provide any consumables feedback or notication of

paper size status.

EXCELLENT

EASE OF NETWORK SETUP

 The CDs are menu driven, and setting up drivers and utilities is very easy.

 The Quick Install CD installs the PCL 5c/6 and RPCS drivers, as well as

SmartDeviceMonitor for Clients, automatically. Furthermore, the install
utility automatically locates the unit and creates the port. Installing the
PCL 5c and RPCS drivers, along with SmartDeviceMonitor, requires just
seven clicks. SmartDeviceMonitor for Administrators must be installed

separately.

 The optional Adobe PostScript 3 driver requires a separate installation. How-

ever, the port that is created when the PCL and RPCS drivers are installed
can also be used for the PostScript driver. It takes 11 clicks to install both
the PostScript driver and DeskTopBinder Lite in one session.

 The PCL and RPCS drivers can automatically detect congured accessories,

eliminating the need for an administrator to manually specify any cong­ured options. However, users must click “Update” in order to initiate the
search for congured accessories with the PCL driver.

— The PostScript driver does not automatically detect congured accessories,

requiring administrators to manually specify congured accessories.

VERY GOOD

LAB TEST

This report has been reproduced with the written permission of Buyers Laboratory Inc. Any duplication of this report, in whole or part, in any form or manner,

© 2007 Buyers Laboratory Inc. WARNING: This material is copyrighted by Buyers Laboratory Inc. and is the sole property of Buyers Laboratory. Duplication of this proprietary report or excerpts from this report, in any man-

without the written permission of Buyers Laboratory, is unlawful and violators will be prosecuted. © 2007 Buyers Laboratory Inc. To purchase reprints,

5

ner, whether printed or electronic (including, but not limited to, copying, faxing, scanning or use on a fax-back system), is illegal and strictly forbidden without written permission from Buyers Laboratory. Violators will be pros-
ecuted to the fullest extent of the law. To purchase reprints of any BLI reports or articles, contact BLI at [phone]. Buyers Laboratory Inc., 20 Railroad Avenue, Hackensack, NJ 07601. Contact us at [e-mail].

contact BLI at [phone] (x17) or at [e-mail].

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 Network settings can easily be congured from both the control panel and

Web utility, although there is no ping capability on the Web page to ensure
IP addresses have been set up properly.

PRINT DRIVERS

VERY GOOD

 The Acio 3260C includes a print controller that features a 733-MHz proces-

sor, while sharing the standard 1.38 GB of RAM and four 80-GB hard drives
(320 GB total) with the copier. The unit supports PCL 5c/6 and RPCS drivers,
as well as an optional Adobe PostScript 3 driver.

— Layout of the drivers is dissimilar, making use less convenient for those who

frequently switch among them.

 The drivers offer a good feature set that includes smoothing, toner-save

mode and the ability to produce originals of mixed orientation—portrait and
landscape—in a single job. Additionally, the drivers all support secure and

proof print, but scheduled print is not available.

 The drivers are easy to use, as most of the features required for a typical

print job are available from the main tab of the PCL driver, including quan­tity, collate sets and nishing. In addition, the RPCS driver enables users to
save the settings for frequently used or complex jobs as icons on the main
screen, thus allowing selections for multiple features such as duplex, sta­pling and booklet nishing with just one click.

 The PCL driver’s main screen is graphical, as users can opt for either pull-down

menus or icons that take them through each available setting when clicked
on in order to select the settings for Job Type, Orientation and Layout.

PCL 6 Print Driver—Setup Tab

LAB TEST

This report has been reproduced with the written permission of Buyers Laboratory Inc. Any duplication of this report, in whole or part, in any form or manner,

© 2007 Buyers Laboratory Inc. WARNING: This material is copyrighted by Buyers Laboratory Inc. and is the sole property of Buyers Laboratory. Duplication of this proprietary report or excerpts from this report, in any man-

without the written permission of Buyers Laboratory, is unlawful and violators will be prosecuted. © 2007 Buyers Laboratory Inc. To purchase reprints,

6

ner, whether printed or electronic (including, but not limited to, copying, faxing, scanning or use on a fax-back system), is illegal and strictly forbidden without written permission from Buyers Laboratory. Violators will be pros-
ecuted to the fullest extent of the law. To purchase reprints of any BLI reports or articles, contact BLI at [phone]. Buyers Laboratory Inc., 20 Railroad Avenue, Hackensack, NJ 07601. Contact us at [e-mail].

contact BLI at [phone] (x17) or at [e-mail].

Ricoh Aficio 3260C

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 As is typical of a true Adobe driver, the PostScript driver is text-based, and

most of the features required for a typical print job—paper source, paper
type, quantity, collate and nishing—are not available on the main tab.
However, the Advanced key in the PostScript driver displays a review/check
of all the current job settings in one window when selected, and users can
also change current job settings from this window.

 The drivers eliminate the confusion for users determining whether to use

the Collate function of the driver or the application in use, as it can be set
to default to one or the other.

 The PCL driver offers a point-and-click interface for selecting paper source

and output destination. However, the RPCS driver does not.

 PCL and RPCS driver users can add front or back covers to their printed

documents and draw paper from up to four sources per job. The PostScript
driver allows users to draw paper from only one source for a single job and
does not allow users to add front or back covers.

 Users can print booklets from only the PCL and RPCS drivers. It takes 14

clicks to program a booklet print job with multiple sets using the PCL driver.
However, if booklet mode is programmed as a default button on the control
panel, it requires fewer clicks.

— When Collate is selected from within the application using the PostScript

driver, although the le size remains the same, the number of pages dis­played is inaccurate. For example, when programming three sets of a 10­page document, the Acio 3260C sets the job as 30 pages, thus slowing down
processing time.

— None of the drivers offers consumables feedback.

RPCS Print Driver—Print Settings Tab

LAB TEST

This report has been reproduced with the written permission of Buyers Laboratory Inc. Any duplication of this report, in whole or part, in any form or manner,

© 2007 Buyers Laboratory Inc. WARNING: This material is copyrighted by Buyers Laboratory Inc. and is the sole property of Buyers Laboratory. Duplication of this proprietary report or excerpts from this report, in any man-

without the written permission of Buyers Laboratory, is unlawful and violators will be prosecuted. © 2007 Buyers Laboratory Inc. To purchase reprints,

7

ner, whether printed or electronic (including, but not limited to, copying, faxing, scanning or use on a fax-back system), is illegal and strictly forbidden without written permission from Buyers Laboratory. Violators will be pros-
ecuted to the fullest extent of the law. To purchase reprints of any BLI reports or articles, contact BLI at [phone]. Buyers Laboratory Inc., 20 Railroad Avenue, Hackensack, NJ 07601. Contact us at [e-mail].

contact BLI at [phone] (x17) or at [e-mail].

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APPLICATIONS COMPATIBILITY

 No problems were experienced with any of the test les used in the appli-

cations compatibility tests. Units are tested for compatibility on Windows
XP platforms with Microsoft Word 2000, PowerPoint 2000 and Excel 2000,
as well as Adobe PageMaker 7.0, Photoshop 6.0 and Acrobat 6.0, using 25
application test les that contain text, graphics, halftone images, tables,
etc., enabling BLI technicians to evaluate memory usage, le processing,
font rendering and grayscale capability.

SCAN FUNCTIONS

 The Acio 3260C offers scan to e-mail, network folders via FTP or SMB, the

Document Server (the unit’s hard drive) and desktop management applica­tions such as DeskTopBinder Lite.

 Via the Document Server, copied, printed and scanned documents can be auto-

matically stored on one of the Acio 3260C’s four 80-GB hard drives. Moreover,
users have the ability to store documents with a PIN, ensuring le integrity.

 Users can preview scans for quality at the device before transmitting them

and view documents stored in the Document Server either in a list view or
as thumbnail images both at the unit and via Web Image Monitor.

EXCELLENT

VERY GOOD

 DeskTopBinder Lite, which comes bundled with the CD containing the scan

driver, enables users to view, download and repurpose documents stored on
the hard drive. Furthermore, les stored in the Document Server can be sent

via e-mail.

 Up to ve LDAP servers can be enabled, with users being able to search by

name, fax number, e-mail address, company name and department name as
long as this information exists in the mail server.

 In addition to directly selecting addresses from LDAP servers, addresses can

be programmed at the control panel, which features a QWERTY keypad.

 It takes 18 keystrokes without a user name and password to perform a scan-

to-e-mail job to one destination using LDAP with a 300-dpi PDF le. Scanning
to two destinations increases the number of keystrokes to 19.

 Users can set up a scan-to-e-mail favorites list.

 Although the unit does not generate an error when sending to an e-mail

address that does not exist, a second job can be sent to an existing address
even though the rst job is held.

LAB TEST

This report has been reproduced with the written permission of Buyers Laboratory Inc. Any duplication of this report, in whole or part, in any form or manner,

© 2007 Buyers Laboratory Inc. WARNING: This material is copyrighted by Buyers Laboratory Inc. and is the sole property of Buyers Laboratory. Duplication of this proprietary report or excerpts from this report, in any man-

without the written permission of Buyers Laboratory, is unlawful and violators will be prosecuted. © 2007 Buyers Laboratory Inc. To purchase reprints,

8

ner, whether printed or electronic (including, but not limited to, copying, faxing, scanning or use on a fax-back system), is illegal and strictly forbidden without written permission from Buyers Laboratory. Violators will be pros-
ecuted to the fullest extent of the law. To purchase reprints of any BLI reports or articles, contact BLI at [phone]. Buyers Laboratory Inc., 20 Railroad Avenue, Hackensack, NJ 07601. Contact us at [e-mail].

contact BLI at [phone] (x17) or at [e-mail].

IMAGE QUALITY

Ricoh Aficio 3260C

Buye rs LaBorator y Lab TesT RepoRT

 GlobalScan, which enables users to scan documents to a range of document

management and other applications, e-mail addresses and network folders,
is also available. This optional enterprise scan solution was highly rated by
BLI in a Solutions Report and lets users save documents in various formats,
including PDF, RTF, TIFF and Excel.

Color Print/Copy Quality VERY GOOD/GOOD

 Color output printed by the Acio 3260C was rated Very Good. Business

graphics exhibited bright colors and received above average marks across
the board save for only average consistency of coverage. Despite some
graininess, photographic image output was also very good overall, with
above average sharpness.

 In copy mode, color output was good overall. Business graphics had average

sharpness and production of pastel shades, while background reproduction
was below average (light backgrounds in BLI’s test original were not vis­ible on the copy). Although esh tones were natural looking, photographic
images were grainy.

 A range of color adjustments can be accessed via the control panel. Users

can adjust color balance, primary and secondary colors and, for copy mode,

sharp/soft, contrast and background density. Users also have access to 15

color presets.

Black Print/Copy Quality GOOD

 Text printed by the unit was rated Very Good, as characters were dark,

sharp and fully formed, with no evidence of toner overspray.

 In copy mode, text was good overall. BLI technicians cited average dark-

ness, sharpness and smoothness of curves/lines/serifs, although characters
were not always fully formed, with some breakup evident.

 Although line art in print mode was rated Good, with consistent line thick-

ness and closely spaced ne lines remaining distinct, circles were not always
fully formed. In addition, there was some evidence of stair-stepping of diag-

onal lines.

 Line art in copy mode was very good overall, earning above average marks

across the board.

 In print mode, halftone pattern and halftone range were rated Good and

Very Good, respectively. Halftones were produced from the 2 percent to 100

LAB TEST

This report has been reproduced with the written permission of Buyers Laboratory Inc. Any duplication of this report, in whole or part, in any form or manner,

© 2007 Buyers Laboratory Inc. WARNING: This material is copyrighted by Buyers Laboratory Inc. and is the sole property of Buyers Laboratory. Duplication of this proprietary report or excerpts from this report, in any man-

without the written permission of Buyers Laboratory, is unlawful and violators will be prosecuted. © 2007 Buyers Laboratory Inc. To purchase reprints,

9

ner, whether printed or electronic (including, but not limited to, copying, faxing, scanning or use on a fax-back system), is illegal and strictly forbidden without written permission from Buyers Laboratory. Violators will be pros-
ecuted to the fullest extent of the law. To purchase reprints of any BLI reports or articles, contact BLI at [phone]. Buyers Laboratory Inc., 20 Railroad Avenue, Hackensack, NJ 07601. Contact us at [e-mail].

contact BLI at [phone] (x17) or at [e-mail].