Samsung SF-531 Printer Driver and Software

Samsung manufactures the Samsung SF-531 6-in-1 Laser MFP, which deals with laser printing, document scanning, document copying, fax and telephone services. All of this comes with a price tag of around $300, making it a fairly cost-effective solution for moderate document volume environments. Laser printing is limited to approximately 600 x 600 dpi at 8 pages per minute. So if you tend to print significant amounts throughout the day, a dedicated printer would be a good investment.

However, since inkjet printers/faxes have been on the market for a while, the Samsung SF-531 offers a much better solution in the long run as toner is cheaper than new ink cartridges and doesn’t smear when the paper gets wet.

Small businesses fuel the country; and if we look at the Canadian economy, for example, which grew 3.2% in 2002 and is expected to grow another 3.4% this year, it is easy to see why manufacturers are heavily targeting the SOHO segment .

With consumer confidence remaining high and Canada’s unemployment rate at a low 7.4%, things are going very well indeed. This prosperity has been good for the many individuals who run a small business (also known as a SOHO) in the technology sector or perhaps in even more traditional areas. For these individuals, there are some basic tools and resources that are considered “must-haves.”

The most important ones besides a computer (and internet connection) are usually the fax machine and the printer. Invoices, RFPs, purchase orders, I/Os and other business correspondence still require authorized signatures that require pen on paper.

For all the progress that email has made in improving communication between businesses, it is a century-old technology that takes the upper hand when timely access to these authorized documents is required – the fax machine. The fax machine was invented in 1843 by a Scottish mechanic named Alexander Bain and is now as ubiquitous as the telephone.

SOHO environments faced with the decision to purchase a fax, printer, telephone and copier generally opt for a three-in-one device or a similar device that faxes, prints, copies documents and telephone services combined in one small unit. Purchasing each of these machines separately can be expensive, but this generally means that each device is a little more specialized than units that combine everything under one hood.

Document Scanning and OCR

Since there are so many features built into this little device, we’re going to break things down a bit and dive into the features that consumers are likely to use the most. Scanning and copying documents can be a very handy tool, especially when combined with an OCR (optical character recognition) program.

Samsung supplies the Samsung SF-531 with a number of programs that fall under the name “SmarThru2”. These programs include a utility for scanning documents in black and white or grayscale at 300 dpi or 600 dpi resolution for use in subsequent faxes, printing, or emailing to another person.

If you’ve received a few pages of text or want to forward an article in a magazine via email, for example, there are two tools to choose from. The first method would be to scan the document or magazine article and distribute the black and white image. Since sending large email attachments can take a long time and is even blocked by some companies’ firewalls, in some cases it would be preferable to send the plain text of the document or journal article.

Related Printer: Samsung SF-5100

In the past, converting the text from a printed document back to a digital form usually meant retyping everything. Today, an OCR program can process the image and extrapolate the text (usually with a high degree of accuracy) back into a digital format. Test this out, we scanned a regular paper document with text using the Samsung SF-531. Next, let’s take a snippet from a magazine article to see how well the device can handle and process the printed word.