Canon has announced it will be vying for the high-speed color-copier market, plugging a hole in its market for color copiers faster than 40 copies per minute. By the end of the year, Canon is expected to launch a new color engine for machines scheduled for release in 2006.

Canon's attempt to grab more share of the fast-copying color market has brought up the antennae of everyone in the copier marketplace. While Canon has not dominated fast color copying to date, its color machines are known as reliable and Canon has dominated the monochrome markets.

In 1986, Canon produced its color copiers based on the xerographic engine-the Canon CLC 1 at five pages per minute (ppm). The Fiery RIP was introduced by Electronics For Imaging two years later, and the two together provided groundbreaking technology in color copying and color laser-printing ability.

The Canon 1 successors, such as the Canon CLC 500 (16 ppm), introduced in 1989, and the CLC 1000 (31 ppm), dating from 1998, still pervade the market. A number of the latter machines are in businesses ranging from to routine copying to small-format color-copying service at reprographic shops. The latest versions of the CLC line are the Canon CLC 5100 (51 ppm color/monochrome) and 4000 (40 ppm color/monochrome).

Color copying dates from when color copiers went to the dogs in the late 1950s. Walt Disney Studios experimented with a liquid-toner color process on RCA's Electrofax copiers for animating the first "101 Dalmatians" movie about the affectionate canines. The 3M "Color in Color" color copier was introduced in 1968. Xerox/Haloid had dallied in the market even before the debut of the first monochrome 914 Xerox copier (1960) in attempts to copy military maps, but Xerox's first color copier was the Xerox 6500 in 1973.

Although Canon is a major part of the history of color-copy development, such companies as Ricoh, Xerox and Konica Minolta have faster-copying products.

That gives Canon some golden reasons for wanting a competitive upper-segment color copier. Canon holds an operating profit margin of 22 percent in 2004 for its office equipment division that includes copiers. Though Canon dominates overall copier market segments (27 percent in 2004), nine out of 10 sold are monochrome copiers.

The Xerox WorkCentre C2424, which will print, copy and scan in 24-ppm color and monochrome capability, has garnered accolades from three reviewers and research organizations.

Business Equipment Research and Test Laboratories (BERTL), a United Kingdom-based office equipment evaluation and software evaluation company, found the machine was the "Best Color-Capable Executive MFP" in its 10th annual Best Product Awards.

Better Buys for Business, an industry research organization specializing in office imaging equipment, also gave the WorkCentre C2424 the "Editor's Choice" in its 2005 Printer Multifunctional Guide. And VARBusiness, an industry magazine focusing on information technology and distribution channels, found that the WorkCentre C2424 was the "Mid-Market Product of the Year."

Job searches are becoming longer and more complex, particularly for older workers who may find themselves downsized or looking for work.

Here are some suggestions from other people who have folded the same job parachute:

• 1. Be prepared. Always keep a résumé updated and available, no matter where you work or how secure your job seems. In addition, keep addresses of your references updated and talk to them occasionally. Keep some personal business cards on you at all times.
• 2. Keep tabs on finances. Keep some money in reserve, or at least have an equity credit line that could support you in case of an emergency. If unemployed, cut obvious expenses for services you may be able to do. But remember your primary job will be to market yourself and renew cash flow, not do jobs best left to professionals.

• 3. Other people can help. Network with those people who have always provided some sort of support for you in the past. Keep in contact with those who might be able to give a good word about you from inside their company.
• 4. Use outside resources. A specialized recruiting service can sometimes save you time, especially in the copier industry. See "Recruiting Services Help Find the Right Fit" at Copiercareers.com.

The heart of Silicon Valley thrives on technology, but when it comes to copier service, customers are drawn to the same fast, high-quality service - the same as anywhere else.

"It's a high-tech environment," said Tom Locatelli, founder and owner of Integrated Copy Solutions, San Jose, Calif., "but there are all sorts of businesses here." While large offices struggle, Locatelli says the 16-person company's overhead is completely under control. Locatelli calls ICS a "tighter-knit, hands-on, service-first orientation."

Leasing, selling and servicing Konica Minolta, Kyocera Mita line and HP machines is most of ICS's business, plus document and file-management solutions. Locatelli founded the company in 2002 after a 13-year span in copier sales and management. He credits the start in a tough economy with part of its success, and ICS posted a 20 percent increase in total revenue last year.

"For us, it's not 'look how much we've sold.' or 'look how big we are,' " Locatelli said. "It's 'look how good our service is.' For that, we get a lot of business and our profits are good because of it. We're really not pushing how big we are. We're really pushing how good of a job we do."

A display of the latest leading-edge equipment that Ricoh debuted in 2002 in New York was recently unveiled in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Ricoh, with U.S. headquarters located in West Caldwell, N.J., also has portals in Chicago and San Francisco. The displays show typical end-user workflow and how Ricoh solutions can address document challenges in workgroup, production, professional and enterprise areas.

There is a state-of-the-art conference room with teleconferencing capabilities connecting engineers and Ricoh customers for on-site solutions. There is also a display that shows Ricoh's work to develop environmental solutions for its products.

Eight seventh-graders who decided to use a color copier to make one and five-dollar bills found that instead of spending money, they got into a lot of trouble.

The fake money made by Birmingham, Ala. students was seized and the U.S. Secret Service, which investigates all incidences of counterfeiting, was notified. The students didn't try to spend the bills, but were suspended and faced added disciplinary action.

Apparently a substitute teacher was on duty when the students found the opportunity to make the bogus bills on the science class color copier. School personnel said the bills looked authentic, but a Birmingham police officer discovered the students had counterfeited the bills.

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