Lexmark's C752n offers midrange capabilities at an affordable price, with the option to add a vast array of paper-handling extras. The $2339 machine prints text at 13.5 pages per minute, which is 1.6 ppm slower than the recent average, and graphics at 4.3 ppm, slightly faster than average. The C752n's text came out black and heavy, with only slightly rough edges on curved letters. Overall, line art was sharp, although the narrowest parallel lines printed so heavily that they almost merged into blobs. Gray-scale photos looked dark and grainy but retained fine detail, and color photos also retained good detail but seemed somewhat flat and grayish. Text looked sharp, though thicker than that printed by some other models. In our page-yield test, the C752n used up 15 cents' worth of toner for each color page, which was 2 cents worse than the average, even though we used its high-capacity cartridges.

Working with the C752n is a pleasure. The front door opens wide to expose the toner cartridges, which sit in racks so they're easy to insert and remove. The auxiliary feed on the printer's left side opens only a couple of inches, enough to add paper without stretching the footprint too much. Two sturdy handles on each side make lifting the printer more secure. And the hierarchical control panel menus make navigating easy.

Lexmark almost goes overboard with documentation. You get quick reference and jam-clearing posters--in fact, four copies of each, in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. The main documentation comes as an on-screen PDF library covering all aspects of operating and maintaining the printer. It also delves into the intricacies of Lexmark's MarkVision printer management software. Setting up the C752n and MarkVision on a Windows 2003 server required two quick installation procedures, both mostly automated. MarkVision, in concert with the Web server inside the printer, lets you control who can use the printer and what they can do; set up notifications of error conditions and warnings; track how much each printer on the network is used; and perform other similar tasks.

You can add all sorts of features to the C752n. A duplexer costs $549; a basic 500-sheet paper feeder costs $412; and a 2000-sheet feeder will set you back $1249. The printer also supports a $2499 finisher that can staple and hole-punch up to 90 sets of a 30-page document. You also can add a $440 five-bin mailbox, a 60-envelope feeder for $399, and a $4299 multifunction subsystem that scans, copies, and faxes; you can send and receive faxes using the printer's control panel or from a PC on the network.

We did encounter a couple of shortcomings in the design. The power switch is located on the back, so you have to know where to poke (we prefer it to be on the side), and the driver's watermark feature limits the font sizes you can choose.

The C752n is affordably priced, easy to use, and very expandable, but graphics print quality is mediocre.

Dan Littman