A few months back, we talked about the emergence of the dedicated photo paper tray in photo printers as consumers seek more automation in switching between regular paper and photo paper. One feature we see more and more in multi-function printers is the office-friendly auto-document feeder, or ADF. This special tray is designed to simplify an all-in-one printer’s non-printing functions such as copying, scanning and faxing.

 

An ADF comes in especially handy when you need to scan, fax, or copy a multi-page document. If there’s no ADF, you have to feed in each page one by one, which ties you down to your machine when you could be doing something more constructive. An ADF-equipped multi-function printer enables you to load a certain number of pages, and then step away and multi-task as the machine completes the job on its own. Current ADF paper capacities can range anywhere from the 15 pages you’ll find in the Brother MFC-790CW to the 50 pages in the HP Photosmart Premium Fax.

 

All-in-one printers are growing in popularity as a space-saving alternative for home offices and smaller businesses. As a result, look for ADFs to become an increasingly common feature as users aim to multi-task during multi-page copying, scanning and faxing jobs. To keep track of our coverage of ADF-equipped printers, simply type ADF into the search box in the blog.