Introduction
To start off: The headline is slightly wrong this is not a thermal printer, but a fairly vintage inkjet unit.

When I got this unit I was looking for a scanner when I came across the PSC 1110. (There are a few variants of the model (sporting solid state media slots etc. but these variants are not reviewed here. I gathered that printing photos without a computer from solid state media is certainly possible and fairly easy, but it takes a lot of time and ink. My comments about scanning and printing should still apply).

This HP model offers a decent scanner and an inkjet printer for almost the price of a scanner alone. (This quite sensible, as scanner and printer can share the same enclosure, power supply, PC connection etc.). This arrangement also allows copying without a PC.

Size is about 20% more than A4/legal which was also one of the pros for the HP: Scanner and color inkjet take much more table space if separate.

For real printing jobs I keep a laser printer around as well, but this may reflect my personal preferences.

Scanner
The scanner is fairly decent if not extremely quick. Resolution and color fidelity are adequate for scanning paper documents (my main use), photographs are ok but not brilliant. I rarely use ultra-high resolution due to the resulting file size (a 2400 dpi CD label produces over 360 MB of TIFF data - if you are not technically inclined: This is a lot. It comes down to 45 MB as a JPG).

Dta transfer works quickly through USB 2.0 (tested on Windows XP SP2 + all patches to date). I wouldn't know about use under Linux.

The software supplied for scanning is usable though not great. Apart from the occasional error message it's configurable enough, but I have not found a way to set the default values for resolution etc. permanently. The software typically also creates its own folders in "My Pictures" when scanning. It also stores its data in invisible files stored in each directory it uses. I am not really fond of such behavior but disks are cheap enough these days.

Printer
The printer is a cheap standard unit with separate black and color tanks. I don't print as much, but paper feeding is less-than-perfect and jams easily if the paper sat around in the 100 page tray for some time. However, the print heads have not yet dried up which is essential for infrequent printing.

Otherwise print quality is good, even for large areas of color. When comparing quality keep in mind the price of the overall unit. If you like to print high-quality photos this naturally is not the printer to get.

Copying
Copying works well in both color and blach-and-white modes. Contrary to conventional copiers you need to be aware of the edge as the printer cannot print to the edges of the paper.

Conclusion
The HP 1110 is a compact and versatile unit which can adequately scan, print and copy in color given its price. Other units perform individual tasks much better, but this comes at a cost. So if you scan documents and occasionally need to print (also in color) this may be the unit to get - perfect of the home or small office if you are on a budget - both in terms of money and space.



Recommended: Yes