Although we still don't know if this is correct, or how subsequent generations of forensic tracking technologies might work, it is probably safest to assume that all modern color laser printers do include some form of tracking information that associates documents with the printer's serial number. The SCX-4500’s copy looked rich and detailed but a bit too grainy overall, earning a Very Good rating.(Added 2015) Some of the documents that we previously received through FOIA suggested that all major manufacturers of color laser printers entered a secret agreement with governments to ensure that the output of those printers is forensically traceable. To test the SCX-4500’s copy quality, we copied the cover of the December 2006 issue of Macworld. On our Graphics, Fine Lines, and Gradients test, the SCX-4500 earned a Good rating: fine lines were clean and well preserved, gradients looked flushed and weren’t well-distinguished, and graphics looked professional though a bit dotty. Print quality lost integrity at finer point sizes.

The SCX-4500 earned a Good rating (on a scale of Superior, Very Good, Good, Fair, and Poor) from our panel of experts in our Text Quality test overall, text appeared clean and smooth, but not as sharp as the output from other laser printers we’ve tested. When it comes to image quality, the SCX-4500 doesn’t disappoint. With sharpening turned off, the scanner took 77 seconds to scan an 8-by-10-inch photo at 600 dpi, and 78 seconds to scan a 4-by-6-inch photo at 1,200 dpi. The SCX-4500’s scanning speed isn’t shabby either. It took 13 seconds to print a 1-page Word document, 46 seconds to print a 10-page Word document, and 31 seconds to print a 4-page PDF. The SCX-4500 turned in speedy print results. Other MFPs I’ve tested include software with only a minimal number of customization options. You’ll appreciate the software’s options for example, you can set image type (e.g., true color RGB and lineart), resolution (up to 600-by-2,400 dots per inch), document type, and filters to adjust sharpness or blur. The SCX-4500’s scanning software is intuitive and well designed, too.

Laser test print