When I opened the shipping box containing Lexmark's Z53 Color Jetprinter, I was immediately struck by its light weight and how the printer looks more expensive than its $139 price tag.

The Lexmark Z53 Color Jetprinter offers both parallel and USB connections and provides drivers for Linux, Mac OS, and Windows computer users. To its credit, Lexmark bundles both parallel and USB cables with the printer. When was the last time you saw that? For my initial testing, I connected it to a 650MHz Premio computer running a beta version of Microsoft's forthcoming XP operating system. I decided to use the parallel cable because that's what was already connected to my previous printer, and rebooted the system. After following the directions on Lexmark's poster-sized setup sheet, Windows XP recognized the new device and let me install its driver. During the process, the OS then informed me that this particular device was not recognized or compatible with XP, but I ignored the error message and the printer performed perfectly.

I urge new computer users to take a few moments to read the short manual and become familiar with the printer's capabilities and practice with sheets of inexpensive paper before putting in the expensive stuff. ...

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