Picking a copier for your business shouldn’t feel like a research project. But between brand names, model numbers, lease terms, and feature lists, it often does. We’ve watched people get talked into devices that were way too large for their office, or lock into 60-month contracts on machines that didn’t survive 36 months. It happens more than it should.

We put this guide together because we get the same questions from Colorado businesses every week. Things like: “Is Kyocera actually better than Canon or is that just what you sell?” and “Do I really need color?” and “My current lease ends in three months — what should I do?” The honest answers are usually simpler than the industry makes them sound, and we’d rather give them to you here than make you sit through a sales call to find out.

ABT has been selling and servicing copiers on the Front Range since 2005. We’re authorized dealers for Canon, HP, Kyocera, Epson, Xerox, and Fujifilm — which means we genuinely don’t have a rooting interest in steering you toward any one brand. We recommend what fits, and we’re accountable for it because we’re the ones who show up when something goes wrong.

Here’s what you actually need to know.

The Quick Decision Framework: Four Questions First

We’ve found that most people come to us thinking about brands when they should be thinking about volume and use case first. Once you answer these four questions honestly, the decision usually gets a lot easier — and a lot cheaper:

Brand Comparison: Canon vs. HP vs. Kyocera vs. Epson vs. Xerox

We get asked “which brand is best?” a lot. The real answer is that every brand in this table is genuinely good at something — and genuinely wrong for certain situations. There’s no universal winner. Here’s how we actually think about it when a customer calls us:

If you want a deeper head-to-head on three of these, our Xerox vs. Kyocera vs. HP Colorado buyer’s guide goes into more detail on those three specifically.

What Each Brand Is Actually Best At

Canon: High-Volume Reliability and Image Quality

Canon’s imageCLASS and imageRUNNER lines are workhorses. If your office prints a lot — contracts, case files, patient records, presentations — and you care about image quality, Canon consistently delivers. We’ve had these devices in Colorado offices for years and the reliability track record is strong. The cloud integration with Google Drive, SharePoint, and OneDrive is genuinely useful and well-implemented, not just a marketing checkbox. One thing people don’t always realize: Canon’s scan workflow capabilities are some of the best in class, which matters a lot in environments where documents need to be routed and filed automatically. ABT sees Canon most often in law firms, medical practices, and schools across Denver and Colorado Springs.

HP: Security-First for Sensitive Environments

HP’s SureStart BIOS protection and real-time malware detection aren’t just marketing bullet points — they’re genuinely meaningful if you’re in financial services, healthcare, or any environment where document security is a compliance requirement. We’ve had conversations with Colorado businesses that only started thinking about printer security after an audit flagged their devices as network vulnerabilities. Don’t be that company. The HP Smart App and cloud connectivity also make HP a natural fit for businesses with hybrid or remote teams. If someone on your staff is regularly printing from home or a client site, HP handles that more gracefully than most. If data security is your top concern, HP is usually our first recommendation. See HP options at ABT.

Kyocera: The Low-TCO Workhorse

Kyocera’s long-life drum and developer components are the reason it wins on total cost of ownership — and this is the thing that surprises people most when they see the numbers side by side. You’re replacing parts less frequently, service calls are less common, and the per-page cost on B&W is typically lower than comparable Canon or HP devices. EcoPrint mode also keeps energy consumption down, which matters if your business has sustainability goals or just wants a lower utility bill. The one honest caveat: Kyocera’s color output quality doesn’t quite match Canon at the same price point. If you’re primarily printing black-and-white documents — shipping orders, invoices, internal reports — Kyocera is hard to beat. If you’re printing color marketing materials and presentation decks all day, you’ll notice the difference. It’s also a natural fit for managed print services programs because the predictability of its maintenance schedule makes fleet management much cleaner. See Kyocera options at ABT.

Epson: Color, Wide-Format, and Sustainability

Epson doesn’t always come up in the first conversation, but it should for the right type of business. Heat-Free technology uses significantly less energy than laser-based devices and has fewer moving parts — which translates directly to lower maintenance costs and fewer service calls over the life of the device. The color output on the SureColor line is genuinely exceptional for visual work: architectural renderings, marketing materials, blueprints, presentation boards. If you’re in an AEC firm or creative agency where color accuracy and wide-format capability matter, Epson belongs in the conversation. Just be clear-eyed about the fit: this is not the device for a busy accounting office printing 8,000 pages of financial documents a month. Put it in that environment and you’ll be frustrated. Put it in the right hands and it’s one of the best investments in the category.

Xerox: Workflow Automation and Deep Integration

Xerox gets oversimplified a lot — people think of it as the legacy office copier brand and don’t realize how much the platform has evolved. ConnectKey is where the AltaLink and VersaLink series earn their keep: you can add workflow apps directly to the device touchscreen, trigger automated document routing to cloud storage, and pull detailed usage analytics without installing anything extra. For a mid-to-large Colorado office that processes a high volume of documents and wants the device to actively reduce manual steps — not just sit there and print — Xerox is the strongest option in terms of workflow depth. We also see Xerox pair particularly well with a Managed IT Services environment where you want print infrastructure and your network managed as a single stack rather than two separate vendor relationships. See Xerox options at ABT.

What Colorado Businesses Should Know About Leasing

Most Front Range businesses lease rather than buy, and we think that’s generally the right call. A lease converts a capital expense to a predictable operating cost, maintenance is bundled, and you’re not stuck with a five-year-old device when better technology is available. That said, we’ve seen leases go sideways when people don’t read the fine print. These are the things that trip people up most often:

If your current lease is coming up — or you’re not sure if you’re getting a fair deal — ABT offers a free copier contract evaluation for Front Range businesses. We’ll review your current agreement and tell you where you stand.

Managed Print Services: Worth It?

If you have more than two or three devices — or you’re running multiple locations across Denver, Colorado Springs, and Westminster — Managed Print Services is worth a serious conversation. The pitch is simple: instead of reacting to problems (out of toner, device down, mystery overage charge on your invoice), you get proactive monitoring, automatic toner replenishment before you run out, usage reporting so you can see where the waste is, and a single monthly cost covering everything. Most businesses we set up on MPS reduce their overall print spend by 20–30% within the first year — not because we’re doing magic, but because nobody was watching the spend before and there’s usually real waste once you look.

For businesses that also need network and IT support, ABT can roll your print environment into a broader Managed IT Services engagement — one point of contact for devices, network, security, and print. That removes a lot of the “who do I call” friction when something goes wrong.