Kodak offers several ways to print to the Kodak aside from the standard USB connection. That's why it makes more fiscal sense for photographers to print snapshots on competing photo printers that house five and sometimes six individual ink tanks. Kodak claims its ink totals the lowest cost per page in the industry, and my calculations based on their XL-capacity cartridges corroborates those claims at just 2.4 cents per black page and 7.2 cents for a page of color, but keep in mind that all five inks are bundled into one cartridge, so you'll need to buy a new one when the first color runs out. The Hero 9.1 uses Kodak's model 10B and 10C cartridges with a single tank for black ink and a separate five-ink cartridge of pigment color. If that's the case, the Epson WorkForce 845 all-in-one serves your needs better, with a combined paper input capacity of 500 pages. Depending on your intended uses and monthly output volume, the 140-sheet total input capacity may dissuade you from purchasing this printer. You get a diminished 100-sheet main paper tray for everyday printing on the bottom of the unit and another 40-sheet tray on top for smaller media. Kodak throws in two separate paper trays along with the matte touch screen to lure shoppers into choosing the 9.1 over its Hero line cousins, and with good sense. Kodak estimates that the 9.1 can handle about 12,000 printed pages a month before it loses steam, which should be more than enough for SMBs and home offices with moderate to large output. The auto-duplexer that flips pages over for double-sided printing adds a bulky extrusion to the back of the printer, but the extra weight is offset by its economic benefits for offices that print more than the usual amount. The printer also has a small green Wi-Fi indicator LED on the right side of the control panel, and just below the buttons you'll find a multimedia card reader for Memory Stick, xD-Picture Card, SD, and USB via the PictBridge-compatible port just above it.

The angled display contrasts with the narrow auto-document feeder up top that can hold up to 30 sheets of a document at a time for hands-free copying and scanning.

Like the 6.1, the Hero 9.1's exterior gives off a more streamlined attitude than the older Kodak ESP line with a small red strip marking off the control panel and the hidden scanner bay. In fact, if you don't necessarily need the buttons, I don't see why graphic designers and general offices wouldn't be satisfied with its aesthetic. This one has an adjustable 4.3-inch touch-screen display with a slim profile that matches the chiseled angles and alternating glossy black, silver, and perforated matte black finish of the whole machine. The Kodak Hero 9.1 does away with the tactile keypad and speed-dial buttons that gave the 6.1 its business-friendly productivity.

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