As far as I can tell, they're all current or new models. Speed of printing is not an issue, I need things like borderless printing and good colour replication as well as good resolution. Two of them have both high and low yield toner cartridges, one has a standard size only . (I do have all that info and have done the workings out on that.)
All are compatible with Windows 98 but only the Epson has both parallel and USB ports ... not that that is an issue. None of them will do A3 which is a shame and the Lexmark has some extra "consumables" issues in the form of items to be replaced ... but since we're talking about somewhere in the region of 250,000 prints, it won't be a problem.
What I'm really looking for, I suppose is any experience with reliability of colour laser printers. I realise they're not in common use but now that the price has come down from around $14,000 to about $800, that's not much more than a top class ink jet printer and I expect more of them to be around in the future.
The Epson is a new model with no track record to go by, the others are current products.
Thanks folks.