It's a dead ringer for a sleek electric shaver - matte-black with nicely rounded corners. But the pocket-size unit is not a grooming implement - it's a portable machine that allows the user to make instant copies of printed material from magazines, books, menus and receipts. Here's how the Plus Corporation's Copy-Jack works: The unit is set at a 90-degree angle to the material to be copied, and is slowly pulled across the page. Photosensors read the material and microchips process the signals to transfer the image onto thermal paper. Using the Copy-Jack is more thoughtful than tearing things out of magazines in a doctor's office, and it's fine for making copies of taxi receipts and supermarket checkout slips. The maximum column width is 1.6 inches; the paper is not wide enough to copy an entire column width of most newspapers, and it cannot reproduce type printed in red. The copier, which comes with rechargeable batteries and a roll of paper, is $349.50 at Hammacher Schlemmer, 147 East 57th Street, and State Office Supply, 150 Fifth Avenue, at 20th Street. Five rolls of paper are $12.

By Suzanne Slesin Published: September 12, 1986