My printer has all it's buttons and controls, including the power
button, on the top. This normally would not be a problem, but I have
cats in the house, and they often step on the buttons when they walk
on the printer, turning it on or off or changing things, and the
computer and printer are
not in an area which I can really isolate
from the cats.
So, I believe that printers with buttons on the top should include a
plastic cover of some kind that prevents cats from stepping on the
controls.
Why not put the buttons on the front? Well, some printers actually
are designed that way, but if you already own a printer with buttons
on the top, and you didn't anticipate that being a problem or there
were more important reasons for picking that particualar printer
(i.e. ink prices, built in copier, etc.) you could simply attach the
cover that the printer came with. It would be much easier for a
company to just include an extra piece of plastic with existing
printer models than to come out with different printers with re-
arranged buttons.
Other companies could offer aftermarket covers that would
esentially be plastic trays that you turn upside down and cover the
buttons with, held in place by sticky-note like adhesive or velcro so
as not to be difficult to remove, but requiring NO modification to the
printer at all.