Thank you for your in depth response. I'll clarify:

As far as materials, I'd like to be able to print (please excuse my lack proper terminology) hard plastics and flexible plastics (rubber?) in colors that range from completely transparent to completely opaque. Also it is very important that it can print with materials that are safe to consume food or liquids out of (not every item will need this property though). It would be a huge plus, but not necessary, if it could print materials that are metallic or metal, glass or glass-like, or biodegradable. The ability of paste and food printing would not be of much or any use. A CNC milling machine would be useful, I want to stick to 3D printing for now.

For colors (meant to type multiple not multiply, oops), I need something, like you said, with multiple extruders. I'm looking at a model from ORD Solutions that has five extruders. I was informed that it could print 15 different kinds of materials and has a very high printing resolution, which is also something I need from the printer. Do you think something like this would be ideal for my needs?

I will look into the software as well. I would assume if this is a possibility, it would be done in the software but, can you print at a crude and quick resolution for the parts of the item that aren't visible, while printing the outermost layer in the slower but highest resolution setting? I know with the model I'm looking at each extruder can have a unique nozzle size, if that would help with this. Essentially I want to print something that looks great but can be printed quickly.