All in one Airprint capable color printer?

February 13, 2015 9:45 AM

Need to get a new printer that can output graphic design pages at good quality, suggestions for one that'll be economical and last? Requirements on the inside.

Airprint capable. We're an iOS household!
Being able to replace a single ink color (or a good arguement why this isn't important)

Reasonable ink prices with cartridges that can heavy color documents i.e. don't run out too soon

Decent quality, for printing pages from Indesign

Auto document feeder for copying and scanning

Decent speed for printing, say at leat 3-5 a minute in color

Duplex scanning and printing would be nice.

Suggestions?

posted by Brandon Blatcher to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

Best answer: Sigh. Printers are like irons and toasters. They just don't last. However they are usually pretty cheap. Go with epson (best value/sheet + quality longevity). I've been really happy with my nx430 all-in-one (~2400?dpi scanner)(though I'm sure they have a newer model by now) ...meets almost all your requirements: airprint, not so sure if airprint specifically, but wifi printing yes...just hit print. Separate color cartridges, double capacity ones available as well, not too pricy, available everywhere (I believe the next fancier model had an extra 'photo black' cartridge). Decent speed, but as always that depends on output quality. Auto-feeders and two-sided printing involves a big jump in price though. Into the $500+ range. I think I got mine on sale for $50. Printers. Buy em cheap, invest in a big pack of photo paper.
posted by sexyrobot at 10:27 AM on February 13, 2015

We've been really happy with our Canon MF8580cdw ($300 at Amazon). It's a standalone wireless device and supports the usual suspects of wireless printing as well as scan-to-email and scan-to file-share. I have it programmed to dump things straight into Evernote via email. It has duplex scanning and printing. (The scanner ADF can't feed two-sided folded documents very reliably.)

The printer is a color laser, not an inkjet. Color lasers are pretty great in general: fast, reliable, no smearing. However they're not great for photos. I'd describe this particular one as generally acceptable for most purposes, but it doesn't support glossy paper and the quality is nowhere near that of a photo-process print. This particular printer has fairly expensive consumables for a laser (at least the first party ones; I can't vouch for 3rd party cartridges) so it might not be a great choice if you're going to print a lot. But the per-page cost is still on the low end of inkjets and the reliability benefits mean you're more likely to get the full life out of the cartridges.
posted by doomsey at 10:54 AM on February 13, 2015

I have the Epson NX430 that sexyrobot mentions. It has airprint and it just works, which is nice. There's an iPad scanner app that lets you control the scanner and receive files. But, no duplexing. Also, mine can be really flaky and just not work or take a long time to start printing for some reason.
posted by cabingirl at 1:26 PM on February 13, 2015

Best answer: AirPrint is a standard feature on consumer printers now : it's getting hard to find a printer without it. Don't expect a modern inkjet printer to last longer than a couple of years : they are really cheaply made these days. I've been through every brand of printer in the last decade because they just don't last. My current printer is an HP OfficeJet Pro 6830 which meets all your requirements : about $110. I basically just walked into Costco and bought the first reasonably specced printer I saw.
posted by w0mbat at 5:51 PM on February 13, 2015