Printer for Mac
November 1, 2012 2:09 PM   Subscribe

My spouse needs a new all-in-one printer for her office Mac. It needs to do all of the usual all-in-one functions - print, scan, copy, fax. She does occasionally need to print in color. The most important criterion is that it play well with the Mac - both with set-up and with the individual functions.

She is considering the HP 8600+, but she has had issues in the past with an HP printer getting along with the Mac. The Mac is a Mini running Mountain Lion. Volume of use is fairly light.
posted by gteffertz to Computers & Internet (16 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
I have an old Brother b/w laser multi function printer thing, and I think it's great. It's very friendly on the Mac, and the drivers have been repeatedly updated. My mother has one of the newer Brother color inkjet MFCs, and seems to be happy, too.

My device is five years old, and I think my mom's is two or so.

Neither of us use it as a fax--but I frequently copy and scan (it's more than adequate, but not as good as the big ones at work).
posted by Admiral Haddock at 2:13 PM on November 1, 2012


I have the HP office pro 8600, I've been using it for about 5 months now and I have had NO problems with it of any sort. It communicates well with my Macs (iMac, MacAirs, MacBook Pro, iPad, all of which access it through the wireless network). Most of the Macs are running 10.8.2, a couple are still running 10.7. The only problem I've ever encountered is that about once a month my wife has to restart her computer because it doesn't see the printer. I've had no problems with any of my devices, so I'm writing her issue off as user error of some sort.

I would highly recommend it.

Nice features like multiple page scans, double sided printing as well.

feel free to memail me if you have any specific questions.
posted by HuronBob at 2:25 PM on November 1, 2012


I have an Epson Workforce 630. I bought it on a whim from amazon 2 years ago. It's been great. Works like a champ with image capture. Nothing I can think of to complain about.
posted by ansate at 2:33 PM on November 1, 2012


Canon Pixma's work well with Macs.
posted by jcrbuzz at 2:36 PM on November 1, 2012


Buy something that uses laser/led printing technology from Brother, HP, Canon, etc. Do not bother with inkjet. Especially with occasional printing, inkjet is just not worth it. Inks will dry up before you use them.

Seriously, do not buy an inkjet printer no matter how cheap it is.
posted by reeddavid at 2:48 PM on November 1, 2012


I just set up the Epson Workforce 845 with my Mac yesterday. Setup was extremely simple, no issues whatsoever. Printing and scanning have gone off without a hitch wirelessly from my Mac as well as from iOS devices.

I got this Epson based on reviews about how well it worked with Macs and to replace a Canon Pixma that didn't. My Canon Pixma was great all-in-one printer/scanner/copier-wise, but the wireless aspect was very buggy and I had to reenter my wifi password every! single! time! I had to print something.
posted by dayintoday at 3:11 PM on November 1, 2012


I have a Canon Pixma MP620 scanner/fax/printer. It works great with our Macbooks and was super easy to configure for wireless printing. Its like five years old now, so not sure they still make that model, but if they do I recommend it.
posted by ben242 at 3:52 PM on November 1, 2012 [1 favorite]


I just bought a Canon Pixma MX892 for this purpose. $130, although that doesn't count ink costs. I haven't tried it yet but my old Canon Pixma MX850 has worked great with my Mac. Canon's Mac drivers seem a bit intrusive when originally installed but have worked out very well. The MX892 supports AirPrint too, for iOS printing. Another similar option is the Canon Pixma MG6220; I initially ordered it but returned it because it has no document feeder or fax modem.

The Apple Printer Store currently features HP, Epson, and Lexmark printers for Macs.
posted by Nelson at 5:59 PM on November 1, 2012


I do IT for a bunch of hotels and offices, some of whom are all-mac workplaces. One of the better printers that is also smallish and easy to set up is the Brother MFC-7860DW. I've never had a problem getting any function Ive tried to run to work on any of the macs that Ive connected the printer to.
posted by KeSetAffinityThread at 6:05 PM on November 1, 2012


My vote is also for a Canon PIXMA. The 892 is the model I have been lusting after.
posted by RandyWalker at 6:38 PM on November 1, 2012


Canon Pixma MX870 is my multi-function network connected printer, used by me from my Mac Book Pro, my daughter from her Mac Book, my wife from her Vista notebook, and from my Windows 7 Tower and Windows 7 Acer Netbook. I often see them at a good price when walking through Costco. YMMV.
posted by forthright at 8:09 PM on November 1, 2012


Stay away from HP. Their hardware and driver support has fallen off of a cliff recently, I've had nothing but problems with them to the point where we ditched ours and jumped on the Brother bandwagon. Their networking is fantastic and their drivers work for the different flavors of OSX I use.

Personally, I'd go with either a Canon or a Brother. While I'm not a fan of all-in-one's, we're running a MFC-J825DW, and it works like a champ. I can scan to any machine on the network, the photo printing is pretty spectacular and the ink is vastly cheaper than any other printer brand I've seen.

I print one or two color documents a week, (Holidays being an exception) and the ink isn't anywhere near drying out. Oh yeah, Brother's don't really seem to mind you buying off brand ink the way HP's and to a lesser extent Canon's do.
posted by Sphinx at 9:21 PM on November 1, 2012


I've got a Brother MFC J-270W. I bought it a year ago for $45 at Best Buy and immediately installed a set of these. 14 months later the lowest of the four is at about 20% and it's still printing fine with maybe one head cleaning required. The Epson it replaced would drop jets all the time.

Prints from and scans to Mac, Windows, and iOS with no trouble at all. I have never used the FAX.
posted by chazlarson at 10:16 PM on November 1, 2012


I'd also get a laser unless you really won't feel the cost of consumables. I end up thinking 'is it worth it to use the ink for this print job?' and that's no way too live. My last experiment with an inkjet lasted 4 months. I'll go pay extra at the store on the extremely rare occasions I need color. Someday maybe they'll make a hybrid that uses laser for b&w and ink for color. I can dream.

That said, inkjet or laser I'd get a Brother machine. If you're leaning for inkjet and you're not in a super hurry, watch out for sales and rebates. (I like Cheapskate on Cnet for this). I got my Brother aio wireless inkjet for $55 from Staples, including shipping and two reams of paper. It barely hurt when I sold it for $30 a couple of months (and one empty black ink cartridge) later.
posted by Salamandrous at 10:39 PM on November 1, 2012


I use a Brother MFC 240c device. I worked just fine and is fully functional in OS X (have used it on 10.6 and 10.8). Print, Scan, etc..

The drivers install automatically. With "Handy Print" I can print to it from iOS. It is shared on our network and my wife prints to it from her Win7 laptop. Inkjet cartidges start at $3.99 here.

A previous Brother unit worked fine too. Brother gets my vote.

--

p.s. Brother also has full support in Linux with their native drivers.
posted by Leenie at 2:26 AM on November 2, 2012


Response by poster: Thanks for all of the input. We'll be looking at Brothers & Canons.
posted by gteffertz at 8:43 AM on November 2, 2012


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