All-in-one color laser printer scanner for Mac recommendations?
February 23, 2021 12:00 AM Subscribe
Does anyone have any recommendations for an All-in-one color laser printer with scanner for a Mac?
I have a MacBook Pro A1.
This would mostly be for home office use - scanning things into Adobe Acrobat, occasional color printing.
I looked at reviews of HP, Canon, Brother, and they're all so mixed and Windows centric.
I have a MacBook Pro A1.
This would mostly be for home office use - scanning things into Adobe Acrobat, occasional color printing.
I looked at reviews of HP, Canon, Brother, and they're all so mixed and Windows centric.
Best answer: Every time I have researched this, it seems Brother is the company that comes up most recommended. My wife ended up buying an HP for our home (she runs her own business, I use the printer once in a while) and it works OK, though it is an inkjet. Her main printer is a large commercial sized one at her away-from-home office. We are both Mac based.
posted by SoberHighland at 3:56 AM on February 23, 2021
posted by SoberHighland at 3:56 AM on February 23, 2021
We have a Brother multifunction laser printer that we are very satisfied with. It's not color, but color models are available.
The key feature you should look for is AirPrint support: it'll let your Mac print and scan without any drivers. You just join the printer to your Wi-Fi network, or plug it into your wired network. Once you've done that, any Apple devices—Macs, iPhones, iPads—on the same network will able to print, no configuration necessary.
posted by vitout at 5:25 AM on February 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
The key feature you should look for is AirPrint support: it'll let your Mac print and scan without any drivers. You just join the printer to your Wi-Fi network, or plug it into your wired network. Once you've done that, any Apple devices—Macs, iPhones, iPads—on the same network will able to print, no configuration necessary.
posted by vitout at 5:25 AM on February 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
Best answer: "Without drivers" is an ancient piece of lore. Apple bought a free-at-point-of-use software project called CUPS [1] for its printer driver back catalogue to use with macOS while it was still Mac OS X. Airprint uses a protocol called Bonjour in Apple software (and mDNS or zeroconf elsewhere) such that common hardware publicises itself on your network. The Preview app in macOS retrieves scans from my HP multifunction, too, without me having had to wrangle drivers when I first connected it.
That's to say I have a 200-series LaserJet Pro multifunction that's still in my headspace as 'new' even though I bought it in 2014. It sits there and delivers a colour page or two the few times a year I want or need colour, and the rest of the time prints black and white without problems. It also will scan from its platen or sheet feeder to a Samba/SMB/Windows File Sharing network drive.
1: Apple buys CUPS [Linux Weekly News, 2007-07-17]
posted by k3ninho at 8:37 AM on February 23, 2021
That's to say I have a 200-series LaserJet Pro multifunction that's still in my headspace as 'new' even though I bought it in 2014. It sits there and delivers a colour page or two the few times a year I want or need colour, and the rest of the time prints black and white without problems. It also will scan from its platen or sheet feeder to a Samba/SMB/Windows File Sharing network drive.
1: Apple buys CUPS [Linux Weekly News, 2007-07-17]
posted by k3ninho at 8:37 AM on February 23, 2021
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by TheRaven at 1:08 AM on February 23, 2021