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Best all-in-one/multifunction?

shinji

shinji

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 18, 2007
1,336
1,518
I'm running Leopard and I'm looking for a new all-in-one/multifunction printer. Can be either Laser or Inkjet, and I don't want to spend over $300.

I never print photos nor do I expect to need that. It would just be very light printing...text mostly, every couple of weeks if that. But I will use the scanner/fax ~ once a month.

Any suggestions? I'm considering the Brother 7820n and the Samsung SCX-4500. I've only ever owned HP printer but from what I've read, many mac users aren't happy with their OS X drivers.
 
I have a cheapie Brother all-in-one that has handled everything I've thrown at it. The fax feature has been more useful than I originally thought, and the scanner gets regular use. I don't print pictures.

I would buy this brand again.
 
Epson has very good scanner software, but the ink usage and pic quality are higher than you seem to need. HP is good with ink, but if you want to get Hi resoulution, accurate scans, Hp is lacking in software. For your needs Cannon/Hp is the way to go.
 
I've had pretty good luck with HP AIO units. I used a laserjet 3015 for two years before the fuser died ($200 to replace) and found it's replacement laserjet 3050 on sale for $265. I decided to get that in part because I had two toner cartridges I hadn't used. they use the same toner, 12A. Both are monochrome printers.

I originally had some problems with drivers when I first got the 3015, but eventually worked it out. THe drivers that came with the 3050 seem to work fine. Seems to be fully mac-compatible, including scanning. It also comes with readIris pro for OCR.

I run about 5000 pages through these machines each month. Good copy quality. Fairly fast. Fairly quiet.

BTW, I recently got a Fujitsu scansnap scanner for my office... what a great little machine. I have converted about 30,000 pages of documents to electrons...neat!
 
APPLENEWBIE said:
I've had pretty good luck with HP AIO units. I used a laserjet 3015 for two years before the fuser died ($200 to replace) and found it's replacement laserjet 3050 on sale for $265. I decided to get that in part because I had two toner cartridges I hadn't used. they use the same toner, 12A. Both are monochrome printers.

I originally had some problems with drivers when I first got the 3015, but eventually worked it out. THe drivers that came with the 3050 seem to work fine. Seems to be fully mac-compatible, including scanning. It also comes with readIris pro for OCR.

I run about 5000 pages through these machines each month. Good copy quality. Fairly fast. Fairly quiet.

BTW, I recently got a Fujitsu scansnap scanner for my office... what a great little machine. I have converted about 30,000 pages of documents to electrons...neat!
Click to expand...

You have the 3050 scanning and printing in Leopard?
 
I've got a Canon Pixma MP610 ($200). The MP970 ($300) adds two more ink colors for better photo printing, as well as an ethernet hookup. The Pixmas are geared toward photo printing and scanning. Canon also has models for more business-oriented applications, with the automatic document feeders on the the scanner and ethernet on lower end models.
 
jelloyacket said:
I've got a Canon Pixma MP610 ($200). The MP970 ($300) adds two more ink colors for better photo printing, as well as an ethernet hookup. The Pixmas are geared toward photo printing and scanning. Canon also has models for more business-oriented applications, with the automatic document feeders on the the scanner and ethernet on lower end models.
Click to expand...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16828102254

Newegg's got it for $175 with free shipping...everything working smoothly in leopard, specifically the scanner?
 
If you dont do colour don't even consider getting an inkjet!

Laser all-in-ones are much cheaper per page the only downside being slightly slower print time and they won't do colour prints unless you spend a lot of money on it. Any samsung is amazing, I get customers coming back all the time telling me how happy they are with their samsungs. I wouldnt even consider anything else.
 
I prefer the Canon Pixma mp5xx series. The HP drivers have been extremely buggy for me, resulting in any computer I connect an HP device to kp'ing predictably.
 
I'm extremely happy with my Canon Pixma MP830 but I do do some photo printing and cd printing so the color ink was important. The scanning quality is fantastic, it can duplex while scanning and printing, has separate ink cartridges for each color and a big one for text black and has both a paper tray and feed (from bottom or top).

If all you're going to do is text printing and OCR scanning get a Laser all-in-one. I don't have any experience with one but use high end Lexmark Lasers at work all the time and love them simply because they are fairly reliable (being used 20 hours a day non stop) and, once warmed up (30sec) print ridiculously fast. Although consumer grade Lexmark's are absolute CRAP.
 
Another vote for Canon here. My MP600 prints perfectly every time, whether doc or photo.
 
comments on an Amazon review?

I'm thinking of getting the Pixma MP830 all-in-one for my son and daughter in law. She's a photography major and has a rebel xt (and also access to a 5D at the studio she works at part-time). He has a white macbook and could also use the fax function as he's a psychology grad student. I know proprietary ink can be a real rip off so could you give a comment on this review i saw on Amazon.com?

"The ink cartridges are a real pain. Even when you use the gray scale (black&white) mode color ink is used up! The cartridges have a chip on them so that you cannot use generic replacement cartridges without removing the chips from the Canon cartridges and then plugging them into the generic which is very tricky. Also the machine will not do anything if one of the ink cartridges is empty, not even scan! You are dead in the water.
As previously said the cartridges are VERY expensive and you go through them quickly even using black and white. If you do any printing be prepared to pay. I am ordering a RIHAC ink tank so that I can run the the printer otherwise I would have to dump the thing."

Most of the other reviews were glowing but i'm worried that they might not have had their's very long.
 
If you are looking at a multi-function from canon... make sure that it is FULLY supported for OS X. I have a MP4150- canon multi/laser.. Buried in the fine print of OS X compatibility is that canon does not support scanning for os x on this unit. It is one of a few in the $300 range that supports duplex printing.. if you need that (and that is a trick in itself). MY workaround is Parallels and the windows scanning software. (but a couple of extra steps) The rest of the unit is top notch.. duplex printing, fax modem, stand alone fax, copying and printing w/ sheet feeder. (plus it had a rebate at the time). Just if you are looking at a Canon unit, read the fine print to make sure all functions at 100% supported w/ OS X.
 
OCR + faxing + duplex scanning/copying/printing?

Ok, so anyone has a recommendation for a good all-in-one that does duplex scanning/copying/printing, also has faxing functions and has OCR as well? I don't really care whether it's an inkjet or laser printer and whether it prints in colour. I think OCR is a big deal though (provided it actually works) as it would allow me to search for particular words within the scanned documents. The Pixma MP830 is looking mighty good, but the lack of OCR is holding me back. I guess I could make do with some kind of after-scan software solution though, so if anyone knows good OCR software on the Mac, that'd be a welcome information too. Thanks in advance. :)
 
shinji said:
I'm running Leopard and I'm looking for a new all-in-one/multifunction printer......I've only ever owned HP printer but from what I've read, many mac users aren't happy with their OS X drivers.
Click to expand...

I purchased an HP Deskjet F4180 from Apple and am shocked at the problems I have had. It does not print margins correctly in either Pages or iPhoto.

I have spent hours on the phone to HP who eventually told me it might be fixed if I wait for the drivers to be updated!!!

So I have asked Apple for a refund.
 
I want something that does margins properly and handles card

Having read the specs for some of the Canons, it seems they can handle photo paper but not card.

I do a lot of invitations & greetings cards and need a printer that can handle card up to 220 gsm.

The HP mentioned above did handle this beautifully. (I could never get my previous Epson Stylus R220 to feed card properly despite the specification claiming to handle this.)

Anyone got any recommendations for an all-in-one Canon that can feed card nicely?
 
Good luck with your Samsung! Still not too late to return it.

I have a canon MP500 (it's about a year and half old) and it works fantastic.

The canon MP series are perfect combination of price/speed/ and most important ink capacity.
 
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