Good printer/scanner combo?

[MUrhino]

Hey all, so I'm fed up w/ my Cannon printer/scanner combo I purchased w/ my MacBook (2 years ago). Cannon, in all their guinness, has decided to lock ALL functions if even one of your ink cartridges registers as low, or out of ink. I can't scan, can't print w/ the remaining amount of ink, can't print w/ another color, etc. It's a giant paperweight until I get more ink. I find this situation similar to Apple's 1984 commercial of Big Brother and I want to go Office Space, and or to the gun range, on this POS as soon as I get a replacement.

So, I'm asking opinions for a good printer/scanner option that doesn't require full ink to continue printing or scanning. It doesn't have to be a combo printer scanner. AirPrint would be nice, but not required. Is a standalone scanner a better option? I don't print photos as I order online. HP? Lexmark? Cannon's forums complain about this and they won't fix it, so they're loosing a customer. Thanks for the input!🙂

 

[flynz4]

I personally think that a good full duplex stand alone sheet scanner is worth it weight in gold. Flatbed scanners are tedious to use... and even those with a sheet scanner are typically half duplex. Fujitsu Scansnap seems to be the industry standard... and they are rock solid. I have the S1500M which is great. There is also a smaller one (maybe S300???) that takes up a bit less space. With my S1500, I drop a stack of papers into it... it scans both sides automatically, digitally removes blank pages, flips any pages that were inserted upside down, re-aligns any pages that might be a bit crooked... and then it puts all the pages into a single multi-page PDF and performs OCR to make all the text searchable.

Regarding a printer... given that you do not want to print photos (I am the same as you... and use a photo service)... you should consider going to a color laser. Mine has a flatbed scanner on the top which is a good compliment to my sheet scanner for the rare times I want to scan something that will not fit through a sheet scanner. In my opinion, a color laser out performs an inject printer in every way, except for printing photos. Since I am not crazy about printing photos using an inject either... moving to a color laser was the obvious choice.

/Jim

 

[miles01110]

Get a color laser printer. I've also had very good luck with Brother printer/scanner combination units; they probably make a color model by now.

 

[seron]

I recently acquired a Brother DCP-7065DN which I'm happy with. It's a BW laser with duplex printing and half-duplex sheet feeder scanner. It's got an Ethernet connection but lacks wireless. It works well with OS X and drivers are refreshingly small (a few MB) and its price is quite reasonable.

Like earlier posters I grew tired with ink printer problems (in my case HP) and will be using print shops for photos.

 

[RMo]

I recently acquired a Brother DCP-7065DN which I'm happy with....

I have the exact same printer (replacing my previous compact B&W laser because I wanted duplexing and scanning). I agree with everything you said--it has an automatic duplexer as well as a flatbad and ADF scanner (although it can't scan double-sided from there, though it can turn single-sided into double-sided in the printout). Toner is reasonably priced, as is the printer, and it's not huge (though it's no small inkjet).

It has USB and Ethernet, but if you hook it up to your router/switch via Ethernet or your AEBS or any print-serving router via USB (or Ethernet), it can be effectively wireless. The printer itself doesn't need to support it, which I think many people overlook.

This printer has my recommendation (as do similar Brothers), unless you really need color at home--but it sounds like you might not.