I start college in a few days, any Mac compatible printers?

[Legionnaire]

I had a laser brother but it wasn't compatible with Mac. I got rid of it a year or two ago anyway, I am looking for suggestions for a Mac/wifi printer. Not a big monster, just one for printing off a students workload. Laser is a must though. Brother worked well for my old windows pc. Would prefer, but what I have been reading they don't work with them.

Suggestions! Cheaper is better! but will pay for reliability.

 

[chscag]

Most Brother laser printers work well with macOS so not sure why you had one that was not compatible? You might want to try HP although they sometimes can be a bit more difficult to setup to work WiFi. There's also Epson and Canon.

 

[Legionnaire]

Thanks! I will try again then. I had an older one, so its quite possible just wasn't optimized with software. I wasn't aware if they had some that did or didn't. I guess it was a wrong blanket statement to assume.

 

[NoBoMac]

Ditto Brother printers work with Mac. But also agree with might have issues if printer is old enough. My Brother laser (DCP 7200, 2008) is wonky when trying to print on El Cap. Brother dropped support for that one with Yosemite, iirc. Scanner portion still works great, oddly.

This day and age, all the big printer makers are compatible with Mac. I'd look for something with AirPrint, so no cables required. Mom has an HP inkjet with this feature and has worked like a champ with her Mac and when I've used it with my iPad, iPhone.

And for reliability, see first paragraph re: how long my Brother has been working. Took about 4yrs to get through the initial toner cartridge, so cost-of-ownership is low.

 

[kazmac]

I had issues with an older Brother printer with my previous iMac, but the info in this thread is sound. Good luck with your studies, OP.

 

[Legionnaire]

Ditto Brother printers work with Mac. But also agree with might have issues if printer is old enough. My Brother laser (DCP 7200, 2008) is wonky when trying to print on El Cap. Brother dropped support for that one with Yosemite, iirc. Scanner portion still works great, oddly.

This day and age, all the big printer makers are compatible with Mac. I'd look for something with AirPrint, so no cables required. Mom has an HP inkjet with this feature and has worked like a champ with her Mac and when I've used it with my iPad, iPhone.

And for reliability, see first paragraph re: how long my Brother has been working. Took about 4yrs to get through the initial toner cartridge, so cost-of-ownership is low.

Can you please explain this AirPrint? Does a printer not work like a regular print/windows set up. (plug in printer to power, connect to wifi) then send print from pc to printer. bam! done?

If I need attachments to make a printer work a brief explanation would be great. I am new MacBook owner, just abandoned windows after 15 years lol.

 

[NoBoMac]

AirPrint is Apple's wifi printing interface.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201311

 

[fhall1]

Used to have a Brother for years and it worked fine with my Macs. When it finally needed enough repairs that it was more cost effective to scrap it I went to an HP Color Laser Jet Pro M252dw and it's bee great.....love that it duplexes automatically.

 

[ugahairydawgs]

I had a laser brother but it wasn't compatible with Mac. I got rid of it a year or two ago anyway, I am looking for suggestions for a Mac/wifi printer. Not a big monster, just one for printing off a students workload. Laser is a must though. Brother worked well for my old windows pc. Would prefer, but what I have been reading they don't work with them.

Suggestions! Cheaper is better! but will pay for reliability.

I have this one.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0...=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=brother+hl2340d

Works well, wireless, has an option for high capacity toner cartridges and is Air Print compatible.

 

[Legionnaire]

I bought one at "Office Depot today. HL-2380DW I installed driver, and bam! printing flawlessly, printed syllabus and parking pass in like 2 seconds. Granted it was 120 dollars.

https://www.amazon.com/Brother-HL-L2380DW-Wireless-Monochrome-Replenishment/dp/B00HRG01A4

Thank you guys for all the help!



Random- is there a way to make MacBook wake up from sleep by moving the mouse around? I have to keep hitting the power button to wake from sleep, would like to be able to change that.

 

[Micky Do]

I had a laser brother but it wasn't compatible with Mac. I got rid of it a year or two ago anyway, I am looking for suggestions for a Mac/wifi printer. Not a big monster, just one for printing off a students workload. Laser is a must though. Brother worked well for my old windows pc. Would prefer, but what I have been reading they don't work with them.

Suggestions! Cheaper is better! but will pay for reliability.

I got a Xerox printer / scanner/ copier several years ago..... It was one of the first relatively low priced, small form laser printers that came to the market. Got it home and it wouldn't work..... No driver, which was annoying because in my experience to date my 2005 original Mac Mini had a driver for any peripheral I had used.

At that stage I had not long been on-line, with a very slow cellular network based connection (nominally "up to" 156 kb/sec; in use seldom even half that!), so did not know about finding and downloading drivers.

I went to the shop where I bought the printer, where the staff could provide no help other than calling Xerox for me. They suggested I pop in to see them at Pantip Plaza...... nearly 600 miles away in Bangkok!

I went to the Apple retailer where I bought the computer. They did a bit of research then sent me an e-mail with the required driver attached. Sorted.....

When the power supply and HDD failed on my original Mac Mini failed, replacement seemed more cost effective than repair. The Xerox connected to the new Mac Mini automatically, without any problem. I'm still using both, albeit fairly aged machines by tech standards.

In short, there may be some compatibility problems when peripherals first arrive on the scene (probably less so now than in the past) but they can be worked around. Given a little time any such issues will be sorted, and for the most part folks will not be affected.