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mossback

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 18, 2007
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Looking for recommendations on current ink jet printers. The short list of requests:

- home office use
- AIO w/ scanner
- ideally auto-duplex
- wireless connectivity

Thanks!

nick
 
I assume one of your requirements is photo quality images, because otherwise the right answer is almost always "get a laser printer instead." Inkjets are cheap to buy and (usually) hideously expensive to run.
 
Laser printer would be fine too. I have never owned one before but sounds like that’s the way to go. If you have any specific recommendation I’d appreciate it.
 
I second the previous poster. Get a laser and you will actually get to do some printing.

I have a Brother laser printer that's been very reliable for the past 5 years but it's not wireless per se. I got it connected to my wireless router. I personally am partial to Brother and they now have many wireless models too.
 
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Yes, Brother. If you want color, I have a Canon that isn't too bad and does color a little bit better than the Brother models. For monochrome, or non-fussy color, I think it's hard to beat Brother on value.
 
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I only buy printers now (laser and inkjet) that use solid 3rd party cartridges. I've been using Canon and certain HPs and Brothers (some had firmware that tried to block 3rd party ink.) Truthfully every maker has several offerings that print good quality...although the models I am using now are discontinued so they probably would not help. If I were to buy now, I would check User reviews for both the printer, then verify that good third party cartridges exist, and check the reviews for those cartridges. The brand I've been going with as of late has been Arthur Imaging, which even for high res photos is indistinguishable from OEM, and despite being one of the more expensive 3rd party options, it was still about 1/35th to 1/70th the price of OEM.

I was teaching a class that required color printouts of diagrams. I bought my MacBook with the money I saved using 3rd party ink.

From a scanner perspective, are you looking to do extensive amounts of OCR? I ask because, if so, then certain models are indeed much better than others (and, for extreme amounts, some more speciality products have their own CPUs designed to perform much of the text recognition on the actual scanner, to offload what would otherwise be very high CPU usage on the machine.)

Some software certainly also has better cloud connectivity features, if this is important. While I like Cannon printers, their Mac software is IMO primitive and annoying at best.
 
I assume one of your requirements is photo quality images, because otherwise the right answer is almost always "get a laser printer instead." Inkjets are cheap to buy and (usually) hideously expensive to run.

Exactly.

This has been precisely my experience, too.

To the OP: Get a laser printer instead - it is better quality and it will work out a lot cheaper in the long run.
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I second the previous poster. Get a laser and you will actually get to do some printing.

I have a Brother laser printer that's been very reliable for the past 5 years but it's not wireless per se. I got it connected to my wireless router. I personally am partial to Brother and they now have many wireless models too.

I second buying Brother laser printers, solid, well made and reliable.
 
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I have an epson SX445W all in one ink jet.

I pay £0.50 per ink and it has twice the fill of a genuine epson. When empty take ink out wait 5 seconds and put back in to use the rest of the ink.

Having said that, yes go get a laser.
Might cost bit more upfront but you will save tons!

I have an Samsung wifi, NFC, Ethernet laser (no scanner) and the toner is cheap. works out to between £0.03 and £0.05 per page depending on supplier.

I just need a drum now as it end of life but struggling to find compatible.
So check out drum costs too before you buy!

I only paid £30 for my Samsung used from office clear out.
 
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