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Recommend an all-in-one printer/scanner/fax
- Thread starter AlBDamned
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Recommended all-in-one
If you can still find one I'd recommend the HP 2575 all-in-one.
I got one for £65UK, the're being discounted over here, so they may not be around much longer. But it works perfectly with my MacBook running Tiger.
It has a built-in card reader, optional bluetooth and best-of-all built-in ethernet, so if you hook it up to a wireless router you can print, scan, download from memory card all wirelessly. It even comes with Mac compatible OCR software and basic image editing software.
Hope this is of help.
If you can still find one I'd recommend the HP 2575 all-in-one.
I got one for £65UK, the're being discounted over here, so they may not be around much longer. But it works perfectly with my MacBook running Tiger.
It has a built-in card reader, optional bluetooth and best-of-all built-in ethernet, so if you hook it up to a wireless router you can print, scan, download from memory card all wirelessly. It even comes with Mac compatible OCR software and basic image editing software.
Hope this is of help.
They're available here for about the same price but it lacks the fax function? that's one of my main reasons for getting a combo printer unfortunately.
HP c6180
I bought one of these HP C6180 all-in-one printers about a month ago and it is fantastic!! It has all the features you would expect to have in a printer that costs $250+. The best feature I think it has is built-in wifi. I have a MBP along with a HP desktop (surprisingly has never failed me but saving up for iMac) and a Dell laptop(wife won't let it go that its dead) and it communicates with all devices seamlessly. It handles about 30 pages in the automatic document feeder so you can scan a fairly large document into a single PDF. It also has card reader slots on the front for all types of cards (xD, sD, memory stick, etc.) and it even comes with a lcd screen were you can see the pictures on your card and adjust the image quality prior to printing. I just can't say enough about this printer! Again, it will cost you some cash but well worth it. It's tax season, so splurge.
I bought one of these HP C6180 all-in-one printers about a month ago and it is fantastic!! It has all the features you would expect to have in a printer that costs $250+. The best feature I think it has is built-in wifi. I have a MBP along with a HP desktop (surprisingly has never failed me but saving up for iMac) and a Dell laptop(wife won't let it go that its dead) and it communicates with all devices seamlessly. It handles about 30 pages in the automatic document feeder so you can scan a fairly large document into a single PDF. It also has card reader slots on the front for all types of cards (xD, sD, memory stick, etc.) and it even comes with a lcd screen were you can see the pictures on your card and adjust the image quality prior to printing. I just can't say enough about this printer! Again, it will cost you some cash but well worth it. It's tax season, so splurge.
I got a Canon PIXMA MP-530 back in October with a Mini in the Perfect Companion promo. I did some research and it had the highest rating of all the all-in-ones. The HPs didn't rate as high. Has a document feeder which is nice for copying and scanning multipage docs, especially scanning to a single pdf file. It is a little larger than the HP C5180 and C6180s but I think it is a better build. I really like mine. I got it for $199 less $100 rebate from Apple but you can find them online for $160-$180.
I had a Brother all-in-one and it was a festering bag of pus. I don't remember the model number, but it was an inkjet, ethernet equipped all-in-one.
This evil, demon, piece of crap never worked over the network when trying to scan or fax and it barely worked over the network when printing.
Direct connecting it didn't help much, either. Scanning was iffy and the software crashed most every time we tried to scan. Using the Photoshop plug-in simply succeeded in crashing Photoshop.
Their tech support could offer only one suggestion: reinstall the software while the printer is connected directly. That never worked.
And on those rare circumstances when it worked, the paper didn't feed reliably and frequently jammed.
In short, I run screaming from anything with the "Brother" label on it.
This evil, demon, piece of crap never worked over the network when trying to scan or fax and it barely worked over the network when printing.
Direct connecting it didn't help much, either. Scanning was iffy and the software crashed most every time we tried to scan. Using the Photoshop plug-in simply succeeded in crashing Photoshop.
Their tech support could offer only one suggestion: reinstall the software while the printer is connected directly. That never worked.
And on those rare circumstances when it worked, the paper didn't feed reliably and frequently jammed.
In short, I run screaming from anything with the "Brother" label on it.
I bought one of these HP C6180 all-in-one printers about a month ago and it is fantastic!! It has all the features you would expect to have in a printer that costs $250+. The best feature I think it has is built-in wifi. I have a MBP along with a HP desktop (surprisingly has never failed me but saving up for iMac) and a Dell laptop(wife won't let it go that its dead) and it communicates with all devices seamlessly. It handles about 30 pages in the automatic document feeder so you can scan a fairly large document into a single PDF. It also has card reader slots on the front for all types of cards (xD, sD, memory stick, etc.) and it even comes with a lcd screen were you can see the pictures on your card and adjust the image quality prior to printing. I just can't say enough about this printer! Again, it will cost you some cash but well worth it. It's tax season, so splurge.
My dad and my uncle both bought these in the January sales. Seriously the best specified home office/small office printer I have ever seen or set up.
Having wireless on it is a godsend, and the paper feeder is excellent. A wonderful printer that I would buy myself in a heartbeat.
I gor tired of the HP high cost cartridges. I got a Brother MFC 665CW and it is very cool. It has WIFI built in and connected to my Airport just fine. I has a USB direct connect that works fine and an Ethernet connection. It scan, faxes, prints, has a message machine, a phone, and a card reader with a color screen and all for $138 at Amazon. Contrary to what the other reviewer said, I like it and ht has 4 individual ink tanks that are likely refillable and I think have some after-market cheap ink tanks. When I went to buy in for my HP 6110, it was about $45 for after market ink. I just applied that to the Brother and effectively $93 was my cost. I have had good luck with Brother before.
I have a Canon Pixma MP500. It's a solid, easy to use system and the cartridges last quite a long time and are reasonably priced. The scanner quality is good, not great, but print quality is excellent. Plays fine with Tiger.
I really like my Canon Pixma MP600. One of the things I like most about it is that it's very quiet. But, it can't fax, if that's an issue for you.
Hp 6180
I love mine, bought two, one for the office. They're great. The separate paper tray for photo paper is really useful.
My only complaint is that loading paper is a little kludgey, sometimes I'm not sure whether it's loaded right and sometimes I have to do it again.
Other than that, DON'T BUY AN EPSON! I just dumped THREE old Epsons, one was an all-in-one that never worked right. Almost brand new. I'll never buy one again.
NW
I love mine, bought two, one for the office. They're great. The separate paper tray for photo paper is really useful.
My only complaint is that loading paper is a little kludgey, sometimes I'm not sure whether it's loaded right and sometimes I have to do it again.
Other than that, DON'T BUY AN EPSON! I just dumped THREE old Epsons, one was an all-in-one that never worked right. Almost brand new. I'll never buy one again.
NW
These recommendations seem to me consistent with most of what I've seen on MR lately: Canons and HPs are good, Epsons suck.
I've used two Brother all-in-ones via ethernet. The first was a color inkjet, and the current one is a B&W laser. The inkjet used separate ink containers for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black, but had a problem where if one of the colors was empty, or low, it wouldn't allow anything to print, even if printing didn't need that color. For example, if Magenta was low, you couldn't just print B&W. Lame. The laser just kicks ass and does everything I want.
Printing from a G3 iMac running OS X 10.2, the inkjet would take forever to print anything, and sometimes simply would not. After upgrading to OS X 10.3 it worked much better.
Because I don't print in color much, and inkjets' ink goes dry if you don't use it often, I found that most of my ink was getting used up by the printer routinely cleaning itself. At least Brother ink is pretty cheap. But now, with a laser, I have no problems with running out of ink (well, toner).
But, definitely compare the cost of getting ink refills, as that's 100x more important than the cost of the printer itself.
Printing from a G3 iMac running OS X 10.2, the inkjet would take forever to print anything, and sometimes simply would not. After upgrading to OS X 10.3 it worked much better.
Because I don't print in color much, and inkjets' ink goes dry if you don't use it often, I found that most of my ink was getting used up by the printer routinely cleaning itself. At least Brother ink is pretty cheap. But now, with a laser, I have no problems with running out of ink (well, toner).
But, definitely compare the cost of getting ink refills, as that's 100x more important than the cost of the printer itself.
Hi guys,
Thanks for all the input! I've had a look round and can get one of the HP C6180s for $300 after an HP mail in rebate, which sounds like a good deal. It's more than I wanted to spend but it sounds like it's worth it with all the extra features and better print quality.
one thing though - is the wi-fi capability built in? I've seen one place offering wi-fi bluetooth but it's an extra feature. Not sure if it should be included or not.
Also, does it print through a regular wi-fi router or just airport routers?
I read while back that you could only print wirelessly over Apple protocol stuff but that maybe out of date now.
The Cannon Pixma range at a similar price is also tempting but the HP C6180 looks to be better specced from what I can see.
Thanks for all the input! I've had a look round and can get one of the HP C6180s for $300 after an HP mail in rebate, which sounds like a good deal. It's more than I wanted to spend but it sounds like it's worth it with all the extra features and better print quality.
one thing though - is the wi-fi capability built in? I've seen one place offering wi-fi bluetooth but it's an extra feature. Not sure if it should be included or not.
Also, does it print through a regular wi-fi router or just airport routers?
I read while back that you could only print wirelessly over Apple protocol stuff but that maybe out of date now.
The Cannon Pixma range at a similar price is also tempting but the HP C6180 looks to be better specced from what I can see.
I
itsme92
Guest
Wi-fi is built in, not sure about bluetooth (however, there is a bluetooth menu item on the menu). It works great with my Linksys WRT54G. I have it set up for two Windows desktops and my Macbook, and it works flawlessly. By the way, you may want to check out this printer out over on Amazon, it is about $240 (no rebate) on their site.
This is a fantastic printer and you won't regret getting it.
From my experiences, the fax portion tends to complicate matters. I would go with a standalone fax and then a copier/scanner/printer. It's a lot easier to upgrade that part in the future -- and your fax can keep on doing its own thing.
Thanks that's a good point.
I'm looking into this too late to get the rebate Hp are doing on the HP C6180 (if I bought the printer today it wouldn't get here now till Monday and the cut off day is Saturday), so that makes it $420 (AUD) which is a little out of my price range unfortunately. Plus the rebate takes 75 days to come through!
Maybe I should start looking at fax machines that can also print! I could probably do without the scanner bit.
Hp C5180
If you go with one without the fax, I recommend the 5180. I just bought mine a few weeks ago after watching sale prices at the local compusa. They dropped the price, and then there was a manufacturer rebate on top of that. Ended up at about $130US. Quite the deal, and so far so good. Nice utilities for the Mac also.
If you go with one without the fax, I recommend the 5180. I just bought mine a few weeks ago after watching sale prices at the local compusa. They dropped the price, and then there was a manufacturer rebate on top of that. Ended up at about $130US. Quite the deal, and so far so good. Nice utilities for the Mac also.
I definitely need a fax. That's priority number one. I'd like to have a decent printer that can go with it, one that can do photos is all the better. The C6180 looks ideal, it's just a bit pricey!
Hp C6180
Yes, the wifi is built-in as someone already said. I haven't used the bluetooth function but it is an option on the menu. I use a Belkin wireless router and I have Mac and PC computers using the same printer. I've had no problems with communicating to either one. I've used the fax portion of this printer and it works very well. If you have an answering machine, you have to set the number of rings till it picks up on the printer for longer than what's on the answering machine. According to the user manual for the C6180, it monitors the line even once the answering machine picks up the call to see if it is a fax instead of a normal voice call.
Yes, the wifi is built-in as someone already said. I haven't used the bluetooth function but it is an option on the menu. I use a Belkin wireless router and I have Mac and PC computers using the same printer. I've had no problems with communicating to either one. I've used the fax portion of this printer and it works very well. If you have an answering machine, you have to set the number of rings till it picks up on the printer for longer than what's on the answering machine. According to the user manual for the C6180, it monitors the line even once the answering machine picks up the call to see if it is a fax instead of a normal voice call.
Most faxes send out a specific tone, that the fax machine can listen for to know to answer. But, not all of them do that. The most fullproof solution is to have a fax machine and an answering machine that understand distinctive ring, and have a separate distinctive ring number for your fax line. But, that's a bit overkill if you don't fax a lot. Simply setting the fax to pickup after your answering machine, and having the answering machine tied through the fax machine, is probably good enough.
Result!
Hey guys,
I ended up getting an HP C3110 yesterday at my local JB Hi-Fi.
I went and had a look at the C6180 which was AU $400 in store but I'd found a new one on eBay for AU$300 (would have had to pick it up though).
However, I went down to JB in the same mall and they had the C3110 for AU $278 reduced to AU $199, then when I went to the counter it was reduced again to AU $160. It's an all-in-one Printer/Scanner/fax/Copier with memory card slots, lcd screen and 10.4 is officially supported.
It hasn't got the wi-fi or ethernet of the C6180 but at almost half the price that's cool with me. They would have been nice to have but I didn't really need them as the printer is now sitting on my desk. Aside from connectivity this printer is essentially the same as the C6180.
Set up was a breeze and having come with all the inks, photo paper and USB cable included, I got printing in just a few minutes.
Thanks for all the recommendations - I'm very happy with this.
Hey guys,
I ended up getting an HP C3110 yesterday at my local JB Hi-Fi.
I went and had a look at the C6180 which was AU $400 in store but I'd found a new one on eBay for AU$300 (would have had to pick it up though).
However, I went down to JB in the same mall and they had the C3110 for AU $278 reduced to AU $199, then when I went to the counter it was reduced again to AU $160. It's an all-in-one Printer/Scanner/fax/Copier with memory card slots, lcd screen and 10.4 is officially supported.
It hasn't got the wi-fi or ethernet of the C6180 but at almost half the price that's cool with me. They would have been nice to have but I didn't really need them as the printer is now sitting on my desk. Aside from connectivity this printer is essentially the same as the C6180.
Set up was a breeze and having come with all the inks, photo paper and USB cable included, I got printing in just a few minutes.
Thanks for all the recommendations - I'm very happy with this.