What printer brand is the most mac-friendly?

[vladzaharia]

I agree wholeheartedly with Brother, for both OS X and Windows compatibility. We recently got a MFC-7840W at our office. To setup, we just had to search for the printer, it automatically broadcast its presence, and we got both Printing and scanning capabilities automatically, no software needed. Similarly, on Windows, the same thing happened. Windows discovered the printer automatically, and all drivers were installed automatically.

On the consumer side, I have a Lexmark printer, which is fairly good. You do have to install some software by them to get the drivers to load up, and it uses some proprietary protocols (lexnet) to connect to the printer, but scanning and printing works. And there are workarounds where you use their drivers, but connect to the printer using CUPS instead of their systems. However, this is fairly tedious, and you have to be lucky to get it to work.

 

[MacSince1985]

They did it, they brought me a big box of Canon MFU with huge Mac logo next to MS. However, after installation you still cannot scan, because it's not supported.

Try downloading the trial version of VueScan. If it works and you like it, purchase a license. The developer updates it regularly and provides great support. It saved many scanners from ending up in the landfill.

I found this on the Canon website:

Operating System Compatibility:
Windows 98/ Me/ 2000/ XP/ Vista
Mac OS X Version 10.2.8 - 10.5.x¹ ²
Linux¹
Operating System Compatibility
¹ Web distribution only
² Scanning is not supported

I'm not sure if that was on the box as well, but it's pretty clear. And that only means Canon didn't write a Mac driver for it. VueScan may still work.

 

[donjao]

Thanks for your advises! Really appreciate that.

Try downloading the trial version of VueScan. If it works and you like it, purchase a license. The developer updates it regularly and provides great support. It saved many scanners from ending up in the landfill.

I found this on the Canon website:


I'm not sure if that was on the box as well, but it's pretty clear. And that only means Canon didn't write a Mac driver for it. VueScan may still work.

Thanks a bunch. Gonna try it out next time I get close to that printer. But, yeah, I completely trusted the staff and did not do a full research myself. Which is not gonna happen next time.

 

[carlgo]

You are not going to use this printer with a post-1998 Mac except with great difficulty.

What a great printer! Had to give it away, working perfectly. Now in a landfill. Hate that. Wish Apple had come up with a good way to keep using it.

 

[joaoferro99]

I used to use lexmark too though I dont like it's software at all, pretty annoyed...

 

[chrono1081]

Staples has a Canon MX860 on sale by the way for $80. Its an all in one that does dual sided scanning (and I think dual sided printing but I didn't test it yet). I bought it and its awesome! (Wireless too).

 

[chrono1081]

Try downloading the trial version of VueScan. If it works and you like it, purchase a license. The developer updates it regularly and provides great support. It saved many scanners from ending up in the landfill.

I found this on the Canon website:


I'm not sure if that was on the box as well, but it's pretty clear. And that only means Canon didn't write a Mac driver for it. VueScan may still work.

Wow. That is the first time I have EVER seen that!

 

[davidp158]

Apple Laser Writer Pro 630 (when R. I. P. doesn't mean raster image processor)

I have been using my Apple Laser Writer Pro 630 for many, many years but Snow Leopard put an end to AppleTalk. Yeah, the LW 630 is old and slow (like me), but it has been a reliable work horse and far less expensive to operate than the 3 Epson inkjet printers I've owned. I loath inkjet printers with their clogging print heads, cheap build quality and expensive consumables.

I am looking for a Mac friendly laser printer (black only) that has Ethernet and Postscript. Any suggestions?

What a great printer! Had to give it away, working perfectly. Now in a landfill. Hate that. Wish Apple had come up with a good way to keep using it.

 

[MisterMe]

I have been using my Apple Laser Writer Pro 630 for many, many years but Snow Leopard put an end to AppleTalk. ...

I am looking for a Mac friendly laser printer (black only) that has Ethernet and Postscript. Any suggestions?

The world has changed since you bought the LaserWriter Pro 630. Color laser printers no longer cost more than a small car. For the price that you pay for a good monochrome laser printer and the limited selection of available models, you may as well go whole hog and buy color. Genuine PostScript and anvil reliability come with Xerox. Many Mac users swear by Brother with its excellent PostScript clone.

Expand your horizons and buy a printer that will do what you need done.

 

[davidlv]

Hello everyone. I have experience with 2 Canon printers, 1 Lexmark. None of them did the job well. Canon drivers did not allow to scan, Lexmark had wireless printing issues and some weird hardware error when I had to open it up and take out and take in the cartridges to make it print again.
Now my question, what brand makes MOST Mac friendly drivers and printers themselves? I'm thinking of Brother, but I have no experience with it, and I don't know how well drivers work. Basically I'm after a MFU without fax. Just print/scan/copy functions.
Thanks in advance.

Are you sure you have the latest scan software from Canon? I have a laser/scanner no Fax Satera Model and the MF scan software MF Toolbox 1.2 is great,
http://cweb.canon.jp/drv-upd/satera-mfp/macxsg2.html
works like a charm and allows real integration with the Mac OS, saving scans to a folder you designate in a file format you choose etc. etc.
This model, sold in Japan, is available in the States too, forgot the name just now. So the software should work, but of course that depends on the printer model number. The Japanese HP would be hard for you to navigate but all of the software works just fine in an English system.

 

[sovereign]

Has anyone used the Brother HL-2270DW? I am going to return a Samsung ML-2525W, as it has the "goes offline" problem and I cannot find a fix that works...

 

[08380728]

Brother has adopted the CUPS printer management system. This goes a long way toward future-proofing your printer. It also virtually eliminates the USB/network confusion.

This is very important and something that swings in the favour for Brother. Being the Xerox 'go to guy' can you tell us if Xerox has adopted the CUPS printer management system?

Genuine PostScript and anvil reliability come with Xerox. Many Mac users swear by Brother with its excellent PostScript clone.

What is PostScript anyway? Why should we care and what differences would the end user notice between a native PostScript Xerox Printer and the Clone PostScript Brother? Do PostScript printers offer better and longer driver support? Do they print faster and higher quality for example?

Thanks

 

[MisterMe]

This is very important and something that swings in the favour for Brother. Being the Xerox 'go to guy' can you tell us if Xerox has adopted the CUPS printer management system?

At the heart of CUPS is the GhostScript opensource PostScript clone. GhostScript serves as the host-based PostScript software RIP for non-PostScript printers. Virtually every PostScript printer is a CUPS printer. Therefore, the short answer to your question is "Yes."

What is PostScript anyway? Why should we care and what differences would the end user notice between a native PostScript Xerox Printer and the Clone PostScript Brother? Do PostScript printers offer better and longer driver support? Do they print faster and higher quality for example?

Thanks

PostScript is a page description language (PDL). A PDL tells the printer how to print each page. Today and for many years now, PostScript is the PDL for professional printing. It is a dialect of the FORTH programming language. PostScript print drivers generate PostScript code that is passed on to the printer where its PostScript ROM rasters an image of each page and then prints it. The driver may also generate a PostScript file (.ps) that can be taken anywhere and downloaded to any PostScript printer/plotter/typesetter or distilled to PDF. PDF is a proper subset of PostScript.

As I said in a post above, PostScript futureproofs [and pastproofs] your printer. If your operating system has a PostScript driver, then you have no worries about manufacturer support for your PostScript printer.

Why Genuine PostScript rather than a clone? Because it is genuine and not a clone. Many clones are very good. I understand that the Brother PostScript clone is one of the very good ones. However, clones are not perfect. There are occasional gotchas.

It may be that the gotchas are sufficiently rare--and they are rare--and sufficiently minor that they don't matter to you. That is a choice for each buyer to make.

 

[donjao]

Edit bump!

 

[z-macrumors]

Brother HL-5370DW Black Only PostScript Ethernet Printer

I am looking for a Mac friendly laser printer (black only) that has Ethernet and Postscript. Any suggestions?

I have been using the Brother HL-5370DW black only laser printer for several weeks on Snow Leopard 10.6.8 with great results. I'm using the BR-Script3 printer driver, which I assume sends PostScript to the printer's postscript clone, BR-Script3.

 

[flynz4]

Try downloading the trial version of VueScan. If it works and you like it, purchase a license. The developer updates it regularly and provides great support. It saved many scanners from ending up in the landfill.

VueScan is a spectacular program. I was just on their site today to be sure they are supporting Lion. It was one of the things I wanted to check before upgrading to OSX 10.7.

One of my scanners is a Nikon Coolscan 5000 ED and it has horrible Apple support from Nikon. It is also about the only scanner capable of scanning my 10's of thousands of negatives and slides. Evidently it is not even made anymore... or if it is... nearly impossible to find. When I switched from PCs to Macs... I thought I was doomed. VueScan saved the day.

BTW: An interesting example of supply/demand. When I bought the CoolScan... it was about $1200. Now they are selling on Ebay for $2500 - $3500. Why can't all our electronic purchases appreciate like that? LOL

/Jim

 

[Username02]

Has anyone used the Brother HL-2270DW? I am going to return a Samsung ML-2525W, as it has the "goes offline" problem and I cannot find a fix that works...

I just bought one of these a month ago to replace a broken Brother HL2070N. Just like the HL2070N, this thing is fantastic over wired network. Just plug it in and power it on and you are set to go. Highly recommended as it is a reliable small unit and I never have any issues with connecting or printing. And it NEVER goes offline. (when wired)

The one complaint I have is the wireless networking feature. No screen on the printer so you actually need to connect it to your mac or pc before you can get wireless working. The instructions to do this are several pages long and you even have to install some software to do it. I attempted to set up the wireless on this for about 20 min then just gave up. Not worth it for wireless at all IMHO.