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which colour laser printer

B

bogart

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 31, 2008
65
0
Just getting an MBP so I need a USB (or other but not centronics port) printer for SOHO use.

Somewhat seduced by this

HP Colour LaserJet CP1215

but find there are no Leopard drivers yet. Well tomorrow I either have to buy a new toner cartridge for my existing b/w laser (at about $80) or buy a new printer and buying a cartridge at this point when MBP arrival is imminent seems a bit of a daft waste of money.

Please advise a reasonable laser preferably colour that DOES have drivers for the mac and doesn't cost an arm and a leg for toner every 10 minutes. My HP LJ 1100 has been great till now - similar standard required for the new one.

andy
 
I've been using an Oki Data C3200n for a couple of years, and I'm still on the original cartridges. I paid $250 for it, and the cartridges are cheap. :)
 
Galley said:
I've been using an Oki Data C3200n for a couple of years, and I'm still on the original cartridges. I paid $250 for it, and the cartridges are cheap. :)
Click to expand...

Thanks - but it seems not to be available in the UK.

andy
 
Well the Brother HL series HL-4070CDW currently has the top customer reviews on Newegg.com for a Color Laser printer the HL-4040CN also has top reviews but for some reason has less features and a higher price. It is a bit more than the HP you were interested in. However from the reviews it has a very nice print speed, a low cost per copy and good print quality.

This printer has a USB connector as per your requirements. However since you are using a Macbook this printer also has an Ethernet connector and 802.11B/G Wireless so that you can connect it to your router and print over your network, this way you do not have to connect directly to the printer everytime you want to print and other computer on your network can print as well. As for compatibility on the Brother Web Site it is stated that the drivers are already bundled with Mac OS 10.5 so you should not even have to install them.

Other driver downloads.
Brother product page.

 
Questions on Brother HL-4040cn color laser printer

Q1: Is the Brother HL-4040cn color laser printer compatible with the newest MacBook Leopard operating system?

Q2: If a color cartridge (or cartridges) in this printer run(s) out of ink, will this printer printer still print out black & white documents? [I know some printers force you to replace the colored cartridges before you can print any B&W document, even if you have plenty of black ink. Others allow you to run out of colored ink and still print B&W.]

Thanks!

DG
 
I have an HP 2600n, and like every other HP I've owned, it's rock solid (but then, I never owned a LJ 6-series, either). As with others, price of the consumables is where they ultimately get you, but I've gotten 10 months on a K cartridge, and anticipate about 16 months on each of the CMY carts.

Keep in mind, HP doesn't license PostScript, and if that's a major issue for you (and for most home/office uses it makes no difference), look at Xerox Phasers. They're great machines, too.
 
The driver should already be apart of Mac OS X. If not installed it should be on the install DVD within optional installs. Based on reading one of the detailed reviews the printer has an option to lock out the color toner. Therefore it is reasonable to assume the printer can print to black and white when out of color toner.

I advised due to very good customer reviews, a good price, Leopard compatibility, color printing, duplexing, and that it can be added to a network. That networking is great then you can take your laptop anywhere in your house and print wirelessly.
 
Inkjet is still the best option for photo printing. Preferably one that use 5+ different ink tanks for a wider gamut of colors. Personally I prefer Epson. For a really nice one expect to spend $300+ though I would go all out for a wider format printer.

This Epson uses 9 ink tanks and can handle 13"x19" paper and 8.3 and 13 inch continuous feed rolls. I will get something like this for my next photo printer my current Epson R340 only whet my appitite. Which only uses 6 ink tanks and handles up to legal size paper.
 
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