I don't think I can give better advice than that – it's a weird and wild world. AirPrint is at least Apple's first successful implementation of a strict protocol resulting in consistent compatibility and results across many printers (though it's taken most of a decade for only some percentage of brands to support it).
Off the top of my head (and I'm really no aficionado), I'd say Canon has historically been okay at supporting Apple, Brother and Toshiba seem like they've been trying, and HP has never struck me as caring much about Apple users.