Wireless Printer-Scanner Recommendations?

[Manchester]

Am after a new wireless printer and scanner (all in one).

Any recommendations on a reliable kit that will do the job, with my MacBook Pro?

 

[kschendel]

Lots of options. Do you need color, or just monochrome? Laser or inkjet? (Inkjet usually has nicer photo output, laser is generally cheaper to run and a lot less hassle in the long term.) Take a look at Brother, they have some good units.

 

[Manchester]

Lots of options. Do you need color, or just monochrome? Laser or inkjet? (Inkjet usually has nicer photo output, laser is generally cheaper to run and a lot less hassle in the long term.) Take a look at Brother, they have some good units.

Colour preferred, not fussed as to inkjet or laser, will not be printing photos just documents / web pages.

It's more the reliability of the wireless function, as I've currently got a Canon Pixma MP495, which can work great, but more often than not, the connection is unreliable for either printing or scanning.

 

[kschendel]

I have a Canon MF8280 multifunction color laser that has run fine wirelessly for the last year or so. It doesn't like weak wireless connections but is fine as long as the signal is OK. It comes with "starter" toner cartridges that run out much too soon, but the replacements have lasted well. I think it's been replaced by a new model though.

I'd definitely look at Brother if you don't need best photo rendition.

I generally tend to recommend laser over inkjet. Inkjet does best with steady but low volume printing. If the printer sits idle for a few days (thus provoking a head cleaning cycle), or if volume is high, inkjet can be very expensive to run.

 

[IHelpId10t5]

Brother makes some of the best stuff out there. Reliable, solid features, relatively inexpensive (both hardware and consumables), and work out of the box with no bloatware installation required.
[doublepost=1512782403][/doublepost]One more recommendation would be to avoid a multi-function device from any manuacturer if at all possible. If you scan large documents requiring a document feeder or copy frequently then you may need one. But, if you only scan an occasional document, then but an inexpensive Canon flatbed scanner and a separate color Brother laser printer will serve you far better and remain reliable for longer.

 

[oldhifi]

I have a Brother MFC 9130 works great

 

[The Hammer]

I have a Epson Artisan 810 and it sits about 3 feet from the router and the connection is very unreliable. Frequent errors involving connection. So I hooked it up to my iMac with a cable. Although I don't get the head cleaning issue if it sits unused for a while. Maybe more recent models are better. Was the same when I had a Dell PC.

 

[Banglazed]

I have Brother MFC-J450DW. When buying printers, it’s better to buy a slightly expensive printer since the ink cartridges are cheaper. For this model, there’s cheaper bundle ink cartridges on Amazon.

 

[Moakesy]

Have a HP OfficeJet pro 6970.....never had a wifi issue and the printer is two rooms away from the router. Quality and integration with Mac's, work laptops, iphone's and iPad is great.

I also subscribe to HP's Instant Ink thing, where you pay £1.99 month for up to 50 pages. For £24 quid a year, I get as many ink cartridges as I need, never run out as they send them as automatically beforehand and I can increase / decrease my subscription as needed (useful when the girl had exam month and was printing loads that month).

Not a fan of subscription models normally, but this one really works for my needs, isn't expensive and is very convenient.

BTW, I only use the scanner for when I have something important. Normally I use the iScanner app on my iPhone, went with the free trial then upgraded to the paid for version. Very happy with it and easier than faffing with the scanner.

 

[ggibson913]

Am after a new wireless printer and scanner (all in one).

Any recommendations on a reliable kit that will do the job, with my MacBook Pro?

I have a Brother Black and White laser printer/scanner (HL-L2380DW). I don't really do photo printing at home and since I rarely print something I would essentially almost have to by new ink cartridges when I wanted to print something with my old ink jet. The laser is nice and suits my needs perfectly. The sample cartridge lasted me a year and it has been another year of printing and I haven't run out of toner yet. Best of all the toner cartridges are cheaper than my old ink cartridges.

 

[macintoshmac]

BTW, I only use the scanner for when I have something important. Normally I use the iScanner app on my iPhone, went with the free trial then upgraded to the paid for version. Very happy with it and easier than faffing with the scanner.

What is the benefit of scanner apps versus taking photos? Never quite understood that part.

 

[Moakesy]

What is the benefit of scanner apps versus taking photos? Never quite understood that part.

Ease of use.

Physical Scanner : Have to be near a scanner, take document to device, wait for it to warm up, do it's pre-scan thing and then scan. Have to go back to your laptop, save the file within your file structure.

Scanner App : Always have it with you in your pocket, open the app and it's ready to scan. Auto-saved and easy to retrieve. Can email / text straight from the app.

Quality is better on the physical scanner, and if you have a sheet feeder then scanning many pagers is better, but if you have only one A4 document to scan, the app is just easier and quicker.

 

[Dopeyman]

I have a Epson Artisan 810 and it sits about 3 feet from the router and the connection is very unreliable. Frequent errors involving connection. So I hooked it up to my iMac with a cable. Although I don't get the head cleaning issue if it sits unused for a while. Maybe more recent models are better. Was the same when I had a Dell PC.

I've had my Epson Artisan 820 for over about 2 years without any wifi issues. Maybe yours needs a firmware update?

 

[NoBoMac]

Will echo what others have said: me, I'd go with a laser printer. I have been using a Brother printer & scanner for years now and get years of use per toner cartridge.

Now, I print less and less every year. Maybe a couple of pages a year, and probably could live without a printer these days as more and more enterprises are going paperless (eg. boarding passes, tickets).

Scanner function, have not used in a while as I have been using my iPhone to scan in via Notes the odd document I want to save as a PDF.

 

[macintoshmac]

Ease of use.

Physical Scanner : Have to be near a scanner, take document to device, wait for it to warm up, do it's pre-scan thing and then scan. Have to go back to your laptop, save the file within your file structure.

Scanner App : Always have it with you in your pocket, open the app and it's ready to scan. Auto-saved and easy to retrieve. Can email / text straight from the app.

Quality is better on the physical scanner, and if you have a sheet feeder then scanning many pagers is better, but if you have only one A4 document to scan, the app is just easier and quicker.

Hi, thank you for the response, but I wanted to know the difference between taking photos from the phone camera versus using the scanner app, not using the physical scanner (that part I get).

 

[Martin81]

We have a Brother DCP-L2500D and a Brother DCP-7055. Both work great with macOS.

 

[Moakesy]

Hi, thank you for the response, but I wanted to know the difference between taking photos from the phone camera versus using the scanner app, not using the physical scanner (that part I get).

Ahh....I misunderstood.

The scanner app auto detects the borders of the paper and auto straightens to ensure the 'scan' is level. If it doesn't get the border detection spot on (e.g. white paper on a white table), then you can custom edit the borders yourself.

This way you end up with just the document you wanted to scan, not the periphery. Try an App Store search for 'iScanner' and give the free version a go. You'll see what I mean.

 

[macintoshmac]

Ahh....I misunderstood.

The scanner app auto detects the borders of the paper and auto straightens to ensure the 'scan' is level. If it doesn't get the border detection spot on (e.g. white paper on a white table), then you can custom edit the borders yourself.

This way you end up with just the document you wanted to scan, not the periphery. Try an App Store search for 'iScanner' and give the free version a go. You'll see what I mean.

Ah, I see now. The scanner apps offer convenience and more document-centric features than just taking a photo with a camera app. Quite like Office Lens from Microsoft, then.

 

[Moakesy]

Ah, I see now. The scanner apps offer convenience and more document-centric features than just taking a photo with a camera app. Quite like Office Lens from Microsoft, then.

Exactly !!!

hadn't picked up on Office Lens though, looks great and can definitely make use of that at work!! Cheers

 

[ignatius345]

Brother makes some of the best stuff out there. Reliable, solid features, relatively inexpensive (both hardware and consumables), and work out of the box with no bloatware installation required.
[doublepost=1512782403][/doublepost]One more recommendation would be to avoid a multi-function device from any manuacturer if at all possible. If you scan large documents requiring a document feeder or copy frequently then you may need one. But, if you only scan an occasional document, then but an inexpensive Canon flatbed scanner and a separate color Brother laser printer will serve you far better and remain reliable for longer.

Yeah, Brother laser printers are total workhorses in my experience, and cheap as hell to run.

The one I currently have set me back a whopping $125 or so, does duplex printing and has wifi. Looking at my printer stats page, it's jammed a grand total of twelve times out of nearly 13,000 prints. And that's using the most basic paper I can get my hands on.

Got curious about my total cost/page just now. Looking at my status page, I see I've replaced the drum once ($75) and used 5 toner packs (average let's say $45 each). Add in paper (26 reams @ let's say $5 each) and I get a grand total of $430 for consumables, plus the cost of the printer itself (let's call that $125) -- now I'm up to $555. Divide that by the 12,789 pages I've printed and I get about 4.3¢/page, not including electricity. Not bad!

I can't speak to the scanner situation, but I did buy my mom one of the Brother B&W laser all-in-ones with a scanner/fax/printer. The printer part looks pretty much the same as mine, and the whole unit seems to be running quite nicely. The few times I've used the scanner and document feeder, it's worked fine. But that's all very light usage.
[doublepost=1531495865][/doublepost]

Ease of use.

Physical Scanner : Have to be near a scanner, take document to device, wait for it to warm up, do it's pre-scan thing and then scan. Have to go back to your laptop, save the file within your file structure.

Scanner App : Always have it with you in your pocket, open the app and it's ready to scan. Auto-saved and easy to retrieve. Can email / text straight from the app.

Quality is better on the physical scanner, and if you have a sheet feeder then scanning many pagers is better, but if you have only one A4 document to scan, the app is just easier and quicker.

I think that all starts to break down once your volume goes up. No matter how quick you are with your phone, if you have a 10-page document you want scanned, dropping it into the document feeder of a decent scanner is far, far easier than lining up each page and going through whatever workflow your scanning software has.

So I'd agree that for occasional light scanning a phone is a great solution, but there's an inflection point at which it starts to be too slow.

 

[macintoshmac]

Yeah, Brother laser printers are total workhorses in my experience, and cheap as hell to run.

The one I currently have set me back a whopping $125 or so, does duplex printing and has wifi. Looking at my printer stats page, it's jammed a grand total of twelve times out of nearly 13,000 prints. And that's using the most basic paper I can get my hands on.

Got curious about my total cost/page just now. Looking at my status page, I see I've replaced the drum once ($75) and used 5 toner packs (average let's say $45 each). Add in paper (26 reams @ let's say $5 each) and I get a grand total of $430 for consumables, plus the cost of the printer itself (let's call that $125) -- now I'm up to $555. Divide that by the 12,789 pages I've printed and I get about 4.3¢/page, not including electricity. Not bad!

I can't speak to the scanner situation, but I did buy my mom one of the Brother B&W laser all-in-ones with a scanner/fax/printer. The printer part looks pretty much the same as mine, and the whole unit seems to be running quite nicely. The few times I've used the scanner and document feeder, it's worked fine. But that's all very light usage.
[doublepost=1531495865][/doublepost]
I think that all starts to break down once your volume goes up. No matter how quick you are with your phone, if you have a 10-page document you want scanned, dropping it into the document feeder of a decent scanner is far, far easier than lining up each page and going through whatever workflow your scanning software has.

So I'd agree that for occasional light scanning a phone is a great solution, but there's an inflection point at which it starts to be too slow.

Awesome, that! How are you coming to know such stats regarding how many toner packs used till now, how many reams? Also, which model?

 

[Moakesy]

Got curious about my total cost/page just now. Looking at my status page, I see I've replaced the drum once ($75) and used 5 toner packs (average let's say $45 each). Add in paper (26 reams @ let's say $5 each) and I get a grand total of $430 for consumables, plus the cost of the printer itself (let's call that $125) -- now I'm up to $555. Divide that by the 12,789 pages I've printed and I get about 4.3¢/page, not including electricity. Not bad!

Interesting stuff.....just did a rough and ready calculation using your quantity against costs for the HP. Tried to keep the comparison fair and objective. The long story short is the HP cost for that volume would roughly be £544, or $777. Per page that works out at 4.3 pence, or 5.6 cents/page. To put that another way, it's 30% more expensive for the HP printer!! The Brother definitely works out a lot cheaper.

What I don't know is if your printing / costs has been mainly been colour or black & white. The HP instant ink thing is the same if you're printing full page, full colour photos or a B&W letter. That's the only variable left for the OP to consider....but I'm very impressed with your numbers and as long as the OP isn't doing much fancy work then the Brother should be the one to go for based on cost.

 

[ignatius345]

Interesting stuff.....just did a rough and ready calculation using your quantity against costs for the HP. Tried to keep the comparison fair and objective. The long story short is the HP cost for that volume would roughly be £544, or $777. Per page that works out at 4.3 pence, or 5.6 cents/page. To put that another way, it's 30% more expensive for the HP printer!! The Brother definitely works out a lot cheaper.

What I don't know is if your printing / costs has been mainly been colour or black & white. The HP instant ink thing is the same if you're printing full page, full colour photos or a B&W letter. That's the only variable left for the OP to consider....but I'm very impressed with your numbers and as long as the OP isn't doing much fancy work then the Brother should be the one to go for based on cost.

Oops, should have mentioned -- that's black and white only, and using very basic paper.
[doublepost=1531504581][/doublepost]

Awesome, that! How are you coming to know such stats regarding how many toner packs used till now, how many reams? Also, which model?

There's a status page you can bring up in your browser, also lets you tweak settings and such. I think a lot of printers have things like this now. I got the number of reams of paper by just dividing my total page count by 500 (number of sheets in a standard ream).

The model I have (HL2270-DW) has been superceded a few times, but I think the new ones are basically the same but have handy little status screens on them. If you keep an eye on Wirecutter, you can catch them on sale for as little as $100 or so, but they will come with a "starter" toner you have to replace within like 1,000 pages.

 

[macintoshmac]

Oops, should have mentioned -- that's black and white only, and using very basic paper.
[doublepost=1531504581][/doublepost]
There's a status page you can bring up in your browser, also lets you tweak settings and such. I think a lot of printers have things like this now. I got the number of reams of paper by just dividing my total page count by 500 (number of sheets in a standard ream).


View attachment 770443

Wow that detail is pretty cool and very informative. Thank you for sharing.

 

[ignatius345]

Interesting stuff.....just did a rough and ready calculation using your quantity against costs for the HP. Tried to keep the comparison fair and objective. The long story short is the HP cost for that volume would roughly be £544, or $777. Per page that works out at 4.3 pence, or 5.6 cents/page. To put that another way, it's 30% more expensive for the HP printer!!

That's actually not a terrible price for color output! The last time I had a color printer it was years ago and it was an Epson inkjet and it was an absolute nightmare. Always clogging and streaking, consumed ink every cleaning cycle -- and even when it was working OK, it was dog slow. I think inkjets have gotten better and cheaper since then, but I'm always just printing text and have never had a reason to really explore the matter further.