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Printer Recommendations
- Thread starter seanf
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My recommendation is to stay away from Epson inkjets. I've had several die from clogged heads and all of them saw very, very light usage. I finally gave up and picked up an HP because the heads are on the ink carts. It's been working flawlessly for over a year now and I'm very happy.
I'd agree with the post about Epson -- horrible ink management, very costly, etc. My preference is always Canon -- cost per page is less than others, with a great output. When a cartridge runs out of ink, you only need to change that cartridge, not all of them like the Epson's I had. In my opinion, Canon is the only way to go!
Good luck!
Good luck!
Brother Printers have fairly good drivers for Mac. They might be not well suited for your situation though.
I've used Canon printers for awhile and they are good. Work pretty good with macs.
I've used Canon printers for awhile and they are good. Work pretty good with macs.
I have also been using canon and love mine. Had an epson and it worked fine... when the head was not clogged. My parents have an HP and they are fine as long as you don't want to print share the thing with another computer. i.e. You cannot plug the HP printer in to the back of a mac via USB then turn on printer sharing for the thing. It will not work, unless they have changed something. It is annoying as hell because when I go home and need to print something i just can't do it form my laptop. I have to transfer the stuff to the other computer and do it from there.
I know it is a minor gripe but it is enough to annoy me into not buying an HP.
My canon (MP760) is great and does printer sharing just fine. The ink tanks are also all sparate. There are 2 black and four color ones and it makes it nice that I can just replace the ink tank that is empty. I don;t have to worry that i am out of blue ink but my yellow and magenta are still full... you end up basically waisting ink more.
just my 2 cents.
While I do not have any experience trying to use OS X'es printer sharing feature to a printer connected via USB, my printer is connected to my home network. The model that I purchased comes with a built-in ethernet port and is shared among 3 computers. Since it is connected to my wireless router, I can print to it from a wirelessly connected computer.
Hello,
I'm looking for recommendations for a good home printer for photo printing and occassional text printing to be used with an Intel Mac. Does anyone have any recommendations?
Thanks
Sean
Hi,
I have to disagree with the others I'm afraid. For me, Epson are awesome anc can't be beaten. I used to find they had many build quality issues, but I feel they have largely resolved that now.
Also, ink costs are not any more expensive than HP - that is just propraganda.
In my opinion, the R220/R240 are fantastic. (I prefer the output from the R240, but the R220 can print onto discs too)
If you wanna spend some more, you could go for the more mid-range options like the R3xx series, but I don't feel there is significant improvement over the lower price point units.
You'll be fine as long as you stay away from the Cxx range, which have quite sub-par output.
David
Epson is crap. Never had one that worked for more than a few weeks and didn't guzzle ink. Go with the Canon (specifically the iP4200 which you can get at Amazon.com for $130) for a few reasons:
I have two of these, my sister has one, my mom has one, and my other sister has one...so I know it's capability.
Quality, speed, features: This isn't too much of an issue these days between the various manufacturers, but from my experience, Canon has the finest most precise ink drop size, which gives you better detail and clarity. The prints coming out of my 4200 look like 35mm prints to the untrained eye. It can do a 4x6 print in 30 seconds, and has two paper trays so I can keep normal paper in one, and photo paper in the other. It also does double sided printing built-in so you can save regular paper.
Ink cost: HP and Lexmark charge you up the ass for ink because they give you a new print head every time which contains the nozzles. You don't NEED a new print head everytime unless you don't use your printer for months at a time. And even then, you can buy print heads from Canon. Epson is the same way, but Epson uses far more ink in their printers than they need to and their ink detection system in their printers is VERY inaccurate. Canon's printers actually shoot a beam of light into the ink tank to determine how much ink is in the tank whereas Epson basis it on number of prints. On top of that, HP charges you about $35 for a tri-color cartridge, where as Canon charges you roughly $40 for three individual tanks. Sounds more expensive right? Wrong. Since you have 3 individual tanks, you can replace the colors seperately. So if you print a lot of pictures with blue, you don't have to replace the red and yellow when the blue runs out, you just pay $13 and replace the blue. The tanks also hold at least 2x as much as HP or Lexmark's tanks, so you're getting twice the ink for roughly the same price.
Ink quality: Newer Canon printers like the iP series (iP4200 and iP5200) use dye-based inks. These don't fade as easily as pigment based inks and are very good quality.
PS. Lexmark is TOTAL CRAP, NEVER buy a lexmark. Dell's printers are re-branded Lexmark printers, so never buy a Dell printer either. HP is okay, but their inks are too expensive and I never liked the way they printed. Epson's would be my second choice, but the Epson's I've had break in less than a year.
I have two of these, my sister has one, my mom has one, and my other sister has one...so I know it's capability.
Quality, speed, features: This isn't too much of an issue these days between the various manufacturers, but from my experience, Canon has the finest most precise ink drop size, which gives you better detail and clarity. The prints coming out of my 4200 look like 35mm prints to the untrained eye. It can do a 4x6 print in 30 seconds, and has two paper trays so I can keep normal paper in one, and photo paper in the other. It also does double sided printing built-in so you can save regular paper.
Ink cost: HP and Lexmark charge you up the ass for ink because they give you a new print head every time which contains the nozzles. You don't NEED a new print head everytime unless you don't use your printer for months at a time. And even then, you can buy print heads from Canon. Epson is the same way, but Epson uses far more ink in their printers than they need to and their ink detection system in their printers is VERY inaccurate. Canon's printers actually shoot a beam of light into the ink tank to determine how much ink is in the tank whereas Epson basis it on number of prints. On top of that, HP charges you about $35 for a tri-color cartridge, where as Canon charges you roughly $40 for three individual tanks. Sounds more expensive right? Wrong. Since you have 3 individual tanks, you can replace the colors seperately. So if you print a lot of pictures with blue, you don't have to replace the red and yellow when the blue runs out, you just pay $13 and replace the blue. The tanks also hold at least 2x as much as HP or Lexmark's tanks, so you're getting twice the ink for roughly the same price.
Ink quality: Newer Canon printers like the iP series (iP4200 and iP5200) use dye-based inks. These don't fade as easily as pigment based inks and are very good quality.
PS. Lexmark is TOTAL CRAP, NEVER buy a lexmark. Dell's printers are re-branded Lexmark printers, so never buy a Dell printer either. HP is okay, but their inks are too expensive and I never liked the way they printed. Epson's would be my second choice, but the Epson's I've had break in less than a year.
as others have said, lexmark, dell, and epson (low end) suck. high end epsons are actually very nice. in general, HP and canon are the best. enjoy your new printer!
Hello,
I'm looking for recommendations for a good home printer for photo printing and occassional text printing to be used with an Intel Mac. Does anyone have any recommendations?
Thanks
Sean
Don't listen to people who make generalized statements about brands of printers. It's like some guy having a problem with a Ford Escort once then not wanting to buy a Ford F250 pickup. You have to talk about specific makes and models.
Before anyone here can offer any advice you have to give more info. First off, how much do you care about print quality and color fidelity? Do you care how long the prints last. Are you will to spend $$ on first quality paper and ink? Or is cost the major deciding factor here? I could recommend a nice photo printer but do you have $1,200 to spend on one?
Let us know what you are looking for. You did say "good" so I assume you are not looking only price.
While that's generally good advice, I've personally had enough Epsons die of clogged heads and have had friend's printers die the same way to say that their printers just plain suck.
My guess is that by "a good home printer" he means a printer he can print pics of his kid's soccer games for under $200...hence why Canon beats out every printer at that price point, and Epson sucks beyond belief at that price point.
Canon MP800.
It's the best unit I've ever owned, and I've owned a few...
does excellent photo prints upto A4, has flatbed scanner, will copy, etc. It comes with a jig that lets you print onto printable CD's and business card size CD's. A jig to scan in negatives or slides, etc.
brilliant machine, great lcd display on it, mem card slots, usb slot, etc.
Works excellent right off an airport express too.. wireless printing, easy! software just WORKS, a UB driver has recently been released, cant say the same for the rest of the packaged software, but it all works really fine.
Very happy with mine
It's the best unit I've ever owned, and I've owned a few...
does excellent photo prints upto A4, has flatbed scanner, will copy, etc. It comes with a jig that lets you print onto printable CD's and business card size CD's. A jig to scan in negatives or slides, etc.
brilliant machine, great lcd display on it, mem card slots, usb slot, etc.
Works excellent right off an airport express too.. wireless printing, easy! software just WORKS, a UB driver has recently been released, cant say the same for the rest of the packaged software, but it all works really fine.
Very happy with mine
canon IP4000 printer problem
Canon native drivers do not support printing from the network(at least for some printers). In case you want to print via PC machine to MAC you need to install something like Guteprint drivers (http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/), which does not support all Canon printers. For instance my PIXMA IP4000 does not print pictures in full resolution.
In case you want to connect printer to MAC and print from PC it might work fine.
In case you want to connect printer directly to MAC - no problem.
Canon native drivers do not support printing from the network(at least for some printers). In case you want to print via PC machine to MAC you need to install something like Guteprint drivers (http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/), which does not support all Canon printers. For instance my PIXMA IP4000 does not print pictures in full resolution.
In case you want to connect printer to MAC and print from PC it might work fine.
In case you want to connect printer directly to MAC - no problem.