Printer buying

wyntir

So after issues (gory details) I'm pretty sure I'm going to return my Samsung 1710 laser printer and get a replacement. (I will try it on a PC to see if I have the same problems, if not I'll just replace for the same model, it's a great printer when it works.)



So a few questions:

1. Does anyone else make inexpensive laser printers with good mac drivers?

I love the speed/text quality of laser, and as this printer will be mostly used for printing papers (and especially lots of drafts, I like to edit by hand) I like the low per-page cost, and don't really need color (as nice as it would be for this amateur photographer).



2. Any suggestions for good, < $150-$200 inkjets?

Ideally one with relatively inexpensive carts and good B&W speeds, for reasons outlined above, though decent (stick-on-wall quality) photo printing would be a nice bonus.



3. Any comments on printers in general?

I've never had much luck buying printers in my time. We were an Epson family for years, despite the fact that they never lasted more than 12 months. Switched to HP only to be disillusioned by their awful drivers for Mac. I thought I had a winner with this Samsung but I guess not. Anyone purchased a printer in the last 6 months? How well did it work out?



Hopefully this will be helpful to more people than just me. I imagine printer-buying is a common thing, and there are just too many printers and too few pages in Macworld to review them all, it's confusing.



Thanks!



[Edit: eBaying for "LaserJet 4" is making me wonder if that's not a bad idea. I have good memories of those printers, and they're running about $50, and $15 for a refurbished toner cart. And Gimp-Print supposedly supports them very well. Hmmmmmm.]

wyntir

Gasp! This just in! A review here (find "mac" a few times) and this Google search indicate that I could have sweet, sweet open-source drivers, letting my printer reach its full potential, if only linuxprinting.org's website were up. It's been around since 1998 and until at least September 28th this year according to the Google cache, how could it fall off the face of the planet the week before I need to download the samsung-gdi driver off of it, right??? Garr! If anyone has any info on this (perhaps other people who downloaded the driver/might know where to find it) I'd love to hear from you.



In any case, my questions still stand since there's still a good chance I'll return it. So. Let's get this party started.

markiv

You can go for Samsung ML-1710, this is a laser printer and is only for 110 dollars (after 70 dollars mail-in rebate), that price is offered only at CompUSA. I checked is compatibe with OS X 10.1, should be compatible with Panther. If you do not require colored printer, go for this one.

wyntir

Ahm, that's the printer I have, and it works awfully with Mac OS X. (At least the Samsung drivers do.) But thanks



Edit: and it appears that Linuxprinting.org is back online. Whoo! So feel free to let this thread die.

imacfan

Hi,



I've just got the HP Laserjet 1010, and I really like it - very small, only costs about £130 (Probably =$150US). Its quick, and the results are, well, Laser quality! The only downside is that the drivers are really basic, work just as they should, but at the moment, there is no HP laserjet toolbox for the Mac (though they say that they are working on it) This would let you access some things like cleaning cycles and how much toner is left, but these are far less important in a Laser printer than in an inkjet. Anyhow, you can send a blank sheet through to clean, and printing the status page will show you how many sheets the thing has printed, to give you an idea how much toner is left. If HP do get round to enabling all features on the Mac, it will be the perfect personal printer.





David