All-in-one Laser Printer Recommendation?

fuzz_ballfuzz_ball
Posted:
in General Discussion edited December 2014
I'm looking for a few features for my small business. I don't really need an all-in-one since the main features I need to get out of this purchase are:



Laser (cost-per-page much better than ink-jets)

Double-sided printing



The reason I'm considering an all-in-one is I do have the occasional need for:



photo-copying (light duty, like 5 pages here and there)

faxing (yeah, my Mac can fax, but sometimes, albeit rarely, I need to fax something I have in hardcopy form, not digital).



Finally, I'm cheap Of course, I'm more than willing to pay for quality, but I don't pay for "brand-name" just because it is a brand-name; it's got to be better than the alternatives.



Something I'm willing to trade off is speed. I don't do tons of printing, so I'm not looking for a heavy-duty fast printer, slow and easy will get me where I'm going just fine.



Thanks in advance for your recommendations!



Oh yeah, I forgot my setup:



I'm running the latest version of Panther

I plan on plugging this new printer into the USB port of my Airport Extreme base station
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 22
    escherescher Posts: 1,811member
    After getting used to the Xerox multifunction copiers at work, I have to admit that a multifunction laser sounds awfully tempting. (Those Xerox machines do the obvious copying, but also phantastic network scanning to PDF or TIFF with excellent OCR. I just love being able to drop a 100 page document in the sheetfeed tray and scan it to PDF to send as an e-mail attachment for large distributions, instead of having to do a traditional fax. Still blows my mind compared to the analog copiers we had just a few years ago.)



    My ideal multifunction printer would feature:



    1. 600+ dpi laser printing (15 ppm would be nice)

    2. Ethernet print server (I have several OS X and Wintel systems)

    3. reliable PostScript suport

    4. standalone faxing (with sheetfeed)

    5. scanning from the sheetfeed (to PDF or TIFF for OCR)

    6. duplex printing would be a bonus



    Let's get some input here!



    Escher
  • Reply 2 of 22
    regreg Posts: 832member
    I also was looking for a laser multifunction. The only ones that I have seen so far that support OSX are the HP Officejet line. They are not laser and I was looking also for one with ethernet connection. Since I have not seen anything that has made me jump up and say that this is the one, I will make do with the individual pieces that I have now.



    reg
  • Reply 3 of 22
    akacakac Posts: 512member
    I believe HP does have Laserjet based MFCs that support OS X.



    I'm in the market for one, that's for sure.
  • Reply 4 of 22
    carson o'geniccarson o'genic Posts: 1,279member
    We have a HP Laserjet (printer only) at work (sorry I'm not there to check on the model number) that works ok but I have two issues with it. Printing from Panther doesn't always allow me to print double-sided or if the original is an odd number of pages and I'm making several DS copies, it will start the next copy on the back side of the preceding copy. The printer also eats toner like mad. I have a GCC at home (don't know if they make all-in-ones) and I'm fairly happy with it.
  • Reply 5 of 22
    alex_kacalex_kac Posts: 58member
    See I have the opposite experience. My HP LaserJet has been used pretty heavily for a year or so and in that time we've only needed to replace the toner once. No other issues at all. We also use the ethernet->USB print server so we just use standard PostScript printing and NEVER have any issues.
  • Reply 6 of 22
    paulpaul Posts: 5,278member
    what about this? (xerox)
  • Reply 7 of 22
    regreg Posts: 832member
    Nice machine but it is only a printer.



    reg
  • Reply 8 of 22
    escherescher Posts: 1,811member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Paul

    what about this? (xerox)



    See reg's comment above. The Phaser 6100 is a (very nice color) printer, not a multifunction printer (all-in-one printer, scanner, fax machine).



    However, this goes to show what great values you can find in standalone machines. I was going to buy an HP LaserJet 2300DN later this year (because I like HP's reliability and good driver support), but with the attractive price of the network version of the Xerox Phaser 6100, I think I'll go for color at a similar price point. And I'll simply have to get a fax and scanner separately. Unless you really don't have the space (and possibly budget), I think you can get a lot more (functionality and performance) out of multiple standalone machines.



    Escher
  • Reply 9 of 22
    regreg Posts: 832member
    We have an Hp Scanjet 4c connected to a Beige G3, Hp 4050n laserjet printer and various inkjet printers scattered around. The all in one will make things more centralized. That being said we are about to get a hand-me-down Hp G95 all in one. I believe all I need to make this unit network ready is a JetDirect 170x. This should keep me happy for several years.



    reg
  • Reply 10 of 22
    madmax559madmax559 Posts: 596member
    get a nice cheap laser instead of an all in one



    i use a samsung ml-1450 which is 150$ or so at frys

    built like a rock & really small footprint
  • Reply 11 of 22
    fuzz_ballfuzz_ball Posts: 390member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by madmax559

    get a nice cheap laser instead of an all in one



    i use a samsung ml-1450 which is 150$ or so at frys

    built like a rock & really small footprint



    It doesn't do double-sided printing, so it's no use to me.
  • Reply 12 of 22
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    I saw a Canon 5550 something other other earlier today. I don't know about all its features since I wasn't actually looking for one but I did note it was a laser all-in-one. Oh, it was $400 after rebate (this was at Office Depot). HTH.
  • Reply 13 of 22
    alcimedesalcimedes Posts: 5,486member
    purchasing advice goes to general discussion.



  • Reply 14 of 22
    akacakac Posts: 512member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by torifile

    I saw a Canon 5550 something other other earlier today. I don't know about all its features since I wasn't actually looking for one but I did note it was a laser all-in-one. Oh, it was $400 after rebate (this was at Office Depot). HTH.



    Yes, the Canon's have the best quality and featureset from my own experience, but its Windows only.
  • Reply 15 of 22
    escherescher Posts: 1,811member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Paul

    what about this? (xerox)



    I found it suspicious that Xerox's page for the Phaser 6100 didn't mention postscript support. So I decided to track down the OS X printer driver for the Phaser 6100. Here's the description from the Xerox website:



    Quote:

    6100enOSX.dmg

    English Macintosh OS X driver files for the Xerox Phaser 6100 color printer. Only supports USB printing and does not support any printer specific features.



    No network printing! Even if you shell out extra money for the 6100DN. No support for printer-specific features! Does that include something like color calibration and double-sided printing? If yes, this printer will be near useless with a Mac.



    Even the PDF spec sheet doesn't say whether this printer supports PostScript and would thus work with Apple's PS driver. This illustrates why HP, which has great OS X driver support, can still get away with insanely high prices.



    Escher
  • Reply 16 of 22
    formerlurkerformerlurker Posts: 2,686member
    I've dealt with this question for many clients, and my advice to you is the same as my advice to them:



    -Get a HP LaserJet, 1300 or better

    -Get a low-priced Canon or Epson Scanner

    -Use Panther's built-in Fax capabilities for faxing, or get PageSender if you need more fax sophistication.



    This is assuming that you will be printing pages much more often than faxing or "copying" (which is really just "scan and print").
  • Reply 17 of 22
    akacakac Posts: 512member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by FormerLurker

    I've dealt with this question for many clients, and my advice to you is the same as my advice to them:



    -Get a HP LaserJet, 1300 or better

    -Get a low-priced Canon or Epson Scanner

    -Use Panther's built-in Fax capabilities for faxing, or get PageSender if you need more fax sophistication.



    This is assuming that you will be printing pages much more often than faxing or "copying" (which is really just "scan and print").



    Problem..( I already have all 3):



    1) Works great. Takes up a lot of space, but worth it.

    2) Works great. Takes up a lot of space, but worth it.

    3) Doesn't always work great and you have to mess with #2 and this is REALLY a pain if you need to fax more than one sheet (which is common) for example contracts.



    So what happens is you have #1 and #2 and compounded they take up too much space. Then you have #3 which takes away hours of time a week doing page by page scanning for signed contracts or other material.



    Remember - pure computer generated material need not always be faxed as there is email. From my own research, the Canon MF devices are the best...but they don't support OS X. HP does and is near the Canon quality.
  • Reply 18 of 22
    escherescher Posts: 1,811member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Akac

    3) Doesn't always work great and you have to mess with #2 and this is REALLY a pain if you need to fax more than one sheet (which is common) for example contracts.



    I agree that scanning documents on a scanner to fax them via fax software is a complete joke. When you want to send a paper fax, all you want to do it drop your stack of paper in the sheetfeed, dial the number (or hit the right speed dial button) and press the "send" button. Anything more complicated than that is bogus.



    But for the multipage scanning part, I've always dreamed of buying a scanner with a sheetfeed attachment. Are there any Mac-compatible scanners that have a sheetfeed?



    Escher
  • Reply 19 of 22
    akacakac Posts: 512member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Escher

    I agree that scanning documents on a scanner to fax them via fax software is a complete joke. When you want to send a paper fax, all you want to do it drop your stack of paper in the sheetfeed, dial the number (or hit the right speed dial button) and press the "send" button. Anything more complicated than that is bogus.



    But for the multipage scanning part, I've always dreamed of buying a scanner with a sheetfeed attachment. Are there any Mac-compatible scanners that have a sheetfeed?



    Escher



    Remember the space part. Some of us either prefer uncluttered offices or don't have much space. I already have a laser and a color photo printer stacked on top of each other. I have a scanner. I literally have no more room to add a fax. I can however get rid of the laser and scanner and put a multi-function and have space. I then also only have to buy ONE toner cartridge instead of two, one power cord, and one machine for maintenance.



    So it simplifies things.
  • Reply 20 of 22
    fredmfredm Posts: 6member
    HP, Canon, Xerox...

    Has anybody ever tried Oki? in the C5000 Series for example.

    I am trying to find out whether the laser colour printer Oki C5400dn would work wirelessly via Airport. Any tips?
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