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Printer Recommendations

Avatar Trevor Hewson
We're in the market for a new printer/scanner. Any recommendations?

We've been very happy with our Canon MP760, However Canon are notorious for not maintaining their driver software (at least on the Mac) so, although the ten year old machine is still useable, we've lost the preview function on the scanner and the double sided printing feature no longer works. I don't know whether any other manufacturers are any better in this respect.

Re: Printer Recommendations

Avatar Brian Tapper
Hi Trevor, I have an HP photosmart 5520, wireless printing, scanning, copy and web (has it's own e-mail address) seems to work OK for me.

Regards, Brian

Re: Printer Recommendations

Avatar Roy Rainford
Trevor, I have used Epson photo printers since digital imaging started and have always been happy with them, although they have comparatively pricey ink cartridges and photo paper. You may not need the photo quality but model plane shots would look great from an Epson! My current model is an Epson Stylus Photo PX720WD which is no longer in the Epson list. A similar one is here: http://www.epson.co.uk/gb/en/viewcon/corporatesite/products/mainunits/overview/13704

Re: Printer Recommendations

Avatar Tony Still
Hi Trevor,
I've had Canon printers for many years after a bad experience with an Epson (probably not representative of modern hardware). I replaced my longstanding machine last year when it developed a fault and now have a MG6450. This is not an expensive machine but prints, double-sides, scans and photocopies with excellent quality. My only criticism is that it feels a little flimsy but this doesn't seem to affect its functions.

Given your good experience with your previous Canon (it was supported for 10 years - that goes back to when we were running Tiger and the iPhone hadn't been invented!) you might consider another ;-)

Re: Printer Recommendations

Avatar Trevor Hewson
Thanks for what I suspect is a representative spread of recommendations! We've had both Epson and HP printers in the past and all have worked well in their day. The life-limiting issue on the current MP760 is that it is now reporting that 'the waste ink absorption pads are almost full'. Replacing the pads looks to be a pretty unattractive job (removing all of the printer, section by section to get to what promises to be an inky mess at the bottom of the box). It seems to be possible to reset the counter to get rid of the error message but then at some point the inky mess will no doubt overflow out of the printer. Being of a miserly disposition, I may fail to resist the temptation to reset the counter, put a towel under the printer and run it at least until we've used up the current spare ink tanks - there's got to be a safety margin in the counter settings hasn't there?!

I think it's over-generous to say that Canon supported this machine for ten years. Mac OS driver updates ceased after the first year or two, the scanner being the first to suffer from compatibility issues. The MP Navigator program has been u/s for at least the last three OS issues. Again, I've no idea whether other manufacturers are any better. Hopefully Apple users might be seen as a little more important now than in pre-iPhone days?

Re: Printer Recommendations

Avatar Mick Burrell
Jane has an MP780 and we use the System Preferences option to scan rather than the MP Navigator. This still works fine under Yosemite. Not sure whether this printer has double sided printing or not though!

Re: Printer Recommendations

Avatar Trevor Hewson
Well, after much deliberation, the new printer has been ordered, so I am busy printing out photos on the old one, to use up some of the remaining ink stock!

The new printer is an Epson Expression Premium XP-820 and it will be our first wireless printer. This seemed like a good idea since we both have iPads and iPhones and it would be nice to use AirPrint occasionally. However, thinking about this a bit more, I've realised that my ignorance about networking runs even deeper than I realised:

The printer and iMac are positioned either side of the wireless router, both within easy cable reach. The iMac has always been cable connected to the router and so has WiFi turned off. If I also connect the printer to the router with an Ethernet cable, am I right in thinking that there is then no point in enabling WiFi on the printer?

Second question for Epson users: Having had a preliminary browse of the User Guide, there is reference to an app called Epson iPrint and also the 'Epson Connect Service'. Is there any point in looking into either of these or are they really aimed at the Windows/Android world?

Re: Printer Recommendations

Avatar Euan Williams
Ah Trevor, didn't you know that printers have it in for us (although I negotiated a peace treaty with mine some years ago)? To relieve any frustration you may enjoy comparing experiences with Alistair Dabbs here.

Re: Printer Recommendations

Avatar Derek Wright
Just in case that you cannot get the Ipad/iPhone to print with the printer connected by cable you can still print from iPad/iPhone by installing and app on the Mac called Handyprint. Handyprint

Re: Printer Recommendations

Avatar Mick Burrell
Yes Trevor - it doesn't matter (to your iPad) how the printer connects to the network, just as long as it does, The iPad connects to the router wirelessly and from there to the printer using ethernet. (I'm a big fan of cables!)

Re: Printer Recommendations

Avatar Douglas Cheney
An alternative is Printopia

Re: Printer Recommendations

Avatar Trevor Hewson
I've printed out 46 photos on the ageing Canon and, apart from clearing the repeated "Waste ink pads nearly full" messages, it is still working fine - and I still haven't had to break into the spare set of cartridges. So Euan, it seems that there's nothing like the threat of eviction to make a printer behave itself!

Thanks Mick, so we didn't need a WiFi printer after all! However, since it seems to be a standard feature nowadays, it didn't restrict our choice.

Doug/Derek, The Epson we have ordered is AirPrint capable so hopefully we won't need any additional software but I'll bear those apps in mind if we run into problems. We also have an old MacBook (running Lion) which at the moment prints wirelessly to the iMac's USB-connected printer using printer sharing. Hopefully we will be able to set up something similar with the new one.

Re: Printer Recommendations

Avatar Mick Burrell
If the "iMac's USB-connected printer" that the Lion laptop prints to is the one being replaced by the new printer (or even if it isn't!), as long as there is a Lion compatible driver for the new network printer, the laptop will be able to print to that. (You'll probably find that a more up-to-date driver would still work on Lion.)
 
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