Simplest and most reliable printer for an iMac?

In article ,
"Elmo P. Shagnasty" wrote:


Probably not--Brother's Mac support is incredibly good.

That's all very well, but why force her to use something entirely new
when she's used to an Epson? My twin to hers lasted me over a decade,
printing excellent fotos.

Also, I would consider a wireless network printer that allows her to put
it anywhere, and allows the friends/family to hook to it without effort
when they come over.

My Epson Artisan 710 is only plugged into the power strip. It has wi-fi
or Ethernet capability as well as direct connection. I use the wireless
connection.

And, to repeat once more, I'm a long way from young myself.

--
Erilar, biblioholic medievalist


http://www.chibardun.net/~erilarlo

In article ,
David wrote:

Any of the HP or Canons in basic form should do the trick - certainly
avoid Epson (even though they do print nicely) as she will be forever
cleaning heads.

Big deal. Cleaning the print heads is a simple "chick here" operation
she must already know from owning the Epson 740.

--
Erilar, biblioholic medievalist


http://www.chibardun.net/~erilarlo

In article ,
"Elmo P. Shagnasty" wrote:

In article ,
Jolly Roger wrote:

Brother. Hands down.

You've got to be kidding me. Their software flat-out sucks!

Their Mac software is superb.

Not in my experience, it isn't.

--
Send responses to the relevant news group rather than email to me.
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my very hungry SPAM
filter. Due to Google's refusal to prevent spammers from posting
messages through their servers, I often ignore posts from Google
Groups. Use a real news client if you want me to see your posts.

JR

In article ,
John McWilliams wrote:

My Mac store stopped putting printers out for a while now, but Office
Max/Depot usually has a shelf or two of them. There you could see for
yourself the access process.

I went to the local Office Max and browsed their offerings before buying
my new Epson.

--
Erilar, biblioholic medievalist


http://www.chibardun.net/~erilarlo

In article ,
J.J. O'Shea wrote:

On Sat, 2 Jan 2010 11:47:49 -0500, Jolly Roger wrote
(in article ):

In article ,
Lloyd Parsons wrote:

In article ,
Jolly Roger wrote:

In article ,
"Elmo P. Shagnasty" wrote:

In article ,
(John Brock) wrote:

We're not interested in speed or ultra-high quality photos or
multi-function; we're looking for robustness and simplicity above
all. We'd like our mother to be able to change the ink cartridges
by herself! Beyond that, we're looking for a major brand with good
OS X support, and not overly expensive (especially the ink). Under
$200 certainly, and under $100 would be nice. Given these criteria,
what would be the best choice?

Brother. Hands down.

You've got to be kidding me. Their software flat-out sucks!

You must be kidding me! Their software is just fine, including the
little toolbar thingie.

But then, who uses the software that comes with the scanner much anyway?
I sure don't and many I talk to don't.

Give me a solid driver (check), a simple interface for quick scans
(check), and work with my very good Apple software (check)

Not the Bother software I've had to troubleshoot for a family member
(for a Brother MFC-4420C).

I have a MFC-440cn, and the software is as the previous poster stated: a
driver for the printer section and a driver for the scanner section, both of
which worked over the network, and both of which worked without a fuss. The
printer driver did everything I wanted to and did it quickly and without
getting in my way. The scanner driver works with, among others, Image
Capture, Graphic Converter, Photoshop, and Acrobat Pro. I can also scan
directly from either System Preferences/Print & Fax or from the printer
application.

There's also the Brother Control Center software, which _is_ crap, but as I
don't even have it installed anymore is not a problem.

Come on, J.J. You admit that some of the Brother software works as you
would expect, but some of it causes problems. But just because you don't
have the crappy software installed anymore doesn't magically make it
better!

--
Send responses to the relevant news group rather than email to me.
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my very hungry SPAM
filter. Due to Google's refusal to prevent spammers from posting
messages through their servers, I often ignore posts from Google
Groups. Use a real news client if you want me to see your posts.

JR

In article ,
erilar wrote:

In article ,
David wrote:

Any of the HP or Canons in basic form should do the trick - certainly
avoid Epson (even though they do print nicely) as she will be forever
cleaning heads.

Big deal. Cleaning the print heads is a simple "chick here" operation
she must already know from owning the Epson 740.

Most cheap, low-quality printers require you to clean the heads
regularly just to keep them operating correctly.

In contrast, I have a five-year-old Canon PIXMA printer on which I have
*never* had to clean the heads; it prints just as good today as the day
I purchased it!

--
Send responses to the relevant news group rather than email to me.
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my very hungry SPAM
filter. Due to Google's refusal to prevent spammers from posting
messages through their servers, I often ignore posts from Google
Groups. Use a real news client if you want me to see your posts.

JR

John Brock wrote:

My siblings and I bought our 80-some year old mother a new iMac
for Christmas, and her Epson Stylus Color 740 -- unsupported by
Snow Leopard -- is now junk. So we'd like to hear recommendations
for a new printer.

We're not interested in speed or ultra-high quality photos or
multi-function; we're looking for robustness and simplicity above
all. We'd like our mother to be able to change the ink cartridges
by herself! Beyond that, we're looking for a major brand with good
OS X support, and not overly expensive (especially the ink). Under
$200 certainly, and under $100 would be nice. Given these criteria,
what would be the best choice?

I'm still very happy with Epson. I remember the Stylus Color 740 fondly
- it was the first printer I bought to work with my brand new CRT iMac
back in 1999.

Nowadays I use an Epson R210 for colour prints and a Brother black and
white laser printer for everything else. Lasers are _MUCH_ cheaper for
B&W printing - I save a lot of money not using an inkjet for everything.
In fact I'd go so far as to say you'd be _mad_ to print B&W with an
inkjet - it's just flushing good money down the toilet. The HL-2140
http://www.brother-usa.com/Printer/ModelDetail.aspx?ProductID=hl2140
is a good littlw low end model that's very easy to use. HP also do
decent low end lasers.

So yeah - my advice is get a cheap Epson inkjet for colour and a Brother
laser for B&W.

HTH,
Jamie Kahn Genet
--
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

On Fri, 1 Jan 2010 23:03:50 -0600, John McWilliams wrote (in article
):

I have two Canon MP-470 printers and they have performed flawlessly for
several years. I believe Canon now markets what is essentially an
updated/improved version. The MP-470 is a combination printer, scanner,
and copier. It uses two easily replaced ink cartridges, one black and one
color. The printer can be purchased for around $100. I'm using Snow
Leopard without anyl printer problems.


....But that's Multi function, which I'd also avoid for my Mom were I
getting one for her.

Agreed it is a multi-function. I got one for my older brother (also 80+) and
the thing he ended up using the most was the copying capability.

--
James Leo Ryan --- Austin, Texas ---

On Sat, 2 Jan 2010 10:30:11 -0600, Jolly Roger wrote (in article
):

[commenting on Canon printers having ink clogging and becoming useless]

Ahem. Excuse me, but bull****. I and my family have had several of them
clog up and die within one or two years, rendering them completely useless.

I've been using two Canon MP-470s for a few years now and have never
experienced a serious clogging problem. On a few occasions I did run the head
cleaning option when there was some skipping in the printout. The head
cleaning cured the problem.


--
James Leo Ryan --- Austin, Texas ---

John Brock schrieb:
Beyond that, we're looking for a major brand with good
OS X support, and not overly expensive (especially the ink). Under
$200 certainly, and under $100 would be nice. Given these criteria,
what would be the best choice?

Try to get a used office Laser printer with network printing capability,
for example an old HP Laserjet 5 combined with HPs Jetdirect, very
cheap, very powerfull, good for all sort of computer and you can even
print photos (in b/w),


H.