Printer for Mac

The Black Oil

I'm considering getting a printer for my iMac. Does anyone have any recommendations? There are two small, deskjet/bog standard ones in the house attached to PCs which seem fine, but I don't mind paying a little more. I don't have any requirements for printing photos or scanned stuff so I'd fairly happy with something sturdy and just black and white would probably do. I would mostly be printing off course stuff, assignments, etc.

Going by this recent thread over in Computers & Tech it seems that there might be certain ones that worth avoiding..

projectmayhem

Got a Canon one last year and it's wonderful, only now moaning about ink. Mainly used for coursework too but have printed photo's on it with great success

The Black Oil

Thanks. Hunting down ink cartridges can be a nuisance, I'd prefer not to have to go out and buy some just after printing 100 pages or something half useless like that. Any particular model?

projectmayhem

I have the PIXMIA 4600... I think. Wireless, scanner, etc. It takes 2 black inks (one is huge) so it doesn't take from the fancy inks to print documents and stuff which is handy.

It's also quite easy to get ink for them as they keep the same inks for their lines (for the most part). And to save some cash you can get 'em refilled (but the quality of the ink varies there if you're printing photos)

Ado86

I have the HP Photosmart C4580. Its wireless, with a scanner, memory card slots also. Very good printer. Decent colour printer and photos come out well when printed on photo paper. I paid about €80 for it last year, but as far as I know its even cheaper than that now.

Not too bad on ink, I print a lot for college, and tend to by the XL cartridges which are much better value, and can 3 for the price of 2 when bought on the internet in comparison to the shops here. I would definitely recommend getting a wireless, they are very handy, dont have to be fidling with cables and that. And installation was incredibly easy. Printed instructions for setup with mac as standard.

Elessar

I'm looking for a wireless printer myself for the Macbook Pro. Currys are selling the HP F4580 for €70 - its a wireless colour printer/scanner and seems to be a good one. Thinking of getting that.

Sad Professor

Ado86 wrote: »

I have the HP Photosmart C4580. Its wireless, with a scanner, memory card slots also. Very good printer. Decent colour printer and photos come out well when printed on photo paper. I paid about €80 for it last year, but as far as I know its even cheaper than that now.

I have this too. Works okay now but I found the wireless a nightmare to get working properly. HP make great hardware but their software is utter sh*t. I only installed the drivers. The thought of their software running in the background doing untold harm would keep me up nights.

Not too bad on ink, I print a lot for college, and tend to by the XL cartridges which are much better value, and can 3 for the price of 2 when bought on the internet in comparison to the shops here.

Where do you buy your cartridges online? Are they the official HP ones?

Ado86

Where do you buy your cartridges online? Are they the official HP ones?[/QUOTE]

Yeah, official HP ones, either from misco.ie or from 7dayshop.com. The XL cartridges are much better value, they last way longer.

Elessar

Just to update, i bought that HP printer in PC world - €69.99, wireless printing and scanning. They have loads. Bargain.

The Black Oil

Thanks for the replies. I'd forgotten about the wireless aspect, that would be handy. We've an old HP scanner so I know the software side of their products can be a little annoying.

It sounds like you get more bang for your buck from the XL cartridges. Sounds like there may not be much point in getting one that's just for black and white..

Ado86

Wireless is extremely handy, and if you have more than one computer in the house, either PC or mac, they can all be connected to it (HP C4580). A warning comes up on screen if you have run out of paper or theres a jam, and then you can go to the printer, otherwise just to pick up the print job!
Dont think there is really much difference in a black and white and colour anymore. They are probably same price, and I would expect hard enough to find a black and white that isn't a laser.
XL cartridges are definitely the way forward. Ink refills in my opinion often have poor ink quality, I know my sister tried them and they were awful. If you buy a few from the internet you can save on postage, I usually buy a black and 2 colours at the same time for the same price as what a black and a colour would cost me in the shops here (PC world is a rip off for HP ink). www.misco.ie have an excellent service, I ordered on a sunday evening and they came in the post on Tuesday morning, and that was without paying for an extra speedy delivery, that was standard.

unklerosco

Might be worth looking at the kodak inkjets... The ink for them is far far cheaper than any other make...

Failing that, n if ur only printing black n white I'd go for a basic laser printer.

The Black Oil

Someone recently posted about a printer over in Bargain Alerts and there's a bit of discussion about the models on the go.