Buying a Printer for a Mac

Hi all, I would greatfully appreciate any advice you can give me on purchasing a new printer.

I have a MacBook 1.1 Intel Core Duo which I purchased last January. My printer is an old Epson Stylus C80. I rarely print in color anymore, mainly print documents. As some of you may know, everytime you clean the printer it uses color. This is a waste as far as I am concerned. Also, once the color runs out, it doesn't print in black so I have to buy the color anyway. Therefore, I would like to buy a black ink only printer. Or at least one that still prints black once one of the colors is finished. Does one exist other than laser printers? Also would like one that has either a copier or a scanner, if possible. If only laser exists in black ink then what would you recommend. Cartridges for laser printers seem expensive on the sites that I have checked. I don't really want to spend more for replacements than for the printer.

I would consider purchasing a refurbished printer.

Any suggestions.

Thank you.

Francesca

I don't think you can go wrong with anything by Canon. They have separate ink cartridges for each color, and when one runs out, the others work fine. They may even have black only, but not sure. Cost of ink is reasonable compared to other brands, and you only have to change what has run out. Have many models of all-in-ones, as well.

Before purchasing a printer, make sure there are Mac drivers on the Support/Downloads website of whichever company you choose to buy.

That's my best advice.

Thank you, Mary, for your suggesting Canon. I will do a research on that brand. I really don't care if it has color, I just want to make sure I can use the black when the color runs out.

Also I am not sure I understand "make sure there are Mac drivers on the Support/Downloads website of whichever company you choose to buy". Wouldn't you get a printer driver with the printer or do you have to download them now. For my other printers they came on a CD. If you can only download them now, does it matter if you only use wireless?

Francesca1942 said:

Thank you, Mary, for your suggesting Canon. I will do a research on that brand. I really don't care if it has color, I just want to make sure I can use the black when the color runs out.

Also I am not sure I understand "make sure there are Mac drivers on the Support/Downloads website of whichever company you choose to buy". Wouldn't you get a printer driver with the printer or do you have to download them now. For my other printers they came on a CD. If you can only download them now, does it matter if you only use wireless?

Click to expand...

Maybe what I should've said is that - make sure that the printer supports the Mac OS X operating system before you purchase it.

Also note, companies come out with newer firmware updates and drivers - which are newer than the softtware on the CD. So keep alert.