New MacBook Air, need printer recommendations please

[ropese]

Hello, a relative of mine just bought a MacBook Air and is now looking to buy a printer to go along with it. She is in real estate feel and so will mostly be printing documents. I’m thinking the printer should have Airprint. Any suggestions on specific printers that work well with Mac (MacBooks). Thank you

 

[pigoo3]

Is your relative looking for an inkjet or laser printer?

If laser printer...black & white only...or color laser printing?

- Nick

 

[ropese]

Hi Nick, I would say having the option to print in color is nice to have. More looking user and mac friendly, fast, good paper capacity. Hope this helps.

 

[pigoo3]

If color printing is nice to have...color laser printers have a higher cost/page than inkjet color printers.

If your relative is in Real Estate...color printing is probably almost necessary if they would be printing their own sales documents for homes they're showing. I know if I was looking to purchase a home...I would want color sales documents rather than black & white (at least color photos of the inside & outside of the home).

Generally speaking...inkjet printers have ink that will smudge or run when exposed to water/rain...although I think I have seen waterproof ink for inkjet printers. As you probably know...Real Estate agents show homes in all sorts of weather (including rain & snow)...thus not good to hand out color documents to buyers if the ink may run in the rain.

I think if it were me (and I was a Real Estate agent printing my own documents)...I'd be seriously thinking about a color laser printer. Of course someone could also go to a Fed Ex or UPS store that has color printing.

- Nick

 

[pm-r]

I think if it were me (and I was a Real Estate agent printing my own documents)...I'd be seriously thinking about a color laser printer.

+1, plus I would think some of her real estate colleagues may have some good suggestions as to a good printer to use. Experience and knowledge would sure help, then check out the Mac compatibility with the Mac OS Version being used.


- Patrick
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[lclev]

+1 for color laser. I have an HP Laser Jet 400 at home which I have had for a while. AirPrint works perfectly on it. We also have four HP inkjet printers at work and they all work perfectly with AirPrint. I can print from my iPhone, iPad Pro, Macbook Pro. Biggest issue at work is making sure I pick the right printer or I will be hunting for my document!

Lisa

 

[pigoo3]

...then check out the Mac compatibility with the Mac OS Version being used.

Excellent point...very important!

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Hello, a relative of mine just bought a MacBook Air and is now looking to buy a printer to go along with it. ...Any suggestions on specific printers that work well with Mac (MacBooks).

If she JUST purchased a MBA it likely has Mac OS 11 (Big Sur) on it. You have to make 100% sure that any printer that she purchases has an available printer driver for Big Sur. Since Big Sur was just released, many printers don't have updated drivers yet, especially printers from Hewlett-Packard.

You can check on the Web site of the manufacturer of any brand/model you are considering.

If you are considering a color laser printer, I highly recommend a printer from Brother:

Shop laser printers for your home office | Brother

Shop our Brother laser printers, perfect for your home office, with fast, two-sided printing with color or black & white only options.

www.brother-usa.com

Brother printers are reliable, Brother has excellent support for the Mac, Brother printers are very well priced, and you can find comsumables from third parties at a fraction of the price of OEM consumables.

 

[krs]

General question/comment about colour laser printers.

Last time I was in the market for one, and that was quite a few years ago, consumer colour lasers in the less than $500.- price bracket were great to print colour text and basic colour line drawings and such, but poor when it came to printing a quality colour high resolution image.
Is that still true with the current generation?

 

[pm-r]

Last time I was in the market for one, and that was quite a few years ago, consumer colour lasers in the less than $500.- price bracket were great to print colour text and basic colour line drawings and such, but poor when it came to printing a quality colour high resolution image.
Is that still true with the current generation?

I was sort of wondering the same thing.

Admittedly, it was a few years ago, but some of the images I have seen produced by such affordable home Color laser printers looked like they were done by a robot painting a "Paint by number" type of scene or image.

EDIT:
It looks like some Color laser printers can do a pretty good job with some images and the correct paper:

Printing photos with a laser printer - Photo Review

How to get good-looking photo prints from a colour laser printer.

www.photoreview.com.au

- Patrick
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[chscag]

Unless you have a specific need for a color laser printer that can't be met by a good quality ink jet printer, I do not recommend a color laser. Color laser printers can be a nightmare when replacing consumables.

Most color laser printers require 4 to 5 cartridges for best color reproduction. And those cartridges can be expensive even when buying discounted ones.

Plus the fact that the drums have a limited life and they too are expensive to replace.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Last time I was in the market for one, and that was quite a few years ago, consumer colour lasers in the less than $500.- price bracket were great to print colour text and basic colour line drawings and such, but poor when it came to printing a quality colour high resolution image.
Is that still true with the current generation?

Color laser printers have gotten better, but they still don't come close to even a half decent inexpensive color inkjet printer. If you need to print photographs, an inkjet printer is the way to go. For many business users I've recommended having BOTH a color inkjet printer and a black and white laser printer. The former for color prints and the latter for printing text document and line drawings.

My recommendation would depend on your use case.

"chscag" is correct, even inexpensive color laser printers are very expensive to maintain. They have lots of expensive consumables. They typically have four toner cartridges, four drums, a belt, a waste toner cartridge, etc.

Inkjet printers tend to drink ink, but you can typically get extremely high quality third party replacement cartridges very cheaply.

 

[rainbowcat]

If she JUST purchased a MBA it likely has Mac OS 11 (Big Sur) on it. You have to make 100% sure that any printer that she purchases has an available printer driver for Big Sur. Since Big Sur was just released, many printers don't have updated drivers yet, especially printers from Hewlett-Packard.

You can check on the Web site of the manufacturer of any brand/model you are considering.

If you are considering a color laser printer, I highly recommend a printer from Brother:

Shop laser printers for your home office | Brother

Shop our Brother laser printers, perfect for your home office, with fast, two-sided printing with color or black & white only options.

www.brother-usa.com

Brother printers are reliable, Brother has excellent support for the Mac, Brother printers are very well priced, and you can find comsumables from third parties at a fraction of the price of OEM consumables.

My Brother laser printer prints B&W beautifully and lets me print from MBA, iPhone and iPad quickly. BUT - the scanner is terrible. I would beware of their multi-function machines.

 

[jpdemers]

Randy is quite right about the strengths and weaknesses of color laser printers: great for Excel charts, not so much for color photos. For the latter, you just can't beat an inkjet.
In my experience, when it comes to inkjets, Canon printers have been very reliable, and inexpensive to operate thanks to the many generic ink cartridges that are available. You can see the ink, and see when it's runnning low. There is a single printhead, which you do have to treat well; specifically, don't run it dry or you'll need to replace it. Each HP cart, by contrast, comes with its own printhead (which you pay dearly for.)
My HP printers have been a nightmare, with the many ways they make it difficult to refill the carts or to use cheaper ones - even refilled OEM carts are an excuse to make you jump through undocumented hoops - and you have no clue what's going on inside those black plastic tanks. I spent far more on HP ink than I did on the printers that guzzled it. Plus, they're fussy about what paper you feed them, and wireless printing with a Mac is a hit-or-miss affair.
HP used to make solid machines - I'm still using a 20-year-old HP Laserjet 4050 (and my brand new Mac found and downloaded a driver for it without a hitch.) It's heavy, and the size of an air conditioner, but it sits there churning out documents year after year without any fuss or drama. I've replaced the rollers once since I bought it. Parts are still readily available, too!

 

[pm-r]

There is a single printhead, which you do have to treat well; specifically, don't run it dry or you'll need to replace it.

And in my experience, finding and replacing a Canon Inkjet printhead Is virtually impossible and if you do find one, is probably multiple times the cost of the original printer!!! Even when going to the Asian and Chinese Websites.


- Patrick
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[Randy B. Singer]

...Canon printers have been very reliable, and inexpensive to operate thanks to the many generic ink cartridges that are available. You can see the ink, and see when it's runnning low. There is a single printhead, which you do have to treat well,,,

I recommend Canon color inkjet printers too. Of the major brands of inkjet printers, Canon's are the least likely to clog their printheads. (Epsons are the MOST likely to clog their printheads.) Even better, in the mostpopular Canon models the single printhead is easily removable, which means in the very rare instance where the printhead become clogged, you can remove it and clean it.

For instance, for the incredibly popular Canon MX922:
Canon's instructions for removing the MX922's printhead are here:
Canon Knowledge Base - Reseat or Replace the Print Head on a PIXMA MX722, MX922

Soak the printhead overnight in a solution of Windex with ammonia and high concentration isopropyl alcohol (make sure not to get the electrical contacts wet), rinse well with water, blot dry with paper towel, and it will come out like new.

The MX922, by the way, has been discontinued. The logical successor is:

Canon PIXMA TR8520

Canon Support for PIXMA TR8520 | Canon U.S.A., Inc.

Find support for your Canon PIXMA TR8520. Browse the recommended drivers, downloads, and manuals to make sure your product contains the most up-to-date software.

www.usa.canon.com

Unfortunately, with everyone working at home during Covid, it is constantly out of stock; and when you can find it in stock, the price is often inflated.

 

[chscag]

Unfortunately, with everyone working at home during Covid, it is constantly out of stock; and when you can find it in stock, the price is often inflate

Randy is right about the TR8520, it's very difficult to find one somewhere in stock. I was lucky and grabbed one when B&H in NY got them in stock. What I did was tell them to notify me when they came in stock. When they sent me the email, I ordered it the same day.

Now however, it appears my HP LaserJet 1012 has finally given out on me after 17 years of use. Paper is jamming and very likely the rollers need replacing. Too much work trying to locate parts and repairing it myself. Time to replace it.

 

[pm-r]

Now however, it appears my HP LaserJet 1012 has finally given out on me after 17 years of use. Paper is jamming and very likely the rollers need replacing. Too much work trying to locate parts and repairing it myself. Time to replace it.

Charlie, my old HP 4ML LaserJet used to do a similar thing and I was usually able to fix it by fanning the loaded paper back and forth a few times and then reinstalling it into the printer.

When the rollers started slipping, I would soak a sheet of paper with 70% or better Isopropanol alcohol and feed it through the printer a few times by printing a few characters of text to try and get the rollers as wet as possible with the alcohol, and then try and hold back the sheet of paper as much as possible and try and get the rollers to skid on the paper which would basically provide a new clean grippie surface.

That would usually work for quite some time and might be worth your while to give it a try.

It just might work for you as it did for me.



- Patrick
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[chscag]

Thanks Patrick, I might try using alcohol on the rollers to see if that helps. I probably should remove the rollers but it's not easy to get at them. I'll give the paper fanning a try. The weather here this time of year gets very dry and that also causes static sticking.

 

[krs]

Now however, it appears my HP LaserJet 1012 has finally given out on me after 17 years of use.

17 years!
That's pretty impressive, especially considering all the mechanical parts in a printer.
I'm lucky if I get 5 years out of a printer now-a-days