[Macworld]

Post your comments for Review: Lexmark C544dn here

[erikneves]

All printer reviews should also state the prices of consumables, like this one.
In this particular case, what kind of savings do we get by joining the rewards program (aside the obvious 10% from the cartridges return)?

[andrewrodney]

I've just had really bad luck with quality on two recent Lexmark printers. One was a color laser MF (504n), the other a monochrome. One died just out of warranty. I'm done with these guys. The Brother printers that replaced both are far superior and have really great Mac support.

[folklore]

I'll second including the cost of consumables with printer reviews: Great idea!. That's a detail many people overlook.

[reallycrazy]

You "save" 10 people from getting reasonably priced, refilled toner cartridges...

[XMattingly]

I've made pretty darn good use of a Lexmark laser printer, myself. It's not a very high quality machine - just a cheap b/w that can't even duplex, but I've never even had to replace the toner, and I've had the thing for nearly a decade. I think I only spent $300 on it: talk about cost effective! They'll definitely last if you don't abuse them.

[JDW]

I saw this reviewed in the August 2009 issue of MacWorld, along with OkiData, Xerox, HP and KonicaMinolta. MacWorld made the Lexmark C544dn their "PICK" printer. I appreciated the thorough review, but it certainly should have gone further. Most of us own or have owned inkjet printers as well as lasers. In the past, the output of color lasers could not hold a candle to the quality of color hi-rez inkjets on special paper. But I want to know, is this still true? This Lexmark is a 1200x1200dpi printer. I can "assume" it should be just as good as an inkjet, but I want to see some closeup photos of the actual output of these lasers with that of inkjets. By presenting such important information you better help your reader to make an informed decision on whether they can finally ditch those inkets for a laser printer. MacWorld, please make the time to do this in future printer reviews.

[rnilsson]

I purchased this print last week and although I'm happy now, feel this review was not thorough enough. Using the Lexmark driver it takes an eternity to print a single page of a PowerPoint document. In fact, anything of any complexity is a nightmare. Changing over to the Postscript driver resolved this, but I'm perplexed at the horrible performance with Lexmark's driver (it uses PDF format to send to the printer, I believe).
The documentation is scarce - I got more tech details from the brochure than the manual.
The color was WAY off, and after hours of messing with the printer, I figured out I need to set the color control to manual, and all the setting s to Vivid. At that point the Postscript driver matched my screen. There is no color profile to use with Colorsync, which is amazing. Had I known that I would have passed on the purchase.
I have not found duplex to be remarkably slow.
Setup on my network was remarkably easy. Since I'm not using the Lexmark driver, it took just a few seconds per system.
Please provide more details on how you setup printers for your testing, as I can't see how you got great "out of the box" results.

[paulseifer]

ADVICE FOR [LEXMARK & OTHER PRINTER] USERS

I use a C510 and very pleased with the overall performance. Recently I started getting '241' paper feed errors when trying to print [the paper was pulled out about 2 inches out of the tray-then went no further]. Called tech support and learned that the error has to do with the roller, and they referred me to a local authorized service center [unit is out of warranty].

However, I decided to look into things myself and flipped the C510 on its side. I spotted the roller and noticed that it looked a little 'cloudy' [not quite like black rubber]. I took a rag and rubbing alcohol and wiped the roller length-wise while rotating it. I did this until the cloth no longer looked dirty. Flipped it right side up, inserted the paper try and son of a gun - prints like a champ!

This little fix saved gas, time and about $100. Definitely worth a try if feed errors start becoming more common, or as preventative maintenance if your printer is several years old.

[jonno]

erikneves, on 29 January 2009 - 06:48 AM, said:

All printer reviews should also state the prices of consumables, like this one.
In this particular case, what kind of savings do we get by joining the rewards program (aside the obvious 10% from the cartridges return)?

In relation to consumables I think it would be MUCH more useful to have a 'Cost Per Page' measurement given for each printer reviewed.
What the heck good does $X per standard yield do? Some manufacturers have a yield of 3,500 pages per cartridge, some 5,000, others ???

To be useful, this has to be tightened up !!

[CesarGuimaraes]

rnilsson, on 09 August 2009 - 02:41 PM, said:

I purchased this print last week and although I'm happy now, feel this review was not thorough enough. Using the Lexmark driver it takes an eternity to print a single page of a PowerPoint document. In fact, anything of any complexity is a nightmare. Changing over to the Postscript driver resolved this, but I'm perplexed at the horrible performance with Lexmark's driver (it uses PDF format to send to the printer, I believe).
The documentation is scarce - I got more tech details from the brochure than the manual.
The color was WAY off, and after hours of messing with the printer, I figured out I need to set the color control to manual, and all the setting s to Vivid. At that point the Postscript driver matched my screen. There is no color profile to use with Colorsync, which is amazing. Had I known that I would have passed on the purchase.
I have not found duplex to be remarkably slow.
Setup on my network was remarkably easy. Since I'm not using the Lexmark driver, it took just a few seconds per system.
Please provide more details on how you setup printers for your testing, as I can't see how you got great "out of the box" results.

I got the same super slow results on Mac OS X 10.6.4 and Lexmark drivers obtained via Software Update. Before I found this post I have googled the printer model and the word slow and found other user with same problem at: http://www.oasq.com/...71530-1-1.html. From there I went to http://discussions.a...sageID=10191621 that discusses editing the PPD file for the Lexmark X544 printer. I tried that solution using the PPD for the C544 but that did not work.
I will try using the Generic Postcript driver as soon as I get home and will post an update with the results.
Thanks for your post.

This post has been edited by CesarGuimaraes: 24 June 2010 - 10:18 AM

[CesarGuimaraes]

Yes, using Generic Postscript solves the problem!
Thanks again for your post.

[CesarGuimaraes]

I have tried the solution from:
http://discussions.a...sageID=10191621
again tonight and edited the PPD file for the Lexmark C544 printer in:
/Library/Printers/PPDs/Contents/Resources/Lexmark C544.gz

Instead of deleting the line containing:
*cupsFilter: "application/pdf 0 /Library/Printers/Lexmark/filter/pdfoptionreroute

I just commented it out. To do so, I added a % and a space character just after the first character in the line, so that it starts with *%

This time it worked! I can only assume I have done something wrong the first time, because commenting a line is just about the same thing as removing it...

Anyway, for those not willing to mess up with the PPD, there is always the possibility to use the Generic Postscript driver. The drawback is that you loose access to the Printer Features page in the Print dialog.

[MrBillG59]

Nice, you actually mentioned the PostScript® RIP.