[gballey]

Does anyone besides Epson make an MFP that can print on CDs and DVDs? I do a lot of that, so it limits my options. I've been using an Epson Stylus Photo R200 (printer only) for a couple of years now, and it is still working pretty well. When I need to replace it, I'll probably be getting an MFP.

[gpell]

How come nobody is talking about scanning performance? I bought a Brother MFC-8860DN a couple of years ago (monochrome laser, duplex scanner/printer/fax/ethernet). My main goal was to scan lots of documents in my home office and get rid of the paper. The MFC has been a big disappointment – very slow scanning, e.g. 1 1/4 minutes to scan and transfer a double sided page, 150 ppi, color, to PDF over the network. One of the bottlenecks seems to be its processor - dog slow. Yet the machine copies very quickly!
I wish I could have foreseen this. Reviews never seem to address scanning performance. And the manufacturers never give real numbers either.

[pumpkinwhite]

A lot of Canon MFP's actually can print on CDs and DVDs. Only problem is that Canon does not have the license for CD/DVD printing in US. So this option is disabled in the US versions, but is enabled in the same models when sold in some other countries. Thus the printer is sold with the feature locked and without the respective CD tray. But there is a workaround. You can buy a compatible CD tray from online vendors (amazon or ebay). Then you need to enter the service menu for the printer and set the region code to UK (instead of US). You will need to do a google search to find out how to do this. I did this with my Canon multifunction printer, and it works perfectly with my mac. You can even download Canon's CD printing software (CD-LabelPrint) for free from Canon's UK website.
Of course, I imagine it would void the warranty. One can always set the region code back to US before shipping it to Canon for repairs etc, but there is certainly some risk involved. For what its worth, my experience has been great.

[DrumHead15]

So how about the recommendation for a color laser MFP?
Thanks.

[G5atHome]

I run a dual g5 10.4.11 and a HP Photosmart 2610. My gripe is on my multi-user (family) G5, only the Admin user can do anything but Print. Maybe I had the slow clerk when I bought it, but it will not function as anything but a printer (for anyone) if plugged into the Airport. The worst part is it took me 4 months to find this 'feature' on the HP website. Additionally, fast-user switching kill off the scanning capability and HP recommends reloading the driver software at each occurrence! I do like the printer, but there must be a better way!

[lin2log]

flybynight said:

I'm buying a MacBook (since when does $1299 = $2K+?)

Oh hey... well GEE!! THAT of course changes absolutely everything! I apologize.

Quote

Oodles of LOL, right back at you!

Wow. Took the words right out of my mouth... :-))))))

[slswift]

I thought I would add an opinion and recommendation for a niche MFP -- the Brother MFC-6490CW. It has USB, Ethernet and Wireless G connectivity. The included software does work great with OS X. Print and scan quality and performance is very good. I think these features are about average and pretty typical in the market space.

However, the thing that sets it apart for me is support for large Tabloid size (11x17) printing AND scanning. My wife is an architect and that is a common size of blueprint that she works with on a daily basis. This lets her do a LOT of work in the evening that was previously not possible on our other Letter size MFP's.

Short of full on medium office class printers and up, I'm not sure if there is a competitor to this Brother model yet in the home office for that print size.

$0.02.

Spencer

[whydavewhy]

I have tried the two top ink jet printers recommended in this article (Canon Pixma 850 and HP Photosmart C7280), as well as the Epson Artisan 800, reviewed in a previous issue of Macworld. I decided against the Canon Pixma 850 because it uses a "gravity" paper feed in the back of the machine which holds very little paper. I have heard from sales people as well as user comments on the Web, that Canon gravity-feed printers have problems with paper feeding in crooked, so the print is not aligned with the margins. I tried doing a test print with the Canon at a Best Buy store, and we could not even get the paper feed to work at all.

I purchased an HP Officejet 6110xi multifunction inkjet printer 4 years ago, and it prints out very crisp text, with laser-like quality. However, the scanner is plagued with unfixable dust problems, which I have read occurs in many HP scanners. The scanner portion is also no longer supported by HP's driver for the latest Mac OS. So I printed a test page of text on the HP Officejet 6110xi, to compare the same document printed on Epson's top-of-the-line Epson Artisan 800 multifunction inkjet and also the HP Photosmart C7280 multifunction inkjet (both recently reviewed in Macworld). The print quality on the Epson was sub-par, with fuzzy edges on the text. The document looked like something printed on an inkjet from 10 years ago. To my disappointment, the print quality on the HP Photosmart C7280 was very similar to that of the Epson. The text was inferior to that of my 4-year-old HP Officejet. I was under the impression that since HP printers were known for their crisp text, the HP Photosmart C7280 (which uses 6 ink cartridges) would have crisp text AND great photo print quality. But it appears that the HP Photosmart series emphasizes photo quality with less quality for text, while he HP Officejet series emphasizes print quality with less quality for photos.

I think I will stick with my old HP (prints great text and photos, but non-supported scanner) until some of these companies come up with a multifunction that does not sacrifice one thing for another; at least good text and photos. Has anyone experienced any of these issues with text quality on multifunction inkjet printers?

[rrsitemaps]

I have to recommend the Brother line of MFPs. I bought a Brother MFC 4020CN about 5 years ago, for $99 at WalMart. I needed a small form factor MFP for our retail business, and the Brother performed FLAWLESSLY.
For under $100 it offered ethernet networking, a decent multi-page scanner, a decent printer, and a great fax machine. I never used the machine for professional scanning or printing, just business documents, and some photos, and the machine always performed admirably. The ink is also very inexpensive. My only complaint is that when you print multiple pages, or send or receive multi-page faxes, it tends to drop pages on the floor. This was a minor annoyance, and never proved to be a real problem.
While I don't use the MFP every day, anymore, it is still a great machine and functions perfectly when I do use it. I highly recommend looking at Brother products if you are in the market for an MFP.

[vishalsheth]

I have Canon ir400. This is a network printer. I can print through windows network but not through Mac. I need help. Please if someone can help me here.

[nlxnlx]

What ? No lasers ??!

[happymac]

Did you mean MX860? That's the model I have and it's great. Canon's user manual is much improved since two years ago (my previous Canon printer purchase). It is difficult, though, to set up on the Windows side wirelessly; I have to use the supplied USB cable to print from Windows. I bought mine at Costco for about $160.