For low volume printing where photo-quality is not required, I usually recommend laser printers instead of inkjets, especially if there are occasional periods where nothing gets printed for a few weeks.
When ink jets go a long time without printing, the print heads tend to clog or, to mitigate that issue, a lot of ink gets used to “clean” the print heads.
I’ll note that printer reviews often say that ink jet printers have lower costs per page printed than laser printers, but that generally is based on duty cycles of thousands of printed pages per month. When only a few dozen pages are printed in a month on an ink jet, the ratio of ink used to print versus ink used to clean the heads can be very unfavorable. Some people who have light duty printing requirements find that the original “starter” size toner cartridges included with a laser printer can last for years.
I don’t have much to add with regard to specific models, but I do agree that HP printers should be avoided because of their intrusive software and policies and that Brother printers tend to be very solid.
I recommend laser (or laser-like LED) printers for anything where photo quality is not required. Although the cost-per-page may be higher than some ink-jets, there are other advantages. Most notably:
Faster printing. 17-21 pages per minute is not unusual for even an inexpensive printer.
You don’t end up with damp pages when printing a page with a lot of graphics
Duplexers are commonly available
Where ink-jet shines is when you’re printing photos. Although I can get reasonably good photo prints on a color laser printer, the colors never “pop” the way they will with a good ink-jet photo printer and glossy photo paper.
This is especially important using printers where the print heads and ink tanks are separate parts (e.g. Epson’s designs).
Printers where the heads are combined with the ink cartridge (e.g. HP’s designs) can partially avoid this problem. If the heads clog up, you can just put in new cartridges, giving you new heads as well. Which is much easier than removing and manually cleaning the heads. But at the expense of more expensive ink cartridges.
I’ve used brother printers (2) for over 20 years-no problems with my old-new mac mini and ipad and iphone Prefer ethernet for minis. Use MFCL 2750DW black white with feeder, scanner and ability to handle varfious papeer weights, sincle sheet input for special prints, and scan and print both sides. Apple comes with a variety of drivers but I simply connect via ethernet and follow on screen to set up.try going to Brothers website www.brother.com and pick whateverf combo fits your needs. I’ve used laser printer with toner for 2 decades (B&W) but can scan in colors, pdf,various outputs. IOW dont worry ors be concerned by ’ drivers ’ at least with Brother.
Just a note to thank everyone who has taken the time to respond to my query. I have not decided what to do yet, but I will investigate several of the suggestions that have been made.