Our HP OfficeJet Pro 8600 Plus (some 13 years old) needs replacing and I would welcome advice on a replacement printer. My wife and I both work from home and need a decent quality printer, scanner with occasional photos printed. I have always used HP but open to alternatives. There are several HP Envy printers and HP OfficeJet Pros. Any recommendations? Am happy to stick with something like an HP OfficeJet Pro 8125e unless I should be looking at something else.
Just to add, HP software seems to (at last!) work seamlessly (most of the time), and assume is the case for all modern printers. The HP OfficeJet Pro 8600 Plus had to have a separate 2.4 GHz network set up as it did not like 5 GHz and also had to have WPA2-Personal authentication alone, am also assuming modern HP printers connect seamlessly.
Unfortunately, laser/LED technology (toner+fuser) works best for office type documents, but ink-jet works best for photos. So if you need both, you may be looking at two printers.
I’ve used Brother LED printers at home. I’ve used Brother multifunction devices at work. Both have worked well for me.
These days, Brother tells you to just use the AirPlay drivers, which work well (even over Ethernet connections). I would prefer to use Brother’s own driver, but those aren’t available for modern versions of macOS.
The last version of Brother’s own driver set was released in November 2019 and is only meant for macOS 10.11 through 10.15. I know it is compatible with later versions because on my old Mac, they remained installed and working through macOS 14. I suspect they will still work today because they are (I think) just PPD files for use with Apple’s generic PostScript and PCL drivers, but I haven’t tried installing them and the installer may choke on an unsupported version of macOS. But, as I wrote, the AirPrint driver works well and is officially supported by Brother.
I haven’t bought a SOHO HP printer for a very long time, so I can’t say anything about them. I have used HP’s “big iron” multifunction devices (the ones that are the size of large filing cabinets), but that’s massive overkill for a home office.
Do you have to connect it via Wi-Fi? If the printer is near your router, you may want to consider an Ethernet connection.
My home router lives in my home office. In addition to the Wi-Fi, I have a 16-port Ethernet switch connected to one of its LAN ports. From there, I connect everything in the room, including the printer.
We also have several (Linksys Velop) mesh nodes throughout the house. Each node has two Ethernet ports. I connect one of the ports to an Ethernet switch, so devices in the room can connect that way, leaving the wireless bandwidth for the nodes to talk among themselves.
Thanks David. The OfficeJet has worked well for us, we are both semi-retired and do not need the high quality of laser/LED (which we have also owned in the past).
The router is not conveniently located for ethernet and wifi has worked well for the volume of printing. Not thought of using AirPrint. Is AirPrint becoming the standard for printers and does it work both ways e.g. when scanning a document?
If being semi-retired means only printing occasionally, don’t forget that inkjet cartridges can get clogged with dried out ink. So a laser printer can be more economical over time because toner cartridges do not require regular use—or cleaning and alignment cycles for that matter—to remain functional.
We do use a few times a day and have had no issues with the HP OfficeJet Pro. I liked our laser when we had it but given what we need it for can not justify the overall cost.
It seems to be the current standard for Mac support. At least for printers that use PostScript or PCL - for which Apple has generic drivers built-in. Windows and Linux users are still using actual drivers, although I suspect they are data files for use with generic PS/PCL drivers.
No, it’s not used for scanning. I know that Brother has an iPrint&Scan utility in the App Store that provides basic functionality.
HP probably has an app of their own.
Third-party scanner software will probably work better. You may want to see if VueScan supports your device. You can try it without a license (scans will have a watermark) and buy a license if you like it.
Not necessarily. Current releases of both Windows and Linux support. driverless printing (e.g. IPP Everywhere) – just like AirPrint. And most current printers support driverless printing. All of my printers (two Epson injkets and one Brother laser) use driverless printing and work just fine with macOS, various Linux distros, iOS, iPadOS, and Windows 11.
I find zero need to waste my time having to source and maintain printer drivers when driverless printing works. You’re looking to add complexity and the possibility of problems if you try to hack unsupported older printer drivers to run on current macOS versions. Driverless printing seems to be quite feature complete these days.
Re: scanners. The scanners I have in my Epson multifunction printers work fine driverlessly on macOS, Linux and Windows 11. I’d check out the built-in capabilities to see if they meet your scanning needs before opening up Pandora’s box (and potential cost) of alternative scanning software.
Re: Inkjet printers - I’ve found significantly fewer instances of nozzle clogging with my Epson printer that uses an ink tank rather than cartridges. My current Epson EcoTank printer has had one clog in the 3 years that I have owned it - and I suspect that was due to the maintenance box filling up. (replacing the box and performing a deep clean restored everything to normal).
I’ve also found that ink tank printers are more cost-effective than those using ink cartridges (this is one of the rare instances where the marketing hype is indeed true IMO). Those big bottles of ink are significantly cheaper than cartridges with a lot more ink. And I don’t have to go through the hassles of recycling ink cartridges.
By all means try out whatever’s built-in. But I’ve found that bundled apps (like Apple’s Image Capture utility) are really bare-bones. They’ll get scans onto your computer, but won’t do much more than that.
Some network-connection multifunction devices include computer-free scanning, where you can put a document on the glass and push a button. The resulting scan will be saved to a USB thumb drive (which you insert) or can be e-mailed to you (once it is configured for your e-mail service’s SMTP credentials). This is incredibly convenient, but also offers minimal functionality.
Third-party scanner apps include features like:
Select all the different DPI resolutions supported by your hardware.
Various color profiles, including:
Photographic negatives (each type of film is a bit different)
Various types of source materials (printed documents, photos, newspaper clippings, etc.)
Batch scanning (pre-scan the entire glass, then select regions and scan each region to a separate file)
Support for dust/scratch removal, using a variety of algorithms, including IR scanning (if your hardware has support).
It’s not really a “Pandora’s box” here. Very few scanners require device drivers. Most of the time, whatever you need is built-in to your scanning app. So it’s not a big deal to download a trial/evaluation copy, use it for a few things and decide if you think it’s worth buying.
FWIW, the software provided by Epson for my scanner is really bad. I have been using SilverFast with it for a long time. Yes, it’s not free, but at $50 for the basic “SE” version and $100 for the “SE+” version (and discounts for upgrades from older versions), it’s not much compared to other commercial software packages. I didn’t mention it in this thread because SilverFast only supports a select subset of professional and prosumer scanners, and that support doesn’t include any of HP’s multifunction devices.
This thread made me take a look at the prices of inkjet and laser printers. In the US at the moment, laser is about the same price as inkjet in many cases. For example, the Brother monochrome laser recommended by Wirecutter is $180. An ink tank HP is $189 on Amazon. But inkjet multifunction printers do seem to be cheaper than laser equivalents.
FWIW, my printer (a Brother HL-L3270CDW) is no longer made, but its successor (the HL-L3280CDW) has an MSRP of $350, and a set of four high-yield toner cartridges (about 1500 pages) costs $400 (from Amazon, $500 retail).
This is for color, 27ppm, a duplexer and network connectivity. Not the cheapest option, but a really good deal for what you’re getting, especially compared to other major brands.
Inkjets do cost less, but they are much slower and graphic-heavy pages can get soggy from all the ink. I used an HP DeskJet for many years and was happy with it, but I much prefer the speed and reliability of my laser, even though I need to take my photos to Walgreens to make good quality prints (which I rarely need to do).
My Officejet Pro 8020 is still going strong other than an irritating “expired certificate” bug:
I like its compatibility with the Mac Image app for scanning documents.
When the printer is no longer serviceable (or ink cartridges no longer available or too expensive) I would be happy to replace it with another Officejet Pro.
I have a HP color laser because I detest inkjet printers. It does an acceptable job with snapshot type photos. If I need higher quality photos I outsource the printing. I have the printer connected via Ethernet.
Yes! I also use an HP Color Laserjet for home printing. If I need a glossy color photo, Amazon Prints is my go to. Not having to buy ink carts is heaven.
I have an Epson Xp-820. I AirPrint and scan with it. (I like how easy it is to scan!) It is getting old and the cartridges are expensive. I have been looking at the Epson Tanks. I have resisted buying a new printer. I am getting older and want a printer that is easy to learn.
Which model do you have?
Easy set up?
Is it easy to scan?
Any problems with it?
I have (what I believe to be) a first-gen Epson EcoTank printer - an ET-3750. It is the latest in the line of several Epson inkjets I’ve owned over the last 25 years and it’s hands-down the model that has given me the fewest problems. Other than purchasing the ink bottles (a rare occurrence) and a maintenance box (both normal consumables) it’s been very reliable.
Epson doesn’t seem to sell this model any more, but I expect their current EcoTank models to behave similarly. The price may seem high, but their claims of “up to 3 years of ink in the box” are not outrageous. The ink lasts a long time and you’d run through a lot of cartridges before you’ll have to refill those ink tanks.
As far as ease of use, the hardest part (and that’s a relative term) was connecting the printer to my home Wi-Fi. Once that was done, AirPrint (and Windows /iOS/Linux driverless printing) made it super easy to set up both printing and scanning.
I don’t install any Epson software. Both printing and scanning have worked fine without it.
The built in macOS scanning capabilities (e.g Image Capture) work for my needs and work out-of-the-box. But you can use Epson’s scanning utility (or other scanning software) if you want something more.
For printers, I think you should look at the supported printing languages (sometimes called “Printer emulations”). Every operating system sold today includes good generic driver support for PostScript and PCL (version 5 or 6), so if the printer supports one of these, then you’ll always be able to print, even if the unit becomes unsupported in the future.
If your printer uses some proprietary printing language (as is the case for many cheap ink jets), then you may need a third-party device driver, and you run the risk of being abandoned when a future OS upgrade leaves you without a compatible driver.
I am using a Brother HL-L3270CDW. This is a color LED printer (similar to a laser, with drums, toner and a fuser), with networking and a duplexer.
It is no longer made, but its replacement model, the HL-L3280CDW is.
I thought it was. I plugged it in and connected the Ethernet port to my network. From within macOS, it discovered the printer over Bonjour and it auto-selected a compatible AirPrint driver.
Although not necessary, I used its front-panel to configure its IP address to a static address, for easier access. The printer actually has a web-based config page, which you can connect to from any attached computer (http://<ip_address>, using whatever address the printer is using), which is much easier than the front-panel buttons. It can also be used to download firmware upgrades from the Internet without any special softwre.
This printer doesn’t have scanning capabilities.
Their multifunction printer based (I think) on the same printing engine is the MFC-L3765CDW. It has the same printing features (27 ppm, color, duplexer, networking) and uses the same toner cartridges, so I assume its printing capabilities will be pretty much the same. It costs $460 (vs. $350 for the print-only model).
Since I don’t own one, I don’t have an opinion on scanning capabilities, but looking at the specs on its brochure page, I see:
It has a 50 page automatic document feeder (ADF)
Max scan speed is 29 ppm black or 22 ppm color
Maximum scan resolution is:
Optical via ADF: 600x600 dpi
Optical for items direct on the glass: 1200x1200 dpi
Interpolated: 19,200 x 19,200
These are not as good as a good flatbed scanner, but I’ve only needed resolutions greater than 600x600 when scanning photographic negatives, and no multifunction printer supports transparency scanning.
It can scan without software directly to:
A network folder
An e-mail sever
A Microsoft SharePoint folder
An FTP server
A USB stick
Cloud services (via Web Connect)
Mobile devices (not sure how. AirDrop?)
Included software includes:
Mobile apps (for iOS and Android)
Brother’s iPrint&Scan desktop app (macOS and Windows)
Administrative tools. These used to be needed to upgrade the printer’s firmware, but it’s built-in web management interface works just as well.
I have no clue about scanning with Apple’s built-in software or with any particular third-party apps.
My first Brother color laser got damaged fuser rollers (requiring fuser replacement costing more than a new printer) after about 8 years of service.
The one I’m using now is 3-4 years old and has been working flawlessly so far.
My Epson XP-820 is WI-Fi enabled, so I AirPrint from my iPad, iPhone and MacBook Air. It is connected through USB to my very old iMac. I scan only on that computer. I do use Epson’s software for that. I really haven’t tried scanning from my other devices.
I replaced my even older HP Photosmart C4599 all-in-one a year or 2 ago with an Epson XP-6100, which I’m very happy with… It includes a fifth “photo black” ink, but I haven’t printed photos with it yet. I too had frequent wifi connection issues (and changing it to a new network was a mighty pain), but as you say, newer HP models probably work better and more easily as well.
I’ve always had HP LaserJets and been very happy with them, but their toner gouging model has finally turned me away. I prefer the Brother approach and the NYT endorsement certainly helps. Can anybody comment if there’s a non all-in-one version of the Brother MFC-L3780CDW? I think it might be the HL-L3295CDW, but not 100% sure.