[mediahound]

I've been asked to recommend a Mac compatible laser printer to be used in a small office and I admittedly know next to nothing about laser printers.

It will be on a network, but doesn't necessarily have to have built in networking capabilities since I can use an external parallel or USB print server box.

Can anyone recommend a good printer? Ideally, I'm looking for recommendations on a good mid to high end one, and then a lower budget one so that they can choose between the two.

Thanks in advance for any info.

[climber]

For color Look at the HP 2500, It is a nice printer for the price.

For b/w I use the HP2300. It is a new printer by HP and is Rendezvous compatable so setting it up on a small network is very easy. I can set all up through Safari.

I like HP, and I prefer network printers.

[Timo]

Have a look at GCC printers. I've had an Elite XL 20 for awhile now, and it works great with macs (GCC took over from Apple when Apple ditched its printers).

This printer is especially good with graphics: true edge-to-edge printing, and quite a bit of control otherwise over output.

[anoetic]

Since it's a small office you will probably want to stick with HP. They will be able to get the toner much more readily at their local Office Max and they are very realiable -- at least for the mid to high end.

GCC printers are great but are geared more towards graphic designers. They print edge-edge and will do grayscale better than almost any other laser printer. But offices don't do much of any edge-to-edge printing and only basic grayscale. You'll be paying for features you don't use.

You can go to the HP site and base the printer on their monthly output or by price. The 2300 and 2500 color are both great printers. I have the 2500 and it I love it.

Whichever printer you get, make sure it has postscript emulation for printing pdf's, preferably level 3 but 2 will do. And be careful because some low-end printer list postcript emulation but only if you use the additional network card that usually cost's $200+.

And don't go with multifunction printers -- fax, copier, printer. Drivers for these are always the last to come out, if at all, and they will have more problems than it's worth.

[escher]

Originally posted by anoetic:
The 2300 and 2500 color are both great printers. I have the 2500 and it I love it.

I was looking at the HP LaserJet 2300DN myself. I like the duplex feature to save paper. After struggling with a crappy Epson EPL-5700i USB laser printer, I've sworn to myself that my next printer will have network and PostScript capabilities built-in.

anoetic: The 2500's relatively low price (for a color laser) makes it very tempting. How does your 2500 perform? How good is the color output? Better or worse than a mid-range inkjet? Would you print pictures with it? Or do you use the color to spice up documents?

Escher

[hempcamp]

Originally posted by mediahound:
Can anyone recommend a good printer? Ideally, I'm looking for recommendations on a good mid to high end one, and then a lower budget one so that they can choose between the two.

I recommend HP.

I particularly like the new 1300n for small office applications (n meaning it has built-in networking capability). It can handle about 10,000 pages a month.

For something more on the higher end, there's the 2x00 series, all of which are fine printers.

--Chris

[anoetic]

The 2500 can't directly be compared to inkjet for color output. It prints certain colors -- yellow, blue, and red -- very well but the rest tend to be dithered; Whereas an inkjet will print as a solid color. For office printing -- graphs, charts, text, some photos -- it's great. It all has to do with the context. I wouldn't frame the photos but I will use it to do a draft of a page instead of having my inkjet use up ink. But the photos in a page with text look great and very professional. For text and line art it kills inkjets. I think the extra color in reports and brochures really makes a difference. Especially considering you don't need special papers. A big benefit to the inkjet is that you can put the same high quality output to anything you can get through the printer. Not true for an inkjet. The only downsides to color is for certain colors they can look a little dithered if you examine it closely and I think the 2500 cost a little bit more per page than an equally priced B/W HP laser printer.

Keep in mind I am very particular about output. I'm comparing the 2500 color output to an Epson 2200 and a HP 5550.

As far as price goes, take into account you will probably not want to get the base model for an office since it uses a pullout tray instead of paper drawers.

If you'd like, I can send you a couple scans comparing the output.

[escher]

Originally posted by anoetic:
The 2500 can't directly be compared to inkjet for color output. ... For office printing -- graphs, charts, text, some photos -- it's great. ... I think the extra color in reports and brochures really makes a difference. Especially considering you don't need special papers.

Thanks for your reply, anoetic. That's exactly what I figured. Now I'll have to figure out whether I really need color, or whether it's just a vain luxury (the printer will be for home use in my case).

Keep in mind I am very particular about output. ... If you'd like, I can send you a couple scans comparing the output.

That would be fascinating, if you have the time. You can e-mail me at escher [at] mac [dot] com. I'll probably still want to step into a bricks-and-mortar store before making a decision.

As far as price goes, take into account you will probably not want to get the base model for an office since it uses a pullout tray instead of paper drawers.

Yup. Price is an issue. If I were to get the 2500, I probably couldn't afford the network model and the better tray. If I go with the 2300, I could get duplex and network, which is probably still more important to me than color.

I'll have to put on my thinking cap and figure out what I want, need, and can afford.

Escher