It looks like my printer of 7 years finally died. It was a Lexmark Z23. That brings me to two questions:

1. Will any printer work for a iMac OSX or do I need to look for certain brand names?

2. Anyone know a general price range?

Mac,

Most any modern printer will work on your Apple, as long as it is USB, if your buy a new one it should come with the OS-X driver CD so you should have no problems hooking it up.

Ken

I must ask...if your printer is 7 years old then how old is your computer? (since you say your using OSX you should be fine) Also, what connections does your computer have? as Ken said...most modern printers use USB ports, so if you have a USB port your fine! However, if you do not then you have a problem. Assuming you dont have one you could get a USB card to plug in to the motherboard

Devil is the details....

In picking out a new printer you need to figure out what type you need...ink jet does color pinting, but the cost per page can be up words of 25 cents a page just for ink. YOu could go laser but most are black and white and printing costs a few cents a page. and they do have color lasers but you will pay more for the printer.

My computer is newish....iMac OSX 10.4

If I remember correctly, Mac's Mac (tee hee) is less than two or three months old.

Printers (singular function) are cheap, as low as $70. But those in that price range are bare bones no frills.

I have a lovely Cannon Multi-function ink jet that prints(color), copies, enlarges and reduces, scans, and faxes. If I recall correctly I paid $250 about two years ago.

First, Mac, determine your needs in order of importance.

Do you print a lot?

Is the quality of the printing critical?

Do you want color?

Do you want other functions as mention above?

Do a little reasearch:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1584125,00.asp

This link is the first result from a google search for "personal printers".

Then go to Consumer Reports or another evalution service to compare the printers you are considering. There should be feedback from users, along with some type of rating system.

If you buy online, you should be able to get a deal. But before you buy, go to Staples or the like and look at them in person so you get a sense of what you are paying for...

Good Luck!

Mac:

You don't say how much printing you do or what you use them for but here is my 2 bits worth.I like HP Printers. There are cheaper models around but HP are bringing out new Inkjet models that are relatively cheap to run if you don't do a lot of printing. I have three HP's - a Laserjet5Si for bulk black and white printing, an Officejet 6110 multifunction that is just great for most activities, and an Officejet Pro 850 that prints up to A3 size (12" x 15" approx) in colour with great quality and uses 4 tank cartridges (similar to their plotters) that last for a lot of copies and it's faster than most inkjets. It has replaceable print heads separate from the ink tanks. It does just great for photographs at A3 size!! I was told that HP was trying to get the cost of inkjet printing down to laser qcosts but don't knowif they are there yet. If you dont do a lot of printing probably something like the injet 6110 (newer model out by now) would probably meet your needs.

I have had Canons that worked just fine actually better than the HP's in the small sizes but go through cartridges at a prodigous rate which is annoying - not to mention expensive.

You might want to look at used laser printers if you need to do a lot of B&W printing Generally you can pick up a good HP laser printer on the used market and it will run pretty well for a long time. Just keep in mind that HP tends to stop supplying parts on older printers. At least that has been my experience. The 5Si is a faster bulk printer that handles both A4 and A3 which I like for spreadsheets and maps etc and has been pretty good. It takes up a lot of space though. I also have a HP 4MV which is an older and much smaller version of the 5Si that has given me sterling service for about 10 years but no parts any more except recycled bits.

There are myriads of others out there that I cannot comment on, havent tried them but be carefull of the too cheapies. Check the cartridge lives (and inspect them visually for size because they lie about capacity) as well as for price. Some of the cheapies sell the printers below cost but get back at you on the cartridges. OK if you are not printing very much.

I would buy HP first then Canon second with Lexmark and Epson in third place. All alre reliable, will run well and give you reasonably good results. BTW be careful of the cheap colour laser jets even HP. The colour cartridges cost a mint on some of them and not give you too many pages. Also the cheap ones tend to be quite slow 5ppm or so. Read the specs and fine print carefully.

Hope this helps - good luck!!! bang1: P.S. You will find the inbuilt coppier/scanner features very useful if you buy a multifunction model

I found a computer tech in town who has a semi-new Brother computer which he'll bring,to my house tomorrow night for $35. He he says it has an ink cartridges inside it. I asked him the cost of ink repacement cartridges but he said he didn't know as he purchased his online like on E-Bay for $12 a piece.

If it works, I'll take it.

I print about 10-15 pages a day, on the average.

He would have brought it tonight because it was pouring down rain.

MacTheWolf (imported) wrote: Fri Jan 25, 2008 2:21 am I found a computer tech in town who has a semi-new Brother computer which he'll bring,to my house tomorrow night for $35. He he says it has an ink cartridges inside it. I asked him the cost of ink repacement cartridges but he said he didn't know as he purchased his online like on E-Bay for $12 a piece.

If it works, I'll take it.

I print about 10-15 pages a day, on the average.

He would have brought it tonight because it was pouring down rain.

if you print that many each day then think of a low end laser printer. However, you can have multiple printers as well. Personally, i have four printers (2 b/w lasers, 1 inkjet, 1 color laser) two of those were given to me.

Like i said earlier inkjet has a higher cost per page then lasers. Laser cartridges cost more but your getting thousands of pages per cartridge, and inkjet you get a couple hundred. Or course it all depends on how much ink you put on the page...the more ink on the page the higher the cost per page just for ink.

I always print in black and have no need for color.

I just print text pages...stufff I've typed up and want hard copies for.

I'm hoping the tech with the Brother printer comes by tonight.

Hi Mac,

Most printers with USB will work on your computer and since you are using OS X 10.4 many of the printer drivers are already installed on your computer. Chances are you can just plug it in especially if you buy one of the printers that has been out for about a year or two. I always try to plug and play first, and then only load the drivers if they are needed.

Canon, Epson, Hewlett-Packard are good brands that work well with Macs. We had a lot of trouble with Brother or as I like to say Bother so we sent it back to Fry's.

Oh yeah, look for something with cheap cartridge refills. Sometimes they sell the printer super cheap and then charge you an arm and a leg for the ink cartridges.

Big Hugggs,

Jema