Multi function printer

[xyx2000]

Looking for a printer for infrequent use, will a ink printer work or will it get clogged due to low usage? Any suggestions?

 

[socrates]

For low usage it's better to have a laser printer. Inkjets though cheaper usually get clogged. Had a inkjet printer initially & when I decided to get a scanner, I bought a stand alone unit so I am stuck with 2 separate units. Which has its own benefits. After that experience with an inkjet I shifted to a laser printer. First was a HP 1020, primitive by today's standard but a real work horse. Now it's a Brother L-B2000D Mono Laser Printer with Auto Duplex bought last year. You get wifi version too.

 

[Sushubh]

If B&W, get the brother laser.
If color, get the brother injket.

DCP-L2531DW | Brother India

This DCP-L2531DW 3-in-1 Monochrome Wireless Wifi Laser Multi-Function Duplex Printer can print scan copy upto 32 pages per minute with duplex 2 sided printing. Visit our offline retailers or online stores today.

www.brother.in

Brother DCP-L2531DW

DCP-T520W Ink Tank Printer | Brother India

3-in-1 multifunction printer with wireless and mobile printing to work-on-the go. Learn More.

www.brother.in

Brother DCP-T520W

 

[rajil.s]

Brother DCP-L2541DW is a good model (linux support is good). Only downside it does not allow duplex scanning. Duplex printing works though.

 

[wheatbread]

Canon's imageclass is great too. They even advertise some models for infrequent usage and for some reason they are very popular in offices I've been to.

linux support is good

Don't buy printers that require proprietary drivers to print. Most printers support IPP Everywhere now.

PS: Both macOS and linux depends on CUPS for everything printers, and apparently nobody at Apple has worked on it for a while now and on Linux if you distro ships CUPS from openprinting's fork, great; if not, you probably want that.

 

[rajil.s]

Does canon support 'Scan to PC' on Linux?

Although brother provides a utility for linux, it did not work for on a different Vlan. An opensource implementation works well though.

 

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[wheatbread]

I don't know what do you mean but they support eSCL mode and some models (pricey ones) supports both eSCL and WSD mode.

 

[rajil.s]

You press a button on the printer, and it scans and puts the documents on NFS/SMB drive. This feature is usually supported on Windows but not on Linux.

Canon used to be crap in the old days for linux support. Maybe they have turned around now. I have been out of touch.

 

[wheatbread]

You press a button on the printer, and it scans and puts the documents on NFS/SMB drive. This is feature is usually supported on Windows but not on Linux.

Yes, and it has some other fancy stuff like email the scanned document as PDF. IDK what this has to do with Linux or Windows though, it just need a SMB/FTP server on any OS.
Please check specifications and features for your model before buying because they have a ton of models and all in the same price range.

Canon used to be crap in the old days for linux support.

There's no "Linux support" for printers and scanners anymore. There are open standards which most printers follow, Canon in this case has been doing this for the longest time AFAIK.

 

[rajil.s]

You are right about SMB/FTP being an OS feature. Unfortunately I misspoke, the brother printer i linked does not have that feature. What it does is that when you press the 'Scan' button it asks the computer to initiate the scan command. So you need proprietary software from the manufacturer to support this.

Thankfully Brother do support this by providing scripts which call scanimage and scanadf on the computer. However, their solution is half baked. Thankfully the community has developed an opensource solution for that.