I'm trying to do some research for a Printer/Copier/Scanner combo for the wife as a Christmas present and am coming up blank.

She works from home and need something that could do nice quality color prints, but also not something that has ridiculous refill costs. It would also need to be able to scan at a high resolution, and not be a huge mammoth of a machine. She has a small desk area that she works from. I'm assuming most are mac/pc compatible, but she uses a mac if that matters.

Any of you have a decent model that you would recommend?

11/20/2012 8:41:07 AM

Get a wireless printer and she can keep it anywhere in the house lessening the impact of the size of a nice color laser.

11/20/2012 10:45:32 AM

I'm personally a fan of having a black & white laser for high volume printing, and a color MFC for photo/color printing and scanning. However, if you want to keep it all in one box, the Epson Workforce 845 seems pretty nice at the $200-ish price point. We were evaluating that at work for our remote/home office users for a while (and may still go with it in the end).

If you want to spend a little more, you're going to get better consumable costs long term with a laser, but lasers are notoriously bad at photo-quality printing. Trade-offs ITT.

11/20/2012 4:10:26 PM

Yeah she's a graphic designer, and wanted printing capabilities to take samples to a client. I have a black and white laser printer and love it. Have used it for years with no trouble.

I think she was hoping to get a black friday deal on one. I'll check out that Epson to see what it's like. Thanks.

Any other suggestions?

11/21/2012 8:19:25 AM

Though that Epson has made a good impression on us at work, if she's a graphic designer and is going to be looking for high-quality prints, you could also look at Canon. Consumable costs will be higher but their quality has always seemed very nice to me (my color inket/mfc is a Canon, actually).

11/21/2012 9:24:24 PM