Printer recommendation - duplex

HP 6520 (or 6525) works great. I have used it with ML, Mavericks and now Yosemite.

I picked up an HP Officejet 6700 a few months ago and it works beautifully, doesn't spend an inordinate amount of time starting up, and seems like a solkid little machine. It doesn't print photos, but it does very nice "best" quality color printing, which is good enough for me. I particularly like that it has separate cartridges for all four ink colors (yellow, magenta, cyan and black).

Printers are more like commodities nowadays. Probably any number of top brands will do what you want. I suggest you start from your target price range (e.g. $200) and then look at the models from major brands that are available (Canon, Epson, HP etc.), and rank them based on criteria that matter to you, such as:

Speed of printing

Reliability (can be assessed on Consumer Reports, or via user ratings online from places like Amazon, Best Buy, etc.)

Quality of print for photos, text

Ink use and cost (this will ultimately determine your cost for the printer, not the one-time purchase price)

Mac-friendliness (this can be judged from online postings/complaints, looking at the manufacturer online driver download site [indicating support only through system 10.7 might be a bad sign, for instance, as Apple has now released 10.10], talking to other users)

Look for an online manual to see how easy it is to track ink levels and replace ink tanks

Other features you may want, such as: multi-function (scan, copy), wireless, USB or memory card slots, print from iPhone, number of sheets of paper you can store, document feeder, duplex printing, user interface, LCD screen with touch control of functions on the printer itself, compatibility with direct print from cameras, phones, etc.

Based on what matters most to you, I think it will be apparent what your decision should be.

My experience with Canon is that their printers are fairly straightforward to install and use and update drivers for, but sometimes you see complaints from users of older models that they are no longer supported for the latest Mac OS. I haven't used an Epson for a while, they also have a good reputation. HP makes excellent products and most people experience no issues, but HP software installs all kinds of software pieces throughout your system and sometimes people report conflicts that are hard to track down due to this.

If you can't decide, I would go with the one that has the best print quality.

Hi PeterS,

Both the HP Photosmart 6520 or the HP Officejet 6700 support automatic print duplexing which means that the process is fully automatic and you will not have to do any manual action.

There are many other printers which support a such for different price range, different technologies, different capabilities or needs which may help guiding your further (e.g. Black & White or Color, Laser or Inkjet, what features are required - printing only, printing copying and scanning, faxing as well.

Would you need to use it with a single computer, multiple ones? via a USB or maybe through the network?

As you may see there are many factors to consider, getting some further information of your needs will surely help providing you a better suggestion.

Regards,

Shlomi