Recommendations for printer for M1 iMac

[Whoopie]

I would like to hear what printers work reliably with M1 Mac, and hopefully iPhone and iPad.

I would prefer a black and white laser printer. I'd like automatic two sided printing options. I only need black and white but if a color printer would work without replacing/refilling color cartridges, that would be fine.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Since you want iPhone/iPad support, then you definitely will want something that supports AirPrint. You won't have to worry about M1 support... AirPrint basically makes it a non-issue. For example, I'm using an M1 MacBook Air with an HP laser printer I bought almost 10 years ago and it's still going strong.

Brother is generally regarded as having the "best" support for Macs, but HP will do fine also indefinitely as long as you are OK using AirPrint on Mac and iOS. Here's Brother's lineup, filtered to B&W laser printers that support duplex printing and "Mobile Devices" (i.e. AirPrint):

Shop laser printers for your home office | Brother

Shop our Brother laser printers, perfect for your home office, with fast, two-sided printing with color or black & white only options.

www.brother-usa.com

I was going to provide a comparable search link for HP, but they only have a couple options now that fit your needs, and they are rather expensive @ $799 and $3400.

 

[Whoopie]

I bought a Brother ( I think 2350DW) and hated it. The instructions were useless. They said to press buttons that that model did not have--it had up, down yes no, I think. Eventually we were able to get help from my son about how to link the printer to our wifi network but it liked to forget it.... or just not see even the computer if it was connected by usb.... IT made me extremely miserable.
I resurrected an old HP1012 and got it to work most of the time, but it isn't AirPrint. If any of the HP models, even ink jet or non duplex would be easier to pair I would be inclined to try them.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

I can't tell you that HP will be any easier. The one I have took some digging to figure out how to get it connected and configured. But like I said, that was 10 years ago. I've only used one Brother in the past, and abandoned it for this HP because it made a horribly high pitched whine when printing that was simply intolerable. I'll give a couple search links for HP's line, but I'd suggest keeping an open mind about Brother. If you have difficulties, we can get you through them. One long time member here, Randy Singer, swears by them.

These are print-only models, including laser and ink jet, that support AirPrint:

https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/vwa/printers/availability=In-Stock;prnttyp=Print-only;connct=Apple-AirPrint-?jumpid=ma_pr_featured_viewall_1_210408

This search includes multifunction models:

https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/vwa/printers/availability=In-Stock;connct=Apple-AirPrint-?jumpid=ma_pr_featured_viewall_1_210408

 

[chscag]

I resurrected an old HP1012 and got it to work most of the time, but it isn't AirPrint. If any of the HP models, even ink jet or non duplex would be easier to pair I would be inclined to try them.

I too have a HP 1012 (going on 17 years old) and as you say it's not AirPrint capable because it is not WiFi capable.

Later model HP printers that are WiFi should be AirPrint capable. But HP has a poor track record on keeping up with drivers for macOS.

You might try Canon since they seem to have a good line of color and BW laser printers. One thing to consider is the cost of toner cartridges. Third party toner cartidges are fairly inexpensive for HP but I don't know about Canon. You'll need to do some research where you are to compare prices.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Later model HP printers that are WiFi should be AirPrint capable. But HP has a poor track record on keeping up with drivers for macOS.

Just a note about this... AirPrint renders driver support a moot issue. As long as one's print needs are adequate with what is supported using AirPrint, no drivers are needed on a Mac. AirPrint effectively is a universal driver for printers that support the protocol.

 

[Whoopie]

Thank you both for these suggestions and information!

 

[lclev]

I have an HP LaserJet 400 at home, and HP OfficeJet 4720 at work plus three other HP wireless printers also available at work. All are wireless, of various ages and have AirPrint. They all work great with my M1 MBP, iPhone 13 pro and iPad Pro. AIrPrint is the reason.

Lisa

 

[jasongoldworthy]

if you can source the following printer id recommend it as I have no issues with any drivers on the latest OSX version

HP ENVY Photo 6234 it has wifi and AirPrint capable.

 

[Whoopie]

if you can source the following printer id recommend it as I have no issues with any drivers on the latest OSX version

HP ENVY Photo 6234 it has wifi and AirPrint capable.

Do you and Lisa (above) use the HP auto refill program or generic substitutes?

 

[jasongoldworthy]

Do you and Lisa (above) use the HP auto refill program or generic substitutes?

I use the instant ink in my case and always have since I’ve owned this printer.

 

[rbpeirce]

I have Canon Pixma 3620s in two locations and I have an M1 Pro running Monterey. They are wireless, also scan and Canon has an app for printing from an iPhone or iPad.

 

[jasongoldworthy]

I have Canon Pixma 3620s in two locations and I have an M1 Pro running Monterey. They are wireless, also scan and Canon has an app for printing from an iPhone or iPad.

Personally I prefer to direct print with the HP one I own I found the apps wasn’t reliable

 

[rbpeirce]

Personally I prefer to direct print with the HP one I own I found the apps wasn’t reliable

You could be right. I've never needed to print from my iPhone or iPad so i can't be sure. I can say scanning and printing wirelessly from my computer has been 100% on Intel and M1, Maverick and Monterey.

 

[jasongoldworthy]

You could be right. I've never needed to print from my iPhone or iPad so i can't be sure. I can say scanning and printing wirelessly from my computer has been 100% on Intel and M1, Maverick and Monterey.

to be honest its all down to personal taste someone may like the app others may not.

but if it works for yourself then why not use the app

 

[Lifeisabeach]

There are a couple things I want to point out about using AirPrint. Randy insinuated in another discussion that there are "advanced" features in printers that AirPrint can't use, and called out picking a tray in multi-tray printers as one. I can't speak to this, but unless he's overlooking something, there is that to consider.

But here's what I can say. My printer has a single tray and a "bypass" slot which can be adjusted for different paper widths and envelopes. When I print, if the bypass slot is empty, it automatically uses the tray. If anything is in the bypass slot, that will be used instead. I have no way that I can see to tell it to use one or the other. I did some reading around about multi-tray printers, and the best I could glean is that this holds true for those also. If you have multiple trays, it will automatically use one, then switch to the other if the first is empty. You can't rely on having different paper sizes/types in different trays and deliberately pick one or the other when ready to print.

So on that basis, it's something to be aware of in terms of picking a printer with long-term macOS driver support. But if your needs are pretty basic like mine, it's a non-issue.

 

[rbpeirce]

to be honest its all down to personal taste someone may like the app others may not.

but if it works for yourself then why not use the app

I never had occasion to use the app so I tried it. It did take a while to get set up and its use was not intuitively obvious. I had to double-tap a doc in order to get the print window to open. However, once I did that it worked fine.

 

[NSMacGuru]

Two years ago I picked up a Canon MF244DW wireless B&W Laser printer. A few weeks ago, I finally used up the original toner cartridge that came with it. Rock-solid printer, never fails, can wirelessly print to it from all our Macs, iPhones and the one Android phone in the house. It's never let me down. I also got it for $99 CDN on sale - the toner cartridges are $30 more than the printer, but they last forever and unlike an inkjet, there are no heads to clog up / clean. It can sit unused for months and give perfect prints every time.

 

[barbnor2]

I would like to hear what printers work reliably with M1 Mac, and hopefully iPhone and iPad.

I would prefer a black and white laser printer. I'd like automatic two sided printing options. I only need black and white but if a color printer would work without replacing/refilling color cartridges, that would be fine.

I have a Brother that does all that, but I don't know if it is laser. It has a toner cartridge, not ink. I previously had a Kodak inkjet, but when the color cartridge ran out, it wouldn't print in black and white. It was less than $100.

 

[Mba1]

Since you want iPhone/iPad support, then you definitely will want something that supports AirPrint. You won't have to worry about M1 support... AirPrint basically makes it a non-issue. For example, I'm using an M1 MacBook Air with an HP laser printer I bought almost 10 years ago and it's still going strong.

Brother is generally regarded as having the "best" support for Macs, but HP will do fine also indefinitely as long as you are OK using AirPrint on Mac and iOS. Here's Brother's lineup, filtered to B&W laser printers that support duplex printing and "Mobile Devices" (i.e. AirPrint):

Shop laser printers for your home office | Brother

Shop our Brother laser printers, perfect for your home office, with fast, two-sided printing with color or black & white only options.

www.brother-usa.com

I was going to provide a comparable search link for HP, but they only have a couple options now that fit your needs, and they are rather expensive @ $799 and $3400.

Hey, while on the printer issue, I have a 10 year old HP black and white laser printer that works fine with my MBA M1, but the problem is, the scanning function doesn't work. Is it a HP printer driver issue? I have to depend on my Windows based laptop for scanning functions, which is kinda lame. Any suggestions on how I can get around this?