I’ve got a printer and a small scanner, but honestly I think I’ve sent maybe 3 faxes in the past decade, most of which were to government or medical offices that weren’t with the times. On those extremely infrequent occasions, I take the document to work and figure out how to fax it from there.
Otherwise, I want to commend the recommendation for a home laser printer. You used to be able to get them for under $200; I got a Dell C1760 (color laser) for $119 back in 2017, and it’s still going strong after multiple toner refills and probably more than 5000 sheets of paper.
Are there any laser printer/scanner multifunctions that don’t look like hideous corporate production equipment and would actually be inoffensive in a living room? Most of the multifunctions seem to have sheet feeders on top and control panels wanging out into space which really make them ugly. A simple flatbed scanner like most inkjet multifunctions would be perfectly fine.
I don’t think I’ve ever sent a fax - the last time would have been in the modem days, and from a PC not a MFP. But nowadays there have been plenty of “email this signed form” requests from assorted businesses, particularly my bank. The simple scanning solution is worth it.
(I have a Canoscan 8800 also, which I used to scan my father’s extensive family photos collection; but the MFP’s scanning process is so much simpler, since it was more intended for documents not photos.)
Function dictates form. They all have a flatbed on top. I’ve found unless you go higher end, it’s a simple lid over the scan bed, no sheet feeders. Below that is a simple printer, and below that the paper tray. My colour laser is slightly taller than my b&w laser, since it has to hold 4 (small-ish) cartridges. In my case, the printer unit is perpendicular to the scanner part, the prints come out the side.
HP had (has?) a line of low end laser printers where the paper feed is more vertical and the whole is not much bigger than an inkjet, but then you have the top half of the paper flapping in the breeze. If the paper goes in a tray under the works, that pretty much defines the printer size.
It seems to me there are two basic options - black, or off-white? Then, do you have an under-desk option to locate the printer so it’s not so prominent?
Yeah my Brother laser printer can also scan and photocopy and it indeed has a fax function. The problem is that it needs a landline to work. That’s the issue.
Remarkably I STILL do have about a one inch stack of the printer paper with the dots on the side that feed into it.
It is at the bottom of a stack on my storage shelf. On top of it is an assortment of different other papers–notebook paper, graph paper, printer/copier paper for my inkjet.
I have lived where I am since 2003 and at the time I was using the dot matrix printer and a Windows 98 computer I bought in 1999
My current computer I use is a Windows 7 computer I bought in 2011 to replace the Win 98. The Win 98 was actually still working fine at the time but I wanted a newer computer to work better with my cable internet and YouTube.
No, but while I’ve heard a lot of good about Brother, ALL of their laser multifunctions look awful:
This HP looks alright since it just has a flatbed scanner and not a sheet feeder. It’s no console TV, it’s just simple and clean (kind of Apple-y). The problem is HP is terrible about 3rd party cartridges/ink, bloated software, and questionable build quality.
These days I tell folks to buy one of the super cheap HP wireless laser printers. You can hide it in a cabinet if you like, if you can get power to it. You can print from your tablet or phone with no fuss.
And for scanning and photocopies? Phone cameras have that covered. Get an app like Scanner Pro by Readdle, and you will be able to scan pages and pages directly to high quality PDF with little effort.
I’m beyond the days when I have patience to deal with printers that require a mild application of profanity before they do their job. My high-end Epson photo ink jet with a dozen different shades of ink in separate cartridges? I pitched that and never looked back. Too much aggravation.
HP laser jet scan copy and prints great pictures.
Wireless, prints from smart phones too.
Signed up with HP instant ink subscription for cheaper cartridges. Less than $40 a year.
It’s going on 6 years old, plastic so don’t abuse it in frustration for user error
I have several hundred pages of sheet music I have scanned in from countless kinds of books. The biggest hassle is getting the pages to lay flat in books, so I have a piece of Plexiglass I lay on top of the opened book. Lighting is easy to set up, and the app scales, deskews, and converts to the pagesize I ask for.
It’s not for everyone, but definitely far better than one might expect.
ETA: key here is that the phone camera itself isn’t enough…that just takes the photos. The scanner app is far more important to make this a viable process.
Yeah, I see what you mean. The automated document feeder looks like what you object to. I have the Brother MFC-L2750DW, and the ADF is pretty handy when scanning a lot of pages. It also does two sided scanning, and I am not sure if a flatbed scanner does that or not, but I use it for two sided scans quite often. And while it’s a black and white printer it scans in color, I suppose all of them do.
If you are short on space and have to put it in the living room, hiding it in a cabinet might work. I wouldn’t give up the functionality of the ADF, but then again I have it in a home office and not a living room.
The starter toner cartridge actually lasted much longer that I thought it would, I would guess I printed about 250 pages or so. For me that was about a year.
