I love my Canon MP530 multi-function printer. I bought it because I just wanted to have a printer that could send faxes, but surprisingly it's become one of my favorite household gadgets.
A few great features:
- Duplex printing
- Batch scanning with the sheet feeder
- Duplex scanning (scan a stack, then flip it, software fixes the order)
- Scans legal sized documents
The usability is so good that I don't hesitate to scan things, even to the point where I routinely archive household documents to PDF. Canon did a great job of integrating the scanning software with the printer. I used to waste a lot of time fiddling around with a flatbed scanner and some quirky scanning software. Without a sheet feeder, it took forever to scan just a few pages. Now, I just drop a stack of documents into the sheet feeder, hit the start button, and a few seconds later I have a PDF.
So the other day, I was pretty sad to discover that my printer would not turn on. I thought maybe the power strip was fried, but after half an hour of plugging and unplugging things, I came to the conclusion that my printer was dead and that I would have to buy another one.
Fortunately, I made a last ditch attempt to Google a solution, and found a CNet forum thread where several people people had the same problem. Turns out that this happens on some printers and the solution is just to unplug the printer for 20 minutes. Half an hour later, I had a working printer instead of a $200 door stop. I hope this post keeps someone else from owning a door stop, too.
Hi,
how its mac support is? I have an HP OfficeJet (scanner + fax + printer) and i really HATE its software. It's one of the first virus for mac :)
Posted by: Simone D. | January 27, 2008 at 05:15 AM
The Mac software is pretty good. It's easy to use, doesn't crash, and has a decent interface (although not as good as typical Mac apps). There are a few annoying UI quirks, but they're fairly minor.
Posted by: Ken Liu | January 30, 2008 at 09:29 PM
Canon has a great deal on this printer now. So, despite the potential door-stop hazard, would you still recommend it? How does it print photos? Admittedly, that'd be one of my primary uses for this printer.
Posted by: Tony | July 11, 2008 at 10:05 AM
wow, good to hear there's hope for canons + macs. canon's mac support has been horrible to this point. ive got a few canon printers that are being used as coffeetables after my PC died. couldnt even use cups.org's GIMP drivers to get them to link up to my mac.
Posted by: Justin | September 17, 2008 at 12:43 PM
Ken, do you have any suggestions for software (on WINDOWS!) that would allow me to drop a pile and scan to PDF on my HP multi-function? Or is your software proprietary to the printer?
Posted by: kenny | September 12, 2009 at 07:46 PM