Best Color Printer Scanner Copier For Mac

Printer Ratings

Consumer Reports makes it easy to find the best printer for your needs. Read our buying guide to learn more before you shop. CR Digital members can access ratings and reviews on hundreds of inkjets and laser printers. Printers are tested on text quality, how much ink they use (and waste), speed, and more.

All-in-One Printers (139)

If there is a chance you might want to copy or scan, it's worth investigating an all-in-one printer. Although most models are bigger than the typical new stand-alone printer, they take up less space and cost less than a separate printer, scanner, and copier. Having to hook up only one device to your computer simplifies setup as well. An all-in-one's scanning function should be fine for print originals. The copying function is fine for casual use. Some all-in-ones add a fax function.
As the ratings show, paying more for a printer doesn't necessarily mean you'll get better photos. And don't consider only the purchase price of the printer itself. Ink and maintenance costs can make a cheaper model more expensive in the long run than a higher-priced printer with lower ink costs. The two-year cost-of-ownership estimate is shown in the ratings.

Recommended All-in-One Printers

With sharp looks and the ability to print, scan and copy, the HP OfficeJet 250 is an outstanding all-in-one portable printer with AirPrint built-in. Measuring 14.3 x 7.32 x 2.7 inches and weighing just 6.5 pounds, the OfficeJet 250 is as portable as it is capable. If all you need is an all-in-one printer with basic features, such as a scanner, copier and fax machine, the Epson Expression Premium XP-830 Small-in-One is a very good option. That is, if you can tolerate the flaws in the documents it prints.

All-in-One Printers Ratings

Regular Printers (52)

Many of the regular inkjets available are bare-bones, low-cost models. Still, for the money, standard inkjets are solid all-purpose printers for most consumers who want to print both text and color photos. Most can print almost anything, including photos up to 8.5x11 inches or larger, text, and graphics such as greeting cards. You can use various types and sizes of paper, from business cards to banners. Don't print photos or color graphics? Traditional black-and-white laser printers can't be beat for fast text printing at a good cost, especially if you print reams of black-and-white text documents.

Recommended Regular Printers
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Printers Buying Guide

These days, many documents and photos live on laptop drives or on cloud services. But you still need a great printer to make your vacation snaps or quarterly reports into physical realities you can hang on a wall or hand out at a meeting. Printers have become less expensive and increasingly tricked-out over time. You can pick up a basic inkjet for well under $100.

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Appealing Versatility

Multifunction printers (MFPs), also known as all-in-ones or AIOs, bring consumers a range of features beyond printing. All can also copy and scan, and many—especially business MFPs—add faxing to the mix. Our favorites range from small models suitable for home or home-office use and costing around $100 to behemoths able to anchor a busy workgroup, with duty cycles of tens of thousands of pages a month.

Printer manufacturers offer a huge variety of MFPs, both inkjets and lasers. Finding a model with the right set of features may not be an easy task. Here are the things to consider.

Home or Office?

The single most useful way to categorize MFPs is by intended use: home, office, or both. If you're looking for a home MFP, you probably care about photo quality, which means you want an inkjet. Beyond that, if photos are your primary interest, and you're looking for a way to print them from virtually any source—memory cards, USB memory keys, cameras, slides, strips of film, and original photographic prints—you need a photo-lab MFP. There are only a few choices in this subcategory: You can spot them by their ability to scan slides and strips of film, a feature most MFPs leave out.

When looking for an MFP strictly for an office, you probably care more about text than photos, which means you'll want a laser or laser-class printer (including LED and solid-ink printers, and even some inkjets). You probably also want it to fax, email, and include an automatic document feeder (ADF) to scan, copy, fax, and email multipage documents.

To ensure that nothing slips through the cracks (like your e-mail archive, bookmarks, fonts, and other important files), you might want to consider using drive-cloning software such as Bombich Software’s ( ) or Shirt Pocket’s ( ), which easily and thoroughly duplicates your hard drive’s contents. Internal hard drives buying advice Western Digital Scorpio Black 250GB Drive Compatibility Get a hard drive that matches the physical dimensions and connection interface of your Mac. MacBooks, MacBook Pros, and Mac minis use a 2.5-inch SATA drive, while PowerBooks and iBooks use a 2.5-inch ATA/IDE drive-SATA and ATA interfaces are not interchangeable. Online retailers such as provide Web guides that list storage options by Mac model. Likewise, recent Apple desktops (the Intel iMac, Mac Pro, iMac G5, and Power Mac G5) use a 3.5-inch SATA drive (the Mac Pro uses a SATA II drive), while older desktops (the iMac G3 and G4, and the Power Mac G3/G4) use a 3.5-inch ATA/IDE drive.

Best Color Printer And Scanner

If you need a printer for the dual role of home and home-office MFP, you'll want an inkjet for its photo quality, but one equipped with office-centric features like an ADF and fax modem.

Functions and Features

Getting beyond generalities about home and office MFPs, it's useful to make a list of the functions and features you actually need.

Printing, scanning, and copying are a given, but even these basics aren't as straightforward as you might think. Some MFPs are limited to scanning over a USB connection. If you plan to connect over a network, make sure the scanning works on a network. The ability to scan transparencies (slides and strips of film) is unusual enough that it's often listed as a separate function. Be sure to check the sizes the MFP can handle; transparencies are often limited to 35mm.

Some MFPs need a computer for copying. If you want to copy with the computer off, make sure the MFP will work as a standalone copier.

A fax feature almost always includes standalone faxing, which you control through the MFP's keypad. But it doesn't necessarily include a PC Fax function—faxing documents directly from your PC without having to print them first. PC Fax can be in the form of a fax utility, a fax driver that you use like a print driver, or both.

Email features also come in two forms. A direct-email function allows you to scan and send an email directly to your Internet service provider (ISP) or an in-house email server on your network. The more common choice for low-end MFPs is to open an email message on a PC and add the scanned document as an attachment. Any given MFP can offer either or both kinds of email. Note that some direct-email features won't work with all ISPs, so be sure to find out if they will work with yours before buying.

Most MFPs include flatbeds suitable for scanning photos or single-sheet documents. An automatic document feeder (ADF) will let you easily scan (plus copy, fax, and email) multipage documents. For MFPs with letter-size flatbeds, an ADF will often let you scan legal-size pages as well, but not all do, so check first.

Some ADFs can also duplex (scan both sides of a page). If you deal with many two-sided documents, the feature is well worth looking for. Most MFPs that support duplex scanning do so by scanning one side of the document, turning it over, and then scanning the other side, but some provide one-pass scanning—scanning both sides of the page at once—which is much faster. If the MFP includes a print duplexer also, the combination will usually let you copy both single- and double-sided originals to your choice of single- or double-sided copies.

Color Printing

If you never print in color, there's no reason to spend money on this feature. Keep in mind, however, that many color laser MFPs can print at high enough quality to let you print your own marketing materials, which could be less expensive than printing small quantities at your local print shop.

Printer Size

MFPs tend to be bigger than single-function printers, and even some home MFPs can be tall enough to make you feel like they're towering over you if you put them on your desk. Be sure to check out the MFP's size and weight, though chances are you won't be moving it very often.

Connection Options

In addition to a USB port, many MFPs include Ethernet and/or Wi-Fi connections for easy sharing. If you prefer Wi-Fi, keep in mind that if you have a wireless access point on your network, you can print wirelessly to any printer or MFP on that network, whether the printer or MFP offers Wi-Fi or not. Some MFPs now include Wi-Fi Direct (or its equivalent), which allows compatible devices to connect with them without needing a wireless access point. A few offer Near-Field Communication (NFC), which allows you to initiate printing from a compatible mobile device simply by tapping the printer with the phone or tablet.

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Output Quality

In addition to checking out the print output quality, you may need to check scan quality. It's not an issue for offices, because virtually any scanner can scan documents at sufficiently high quality. For photos, however, you'll want to take a closer look, particularly for transparencies.

Print Quantity

When you're calculating the duty cycle and input capacity you'll need for an MFP, remember to add copies and incoming faxes to the total number of pages you'll print.

Cost Considerations

Finally, be sure to check cost of ownership over the life of the printer. Compare the total cost for each model you're considering to find out which will be most economical in the long run.

Whether you're looking for a home or office all-in-one, a good place to start your search is our highest-rated MFPs, listed below. For more, check our top printer picks overall, as well as our favorite inkjet and laser models.

Color Laser Printer Scanner Copier

Best All-in-One Printers Featured in This Roundup:

• Brother MFC-J6945DW INKvestment Tank Color Inkjet All-In-One Printer Review

  
  MSRP: $349.99

  Pros: Low running costs. Good print quality. Prints, scans, copies, and faxes tabloid-size pages. Single-pass duplexing ADF. Three paper input sources.

  Cons: Super-tabloid support would provide greater value.

  Bottom Line: The Brother MFC-J6945DW is a wide-format color inkjet all-in-one printer that prints well and is feature-packed and inexpensive to use, making it an exceptional value for small offices.

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• Canon imageClass MF269dw Review

  
  MSRP: $279.99

  Pros: Small footprint. Competitive running costs. Good-looking output. Auto-duplexing ADF. Versatile connectivity options, including mobile.

  Cons: Lacks flash memory drive support. Antiquated control panel.

  Bottom Line: The Canon imageClass MF269dw is an entry-level monochrome laser AIO printer with just the right feature set, speed, and output quality to make it an excellent value for small and home-based offices.

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• Canon Pixma TS9120 Wireless Inkjet All-in-One Review

  
  MSRP: $199.99

  Pros: Lightweight and compact. Two additional ink cartridges for higher-quality photos. Two paper input trays. SD card, Ethernet, and Bluetooth 4.0 support. Excellent print quality. Fast snapshot printing.

  Cons: No automatic document feeder. Lacks NFC and Wi-Fi Direct. Slow document printing.

  Bottom Line: Though it lacks an automatic document feeder, the six-ink Canon Pixma TS9120 Wireless Inkjet All-in-One printer produces exceptional text, graphics, and photos.

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• Epson EcoTank ET-4760 All-In-One Printer Review

  
  MSRP: $499.99

  Pros: Excellent print quality. Very low running costs. Light and compact. Single-pass auto-duplexing ADF. Excellent mobile connectivity options.

  Cons: Relatively low duty cycle and recommended volume ratings. Lacks support for flash memory devices.

  Bottom Line: The Epson EcoTank ET-4760 is an excellent multifunction color printer for small offices that don't want to sacrifice features to get low long-term running costs.

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• Epson Expression Premium XP-7100 Small-in-One Printer Review

  
  MSRP: $199.99

  Pros: Exceptional output quality. Single-pass duplexing ADF. Large, easy-to-use control panel. Robust connectivity.

  Cons: High running costs. Low paper capacity.

  Bottom Line: The Epson Expression Premium XP-7100 is a small but capable photo-centric all-in-one inkjet for homes and small offices.

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• Epson WorkForce Pro WF-4740 Review

  
  MSRP: $299.99

  Pros: Excellent print quality overall. Auto-duplexing ADF. Competitively low running costs. Supports Wi-Fi Direct and NFC. Fast for its class.

  Cons: No multipurpose tray. Small output tray. Slightly expensive.

  Bottom Line: The WF-4740 prints well and fast, and it supports just about every midrange business-centric inkjet feature available, including Wi-Fi Direct, NFC, and two-sided scanning.

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• Epson WorkForce Pro WF-M5299 Monochrome Printer Review

  
  MSRP: $209.99

  Pros: Exceptional cost per page. Above-average print quality. Expandable paper input capacity. Low price.

  Cons: Recommended monthly print volume is low. A bit slower than competing laser machines. Out-of-the-box paper input capacity is low.

  Bottom Line: An entry-level monochrome inkjet printer, the Epson WorkForce Pro WF-M5299 prints well and is very inexpensive to use, making it an exceptional value for small- to medium-size offices.

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• HP OfficeJet Pro 9015 All-in-One Printer Review

  
  MSRP: $229.99

  Pros: Fast. Good print quality overall. Competitive running costs. Borderless printing. 35-sheet auto-duplexing ADF. Attractive, compact build.

  Cons: Only one paper input source.

  Bottom Line: HP's OfficeJet Pro 9015 All-in-One Printer churns out quality output at a low cost per page, making it a good value for small offices with light- to medium-duty copy and print volume requirements.

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• HP OfficeJet Pro Premier All-in-One Printer Review

  
  MSRP: $399.99

  Pros: Stylish, light, and compact build. Good print quality. Free ink for two years. Auto-duplexing ADF. Built-in firewall.

  Cons: Pricey. Low recommended monthly volume.

  Bottom Line: The HP OfficeJet Pro Premier is a compact and stylish inkjet all-in-one that produces quality output and comes with two years worth of ink.

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• Xerox VersaLink C405/DN Review

  
  MSRP: $979.00

  Pros: Excellent print quality. Reasonably fast. High-yield toner cartridges available. Strong set of security features. Single-pass auto-duplexing automatic document feeder (ADF). Lots of mobile connectivity features including NFC.

  Cons: Somewhat expensive. High running costs. Big and heavy. Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct are extra.

  Bottom Line: A behemoth of a color laser all-in-one, the Xerox VersaLink C405/DN prints well, is respectably fast, and comes with a ton of features, but lower running costs would make it a better value.

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