Great printer for multiple computer families
Pros:
Sweet networking for multiplatform printing, multiple paper trays, autodocument feeder
Cons:
A little spendy, a little slow
The Bottom Line:
This is the printer I've been waiting for. I can set the printer up anywhere in the house and print to it from my Macintosh AND my Windows systems.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
I am a recent Windows to Macintosh convert. Having been loyal to Windows for many years, I had my Windows system all set up with the printer/scanner and had it shared with my Windows laptop. Things were good.
Then, with my Macintosh, things got rough. I could see files on the Windows machine from the Mac, but I couldn't print. I tried about 100 different things including "Network Magic" and moving the printer to the Mac. Network Magic didn't do it for me. When I moved the printer and connected it to the Mac, I could print from the Mac but not the Windows machine. Arg.
I decided to cut the knot and get a network printer. The HP C7280 is an all-in-one inkjet printer. To tell the story in a sentence...
It works great!
As for the details:
Networking
The printer has built in wireless ethernet (802.11b/g) so you can literally just plug it in, configure it and start printing. It also has a wired ethernet port so you can plug it into your router. The printer then gets it's own IP address and becomes a device on the network.
I went through the process of installing the software on the Windows systems and the Mac systems. The software install took a little while but needed almost no input from me... it was pretty well automatic. Part of the process goes out and finds the printer. It's super easy on both platforms.
After installation, the printers are there and can be used. It works just like it's supposed to.
Auto Document Feeder
The C7280 has an auto document feeder for scanning and copying. You can put a stack of paper (I think up to 50 sheets) on to the top of the printer and it'll pull the pages in one-by-one. It's not as fast as the industrial workhorse we have at work, but for a home unit, it's great. Being able to plop a bunch of stuff in there and let it go unattended is a dream come true.
When you scan documents, you can scan them to copy them, to fax them or scan them to images (JPEG or PDF). One thing I have been waiting for is the ability to scan many pages of a document to a single PDF. This printer does it!
Printing
Two paper trays make this printer terrific for lots of easy printing duties. There's a normal paper tray for 8 1/2 x 11" sheets. There's also a 4x6" tray for photo paper. You can select which tray to print from. This makes it really nice to print documents and pictures because you don't have to unload and reload paper when switching between tasks.
Oh yeah... the print quality is fabulous.
Memory Card slots/USB Printing
This printer has a USB port so you can connect your digital camera right to it. If you have a relatively modern camera that supports "PictBridge", you're all set. You can connect your camera right to the printer and let it rip. There's a small LCD on the printer which will allow you to make some edits (crop, red-eye, etc...) to the images prior to printing.
You can also plug memory cards from your camera directly into the printer. It works really good.
