Re: [WinMac] All-in-One Products for Macintosh
Leonard Rosenthol(leonardr[at]Adobe.COM)
Mon, 31 Aug 1998 12:55:13 -0400
At 11:46 AM -0400 8/31/98, Terran Van Wagner wrote:
>But I've gone through a few of these for PCs, and I can tell you that
>you're not
>missing much.
>The others I've used (on PCs) had such crummy performance and reliability that
>they just weren't worth the trouble. I ended up returning them or relegating
>them to whatever capacity they were most competent with, usually faxing
>docs not
>created by computer.
>
Interesting, since I've had a Brother MFC4550 connected to my
Wintel box for over 2 years now, and I love it. Never had a problem with
it with either 95 or NT. I use it as the PC's primary printer and my
primary fax machine - so it's gets a good share of usage. I have used the
scanner and copying functions as well, and find them quite capable and
functional.
>Some caveats for all-in-ones:
>Fax scanning is only 192 dpi, grey scale at best, useless for image or OCR
>scanning.
>
My Brother does either 200x200, 200x400 or 400x400 (B&W/Grayscale
only). However, it's worked great for both images and OCR! In fact, for
OCR it comes with the Visioneer PaperPort software.
>The sheet feeders (for scanning) are pretty good, but flatbed scanners are
>more
>useful.
>
I'd have to agree there. I find myself scanning more things that
require my flatbed (photographs, pages from books, etc.). But then again,
the scanner wasn't the primary feature that I got the MFC for.
>The modems are slow or only support fax protocols.
>
I think mine is 19.2, which is the max speed for Fax. And that's
fine, I wouldn't want it to also do "modem stuff".
>Even the all-in-ones that print color aren't particularly good printers.
>
Well, my reason for picking the Brother 4550 was that it's one of
the few MFC's with a LASER printer rather than an inkjet. This gives me
quite nice printouts (which is the main thing I wanted from it!)
>The software is flaky and intrusive.
>
Again, I'll disagree in my experience. The printer & fax drivers
are just that - drivers that I never see - I just print. I have changed
the configuration on occasion (like 2-up printing, and such) but otherwise
I don't see it.
The scanner stuff is via Twain and so I do my scanning from inside
of Photoshop. The UI that I get isn't the world's greatest, but it is
acceptable and functional. The OCR is PaperPort and that's a nice piece of
software.
LDR
P.S. I have nothing to do with Brother other than a satisfied customer.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leonard Rosenthol <mailto:leonardr@adobe.com>
Designated Free Electron (612) 766-4718 (Minn)
Adobe Systems Incorporated (215) 233-5270 (Philly)
PGP Fingerprint: 8CC9 8878 921E C627 0BC1 15BB FC19 64A9 0016 1397
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