I almost bit the bullet with the Xerox yesterday, but I can't figure out if scanning with OSX actually works or not.

Does it? Anyone know?

Cheers

Cris

Well, I have the 6505DN, and -while I don't know what the 6605DN adds to its feature list- I must say I'm very happy for what it offers me. I really couldn't wish for anything more. And I paid less than 400 € for it (can't really remember the exact amount, but it surely wasn't more than that) Again, I'm no professional user so my printing needs are probably not that high, but even so I'm pretty sure this AIO would fare very well in small businesses too. (at a very affordable price I think).


Well, I made the same mistake you did. For years now, I've never bothered to look at included CD's, since I always download the most recent drivers and software from the internet. It had me puzzled as well when I couldn't find any scan software online. I had already given up (and even already started a complaint email to Xerox) but then it hit me - I don't know why : what if it was included with the provided CD's? And behold: there it was. Just in time to discard that email.
I fully agree Xerox should make it downloadable also. If they want to protect the software, they can always make it downloadable only when you register your device with them.

I have no personal experience with it, sorry.
But I have read that scanning on Mac used to cause problems.
Then again, the support website shows new Mac scanning drivers since the 3rd April 2014. So I would guess it works fine now?

I think it only works over USB, but it doesn't say what scanning software it supports etc...

Not very good that it will scan over ethernet to a PC but not OSX!

Cheers

Cris

Same issue with the Samsung we have too. I used some active USB extender dongles (over cat5 cabling) to get a scanner connection from it to the machine most often used for scanning.

The Samsung can also scan directly to a USB stick using the onboard UI -- maybe the Xerox also?

Years ago, at work, I decided to have non-original refilled toner cartridges used on our HP5000 high volume printers. For nearly two years, that has been the purchase policy, and overall we did have cases where the toner seals failed and toner did go all over the place in the printer itself. While this is a quite limited statistic, the refilled cartridges did prove significantly less reliable than original ones in our case.

On the other hand, all that it caused is a tech support call to have the printer cleaned internally, and it resumed its daily job without issues. So, the economics did work out nonetheless.

Now, take this for what it is.

For one, this happened on computer labs with 25+ machines each, on high volume printers. Not sure how well this relates to a home printer.

Different companies may work differently and possibly the one we used (for almost two years) was not that good. Others may sell u better quality refilled cartridges (unless you refill yourself).

Also, this implies nothing in terms of the average life of a cartridge drum versus the toner powder in it.

Finally, the economics is quite different. High volume printers are quite more expensive themselves.

So,it all boils down to: in my experience, refilled toner seals did fail occasionally.


At home, I am using a HP OfficeJet Pro 8600. I hated, and stayed away from, inkjets since the 90s, so this was quite a change. So far, so good. Photo printing quality is awful, other types of printing is good enough.

I've bitten the bullet on the Xerox!

I hope it's worth the extra money

Cheers

Cris

It has arrived in the biggest freaking box I have ever seen !!!

IT'S MASSIVE !!!

Also seems to be working over USB just fine, next to tackle network printing.

Cheers

Cris

Yeah, looked large! But the in-store appearance and build quality makes a very good impression. Hope it all works out well for you there!

So, how did it work out for you Cris? Are you happy with your purchase? Also, did you get it working for OSX? I'm asking because I want to switch to Mac as well in the very near future and I'd like to know beforehand if I can expect problems or not.

It did work out thanks. It is a little annoying that the scanner only works over USB, but it does work very very well so that kind of makes up for it.

Another little annoyance is you have to download the print driver pack from the Xerox website before the printer will install. Other manufacturers seem to be able to deliver their drivers along with OSX or at least offer an option to automatically download, but not with the Xerox. A minor issue really.

Print quality is top drawer, certainly the best laser printer I've used. It wakes from sleep amazingly quickly and start printing in seconds. It also doesn't make much noise, basically only while printing.

It is a big printer, so allow for that if you are looking at one. Works fine with OSX, Xerox could do more work in this area to make how it works clearer.

Cheers

Cris

I missed which model you ended up with, but that surprises me. I would have thought it would have network scanning...

I've got a 6505, on the Mac the scan driver only support a USB connection. That is the only real negative I can find with the machine. I think it works over the network with a Windows PC, and I think I can set scan to email if I want (but I haven't yet).

Cheers

Cris

Same (lousy) scan setup with the Samsungs, too. But a $15 active USB extension cable set (over cat5) helps with that here.

Cheers

I can confirm that it does work with Windows, I'm using it that way. It seems rather silly that Xerox decided to deny the Mac customer this. Anyway, happy to read it worked out for you!

Mmm.. just looked around, and found a "scan to pc" project for Linux. Installed the software (mostly python stuff), and.. it works! Got Linux network scanning for the Samsung now. And since it's mainly Python on top of "sane", it ought to be workable on OS/X as well. This by itself isn't useful to Cris, but..

There might be something similar out there for the Xerox, as I think the protocol is similar (?).