Great deal on a Brother 2070N printer

I had a HL5250DN in the house for a month, and couldn't get it to work at all. Generally the jobs got lost in the print spool; 98% finished then stuck. Support help from Brother didn't fix the problem. I tried at least 3 different configurations.

Thanks, Karyn

marganne said:

>I was pointed toward this printer by a Mac user group member who said
>Brother tended to keep up with new printer drivers more often than any
>other manufacturer on the market at that time. Does this still hold true?


That has been my experience.

Conversely, I've heard from a lot of HP owners who have been very unhappy
with how poorly HP has supported the Mac.

Canon also seems to do a good job of supporting the Macintosh. All of
their models aren't Macintosh compatible, as Brother's tend to be, but
those models of Canon's that are Mac compatible work well, and Canon does
a fair job of keeping its Mac drivers up to date. (Though it took me
about 15 minutes of navigating the maze of Canon's Web site before I
finally found the page that referred to Intel/Mac drivers.)

(Greetings from a fellow Sacramento resident, by the way!)




Randy B. Singer

Co-Author of:
The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th and 6th editions)

OS X Routine Maintenance
http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html

On Dec 13, 2006, at 3:33 PM, Randy B. Singer wrote:

> Conversely, I've heard from a lot of HP owners who have been very
> unhappy
> with how poorly HP has supported the Mac.

Well, my HP 2527 successfully scanned directly to Entourage and to
Mail messages yesterday. (I had a two-page form to scan, and forgot
on the second page that I had scanned to Entourage on the first.)

In past trials, it has done well scanning small documents by OCR into
TextEdit, and printing.

Perhaps being connected over the LAN helps.

   --John

marganne <margannemacnexus.org> wrote:

> I was pointed toward this printer by a Mac user group member who said
> Brother tended to keep up with new printer drivers more often than any
> other manufacturer on the market at that time. Does this still hold
> true?

Eventually, I got with a Brother 2070, which was available from...
Amazon France ;-)

As for the drivers, they are NOT "Mac" drivers, stricto sensu, in fact
they are CUPS drivers -- not bad though!

One can fine set the parameters via a web interface
(http://brn-878ca9.local./user/prnset.html)

The printer emulates 3 current laser printers (HP Laserjet, EPSON FX-80,
IBM Proprinter XL); it is possible to let the printer choose
automatically one (default)

One can also choose a resident font to be employed (not yet tried,
though); otherwise the printer chooses for you ;-)

Regarding the Brother 2060N: I purchased one last month because MacAddict listed it as a great deal. Unfortunately, I had to return it. It wasn't postscript-capable (I ignorantly assumed it was). As a graphic designer, that was a necessity. After talking with HP directly, they told me they don't make any postscript-capable printers. Though from reading all the posts here regarding the greatness of the 2070n, it seems I am in the minority. The main thing I noticed is that I could not print separations with the 2070n, and that is definitely something I require. But it did a nice job printing otherwise and if you don't need postscript-capable, it was a good deal. Now if anyone has any suggestions for a reasonably-priced b&w postscript-capable laser printer, I'm all ears!

DVallens said:

>Regarding the Brother 2060N: I purchased one last month because MacAddict
>listed it as a great deal. Unfortunately, I had to return it. It wasn't
>postscript-capable (I ignorantly assumed it was). As a graphic designer,
>that was a necessity. After talking with HP directly, they told me they
>don't make any postscript-capable printers.

Maybe you didn't understand what they told you. Both HP and Brother do
indeed make Postscript-"compatible" printers. These printers use a
Postscript clone. Postscript clones at one time were not very good.
Nowadays they are good enough that very few manufacturers offer true
Adobe Postscript.

For example see:

HP LaserJet 1320n Printer with "Postscript Level 2 emulation"
<http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/product_detail.do?product_code=
Q5928A%23ABA&tab=detailed_specs&storeName=storefronts&landing=printers&cate
gory=laserjets&subcat1=&catLevel=1#defaultAnchor>

Brother HL5240 with "BR-Script3"
http://www.brother-usa.com/printer/ModelDetail.aspx?ProductID=HL5240

The Brother 2070 is a very low-end personal printer that is really only
meant for light-duty (e.g. home) use. It isn't make for professional use
and it does not include Postscript emulation. However, every Brother
laser printer other than the 2070 and the 2040 *does* include Postscript
emulation.
http://www.brother-usa.com/printer/ataglance.aspx?type=BWL

>Though from reading all the
>posts here regarding the greatness of the 2070n, it seems I am in the
>minority.

Many users don't require Postscript these days. TrueType fonts work
perfectly for most home users, and many modern graphic and page layout
programs can print nicely to a non-postscript printer.

>The main thing I noticed is that I could not print separations
>with the 2070n, and that is definitely something I require. But it did a
>nice job printing otherwise and if you don't need postscript-capable, it
>was a good deal. Now if anyone has any suggestions for a reasonably-priced
>b&w postscript-capable laser printer, I'm all ears!

A slightly more expensive Brother printer with BR-Script can be found for
a great price. The 5250DN is a favorite among business users.
http://www.brother-usa.com/printer/ModelDetail.aspx?ProductID=HL5250DN
Here is it for $210:
<http://www.neutronexpress.com/prod.cfm/367833/BROTHER/HL5250DN/30PPM_NETWO
RK_READY_PRINTER>

However, you make your living as a "graphic designer." As that is the
case, you may only be really happy with a printer that has genuine Adobe
Postscript. Very few manufacturers offer this anymore, and even fewer
offer it in a reasonably priced printer. I think that Xerox:
http://www.office.xerox.com/laser-printers/phaser-3500/spec-enus.html
and GCC:
http://gccprinters.com/printers/e26.php
are it.

I would drop by a Staples or Office Depot and try a typical print job or
two on one of the Brother laser printers that they have on demo and see
if a Brother with BR-Script3 will meet your needs.



Randy B. Singer

Co-Author of:
The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th and 6th editions)

OS X Routine Maintenance
http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html

Randy B. Singer wrote:
> DVallens said:
>
> Regarding the Brother 2060N: I purchased one last month because MacAddict.....
>
>
> Maybe you didn't understand what they told you. Both HP and Brother do
> indeed make Postscript-"compatible" printers. These printers use a
> Postscript clone. Postscript clones at one time were not very good.
> Nowadays they are good enough that very few manufacturers offer true
> Adobe Postscript....
> However, you make your living as a "graphic designer." As that is the
> case, you may only be really happy with a printer that has genuine Adobe
> Postscript. Very few manufacturers offer this anymore, and even fewer
> offer it in a reasonably priced printer. I think that Xerox:
> http://www.office.xerox.com/laser-printers/phaser-3500/spec-enus.html
> and GCC: http://gccprinters.com/printers/e26.php are it.
>
> I would drop by a Staples or Office Depot and try a typical print job or
> two on one of the Brother laser printers that they have on demo and see
> if a Brother with BR-Script3 will meet your needs.
>
I got a Xerox Phaser 8500 for $1,000 or so, there was a rebate.

It prints well on any old paper 1) because the wax ink is glossy and
bright.

2) To my eyes it first coats the paper with an oil containing TiO2 like
whitener. A nice white that lifts the value of 2 cent a sheet paper to
10 cents or more for a cost of 1.4 cents; however it actually works.

The average Xerox dealer appears to be completely in the dark about
this. I'd find a good Xerox tech sales rep to business and see what he
knows or can find out about both points: Genuine PS & quality printing
on many kinds of paper.

George


> Randy B. Singer
>
> Co-Author of:
> The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th and 6th editions)
>
> OS X Routine Maintenance
> http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html
>

On Feb 1, 2007, at 6:02 PM, Randy B. Singer wrote:


>
> However, you make your living as a "graphic designer." As that is the
> case, you may only be really happy with a printer that has genuine
> Adobe
> Postscript. Very few manufacturers offer this anymore, and even fewer
> offer it in a reasonably priced printer. I think that Xerox:
> http://www.office.xerox.com/laser-printers/phaser-3500/spec-enus.html
> and GCC:
> http://gccprinters.com/printers/e26.php
> are it.

When our beloved Laserwriter with True PostScript gave up the ghost
about 3-4 years ago, we agonized whether to spend significantly more
on a Xerox with True PostScript. Since I'm not working with either
very tiny or very enormous fonts (like for outdoor ads) on a regular
basis, we went for a HP with emulation, and it's worked out fine. If
I do need to do something with humongous fonts, we'll need to send it
out for proofing in a large format RIP anyway.

So I agree with Randy, for everyday and regular business use,
emulation is fine in a black & white printer. So far we haven't
regretted the decision.

Marilyn

Good morning all:

I'd like to put in a brief plug for GCC printers.

I've been running an GCC Elite XL 608 since January 1999. It is a b&w, 600 dpi Postscript printer. When I upgraded to System X in 2003, I was able to purchase an upgrade board and install it myself. I'm currently running Tiger and have had no problems with the printer. If the printer died tomorrow, I've more than got my money's worth out of it. I work in the model railroad field and do some graphics work and the printer has performed just fine.

I'm always preaching the gospel (especially to our local Mac users group) about the printer and feel like I'm talking into a black hole. Most people don't seem to know about them. Maybe it's because they do seem to keep a low profile and you do have to buy direct.

The only negative that I can think of is that the toner cartridges are expensive (over $200), but you get a lot of mileage out of one.

As an aside, I purchased the original GCC laser printer (the PLP) in 1986 (for over $3,000!) and kept it until I got my current model. I gave it to someone else and as of about six months ago, it was still chugging along (And you can still get toner cartridges for it).

 I have no relation with GCC other than as a satisfied customer.

Sometimes I get this nagging feeling that I'm supposed to be buying a new printer and keep the mainstream marketing people happy and settle for poor output on an HP or whatever. I work at a part-time job in the local county and have one of the latest HP printers. I've compared output of the same document on it and my GCC and it's night and day.

Anyway, when it's time for me to buy a new printer, I'll go to the GCC website and order one of the two they have available. Even though I'm not rich, price will not be a consideration. Features and output will be more important.

 
On Friday, February 02, 2007, at 07:28PM, "Marilyn Matty" <mmattynyc.rr.com> wrote:

>> and GCC:
>> http://gccprinters.com/printers/e26.php

At 7:54 PM +0200 2/3/07, Frank A. Pearsall wrote:

> Good morning all:
>
> I'd like to put in a brief plug for GCC printers.
>
> I've been running an GCC Elite XL 608 since January 1999. It is a
> b&w, 600 dpi Postscript printer. When I upgraded to System X in
> 2003, I was able to purchase an upgrade board and install it myself.
> I'm currently running Tiger and have had no problems with the
> printer. If the printer died tomorrow, I've more than got my money's
> worth out of it. I work in the model railroad field and do some
> graphics work and the printer has performed just fine.

Does GCC Printers still exist? The web page <http://gccprinters.com>
has a register.com banner across the top offering the domain name for
sale.

--
Stephen Kawalko
s.kawalkoieee.org

[The whois record lists:

      Created on..............: Mon, Jan 31, 2000
      Expires on..............: Sat, Jan 31, 2009
      Record last updated on..: Fri, Feb 02, 2007

DNS returns different results from the registrar's servers versus my own. -Andrew ]

Frank A. Pearsall said:

>I'd like to put in a brief plug for GCC printers.
>
>I've been running an GCC Elite XL 608 since January 1999. It is a b&w, 600
>dpi Postscript printer. When I upgraded to System X in 2003, I was able to
>purchase an upgrade board and install it myself.

I'd like to note that the black and white laser printer market has
changed quite a bit in the last few years. The price of an excellent
business-class laser printer has come down to a price point (there's that
term) where I never expected to see it. Well under $250.

And also in that time Brother laser printers have gone from being a joke,
to being the premier laser printer for the Macintosh.

>I'm always preaching the gospel (especially to our local Mac users group)
>about the printer and feel like I'm talking into a black hole. Most people
>don't seem to know about them. Maybe it's because they do seem to keep a
>low profile and you do have to buy direct.

They were quite a bit more popular during the Mac's infancy, when it was
difficult to find many different brands of laser printer that were
compatible with the Macintosh. My impression is that GCC is now on the
wane. In fact, I must have pre-cognition, because I just went to visit
their Web site and I found that their domain name is up for sale:
http://gccprinters.com/

GCC has been around for a long time. When looking at their printers one
usually gets a sense of deja vu, because they look just like other
printers from other manufacturers from a number of years ago. In fact,
the resemblace is too good. My guess is that what GCC does is purchase
the tooling for other manufacturers' discontinued laser printers and
install a Postscript board in them to make them Macintosh compatible.

What this means is that their printers are usually large, reliable, but
somewhat anacronistic. Just like the laser printers we remember from ten
or fifteen years ago.

>The only negative that I can think of is that the toner cartridges are
>expensive (over $200), but you get a lot of mileage out of one.

GCC printers have always been overpriced compared to other printers that
were current. And their consumables even more so.

>Sometimes I get this nagging feeling that I'm supposed to be buying a new
>printer and keep the mainstream marketing people happy and settle for poor
>output on an HP or whatever. I work at a part-time job in the local county
>and have one of the latest HP printers. I've compared output of the same
>document on it and my GCC and it's night and day.

Which HP printer? What sort of document? If you were comparing apples
to apples (no pun intended) then the HP should be superior to the GCC in
every way, save possibly for some types of Postscript printing. If you
were comparing one of the recent very low-end HP laser printers meant for
home use to your GCC, then the GCC might come out on top. But a modern
business-class HP laser printer should have much higher resolution than a
GCC printer, and assuming that you were printing from an application with
Postscript output and your print sample could be handled adequately by
the HP's Postscript-clone, its output should be beautiful.

Note that for just a touch more ($210) than the $200 price of a new toner
cartridge of your GCC, you could purchase an excellent Brother laser
printer that has higher resolution, faster printing, a smaller footprint,
duplexing, ethernet, etc.:
<http://www.neutronexpress.com/prod.cfm/367833/BROTHER/HL5250DN/30PPM_NETWO
RK_READY_PRINTER>

Which is all not to say that you shouldn't love your GCC printer.
(Several old laser printers are very loveable, especially old Apple
LaserWriters and older HP's) But it is to say that a new GCC printer may
not be the best possible recommendation to others.


Randy B. Singer

Co-Author of:
The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th and 6th editions)

OS X Routine Maintenance
http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html

>At 7:54 PM +0200 2/3/07, Frank A. Pearsall wrote:
>
>Does GCC Printers still exist? The web page <http://gccprinters.com>
>has a register.com banner across the top offering the domain name
>for sale.

And Google's cache of <http://www.gccprinters.co.uk/> says

"This web site has been removed due to an unpaid invoice."

(though it's back online now.)

~ Kiran <entropyio.com>
--

<http://www.io.com/contradance/> 857-928-9700 (mobile)

Dear Randy:

Thanks for your comments. It looks like I need to do some homework and look for a new printer.

I too went to the GCC site after reading your message. Sad. I have noticed over the last few years that their offerings got smaller and smaller. They were doing a color printer a few years back and then it disappeared from the web site. Should have known...

So, I'll run my GCC until it dies and then look for something else. I certainly will look at Brother printers.

So, on this Sunday morning, I'll sit around and feel sorry for myself for a few minutes and lament GCC's demise. I'll get over it. To satisfy my morbid curiouslty, does anyone know what happened to GCC? I don't recall seeing anything on the web or in the magazines.

[It seems reports of GCC's demise were greatly exaggerated... -Andrew]

I guess I should be careful about what I come on here and recommend. My favorite magazines were the original MacUser, then I really liked MacHome... Now I get MacDirectory and I really like it. I probably shouldn't say anything.

Frank A. Pearsall
Brevard, N.C.
Narrow Trak 07 (October 12, 13)
 
On Saturday, February 03, 2007, at 11:49PM, "Randy B. Singer" <randymacattorney.com> wrote:
>Frank A. Pearsall said:
>
>>I'd like to put in a brief plug for GCC printers.

>wane. In fact, I must have pre-cognition, because I just went to visit
>their Web site and I found that their domain name is up for sale:
>http://gccprinters.com/
>
>Note that for just a touch more ($210) than the $200 price of a new toner
>cartridge of your GCC, you could purchase an excellent Brother laser
>printer that has higher resolution, faster printing, a smaller footprint,
>duplexing, ethernet, etc.:
><http://www.neutronexpress.com/prod.cfm/367833/BROTHER/HL5250DN/30PPM_NETWO
>Randy B. Singer

My guess is that what GCC does is purchase the tooling for other manufacturers' discontinued laser printers and install a Postscript board in them to make them Macintosh compatible.

With respect, your guess is wrong. GCC sources OEM engines from engine manufacturers (various ones over the years: Sharp, Canon, Fuji Xerox, and others) and designs and builds control electronics and software for them. To characterize what they do as buying discontinued printers and slapping boards in them, though, undersells the hard work of a lot of smart people.

My impression is that GCC is now on the wane. In fact, I must have pre-cognition, because I just went to visit their Web site and I found that their domain name is up for sale: http://gccprinters.com/

There was an administrative snafu with their domain renewal; it's not "up for sale". That snafu is being resolved (and may involve a registrar change, but that's pure speculation on my part :-) and I suspect it'll be back on the air shortly.

Rich Siegel (ex-GCC)

With apologies to Rich, it seems that his quote indicator was eaten
by WebCrossing. I'll re-quote it...

>>My guess is that what GCC does is purchase the tooling for other
>>manufacturers' discontinued laser printers and install a Postscript
>>board in them to make them Macintosh compatible.
>
>With respect, your guess is wrong. GCC sources OEM engines from
>engine manufacturers (various ones over the years: Sharp, Canon,
>Fuji Xerox, and others) and designs and builds control electronics
>and software for them. To characterize what they do as buying
>discontinued printers and slapping boards in them, though,
>undersells the hard work of a lot of smart people.
>
>>My impression is that GCC is now on the wane. In fact, I must have
>>pre-cognition, because I just went to visit their Web site and I
>>found that their domain name is up for sale:
>><http://gccprinters.com/>
>
>There was an administrative snafu with their domain renewal; it's
>not "up for sale". That snafu is being resolved (and may involve a
>registrar change, but that's pure speculation on my part :-) and I
>suspect it'll be back on the air shortly.
>
>Rich Siegel (ex-GCC)


--
Andrew Laurence
atlaurenuci.edu

On Feb 3, 2007, at 11:42 PM, Randy B. Singer wrote:


>
> Note that for just a touch more ($210) than the $200 price of a new
> toner
> cartridge of your GCC, you could purchase an excellent Brother laser
> printer that has higher resolution, faster printing, a smaller
> footprint,
> duplexing, ethernet, etc.:
> <http://www.neutronexpress.com/prod.cfm/367833/BROTHER/HL5250DN/
> 30PPM_NETWO
> RK_READY_PRINTER>
>
> Which is all not to say that you shouldn't love your GCC printer.
> (Several old laser printers are very loveable, especially old Apple
> LaserWriters and older HP's) But it is to say that a new GCC
> printer may
> not be the best possible recommendation to others.
>

To add to this excellent advice - when we sadly and reluctantly gave
up our Laserwriter for a HP with PS emulation, we did notice a big
productivity boost in speed, and not just in printing out complicated
Quark files with lots of graphics, which got cut down by at least 2/3
the time, and though we had maxed out memory in, we were finding it
impossible to print some things more frequently. Run of the mill MS
Word correspondence and Excel files get spit out in the blink of an eye.

And trust me, I've worked in publishing and advertising for longer
than I care to admit, and I can tell good type from bad, and at sizes
other than very teensey weensie and humongous, the emulation works fine.

If you're looking for high quality type rendering, or printing out a
lot of documents, I'd spend more than $200; however, you don't need
to go to the very high range.

BTW, we donated the old Lasarwriter to a graphics program at a high
school, who was thrilled to have it and couldn't thank us enough. So
we know it has a good home.

Marilyn

At 02:02 02/03/07 +0200, George Wade wrote:
>I got a Xerox Phaser 8500 for $1,000 or so, there was a rebate.
>
>It prints well on any old paper 1) because the wax ink is glossy and
>bright.

I almost bought a Xerox Phaser 8550 last year -- with the $500 rebate, it
was seriously tempting.

Several factors eventually led me to turn down the deal.

First, when idling the beast uses a tremendous amount of power. It's
something like 180W or 230W -- high enough that the exact number was
unimportant because I knew I would not be willing to leave it on when not
in use. Xerox does not make this information easily available -- the data
sheets you can download, which almost always have such information,
conspicuously lack it. When I called Xerox tech support, it even took them
quite a while to track it down. The guy even mentioned the heating effect
of having a number of them in one room there.

On the positive side, I was very well impressed with Xerox tech support.
They answered the phone quickly and were unhurried about sharing their
knowledge with a non-customer (albeit prospective customer). They were good
enough that I will definitely include Xerox in my short list for my next
printer. To be fair, I've also been very well impressed with HP tech
support for my LaserJet 1320n.

If you turn off the printer, it wastes some ink on startup. If you leave it
on, it wastes energy. If you leave it on without using it for days or
weeks, the hot ink eventually deteriorates. All this means it's a better
choice for someone who prints quite a bit every day -- so that either the
ink wastage or the energy wastage is a small part of total use -- than for
someone who might print a few pages every day and a run of a couple of
hundred cards every couple of months.

One Xerox tech also noted that although the 8550's output is impressive,
its color reproduction isn't as good as the best laser printers. (Xerox's
lasers of course. Possibly he saw that I wasn't going to buy an 8550 and
figured he'd get me interested in a different Xerox printer. But he was
definitely a tech and not a sales person.) Since my interest in a color
printer, outside of the occasional photo, is for reproducing my wife's art
work, color fidelity is important to me.

All in all, the printer still sounds nearly as exciting as when Bob
Williams first mentioned it here several years ago -- and it's now 1/3 the
price it was then. But it isn't for everyone. I wish they could solve that
ink waste issue; I would have bought one.

Edward
--
Art works by Melynda Reid: http://paleo.org

 Mr. Singer:

Perhaps you could tell what specific discontinued model the GCC XL 608 is so that I can purchase cheaper toner cartridges. Further, at the present time (on their web site), they are selling only two models. What discontinued models are these? I don't want to buy something that's going to be obsolete when I get it.

Frank A. Pearsall
Brevard, N.C.

On Feb 7, 2007, at 10:52 AM, Frank A. Pearsall wrote:

> Perhaps you could tell what specific discontinued model the GCC XL
> 608 is so that I can purchase cheaper toner cartridges. Further,
> at the present time (on their web site), they are selling only two
> models. What discontinued models are these? I don't want to buy
> something that's going to be obsolete when I get it.

As Rich told us, GCC uses common laser print engines that they
purchase from the manufacturer. So, find out which engine your GCC
model uses, and then look for that model of print engine in other
manufacturer's laser printers. Chances are excellent that the toner
cartridges will be identical between the two. I'm afraid that you
will have to do the legwork yourself.

However, I'm sure that the cheapest place to purchase a toner
cartridge would be from a third-party cartridge manufacturer or
cartridge outlet store. All that you would have to tell them is
which model of GCC printer you have, *or* which print engine it
uses. Check out:
http://store.yahoo.com/megatoners/hl1212higyie.html
http://megatoners.stores.yahoo.net/gcc.html

___________________________________________
Randy B. Singer
Co-author of The Macintosh Bible (3rd, 4th, and 5th editions)

Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html
___________________________________________