RV Printing and Scanning April 02, 2019, 12:09:04 pm Meandthedogs mentioned picking up a printer/scanner for her motorhome office which got me to thinking on the subject myself. I would want a printer and occasionally a scanner that would store easily, be able to go weeks without use and still have functioning ink/toner, connect over wifi. It would be stored in the LD, as I don't want to forget it when packing. Inkjet or laser? It occurs to me that there are very small stand-alone scanners that might make a smaller total package than an all-in-one printer.I used to work for an agency that provided field investigators HP350 printers that worked very well, but it is no longer produced/supporter.From what platform would it be used: Windows, Apple IOS, Linux?Size & weight is a consideration. My HP LJ MFP281 color laser all-in-one weighs almost as much as an AGM battery and is out.I wasn't to happy with my JP Envy flatbed all-in-one - I didn't print that much and the very expensive ink cartridges kept drying out. What are people using, consider using, considered and rejected and why? 2 Likes
Re: RV Printing and Scanning Reply #1 – April 02, 2019, 01:16:39 pm I'll be doing more research but the Fujitsu snapscan is a small standalone scanner that is good for very fast, high quality scans. If you don't need much scanning done, there are apps available that let you take photos with your phone and then convert them to PDFs. I use the tiny scanner pro app if I need a doc scanned on the go. But for larger docs it is not great.Lisa
Re: RV Printing and Scanning Reply #2 – April 02, 2019, 01:59:48 pm Joel, what do you mean by "weeks without use?" Two weeks? Ten weeks? All inkjet printers will dry out over time, laser printers don't. If you do not want to be bothered about a printer not working anymore because it has for too long not been used you should buy a laser printer.Black & white only laser printers can be very compact - one of the most compact is probably the HP LaserJet Pro M15w which costs just $79 at Amazon. Compatible (like almost all printers) for sure with Windows and macOS (and probably also with Linux). Since this is a laser printer it works with dry powder that cannot dry out. I would expect such a printer to work without problems even after months of no use.When it comes to scanning you will have to dish out more money if you want to have a real and compact scanner - for example the Brother ADS1500W which costs around $280. However, scanning apps on smart phones, at least on the iPhone, have become better and better over the last couple of years. In my opinion these apps can deliver really good results for most purposes. With iOS 12 you don't even need a separate scanning app since Notes has this function now built in.If you are willing to do once in a while some "maintenance printouts" to keep the ink alive you can also go with a (relatively) small all-in-one inkjet printer. They start at less than $50 and get smaller the more you are willing to pay. I myself have for now an older and kind of compact all-in-one (HP J4680) that runs well with cheap generic ink. However, I don't think this will work forever (mainly for space reasons). Depending on my actual printing needs then I will either buy a small laser printer - or use UPS or other stores when I need to print or scan something.Klaus
Re: RV Printing and Scanning Reply #3 – April 02, 2019, 02:05:27 pm Quote from: meandthedogs - April 02, 2019, 01:16:39 pmI'll be doing more research but the Fujitsu snapscan is a small standalone scanner that is good for very fast, high quality scans. The Fujitsu ScanSnap scanners are very good (I have such one in my office) and can scan double-sided documents in one go. They have two disadvantages: they are very expensive and they can only be used for loose documents and not i. e. for pages from books or magazines.
Re: RV Printing and Scanning Reply #4 – April 02, 2019, 04:42:58 pm The Canon Pixma IP series printers (e.g., Pixma ip110, which I own) are very compact and produce good quality printouts. I connect to my ip110 via Wi-Fi, which is convenient. As for scanning, Canon used to make a very slim flatbed scanner--maybe still do. I used to carry one, but in recent years I do what Klaus suggested: I use my iPhone and the Scanner Pro app.It works very well for occasional scanning. It boosts contrast, straightens crooked images, and makes "scanning" a document with the iPhone very fast and easy. If you put the phone on a tripod aimed downward, you can slide one document after another under it and Scanner Pro will snap and process the images automatically as fast as you can swap pages. 4 Likes
Re: RV Printing and Scanning Reply #5 – April 03, 2019, 10:11:10 am Same here, I have the ScanSnap (which I like) but this app is all I've been using lately.‎Scanner Pro on the App StoreFor $4, give this a try before spending $200-300 on hardware that will consume space in the RV.Can anybody recommend a laser printer around the size of the ScanSnap?Steve
Re: RV Printing and Scanning Reply #6 – April 03, 2019, 10:28:50 am For old photos I use PhotoScan -- see example below. A picture of me 70 or so years ago with my mother.For PDF scanning I use ScanbotSince I not longer 'work' for a living If I need to print something on the 'road' I 'scan' it to the 'cloud' then print it when I get home.glen
Re: RV Printing and Scanning Reply #7 – April 03, 2019, 11:40:42 am We have been using a cheap Epson XP-410, in the LD, for many several years. It prints, scans and copies and didn't cost much more than a new set of ink cartridges. No need to risk destroying a nice scanner/printer, bouncing it down the road. IMOWe don't need a high-end printer in the LD, most of what we print are instructions and information sheets.Photos get usually get printed at Costco or WalmartLarry
Re: RV Printing and Scanning Reply #8 – April 03, 2019, 01:53:03 pm We've been very happy with a Canon iP110 inkjet printer and a Canon P-215 document scanner. Both are very compact and easy to store in an RV. I've been amazed at how long the printer can sit unused and then work without any clogs (sometimes months). The downside is that the cartridges are pretty small and the relative cost of ink is fairly high. Not an issue with the limited amount of printing we do now. The document scanner is a small page feed unit, that isn't as versatile as a flatbed scanner but works for most documents, including things like credit card charge receipts. For other stuff we use our cell phone cameras.Art 1 Likes
Re: RV Printing and Scanning Reply #9 – April 03, 2019, 03:22:46 pm I'd read good things about the Pixma series, but the downside was the cartridges.For my job I think I'd really prefer a laser printer if i can find one small enough. When I do have to print docs, they are usually copious (the legal profession must be one of the absolute worst for trees), and it sucks big time to run out of ink in the middle of printing.When I have some time, I'll research further.Lisa
Re: RV Printing and Scanning Reply #10 – April 03, 2019, 03:46:16 pm Quote from: meandthedogs - April 03, 2019, 03:22:46 pmI'd read good things about the Pixma series, but the downside was the cartridges.For my job I think I'd really prefer a laser printer if i can find one small enough. When I do have to print docs, they are usually copious (the legal profession must be one of the absolute worst for trees), and it sucks big time to run out of ink in the middle of printing.When I have some time, I'll research further.LisaWe switched from inkjet to the Samsung Xpress M2020W black laser printer. I believe it is as small as the other one someone mentioned here. When we bought it the price was $59 but it has gone up. Amazon.com: Samsung Xpress M2020W Wireless Monochrome Laser Printer with...I like the fact that the toner never seems to go bad. Just bought our first replacement toner and where Samsung wants $50 plus dollars I got an aftermarket model on Amazon for $13 which appears to work just as well.We use a small Scansnap for scanning and an app on my phone for scanning which has worked for us.Jim 1 Likes As an Amazon Associate Lazy Daze Owners' Group earns from qualifying purchases.
Re: RV Printing and Scanning Reply #11 – April 04, 2019, 01:53:56 am I looked heavily at this a couple of years ago and looked at mobile printer/scanners.We actually determined we didn't need a printer or scanner, we could do everything on the computer. For example: If someone needs you to print, sign, send back a document, all that can be done on the computer (turn document into a picture, add your signature, turn back into a pdf). On an apple computer this is very quick and easy using standard software - I have not tried it on a windows device so it might take more effort/special software. I also expect that tablets might not have the software that apple does on their computers, but again I have not tried this.We rarely need to print something for someone, we typically can just email/fax/put it on dropbox etc. - to get it to the person.Scanning - there is so much built in software for this - free apps and regular programs like dropbox that offer this feature - the software turns it into a pdf document. So we don't need a scanner, we just use our phones/tablet.We have lived without a printer scanner for well over a year now and I have not missed it. The only thing I have had to print is amazon return labels which can be done very cheaply where you ship them.
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