Quote:
Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay
For basic printing, yes, but I think scanning functions typically need drivers from the manufacturer, no? I know most printers have a scan now button but configuring settings is usually much easier in a software package.
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Oh, I see what you mean.
The printer would come with a disc or whatever to install a software package. Just install all features on that disc. That part of the install should be straight forward assuming you know how to install a basic program. If asking a computer illiterate to install, it would be tough no matter what. It makes more sense to get someone else to install and set up and update (just basically need to update it once the first time it's installed if needed) for your parents if necessary.
Modern printers have software that comes with it that has options to update the firmware of the printer. This is the only feature that I use that's from the manufacturer for the printer/printing. It's dead easy and far better than having to look up a model and select the latest drivers.
The printer may have software that allows you to play with the print and scan settings (mainly quality) and/or default save location of the scanned images. In all honesty, if you don't know how to use it, just leave it on default/high quality. Hard drive storage is cheap. You're better off just upgrading their drive for them rather than try and skimp on quality. My experiences with Canon also is that the scans are very good quality and the compression is also quite good. This meant that I could have exceptionally high quality scans that were less than 3MB vs 13MB or more for similar quality scans on certain older Brother scanner models. I've never scanned with a Lexmark before, printing only. Though as an imaging company I'd assume it should be within reasonable range to the Canons for quality and compression. The only scanning hardware I've found that was on par quality and compression wise was Fujitsu. The feeder on the scanners weren't very good and pages might go through multiple at a time if you tried to scan more than 10 pages simultaneously (which I assume is unlikely for your parents). Fujitsu and Brother had significantly better feeders that you can easily stack and not worry about pages sticking.
If I remember correctly (or at least the units I used), both Lexmark and Canon have relatively barebones but intuitive software. Computer interface software was basically only as complex as one would find on a photocopier. It's basically set and forget.
It's not like other companies like HP, Brother etc. that in my experience had all sorts of optional bloatware like file management software (crappier windows explorer), weird photo or picture editing software that looks like a forgotten image manipulation program from 2005, registration and data sharing requests, genuine supplies "ads" (seriously, aftermarket on Amazon is more than adequate for the average person) etc. These programs were unnecessary and you could easily ignore.
