Please help me buy a printer and a scanner.

Question

Hello:
I am in hope that I could please have some opinions regarding purchasing a new printer as well as a scanner. I have done research, however I have read these forums and marvel at the great deal of hardware expertise that emanates from so many posters. I have only owned one printer, an ancient Canon bubble jet that no longer works.
My system: Mac Pro 2 x 3.0 GHz Dual-Core with an Apple Cinema Display; software: Adobe CS3 Design Premium and MS Office 2004; OS: Tiger 10.4.11.
This purchase is not for use in some busy design studio. Everything would be for my sole use in my small Manhattan apartment.
I would like something that prints my Photoshop and Illustrator files very well along with good photo reproduction. I will be doing brochures in InDesign with insertion of Photoshop and Illustrator artwork as well as some PowerPoint slides. I need something that prints text well also. It would be great to have a printer with which I could print my business cards (as well as brochures) utilizing a somewhat heavy weight paper.
I was initially tempted to get one of those all-in-one machines, however, I rarely have to fax or copy anything. It seems to me that if I want to copy something, I could just scan it into my computer and then print it. Regarding faxing, I am assuming that I could also scan and then fax utilizing the fax software that comes with the Mac OS (hopefully the software worksnever tried it). I could get an HP all-in-one on sale for as little as $150.
Another printer that I was considering is the Epson Stylus Photo RX680 (again an all-in-one). Macworld gave it 4.5 mice. I find myself sort of dismayed with its having an LCD display and photo retouching software that I obviously dont need. The cheapest price I have seen for that is around $130 (maybe). I tend to be a little skeptical about these online prices until I actually make the purchase. The scanner has an optical resolution of 1200 with 9600 x 9600 interpolated (not sure as to what interpolated means in this case).
I find myself more drawn to the Epson Stylus 1400. This was recommended to me by Epson pre-sales support, however I dont feel cynical about the suggestion.
As far as Epson goes, what would be more of a fantasy printer for me is the Epson Stylus R1900 (cheapest price I found is around $500). What particularly strikes me about this one is that it can print on paper with a heavy weight. That would be great for my business cards and brochures. While for me it is a little high in price, I am still considering it.
Another possibility that I have looked at is the Canon Pixme Pro 9000. This was an Editors Choice with PC Magazine website. I found a decent price with a rebate. The review says that it would be a good choice for graphic artists.
I find it confusing as far as the difference between a so-called photo printer and an inkjet printer. According to the Epson guy, it does not seem to matter.
For a scanner, the Epson person recommended the Epson Perfection V500 ($169 w/customer loyalty). It has a 6400 x 9600 dpi resolution. While I dont know much, this seems to be good enough for me, both for capability and price. I have read some good reviews of it.
Thank you to all who would care to comment on any printer or scanner options. I find myself almost dizzy by all of the possibilities and I am open to any suggestions and any manufacturer. I am without a printer and I hope to make a purchase with the next few days.
Also, thank you to all who simply bothered to read this very long posting.
James

Answer 1

I want to thank everyone for taking the time to respond to my posting. (Of course, as I write this, I am hoping that you will be back to read this.)
I agree about avoiding the all-in-ones. As I wrote before, that is something that I was initially consideringmainly because of my problem with space. All I have is this old non-functioning bubble jet that came with my first computer (an almost 9 year old but still working, rarely used anymore PC). So, anything that I get will be absolutely glorious.
Regarding printers and with your help, I have now narrowed the possibilities to the Epson Stylus R1900 Photo Printer and the Canon Pixma Pro 9000. Both have eight color tanks and are able to print on paper with a heavier weight. I am still considering the Epson Stylus Photo 1400, but not as much. The more that I think about this, the more I feel that maybe I should do something nice for myself and buy something that I would really enjoy using. I did some looking into low priced lasers such as a Lexmark and a Brother, but I really dont know what to make of them. I do know that the price of toner for color lasers is very high.
My background has been mostly from doing freelance work in various advertising agencies and design studios. Consequently, the printing was really never up to me, so my knowledge of color management, paper types, and printing is limited. I feel that finally getting a good printer would be helpful in my upgrading those skills. Of course, I am without a printer anyway, so I have to buy something. I also want to look into marketing myself. The employment market here in NYC is so saturated that it is ridiculous. I truly wish that I could find somewhere else in the country to go, both for space and peace of mind. But, I digress.
Both Welles and Allen have a strong difference of opinion about the possibility of clogged jets. Im sure that both gentlemen are being honest regarding their experiences so Im a little confused about the possible problem with jets.
One of the things that I like about the Epsons is that they have the capability of printing on CDs. I dont believe the Canon is able to do that. As far as price goes, they seem to be somewhat close (Canon might be about $50 cheaper).
There are a lot of reviews of the Canon 9000 on Amazon and most of the ones that I read (there are 106 reviews!) are glowing, however some complained that even if the product were defective right out of the box, Canon would only send a refurbished replacement. Im not sure as to what to make of that, but it might be something to consider. Also, at least one reviewer did write that Epson is more friendly to Macs regarding color management.
I am even less sure about scanners. Thank you, Lundberg02 for mentioning VueScan. I never heard of it before, but I did find it on the Apple site. However, I really dont understand about avoiding the V500 because of the 6400 x 9600 resolutionI was under the impression that that was fairly good. Also, I dont understand what you wrote about native resolution being 800 spi. Was that supposed to be 8000 dpi (6400 + 9600/2)? My main experiences with scanning are last minute calls to this huge advertising agency where they had me do tons of scanning. I was so busy that I didnt even pay attention to the machine that I was using, but a safe bet is that it was far more expensive than I could afford.
Neil, I have started looking at the Canonscan 9905Fit is comparable in price to the Epson V500at least on Amazon. Yours has a resolution of 4800 x 9600 dpi while the Epson has 6400 x 9600. Does it make much of a difference? Also it was helpful that you mentioned about only having to clean the Epson jets if you havent used the printer after a month. That may be the case with menot constantly using the printer and I wondering about the inks simply drying up. That was definitely the case with the Canon bubble jet that I had.
Again, I guess that I have been too verbose in this posting. But, for me, these purchases are a big decision. Typing is easy for me and words sort of fly.
I respect each and every one of your opinions and I really do thank all of you. Not just for your help regarding the above, but regarding all of your other postings on these Adobe forums. I envy you in that clearly you love what you are doing with your respective careers. Of course more comments are welcome.
Thanks.
James