What multifunction printer do you use?

[Jorgebon]

I need to buy a new multifunction printer because my old HP 7210 is not working right any more. I tried a Lexmark professional X7675 but the scanning was awful. It was real slow to scan and it would not scan in color from Open Dental, only in B&W and the image was terrible (faint). The only workaround was to use the software that came with the printer to scan to a file that you then import into OD. What are you guys using? Does it work in OD and produce acceptable scans?
Jorge Bonilla, DMD

[Rickliftig]

Jorge -

I have two in the office - the fron desk is using a Brother MFC-7550 which has been very reliable. It's mainly used for printing, copying and faxing. Most of my scanning has been done with a Fujitsu Scansnap which is not TWAIN compliant, but will scan straight to PDF or jpg. I would love to have it scan straight into OD to save a step. I have to then import the scan intro OD. For radiographs, I take a photo on the viewbox with the now aging Canon G3 and import that. Low tech and it works.

At home, I have a Canon MF 4150 multi-function which has worked well, but the paperpath has had problems both in picking up paper and occasional jams.

I would buy the Brother again. It has a good interface, has been reliable and is not exceedingly expensive to use.

[Rickliftig]

Reply to my repl.

As a scanner, the Scansnap S510 is incredible, It is compact though, and not a flatbed. It chokes on very thick documents/paper which is rarely a problem. But I love this thing - high speed and very reliable. Any documents that come in are scanned into the chart and the original is shoved away in an ever expanding manila folder (why???? <G>)

[Jorgebon]

Have you tried to scan from Open Dental with the Brother MFC7550?
Jorge Bonilla, DMD

[Rickliftig]

No - I'll have to try o\it. I believe it has a TWAIN interface and so it should work. I'll try it this coming week.

[SmilingPatient]

We have to brother mcf 9840cdw. It's been great for us and is our 4th Brother. It's nice to have one device to print, scan, and copy.... Scanning is double sided capable, color printing, and it's pretty fast, and very reliable.

How do you scan right into OD?

[Jorgebon]

To scan directly into Open Dental you go to the images module and click on one of the three buttons on top for either documents, x-rays , or pictures. If the scanner is TWAIN compliant, it should scan and the image will go in whatever category you choose. I learned the hard way that scanners can be compliant, but they don't all work the same way or have the same results in scanning a document. I also learned that if the scanner is connected to one computer via USB it may scan differently than if it is connected to a network. I tried my old scanner both ways, and the USB connection would have color scans in only one pass, whereas when connected to the network it would need to scan twice to get a color scan.
For those of you who may be considering a new multifunction like me, you can rule out the Lexmark X7565. It is too slow to scan and copy to be of any use. The scanned image is very poor when used through a network directly into Open Dental. I tried various settings both in OD and in the printer but it just wasn't up to par. Apparently the Lexmark is designed to get the best scans when you use their scanning software and save the image to file, then import the image into Open Dental. Too much work and too much time for a busy dental office.
Thanks to all of those that have sent me their recommendations through this forum and through e-mail. The consensus seems to be that Brother and HP are the best choices.
Jorge Bonilla, DMD

[SmilingPatient]

Thank you Thank you!

Scans right into OD, double sided and everything! Sweet.

[jordansparks]

Ah, I didn't realize until now that your scanner was connected directly to the network. I would have suggested connecting it by USB earlier.