Epson ET-2980 or Brother HL-L2460DW for automatic Legal duplex?

The long sheets

Wren put the blue mug at one end of the table and the yellow one opposite. The mugs never matched. That was part of the pleasure of having people round.

Cass brought over a tray, then leaned toward Wren’s laptop. The next puzzle pack was open as a PDF, long pages waiting to be passed between friends. Wren wanted a printer that could put those black-and-white clues on both sides of Legal paper without asking for the sheets back halfway through.

They had no printer at home. The Epson EcoTank ET-2980 looked promising: color printing, copying and scanning, room for Legal sheets, and automatic duplex printing. Cass read the two paper features aloud.

Wren went looking for them in the same row.

A different answer in the table

Legal is 8.5 by 14 inches. In the ET-2980 manual’s double-sided printing table, plain Letter and A4 paper appear under automatic printing. Legal appears under manual printing, with a one-sheet capacity. The printer can accept the long paper, but it will not turn those sheets automatically for this job.

That mattered more to Wren than the extra functions. These packs needed black ink and an automatic second side. Color and scanning could stay out of the purchase.

The US Brother HL-L2460DW lists Legal among its automatic two-sided paper sizes. It is a monochrome printer without a scanner, so choosing it meant accepting that smaller set of jobs.

Wren checked the paper pack too. Its 80 gsm plain copier paper fell within Brother’s duplex range of 60 to 105 gsm, or 16 to 28 lb. The permitted types are plain, thin and recycled paper. The broader weights supported by other paper paths do not make cardstock or bond paper suitable for automatic duplex.

For these black-and-white Legal packs, the Brother was the choice. If the documents were Letter size, the Epson’s paper-size restriction would no longer decide between them.

Room for the tray

Cass wanted the wooden table clear when friends arrived. Before ordering, they would check a stable, ventilated place for the printer against its instructions, including the room needed to extend and load the tray for Legal paper.

The connection was already accounted for. Wren’s Windows 11 x64 laptop had USB-C, and the owned one-meter USB 2.0 data cable ran directly from USB-C to the printer’s Type-B socket. Brother specifies a USB 2.0 cable no longer than two meters. The standard printer box includes starter toner, a drum and a power cord, with the USB interface cable supplied separately.

Wren would install the official Windows driver, extend the paper tray with its release button and set Legal and the matching paper type. The back cover stays closed for automatic duplex. In the driver, the setting is 2-sided. Choosing 2-sided (Manual) would bring back the reinsertion step they wanted to avoid.

Wren also read the cleaning instructions. Brother calls for regular cleaning with a dry, lint-free cloth, including inside when toner or drum is replaced. Its corona-wire cleaning tab must be returned to its home position. The Epson has its own nozzle-check and cleaning procedure when print quality declines, which uses ink. Neither set of instructions supplied a reason to promise less upkeep.

They agreed to the Brother from their shared $340 budget, subject to the full checkout total and the space check. Toner and drum replacements would remain household costs. Printing could wait until Cass’s editing work and calls were finished.

The clues could wait

The linked Brother listing is the US HL-L2460DW in the New, Printer Only selection. The XL, refurbished and extra-toner packages are separate choices. A small first print would check margins, binding direction and paper behavior before Wren committed a whole pack.

Wren put the closed folder between the mugs and shut the PDF before reading farther. There was still a printer to order and set up. At the next games evening, Wren wanted a fair chance at being surprised by the answer.

When this does not matter

Your double-sided jobs use Letter plain paper. Both of these US models document automatic duplex for that size under their paper and setup conditions.

Manual reinsertion is acceptable for the occasional Legal job.