I bought this printer primarily because it supports AirPrint (iPhone/iPad printing) and at 45cm wide x 36.6cm deep x 16.6cm high it isn't a huge beast of a machine. It comes in a sleek gloss black and though I don't think it would win any beauty contests, it looks smart on a shelf. It feels a bit cheap to handle, but to be fair it is an inexpensive machine.
Out of the box, setting up is quick and easy. The interface is a wheel/button combo but the wheel can be fiddly. The wheel turns around with very little resistance, so when you let go sometimes it moves again and selects something you didn't mean to. And the arrangement of buttons can be misleading as it appears to direct you to the left hand button under the screen, when actually you need to press the centre of the wheel.
Since the AirPrint feature was the main reason I bought this printer, I was keen to try printing from my iPad. Unfortunately my iPad couldn't "see" the printer, so I was unable to print unless I went through Canon's (free) iEPP app. Fortunately after a little research, I found that updating the printer's firmware solved the problem and I was up and running - easy to do but should you really have to do this for a printer that has only been out for a couple of weeks?
The main strength of this printer is it's photo printing which is decent quality and very fast (about 20 seconds for a 6" x 4" print). I take pictures on my iPhone and send them wirelessly to the printer, though you can also print directly from a camera's SD. It is very quick to warm up, so no waiting around while your printer makes R2D2 noises before starting a print job! If noise is a concern there is a quiet mode, though this slows printing speed. You can stock it with paper in the tray underneath or slide it in the back so you can keep A4 in one and photo paper in the other and the printer will select the appropriate source. If you forget to open the output tray after sending a document to print, it automatically opens (I'm a sucker for a gimmick!). If you are printing text, duplex printing (printing both sides without having to manually turn the pages over) is a feature that can save you a lot of paper. I haven't tried it yet, but it is apparently even capable of printing onto CD/DVD. It won't print A3 like my old printer did, but the number of times I actually did this were very few and far between.
Scanning is excellent and can be controlled from the iPad (put document on flatbed scanner, then on iPad select size and press go). It is much quicker than the scanners of old (well, the nineties and noughties) that I remember and you don't need to wait around while it generates a preview and then a final scan.
Ink isn't the cheapest but it's not ridiculously expensive either, and the five single inks mean that if one runs out you only need to replace that one.
Thank you for using my Guide and if it work for you that makes me happy
ReplyDeletecanon printer pixma