Good Print Quality, No Generic Ink

Author's Rating:

Pros: Print quality is very good from a printer this cheap

Cons: A set of 2 ink tanks will cost as much as the printer

The Bottom Line: 
For a cheap printer, the quality is very nice. Check out the price of ink, you might be better off buying a new printer than buying new ink.

Author's Review
Canon IP2600 color printer.

I ran across this printer on sale for just under $30 and thought I’d give it shot.

I needed a small, inexpensive printer for a secondary computer which I don’t print a great deal from, but there are times when I need to print something quickly & I don’t want the hassle of connecting another printer or saving the file/transferring the file to another computer to print out.

It has a relatively small footprint of roughly 18 inches long by 8 inches deep by 5 inches tall.
This printer is fairly lightweight, which is nice…some of my Canon printers weigh a ton.

The paper loads from the rear/top and doesn’t take up much extra depth behind the printer. The top paper feed area has a fold up door. The paper exits through the lower/front and the front section of the printer folds down to allow the paper to exit.
With both fold out trays/doors opened, it adds about 5 inches to the overall depth (front to back).
There are adjustments for varying paper widths & you can even adjust for printing envelopes.

This printer follows Canon’s newer designs: Sleek, shiny, black & silver, small.

Unfortunately, this printer also follows Canon’s new philosophy: Give the printer away & sock it to the consumer on ink.

I’ve yet to find replacement ink cartridges that are generic or remanufactured, so it looks like I’ll be stuck paying top dollar for Canon ink. I priced a set of the standard ink cartridges: PG30 (black) and CL31 (tri-color) and each cost about $15 & $19 respectively. These are not the worst prices, but a new set of ink will cost as much as I paid for the printer. I’m tempted to buy half a dozen of these printers (they come with a PG30 & CL31 ink cartridge in the box) just for the ink. I could always sell the printers later.
The printer also uses PG40 & CL41 ink. I believe these are either higher capacity or higher print quality cartridges than the standard ink tanks.
I’ve yet to need replacements & the print quality of the standard ink tanks looks perfectly good to me, so there’s no need to splurge on extra quality that won’t be needed.

I’m much happier with my other Canon inkjet printers (i860 & i560) that each use up to 5 separate ink tanks (one for each color) as far as ink refills go.

Unlike other Canon printers I own (my other printers carriages automatically move to the center position when the cover is opened), when the cover is opened, the ink tank carriage moves all the way to the left side of the printer, where the ink tanks can be inserted or removed rather easily.
Each ink tank is marked with an A or B with corresponding A’s or B’s above the carriage assembly where the ink tanks go.
I would have preferred a color coding label (like my old printers), but the letter system should work just fine.

I can’t complain about the print quality. I’ve printed some near full page 8” x 11” photos on plain paper that look as good as photos I’ve printed from my other higher quality Canon printers.
Even full pages of black text look crisp & detailed.
Vivid & bright colors, crisp details and the ink drys quickly. Not long after the paper hits the exit tray, the entire picture is dry.
I haven’t found the need to align the print heads or even do a cleaning cycle via the Canon utility.

The only connection is via USB & as with most printers today, NO USB cable is included, but you do receive a power cable.

Included in the box were a couple packs of 4” x 6” glossy photo paper.
My printer (special edition) also came with 2 CD’s: 1) Drivers & Utilities, 2) Scrap booking software.

As with my other Canon printers, the print manager is easy to navigate & there are TONS of features you can tweak in the print setup.
I particularly like the print helper that pops up when you begin printing that indicates the level of ink in the tanks.
I haven’t installed the scrap booking software yet, because I normally use a Publisher program for my desktop publishing needs.

For the price, it’s a great little printer.
Printing a full page color image took only a few seconds.
Another feature not found on many printers of any price range is borderless printing. If you’re printing 4” x 6” pictures or if you’re printing 8.5” x 11” full pages, you can print right to the edge of the page.

Unfortunately, this printer won’t allow for direct printing onto CD or DVD media.

If not for the proprietary ink & lack of separate color ink tanks, this would be an absolutely GREAT deal.

If you’re lucky enough to find these in stock (and on sale) you’re just as well off to buy as many as you can afford…just for the extra ink.