Bold sized color for bold sized prints

Author's Rating:

Pros: Terrific color, fast printing, oversized prints

Cons: b&w takes FOREVER - only complaint!

The Bottom Line: 
You can get gallery sized images...you may need an addition to your home to display all your photography!

Author's Review
Canon has a terrific printer which can showcase your images with enlargements up to 13 x 19 inches. The price is a bit high for those who have been using those inexpensive units from the office stationers or local department stores, but at approximately $400 list price (you can get it for less if you check online, and with a nice $100 rebate), it can easily go for under $300!

The unit uses 8 ink cartridges and replaces the pixma i9900. It is surprisingly quick; when printing a full sized (13 x 19) print, it is completed in under three minutes!

You may wish to purchase Canon’s new Photo Paper Plus Semi-Gloss. Although it’s not inexpensive; you’ll get terrific results. You’ll want to graduate to higher grade papers with this printer! 8.5 x 11 inch prints take about a minute which is quite fast for the quality that you get. The print sizes that I’ve discussed are borderless.

Black and white printing is terrific. It seems to becoming more and more popular and you can get very rich, elegant prints. They certainly do not compare to a silver print, but they are nonetheless stunning. This unit has an advanced grayscale control in the print driver. You can easily convert a well balanced color print into a terrific black and white print. What I find bizarre is that the b&w printing to take considerably longer to print. One black and white that I ran off took about 15 minutes to produce; this was an 8 x 10. It looked terrific! If you are planning on doing black and white work, you can use this time to organize your home office!

Ability to print on many types of paper
This printer allows you to print on various types of papers, such as canvas, fine art paper. You can go oversized by using the second paper path. There are built in wheels so it can roll forward for the required 16” clearance.

A significant plus to this printer is the ability to use many different types of papers so you can obtain highly artistic results. Although these papers can be very expensive, it is very worthwhile to see a portrait done on a canvas paper or a landscape on a special textured paper which definitely enhances the image. Of course, when producing an oversized image (this is when the megapixels come in handy!), the image looks infinitely better at this size.

Color accuracy: fantastic! The colors are rich, they are well-saturated and very realistic. Blacks in black and white photos are very dense.

Archival quality: Canon claims that if you use Photo Paper Pro and Plus, they will last up to 100 years in an archival album; up to 30 years on display! That’s a good duration, but not as long as the Canon pixma Pro9500.

Machine set up Printers that can output large sheets of paper are larger with their footprint and are heavier. You have to make sure you have a desk or work area that can support this working situation. Many people have 2-3 printers and possibly one or two scanners. I'm self employed and have to do a lot of work for various clients, from personal photography to some wedding photography to correspondence. Some users need to have scanners that can automatically create a PDF, that scanner cannot work with an oversized photo.

The actual set up of the printer is relatively simple; install the disk, follow the instructions, and put the plugs where they belong. That is usually a no-brainer, but does require some planning in setting up the power and USB cords.

For all you techies, below is the technical information that I obtained from the Canon website.
Print Speed
4" x 6" borderless: approximately 30 seconds
8" x 10" photo: approximately 50 seconds
11" x 14" photo (on 13" x 19" paper): approximately 1 minute 23 seconds

Number of Nozzles
768 x 8 colors (Photo Bk, C, M, Y, PC, PM, R, G)
Total: 6,144

Print Resolution (Up to) Black: Black: 4800 x 2400 dpi2 Color: 4800 x 2400 dpi2

OS Compatibility: Windows® XP/2000/Me/98 and Mac OS X v.10.2.8 to 10.4.x3

Standard Interface: USB 2.0 Hi-Speed4 and Direct Print Port (cables not included)

Ink Droplet Size: 2 picoliters

Buffer/Ram: 42KB

Paper Sizes: Letter, Legal, 4"x 6", 4"x 8", 5"x 7", 8"x 10", 13"x 19", U.S. #10 Envelopes

Paper Handling: Top Feeding (ASF); Front Feeding (Single sheet up to 1.2mm paper thickness)

Noise Level (Approx.): 37 dB(A) in the best quality mode

Physical Dimensions: 26.0"(W) x 7.6"(H) x 14.0"(D)
Weight: 30.8 lbs.
Power Source: 120V AC, 60Hz
Warranty: Toll-free technical phone support plus 1-year limited warranty

Software Included: CD-ROM including Printer Driver, Setup Software and User's Guide, Electronic Photo Application Guide, Electronic User's Guide, e-registration, Easy-PhotoPrint(Windows/Mac), Easy-PhotoPrint Pro (Windows/Mac), PhotoRecord® (Windows),Easy-WebPrint (Windows only, requires Microsoft® Internet Explorer version 5.5, version 6.0 recommended)