Canon PIXMA IP3000

...running costs, this is because Canon supplies the printer with individual print cartridges for each colour. When you print average documents you will use some colours more frequently than others. E.g. Black ink is used a lot faster than other colours. Most printers have the opportunity to fit a black cartridge separate to the colour cartridge. Canon has taken this idea a stage further. If you print a lot of photographs you might need extra blue for ...
...this is another way that Canon has avoided wasted cost. However if you don’t have one and forget to order you will be frustrated when you unpack the box. When choosing a cable be careful as these things are available for £3 or less but some suppliers will charge £15 for the same thing. Make sure you don’t just bundle it from the same supplier.

Inkjet technology: This is an ink jet printer rather than a laser or dot matrix printer. ... more

This printer is an ideal printer for someone who wants a reliable & easy to use printer for general office duties but would also like the flexibility to handle the occasional photo print or CD/DVD printing.

I’ll justify all of this below but if you are in the market for a sub £90 printer that is mainly used for letter and other general office duties then get this one. At this price you might be able to have a printer each.

The main features of this printer are:

Great paper handling, by providing two paper trays the printer offers you the flexibility to keep two types of media pre-loaded into the printer. Maybe you use glossy paper or headed paper for your letters and standard plain paper for your general printing – This printer is unique for its price in that it allows you to stack both types of paper. You won’t need to reload paper just because you want to write a letter.

Double Sided printing – Also unique (Feb 2005) for a printer of this price the printer offers double sided printing (also called Duplex Printing). This allows you to print both sides of a page without having to manually reload the paper. This a great feature to make your documents look more professional or to help you control your paper costs. The only downside is that double sided printing takes approx 20 seconds longer per page than single sided printing. This is because the printer must allow the ink to dry before it re-feeds the paper back into the printer to print the reverse side.

CD/DVD printing – By using a special attachment (supplied) you can feed a CD or DVD into the printer and it will print directly onto the surface of the CD/DVD. You will need to purchase CDs that have printable surfaces – this will add a few pence to the cost of your CDs. If you choose to use this option you can get some very professional finishes to your CDs. This system is better than printing onto a sticky label because there is less fuss involved and the label won’t peel off. A label that peels off in your DVD player will probably damage it.

Low running costs – For an inkjet printer this device has low running costs, this is because Canon supplies the printer with individual print cartridges for each colour. When you print average documents you will use some colours more frequently than others. E.g. Black ink is used a lot faster than other colours. Most printers have the opportunity to fit a black cartridge separate to the colour cartridge. Canon has taken this idea a stage further. If you print a lot of photographs you might need extra blue for all that sky or, in my case, if your company logo uses a lot of a single colour in its letter head you will get through that colour in no time. I am able to change the colour cartridge when it is empty and leave the others in place. This saves money as the individual colours are cheaper to buy than replacing all colours at the same time. Cartridges are about £12 each and are available at most suppliers. You will also be able to get remanufactured cartridges at a slightly lower price. I have not tried these as I have had poor experience in the past.

Speed of printing – for the price this is a very quick printer. The specification states that the printer will print 22 pages of black and white in 1 minute. Take this information with a pinch of salt. In practice you won’t want to use the fastest setting on the printer because the print quality is only suitable for “draft” printing. If you print documents for presentations or for customers you will need to use the “normal” setting. This will print about 4 mixed colour/black and white pages per minute. If you use double sided printing then this will drop to 2-3 pages per minute – You will want to use double side printing, once you’ve got used to this feature you won’t want to go back to the wasteful and less elegant single sided printing. In summary the real world print speed is not as good as the manufacture will have you believe but this is true for all printers – This printer holds its own very well for its price. If you don’t mind the draft print quality you will print faster and save a lot of ink too. If you have an £100-£250 printer of 2003 vintage you will be very impressed with the improvements in print speed.

Digital Camera support – The printer does not have the card reader facilities of more expensive printers but it does have support for PictBridge – This is a standard that allows you to connect your camera directly to the printer without the need for a PC. .I don’t use this feature so won’t comment on its ease of use etc. I like the fact that card reader has not been included – this feature is not needed in most offices and seems to save about £30 on the price. The printer comes with photo software that will help you manage your photo albums and perform basic touch up functions. However, there’s nothing here that you won’t get with the many commercial or free applications available.

Quality of photo printing – The printer can handle 2400x1200 dots per inch. This allows very good photo reproduction. The printer claims to use latest technology to give better performance than similar specified printers. The photo prints are certainly very good but they are not the best I’ve seen. Flesh tones seem a little too colourful to my eye. The photos I have printed are near photo lab quality. The prints are better than other printers in this price range.

Quality of black and white printing – The printer has a range of quality settings but these are variations of best, normal and draft. Best offers good reproduction and provides a good professional appearance for letters. They print quality is sharper than our laser printers costing approx £1000. There is some light “feathering” at the edge of printed characters but you will need to inspect very closely to see this. For the price the quality is excellent. You’d need some very picky customers to justify the £100s of pounds more it would cost to get better print quality.

Style and Packaging, The printer has great design features that add to the convenience of day to day use. First of all, if you choose to use only the paper cassette you can push the printer flush to a wall. This means it will take less space on your desk (Canon have also been clever with the cable connections to make this possible). The printer is mains powered, it does not have an external power adaptor. This will save you clutter on your desk or floor as you don’t need a separate adapter. The dual paper trays (if you don’t want flush printing) will give you better than average paper capacity; you can leave the printer unattended to print your mail shots overnight. Cosmetic appearance – you will need to make your own decision on this – the printer certainly looks and is quality in construction. However, it’s quite big and boxy. Some people will hate this. I like it. The printer looks as though its there to “do business”.

Noise: The printer is fairly quiet in normal operation and doesn’t “rock the desk” as some other printers I have owned. The printer also has a feature to allow quiet mode. This prints slightly slower but a lot quieter. So quiet in fact that people do comment on it. “Wow – that’s a quiet printer!” has been heard many times. I can use the printer in my office without distracting people that have joined me for a meeting. The quiet option can also be set to automatically activate at night – great if you have a computer in a bedroom and need to keep the noise down.

Software Features. The software will help you use the printer. It will tell you when paper is out, when paper is jammed, when ink is low and when ink is empty. It also explains how to load the ink cartridges and how to use the maintenance features to keep the printer “tuned up” e.g. it has a paper path cleaning feature that will help remove excess ink from the print mechanisms. It will also automatically align the print heads when you change cartridges. From an ease of use point of view the software is “fit and forget” as it will do its job quietly in most cases but pop up when it needs to warn you of an error – e.g. when you try to print double sided onto an envelope. The software also manages features such as default print quality and automatic power off features – the printer will power off if you don’t use it for some time and then automatically power on when you need it.

What do you get in the box: - in addition to the printer you will get, ink cartridges (black, magenta, cyan, yellow), CD adapter for printing CDs, A software CD, The printer quick start guide and the mains lead.

Note for users of older computers – This printer needs a USB connector on your computer - Almost all computers today support USB. However, if your computer is very old (1995-97) or using Windows 95 or earlier then you may not be able to use this printer. Older computers use parallel printing – choose a printer that has parallel printing support.
You will need to supply your own printer USB cable. If you have one already then this is another way that Canon has avoided wasted cost. However if you don’t have one and forget to order you will be frustrated when you unpack the box. When choosing a cable be careful as these things are available for £3 or less but some suppliers will charge £15 for the same thing. Make sure you don’t just bundle it from the same supplier.

Inkjet technology: This is an ink jet printer rather than a laser or dot matrix printer. The inkjet technology is similar in quality to laser printing but without the high manufacturing (and therefore purchasing) price. Inkjet printers are common place today and offer a great way to buy a personal printer. If your print needs are 1000 pages per month or less then an inkjet printer will work for you. If you print 1000 pages or more you should maybe think about a laser printer. A colour laser printer will start at about £250 but be careful about ongoing consumable costs. Laser should be cheaper to run than inkjets but not always!

Other things you may wish to consider when purchasing a printer. Many printers today are available as multifunctional – for little more than a printer price you can get scanner and fax built into the same device. If you want a scanner and a printer then a combined device might work better for you.

If you choose this printer I hope it works as well for you as it does for me. I have owned my printer for 3 months and I am very satisfied.

 

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