A solid AIO for a home or small business
Written: May 03 '07
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Pros: Duplexing, fast high quality printing,
Cons: Macintosh support
The Bottom Line: This is a flexible, well built AIO for all sorts of use.
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| DavidChar's Full Review: Canon PIXMAâ„¢ MP780 All-In-One InkJet Printer |
We were looking for a printer to replace our HP OfficeJet v40xi. We knew we wanted another all-in-one (AIO) but we wanted some functionality not offered by to V40xi and a better balance of consumables costs (print cartridges).
The features we were looking for not offered on our HP v40xi included a flatbed scanner, duplex printing and individual ink tanks for each color as well as PC and Macintosh compatibility. We also looked at the HP OfficeJet 6210CT, OfficeJet 7310 and Lexmark X7170. Through other reviews we discovered that the 6210 uses smaller and relatively more expensive print cartridges that were not individual colors. We knew from experience that Lexmark consumables were more expensive than any others by far which ruled that device out. The 7310 was quite a bit more expensive but had everything we wanted including affordable, higher volume consumables although they were not individual ink tanks either, duplex printing and AIO functionality. Enter the PIXMA MP780.
Unpacking the MP780
The MP780 is an attractive and compact machine for an AIO. It is more considerately packed than any other computer peripheral that I’ve ever bought. The machine is well secured by easily removable tape (with tabs to help remove every piece of tape!) and pads to protect fragile components. All of the other parts are packed at the top of the carton including the five ink tanks and the print head assembly, quick start poster and CD with Windows and Macintosh drivers and the User’s Guide. The five ink tanks consist of two blacks one pigment-based (BCI-3e) for text and one dye-based (BCI-6) for photos and separate cyan, magenta and yellow dye-based tanks.
Setting up the MP780
Once you unpack the printer, you have to perform a few tasks to prepare the printer for operation. The first step is to connect the phone line and power cord. Once the power is connected you can open the dampened front door of the printer to install the print head and ink tanks before loading paper and aligning the print head. Before making the USB connection to the computer, Canon recommends that you install the software on your computer first.
Paper handling
There are two paper inputs on the printer. The primary paper path is an almost straight through path from the Auto Sheet Feeder on the rear of the printer. It will accommodate paper up to Legal size but it also supports shorter and narrower paper types as well including envelopes and card stock. The bottom tray supports paper sizes up to Letter and A4. It also supports smaller paper like index cards and enveloped in the lower tray.
You can set the device up to print from either tray by default. You can also set the printer to automatically pick paper from the tray that has paper loaded or load two different types of paper loaded and specify which pages are pulled for each part of a job.
Printing from a computer
After you have connected the printer to a computer, you can immediately begin printing. Canon’s printer driver for Windows is well designed and has a relatively small memory and disk footprint.
The driver clearly exposes all of the printers’ functionality including maintenance options, duplexing options and other paper feed options, and printer status. It interfaces seamlessly with the Windows print spooler. From the driver you can specify resolutions up to 4800 DPI.
Making copies (with apologies to the Copy Guy)
Copies can be made individually from the flatbed scanner or the document feeder. The flatbed only supports paper to A4 or Letter sized paper. A4 is slightly longer but also slightly narrower than Letter sized paper. To make copies of documents on legal sized paper you should use the sheet feeder which scrolls the paper past the scanner. The copier can resize the original from 25%-400%.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 250
Operating System: Windows and Macintosh
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Epinions.com ID:
DavidChar
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Member: David
Location: Charlotte, NC
Reviews written: 14
Trusted by: 3 members
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