Canon i860 Ink Cartridges

Canon i860 Printer Review

The Canon i860 is one of few models in its class of photo printers designed for home use that excels at printing both sharp quality images and text documents. The machine also has some of the quicker speeds of comparable models, printing up 23 pages per minute for text projects and a 4x6-inch photo in approximately 50 seconds. Although it's on the pricier end of comparable inkjet printers, the i860 has the speed, output and photo-centric features to make it worth a look.

The i860 can support Mac and Windows operating systems and comes with a USB port that will allow users to connect directly to a single computer. An additional connection is another USB port on the front panel that can support printing directly from PictBridge cameras, but the lack of memory card slots is a letdown considering it price tag. The machine is also missing an LCD preview screen, which is a standard fixture in higher-end personal photo printers like the HP Photosmart NX100.

The unit is flexible enough to offer borderless printing on 4x6-inch paper, 5x7-inch paper and 8.5x11-inch paper. Supported media types range from glossy photo paper and matte paper to envelopes and transparencies. The unit's single media tray can store up to 150 sheets and support light-duty printing.

One of the device's better attributes is its lab-quality image output when using specialty photo paper, printing with a maximum resolution of 4800x1200 dpi using color Canon i860 printer ink. Text projects such as a cooking recipe or a school paper tested to print with crisp readability at a resolution of 1200x1200 dpi using black printer ink.

The device expands the traditional 4-color printer system by adding an extra black photo Canon i860 ink cartridge that's capable of sharpening the quality of images. The yellow, cyan, magenta and black photo supplies can each yield around 420 pages and the main black Canon i860 ink cartridge has a maximum capacity of 750 pages.

Buyers looking for a home photo printer that includes a display for previewing images and more direct printing compatibility with digital camera memory cards won't be satisfied with the i860. However, those who are more interested in speed and professional-quality photos will benefit from this inkjet printer.