New Printer

New Printer. After months of procrastination, we finally picked up a new printer (our HP 712C had perished in a nasty fall).  After reading every review I could get my hands on, I had decided on the Canon S750, but after trips and calls to all the stores around town, it turned out that it was last year’s model, and I couldn’t find it anywhere. I did see that the new Canon models were starting to show up, and even though I hadn’t read a single review on the new “i” series, I went ahead and picked up the Canon i550 Color Bubble Jet Printer. (Fry’s price: $150)

It was weird throwing my research out the window like that, but I definitely don’t regret it. This thing is FAST for text, and borderless 4×6 photos are indistinguishable from anything we’ve had developed at Eckerd’s. I still need to pick up some full-size photo paper to give larger prints a try. One cool feature of the Canons is that the colored ink comes in 3 separate tanks, so if, for example, you run out of blue ink, you only have to replace the blue tank, instead of possibly throwing away a cartridge still partially filled with yellow and magenta.

Maybe it’s standard these days for printer drivers, but I’ve found this one to be especially cool. Not only do you set all the options as to what you’re printing and what type of paper you’re using, but there are neat options like being able to print several miniaturized pages on one piece of paper (2, 4, 6, 9, or 16). I’ve saved tons of paper already. You can also do poster, banner, and booklet printing without needing any other special software. It’s all built in to the driver. 

Bottom line: 5 stars. Bruce says,  “Check it out.”