This printer was purchased as a birthday present for my mother, who has been hampered by a Windows Vista computer and a malfunctioning HP Printer (it worked great with XP...). We purchased the Canon PIXMA MP560 printer for $85 (free shipping) on Amazon, and comparing the price to other retailers online (and the retail price), it was no contest.
This printer has some features that you may already know of via the product description page, but I'd like to elaborate on some of these features.
Thoughts out of the box:
-The MP560 has a folding LCD screen that covers the function buttons. The screen is not too large, but it does seem to have large enough text (and a simple GUI) to work well for novice printer users. There are not too many buttons, and they're large, well-marked, and simple enough for anyone to recognize.
-The printer has a lower paper tray (for regular inkjet/copier paper) and an upper vertical tray (for thicker photo paper and other things). The vertical tray has an automatic two-sided width adjustment/alignment, so any size paper is aligned to the proper position every time (and the thickness is adjustable from maximum printing width of the printer, down to only an inch or so).
-The basic instruction manual is printed on paper, and easily guided me through the process of installation of the print head/ink, paper, software, and wireless network capability. This guide has simple words and illustrations, though it does not include every detail of the printer's operations (the more complex instruction/user manual is electronic, and is installed with the printer software). There is a Network Troubleshooting guide, as well, that seems to be rather detailed (though unnecessary in my case). The printer comes with a sample pack of 4"x6" photo paper, which we immediately tested (and it passed the test with flying colors). There's other throw-away junk included, but nothing that surprising.
-The printer is clearly labeled so as to make it simple to place cartridges in the right location, once the print head is installed.
-The fact that the MP560 has multiple single-color ink cartridges may seem expensive at first, but with tri-color cartridge printers, we would always seem to run out of a single color much faster than other colors... so we were wasting a good amount of ink each and every time we replaced a cartridge. This printer seems to have ink cartridges that would be easier to refill than some other cartridges, as well.
After powering it on:
-It was EFFORTLESS to set up the MP560 on our wireless network. It quickly detected the network (our router is on another floor in the house, on the other side of the house), and it still had a good quality signal, and it only took a few minutes (and only a couple pushes of a button... plus entering our internet security key) before the printer was connected. There is a rotating pad (similar to an IPod) on the printer that lets you select any security codes you may have (and navigate through the GUI)... so it may take awhile if one has an alphanumeric password, but it was rather quick for a numeric 8-key code. Heck, my mom is not too familiar with computers, and I have no doubts that she could have set up this printer with the network.
-The printer comes with easy to use software (again, in Vista), though it does take a few minutes for the software to install itself on a PC. The basic instruction manual makes it rather easy to install everything, whether using Windows or Mac. Once installed, the printer is rather effortlessly found (remember to have attached the printer to the wireless network), and before you know it, you're ready to print.
-The printer has a laser ink level meter for every cartridge, and it can be displayed on the computer and on the 2" LCD screen on the printer (actually, pressing one button on the "Home" screen will allow you to see each ink level). So far, it does not appear as if this printer over-uses ink... in fact, printing on glossy photo paper seems to suggest there's less "gunk" on the paper than some other printers, perhaps due to the finer ink jets this printer allegedly uses.
Using the printer for the first time:
-The printer and software actually WORK WELL with Windows Vista!
-The printer does take a few seconds to warm up, but after the first print job, it seems to be much faster.
-The MP560 didn't have a single problem feeding thicker photo paper.
-The quality of printed pictures is very good, showing very tight pixels even on plain paper. Photo paper shows an excellent picture quality, and the software included with the printer makes it effortless to print photos with certain photo papers... no need to change printer settings manually.
-The scanner/copier seems to produce quality pictures, although this isn't the fastest, nor the quietest, copier I've seen in a multi-use printer.
-The Duplex printing feature is a great thing to have in a lower-cost home printer, as few documents are of an official, legal nature, hence there's no need for one-sided printing. It gets to be inconvenient to flip the pages by hand each and every time one wants to print on both sides of a piece of paper, so it is great to find a lower-cost printer that has this feature. This printer does not print internally, it prints on one side and extracts the page, then gathers the page back inside the printer and prints on the other side, so I don't know how well Duplex printing would work on thicker media such as fabrics.
All in all, this is a great printer so far. It beats anything I've ever owned, in terms of print quality and functionality, and I'd say it's a pretty good value to boot. Mom is certainly happy about this printer, and she's going to test it with some of her crafts... let's see how it stands up to the test of time when she puts it to use.
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