Installation

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Installation was simple and trouble-free on a Window XP test system.  A majority of current ink-jet printers on the market only offer USB connectivity.  While I don't particularly find anything wrong with this, I found that many users are indeed quite irritated and surprised not find a good old parallel printer port on their new inkjet.  Canon offers both on the IP4000 for maximum compatibility. Considering they do not come with a USB cable, this is a minor plus as many do have an old parallel cable lying around somewhere. 

Let's start with the bundled software before we take a look at the excellent print options available...

Aside from the printer driver and on-screen manual, you have additional software which includes PhotoRecord, Easy PhotoPrint and Easy Webprint.  Let's take a brief look at each of these...

 

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While this is honestly software I wouldn't personally use, it is great for novice users who would like to easily enhance their pictures and make them a bit more creative prior to printing.  PhotoRecord basically allows you to create custom picture albums that are printer friendly.  Easy PhotoPrint will allow you to enhance your images and select the desired paper and layout.  The "Correct/Enhance" feature lets you easily make adjustment to pictures such as red-eye reduction, face sharpening, etc.  For those who are not computer savvy, this will be quite useful.  However, I've personally found that most of the red-eye reduction software bundled with both digital cameras and printers do not work very well.  I personally use Photoshop to take care of these issues if they arise. However, the software will certainly help you somewhat fix those badly taken pictures quickly and easily before ready for printing.

Now, before I go on, I'm personally not a fan at toolbars at all.  In fact, I refuse to use them.  Most are simply spyware to begin with anyways and all are completely useless. However, I did make an exception with the Easy-WebPrint Toolbar.   After personally using a wide variety of both laser and inkjet printers over the past several years, one really annoying issue is that most do not print webpages at full width, even after adjusting margins.  The IP4000 prints webpages exactly how you want them to print.  There are a variety of very useful features as follows:

- Automatic and manual scaling - so the page fits the width of the printer.
- Print one or more web pages - print one page, or build a list of pages to print all at once.
- Partial and full page printing - print only what you want from a page.
- Collect and print linked web pages - add all links on a web page to the Print List very easily.
- Preview your pages before printing.
- Duplex printing - print double-sided (only with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 and later)
- Multi-column printing - useful for printing long documents.
- Convenient access to print options - number of copies, portrait or landscape, and many more.
- High speed draft printing - only with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 and later.
- Print background colors and images, or print in grayscale - control the speed and appearance of your printing. Grayscale printing is only available with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 and later.
 

All these features worked very well, and was quite impressed with just how flexible it really is.

Performance

Performance and print quality was measured with a variety of paper stock, including direct photo printing, CD/DVD label/insert printing and webpage pritings.  Both print speed and quality were tested with each.

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For the photo printing tests, I printed a variety of standard 4x6 pictures taken with a quality Canon SD300 digital camera via the PictBridge Port.  Results were also compared to the handy and portable Canon CP-220 photo printer.

 

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While I personally prefer portable printers for photo printing from digital cameras, the Canon IP4000 gives you the same connectivity and prints quite well.  The picture to the left was taken with the Canon CP-220 and the picture on the right with the IP4000.  The IP4000 actually showed much more detail in this test print than what the Canon CP-220 is capable of.  However, it was just slightly too detailed and grainy for my taste.  Regardless, it is the best print I've done out of an inkjet printer.  Please note that the CP-200 print got a bit dirty prior to scanning.  The blotches and marks are strictly a result of improper care.  After printing a few shots, I found I still like the prints from the CP-220.  Besides, this is a thermal printer and prints are instant dry.  However, the IP4000 still does fairly well and can print a 4x6 picture at highest quality setting in 1:40 minutes.  Not bad.

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In the standard printing tests, I scanned some DVD covers I found to be good for these tests and used Surething to print them on matte DVD inserts. A variety of webpages were also printed using the toolbar features we showed you earlier.  Covers were printed in Standard and High quality print modes. 

I found absolutely no noticeable difference between the two modes with certain covers.  Both printed quite well.  At the highest print quality, it took roughly an extra minute to complete.  The results were identical in comparison.  I was quite surprised about this as high print modes with certain HP printers certainly do improve the print quality.  I'll say it again, what's really nice about this printer is the dual print feed capability.  When using the upper tray to print DVD inserts, it actually printed them perfectly, meaning I didn't have to adjust the image past the borders of the insert template like I used to do with the HP printers.  In other words, prints were perfectly aligned when using the top tray.

This is a great printer for those who tend to print a lot of webpages.  Duplex printing worked exceptionally well and can be quite handy for those who simply don't like to waste paper.  With the toolbar, it is just one click to enable/disable duplex printing and there is a button for highspeed printing as we showed you earlier.  A full webpage printed in highspeed mode took only 21 seconds.  Mind you, the quality is certainly nothing to be excited about, but that is mighty fast and perfect for those quick, in-a- hurry prints such as directions, addresses, etc. 

Next: Conclusions