Canon’s new 2002 general ink-jet printers

1st January - 2002
By Ian Burley

General purpose ink-jets

The volume sector of the ink-jet printer market and the most competitive, is the general purpose, sub-£200, end of the market. None of the new models introduced in this sector by Canon today are ‘true’ photo printers as they don’t feature intermediate colour ‘photo’ inks. But they are capable of printing reasonable quality photos and many will be content to compromise ultimate photo quality in return for overall versatility.

Canon’s new general purpose ink-jets include the S200, S300, S520 and the S750. All are USB-equipped and have Windows 98/98/ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Mac OS compatibility. Canon claims its colour inks have a 25 year light fastness rating when printed onto Canon Photo Paper Pro PR-101 media.

S200

At £59 inc.VAT, the A4 format Canon S200 is the new baby of the range. Neither the S200, nor the S300, have separate ink tanks for each of the colour inks like the S520 and above models. However, the S200 and S300 do have pigment-based black ink for sharper black text printing on plain paper.

For an entry-level printer, the S200 has plenty of resolution: 2880x720dpi. Canon’s quoted print speed is up to 5 pages per minute (ppm) for text and 3ppm for colour graphics. You’re going to be waiting a fair old time for an A4 photo to complete, but print quality is not bad. The main problem, which is inherent in photo printing without intermediate photo inks, is that the dot grain remains fairly visible. But with Canon’s Vivid Photo mode, colours are vibrant.

S300

With the S300, at £99 inc.VAT, the extra £40 over the S200 buys you 2400x1200dpi, which amounts to a fair bit more print sharpness than the S200. The S300 is also faster, at up to 11ppm for mono text and up to 7.5ppm colour. Photo prints on the S300 look slightly smoother than the S200 prints. Vivid Photo mode is featured again.

S520

The £149 inc.VAT Canon S520 is the cheapest of Canon’s Single Ink system printers. It’s a three colours plus black printer, with each colour ink separately replaceable, so eliminating waste. The Single Ink system doesn’t currently support pigment inks, but black text printing on plain paper was still good on the samples we saw.

Quoted print speeds are up to 14ppm for black text and 9ppm for colour graphics. Performance his helped by a multiple motor paper relay feed system.

Print resolution is 2400x1200dpi. Although photo inks aren’t supported, Canon bundles the same photo software titles, PhotoRecord, ZoomBrowser and PhotoStitch, as the S900 and S9000 photo models. Borderless printing is also featured.

Optional networking capability and the standard inclusion of a parallel printer port alongside the USB port, make the S520 aimed squarely at the office printer market.

S750

A novel print head is the unique feature of the Canon S750. This £179 inc.VAT printer is superficially similar to the S520. But it has a print head that features Advanced Precision Colour Distribution Technology – or APCDT, for short. This uses off-set black ink nozzles to aid improved ink distribution.

According to Mark Robinson, UK marketing manager of Canon Consumer Imaging: “With APCDT we achieve excellent speed without sacrificing print quality, such as banding or bleed.” He adds: “One-pass bi-directional can now be used for everyday documents giving up to 9ppm for mixed mono and colour pages, while still retaining 1200dpi print quality.”

Faster mechanicals also aid improved print speed. The S750’s claimed mono text speed is up to a remarkable 20ppm and colour is rated at up to 13ppm. Full A4 colour pages can be printed at 2.5ppm.

The S750 includes the same network option and photo software bundle as the S520. Once again, Canon’s Single Ink system is used and for traditionalists, a parallel printer port is retained alongside the now obligatory USB port.

Jump to:

[Back to top of the page]

DPN News service

www.dp-now.com