Entry-Level Printer Does Well for Price

The Pixma iP1800 is Canon's entry-level ink-jet photo printer, which is clear if you take a gander at its price tag. At the surprisingly low price of US$50, this printer is equipped with the bare essentials to perform its duties: a sheet feeder, a dual ink-cartridge system, a USB port to connect the printer to your Mac, and a roller that spits out your photos. Despite this minimal set of features, the printer won't disappoint. The iP1800's photos have some imperfections, but they look pleasing overall. You'll definitely get enough bang for your buck.

To keep the iP1800 at its low price, Canon left out features you'd find on most photo printers: a photo-card reader, a separate media tray for smaller photo papers, PictBridge support, and an output tray. This printer is user-friendly, though, and very easy to set up. After snapping the two ink cartridges into place, loading some paper, installing the printer driver, and connecting the USB cable to your Mac, you're ready to print. Since there is no output tray to catch your prints, you should turn the printer to face a clean, flat surface.

The color photos I printed with the iP1800 looked decent to me. Colors appeared accurate when compared to our control photo, and images were very crisp and clear overall. But black inks were too light, and thus shadow detail was lacking in depth. The black-and-white photos I printed had the same problem with shadow detail. Our panel of experts gave this printer's photo-print quality a Very Good rating.

Though the iP1800 is a photo printer, you may feel tempted to use it to print text documents, e-mails, or the occasional movie ticket. The gray-scale text documents I printed were slightly grainy, and, as with the color photos, the black inks were light. Our panel gave the iP1800's gray-scale print quality a Good rating. The iP1800 performed better with color documents, preserving thin lines and distinguishing gradients quite well. Our panel gave this printer a Very Good rating for graphics, fine lines, and gradients.

Macworld's buying advice

The iP1800 exceeded our expectations of how well a $50 printer could perform. Though shadow detail was lacking and blacks appeared too light, the iP1800's ability to produce very good photos was impressive for a printer at this price. In addition, the iP1800's ability to print decent-looking gray-scale and color documents adds extra value to a purchase you won't regret.

[Brian Chen is an assistant editor at Macworld.]