Canon Pixma MX850 All-In-One Printer (31 PPM, 9600x2400 DPI, Color, PC/Mac)

Inkjets Print Photos Well, And Decent Looking Text, Too

Inkjet printers like this one are commonly used in a home or student setting as well as in a small office. Printing photos is their strongest suit, although they can also print decent to good-looking plain text. For the best results, you usually need to use specially coated papers.

Inkjet printers spray ink through microscopic nozzles arrayed on a print head. Because the printhead has to move back and forth across the page, inkjets can be slow--especially when printing those nice photos.

Ink type affects print quality. Dye-based inks (color dissolved in liquid) tend to create better-looking colors, but they’re less light- and water-resistant. Pigment-based inks (solid color particles suspended in liquid) create images that are more durable but not quite as colorful. Some inkjet printers use both: a pigment-based black for crisp text quality, for instance, but dye-based colors for better-looking graphics.

Ink cartridges come in two basic designs. The colors (cyan, magenta, and yellow) can come in a unified “tricolor” cartridge or in separate cartridges. There’s always a separate black. The tricolor cartridges are more compact, but they’re also wasteful because you have to replace the entire cartridge whenever you run out of any one color. Some printers offer additional colors, such as light cyan or light magenta, to widen the color palette.

Creates a Wider Color Palette By Using a Wider Array of Ink Colors

This type of inkjet printer uses the basic four colors (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) plus additional colors to create a wider color palette. The additional colors could be a second black (one pigment-based, one dye-based), or light cyan or light magenta, for example. Regardless of the number of inks available, differences in ink type and marking technology will affect how printed colors look.  

The first three colors come in either a unified "tricolor" cartridge or in separate cartridges. Additional colors are usually separate, and black is always separate. The unified cartridges are more compact, but they’re also wasteful because you have to replace the entire cartridge whenever you run out of any one color.

Fax Capability Saves Space in Small Offices

This printer can also be used as a fax machine, a feature you'll find on some multifunction models. If you frequently send faxes, having a device that does both can save space in a small office. This printer may have just one phone jack for faxing, or two so it can also be used to place calls via a handset. 

If faxing features are important to you, pay attention to fax-page and speed-dial memory -- 100 is the common capacity in both cases. Also look for fax transmission speed, resolution, and perhaps the ability to fax to networked computer.

Document Feeders a Big Convenience If You Scan Lots of Multi-page Documents

This multifunction printer contains an automatic document feeder (ADF) for feeding multi-page documents through the scanner. While users who make an occasional copy of a photo or document could get along with a plain old flatbed scanner, an ADF is essential for users who scan, copy, or fax a lot of multi-page documents. ADF capacity varies widely, from as little as 10 or 15 pages to 50 or more pages on higher-end machines, so consider the typical length of your documents when you look at this feature. Most ADFs can scan only one side of a document at a time ("simplex"); if you scan a lot of two-sided ("duplex") documents, a duplexing ADF would save you a lot of time.

Compatible with Macintosh and other Apple systems

Printers such as this model are compatible with computers designed by Apple, meaning it has at least one appropriate connection type and also has drivers written for the Mac OS X operating system.

Compatible with Microsoft Windows Operating System

Printers such as this model are compatible with computers that use the Microsoft Windows operating system, meaning it has at least one appropriate connection type and also has drivers written for Windows.

Compatible with Both Apple and Windows Operating Systems

Printers such as this model are compatible with computers designed by Apple that run either Mac OS X; or computers that use Microsoft Windows. In addition to having at least one appropriate connection for each computer platform, it should also come with drivers written for both operating systems.

Be Skeptical of Color Print Speed Claims

A printer's stated color print speed (expressed in pages per minute, or "ppm") should be taken with a grain of salt. Vendors often use contrived methods to arrive at such numbers. For instance, they might print in draft mode, which is faster than the default mode most people use. Or they'll exclude the first page out from a document's total print time, because its slower exit reflects the processing time needed to create the document image for the printer. Or they might send raw data straight to the printer, bypassing any application or PC processing time. The PC World Test Center uses dedicated testbed PCs and real-world applications to reflect actual use as closely as possible. We also time the document "from click to clunk" -- from the time we click the "Print" button to the time when the last page falls into the output tray.

Take black-and-white print speed times with a grain of salt

A printer's stated monochrome or "black-and-white" print speed (expressed in pages per minute, or "ppm") should be taken with a grain of salt. Vendors often use contrived methods to arrive at such numbers. For instance, they might print in draft mode, which is faster than the default mode most people use. Or they'll exclude the first page out from a document's total print time, because its slower exit reflects the processing time needed to create the document image for the printer. Or they might send raw data straight to the printer, bypassing any application or PC processing time. The PC World Test Center uses dedicated testbed PCs and real-world applications to reflect actual use as closely as possible. We also time the document "from click to clunk" -- from the time we click the "Print" button to the time when the last page falls into the output tray.

Scan and Enlarge Photos, Slides With Little Degradation

This scanner's optical scan resolution is high. In addition to scanning regular documents or photos at actual size (300x300 dpi or 600x600 dpi suffice for such tasks), it can also use these higher resolutions to scan something as detailed as photo or slide film and enlarge it digitally with good results. The image-file size also gets bigger, of course, so make sure you have enough storage space.

Ethernet Connection Ideal for Networking

This printer offers an Ethernet connection, the standard for networking in an office environment. Ethernet comes in many flavors, but all offer plenty of bandwidth, making it ideal for handling the traffic for anything from a handful to hundreds of users.

USB Interface Connects Quickly and Easily to Your Computer

This printer uses USB (Universal Serial Bus) to connect to your computer. Connecting a printer via USB is very easy; just remember not to do it until the installation routine tells you to -- or risk having to start over.  

The original USB version 1.1 was slow: 12 Mbps (megabits per second). USB 2.0's faster bandwidth of 480 Mbps is plenty for a standalone printer.

If You Use a Sony Camera, Print Right From Its Memory Stick

This printer can read and write to Sony's proprietary flash memory devices called Memory Sticks, and with an adapter, could also support variants such as Memory Stick Pro, Duo, Pro Duo, and Micro. Few non-Sony devices use Memory Sticks, however, the company is so large that there's still a good chance you might need to read data from one someday.

Got an Olympus or Fujifilm digicam? Print Right From the xD Card

This printer has a media slot that accommodates xD-Picture cards, one of the removable storage devices used by (mostly Olympus and Fujifilm) digital cameras.

Allows Photos to Be Printed Right From Your Camera's SD Memory Card

This printer supports Secure Digital (SD) cards; the most common storage card format used by digital cameras. MiniSD and MicroSD cards can be read by using a basic adapter. A newer standard, SDHC (HC as in "high capacity") is not backward compatible, so the slot may not read these cards. The latest SD card, the microSDHC, is the tiniest flash memory card to date, measuring only 11mm across. It's also the fastest and roomiest, capable of holding up to 16GB of data. 

If you use SD cards to store photos, you can insert the card into this slot to start printing photos (instead of hooking up your entire camera via a cable). Make sure that whatever printer you buy accommodates the storage format you use.

Print Photos Right From Your Compact Flash Memory Card

This printer has a media slot that accommodates Compact Flash (CF) cards, one of the removable storage devices used by (mostly digital SLR) cameras.