Canon PIXMA iP4300 Photo Printer (1438B002)

I ordered this 4300 for the office on the basis of great results with its predecessor, the 4200, at home. If you're new to the Pixma line, expect the machine to function flawlessly if not beyond expectations, though at a slightly higher cost in ink than other printers. (Always keep a spare of each of the 5 colors on hand, and forget about finding clones for this model or cheaper ink prices than those posted on Amazon.) The iP4300 is a slight upgrade of the extremely popular iP4200 (see reviews of that machine). If you print a lot of photos, you'll notice a 40% increase in the rate of processing. If you want a preview monitor on your printer, you'll find it available on the higher-numbered, costlier Canon Pixmas (the ip6600 is the newest; the price of the ip6000 is currently attractive, but the machine is two years old). Finally, I wouldn't discount the duplex printing feature, retained on the 4300. It has saved me not only paper but numerous trips to the copy machine.

Advantage of the iP4300 over the 4200: Significantly faster printing of color copy because of added ink jets.

Disadvantage of IP4300: Slightly wider and deeper than the 4200, taking up more desk space. (Height and weight are the same.)

Bottom line: Still the best and most dependable all-around printer (not just photos) for home or office in this price range, at least until HP or Epson (I've previously owned both) return to form. If you need a clincher, it's the duplex printing.

I bought this for the speed and for it's ability to print directly from a Pictbridge camera. It not only prints blazing fast (compared to my Epson 1200) but uses lightfast ink resulting in a signifigant leap in image stability and longevity for the prints. After connecting the camera to printer I press four buttons (on camera) and the printer does it's thing and out pops a beautiful print without ever turning on the computer! Wow! It comes with separate ink cartridges for each color plus an extra larger black I assume for the laser quality text. It also closes up nicely keeping dust out and has two separate paper feeds for two paper sizes. I likey this printer!!!

I was using an HP Photosmart 7260 which made very good photo prints. It used 6 color photo ink but I had to change one cartridge to pigment ink for text.
I bought the IP4300 and here are the differences:
**It uses separtate ink cartridges but uses 4 colors for photos.
**The print quality is equal or better than the HP (but close).
**The IP4300 is quiet and 2 - 3 times faster.
**The print driver has both auto and manual modes so you can tweak the print.
**It has two paper paths. I put photo paper in the back feeder and plain paper in the front cassett. Located below the pull out catch tray.
**I can set the default to plain paper and select photo settings when needed. The printer will automatically use the back paper feed.
**This printer has automatic head alignment and it works great.
**You can turn on a power save mode to have it shut off if not used after some time (I chose 30 minutes). It will automatically turn on when printing.
**All 5 cartridges are installed. Pigment black produces excellant text.
**I have seen some reviews where itwas stated that the prints have a red tint. I got the same thing at first. If you are not using Canon paper, start with this setting: Select paper "Photo Paper Pro" and High Print Quality. This removed my red tint (I use Kodak paper).

Overall, if you want a printer for text and high quality photos, this is it. If you are looking for advance photo printers Canon makes those too. These are not usually good for text.
Ron


The Good:
-Outstanding output quality for the price
-Good speed
-Automatic Duplex printing
-Lightweight drivers/software
-Inexpensive ink

The Bad:
Aside from a slightly cheap asthetic feel, I can't find a thing. And for such a low price, it's to be expected. Other manufactures might have shnazzier printers at the same price point, but keep in mind most other manufacturers don't sell printers, they sell ink, so you pay for it in the long run.

Overall I am extremely satisfied with this printer. Coming from an IP4000, I had high expectations, and this did not dissapoint. I have owned every major brand of printers (HP, Epson), and Canon is absolutely where it's at. Cartridges are much more affordable, you aren't forced to install 400mb of junk that loads 5 processes at windows startup (HP), and the attention to detail is great (i.e., you can program the printer to shutoff after X minutes of being idle). Do yourself a favor and buy a Canon.


I just changed from an Epson 785epx(about 4-5 yrs old). I couldn't be much happier. This printer does seem a little cheap when it comes to the case, but I really don't plan on dropping it or moving it around. I tend to keep my printer right by my computer, so i wasn't to worried when it came to the outside.
I was more worried about the quality of the prints. I was debating between changing my brand to HP or Cannon. All the research I came up with kept pointing me to the Cannon for the photo quality(which was my main concern).
This little printer did not disappoint one bit. I think my favorite part about cannon is the individual ink tanks. I can not tell you how many times I had to waist some ink on my epson because only one color ran out and I still had ink in the other tanks.
I also found 100 sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 Kodak Premium High Gloss paper at Costco for $[...] and the prints came out great(my epson would not print on Kodak paper, only epson paper).
So, for under $[...] this printer should put a hurt on all other brands!!!! Cannon you found a new fan!!!

Inexpensive to buy (but, like any inkjet, not to operate), fast, easy to use, attractive (if you keep the various doors closed). I love the duplexing feature--being able to print to the front and back of a page saves trees and make for thinner printouts.

Fantastic printer- the photo quality is superb & it is very quiet. Separate ink cartridges for each color and the cartridge design saves $s and time.

I like the fact that the print head can be removed and cleaned if it ever becomes clogged; this should keep the machine going for a long time.

I am adding to a Canon MP730 all-in-one that i thought printed photos pretty well. It does print ok - however, compared to this $100 Canon 4300, it's mediocre at best. This Canon 4300 printer prints photos from my 4-pixel digital camera that look like I bought them at the photo store. It's prints great regular text too. I've tried double-sided photo matte paper that I use to make customized calendars and they look great. I've printed on cheap Staples brand gloss 4x6 paper and they look even better. Now, I have yet to see how long the ink lasts and the ink does run a but high. Also, I sprung for an extra $15 and bought the 2-year service plan - just in case. I'll update this review in 6 months if the performance goes down hill, but for now, this is the best color printer out there for $100. It doesn't copy or fax, but I have the Canon MP730 for that. I did try to hook this up to a Netgear wireless server with no luck - so i tried the Netgear mini server - still no luck, but I'm pretty sure it's a problem with Netgear and maybe my router, not with the printer.

I was convinced to buy the 4300 because of the glowing reviews that I had seen and have been very disappointed in its performance. Specifically, I have been unable to generate printed pictures that match the color of an original digital picture. While some of the issue is with personal taste, my old HP printer can produce replicas of the original that was printed commercially.

A second more irritating issue is with the amount of noise the printer makes when warming up, warming down, and seeming adjusting the print head location. The noise just continues for at least a couple of minutes after the printing has been completed. I would certainly not recommend this printer. I just keep reminding myself that it was not very expensive.

I am on my third of these printers, mainly because of problems with the cartriges. It replaced an old HP 712C that I'd worn out after 5 years. The first one would not accept a new cyan tank. After 3 different tanks, I took it back. Up until then it had printed fine, good looking prints. The second one I had setup problems and it didn't want to be online. the third one has had no problems aside from a large appetite for ink. I do like the duplex printing for both sides, option of cassette or top feed, etc. I have been able to print on any paper I can fit into the machine, including heavy card stock.
My main concern at this point is the rapid use of ink with expensive tanks. I'd someday like to find a printer with refillable tanks. Give me refillable tanks! Charge more for the printers, just give me refillable tanks! You should be able to replace INK for the price of INK.
At least they have seperate tanks for each color, and you can run the printer until every drop is spent from the tanks, although it will complain, and if one tank is empty it will shutdown any printing until the tank is replaced, on the sheet where the ink runs out. So you won't waste paper if running 2 dozen copies of something and you won't end up with a large number of sheets that are unusable.
I had been influenced to purchase this printer because a university where I have been taking some classes had a Canon commercial grade printer that did have refillable tanks. So it can be done!
It is pretty quiet too, and I have run quite a bit of paper through this puppy, at least this third one has been reliable. I just would like to get a lower cost for ink.

The ink out feature is disabled if you refill your own cartridges. My older Canon gave warnings and you could refill without having to disable the ink out feature. This model requires you buy the refill from Canon or the ink out feature is disabled. Prints fast and in duplex. You can also load a lot of envelopes which is handy.

A few days later and now it won't let the colors I refilled print - I have to say don't buy this printer unless you like buying expensive ink cartridges - a lot.

Excellant printer for price points. Replaced a Canon i960. Print quality of the PIXMA iP4300 is equal or better than i960.

Many people buy Canon printers because Canon printers used to allow refill the inks and their ink tank design.

However, since Pixma4200 and this 4300 also, Canon introduced 8 series ink tank has chip to measure how many times the printer had asked tank to produce the ink. The firmware inside the printer calculates what would be the max ink shot it could produce. If you refill before the ink tank was empty, it will still shut you off when the number of ink droplets reachs the pre-set number.

You will be forced to acknowledge that you will void the warranty on that printer head. If you think that is the end of trouble, you are wrong. The firmware will continue monitor how many ink droplets from this refilled ink, you will get may be one more refill, it will tell you that ink tank is empty, no matter what you want do. You may say, okay, I had agreed void my warranty, why does Canon still limit me from refilling? Ask those engineers in Japan will not get any answer back to you.

Worse yet. You are forced to buy a new ink catridge to use that printer now. However, when you refill the send Canon brand catridge, it will ask you to void your warranty again! How many times does Canon think is enough to ask user to void their warranty?

I would stay away from Canon, and go with Epson which has a model allowing ink refill. If people live in Japan does not fill their land with artificial waste like ink catridge, why do they fill our land in US with those artificial junk?

Very fast printer, even when you print the best quality. The quality is great. Its stylish looking if you're into appeal. It tucks away into a cabinet that i have so its out of site, but it is a little bulky and heavy. I havent had any problems with it so far, and i've had it for about 3 months.

The print quality is excellent, and automatic duplex printing is very convenient. The print-profile system is greatly superior to any other printer I've used, in that it lets you quickly and easily set a profile based on all of the current settings. It's also nice to be able to switch paper trays with only one button.

The one caveat is the printer cartridges: they have a proprietary computer chip, and so must be either bought brand-name (which is expensive) or used without any indicator of ink levels. It's nice to be able to replace one color at a time, but overall the cartridges are more expensive than with most printers.

I mostly use this printer to print text and Internet graphics. It prints quickly and clearly. Having 2 paper trays saves me from constantly switching paper. I use the bottom tray for paper that I use most often. I use the top tray for special jobs, like envelopes. Although I did not buy this printer to print photos, it does an excellent job. I printed a 8x11 photo that looks like it came from a professional photo lab. The printer also looks good on my desk. When it's closed, the printer looks like a sleek black box. I didn't give 5 stars, because the printer is larger than I would prefer. I recommended this printer to a family member, and he loves it.

So far the Canon Pixma iP4300 printer has functioned flawlessly. There have been no disappointments. The only problem encountered has been to find a convenient online site where the printer cartridges can be purchased. Soon there will be a need to replace one or more of the cartridges and further searching for a vendor will be necessary. The quality of the printing is excellent. The printer worked flawlessly after being hooked up to my G5 iMac. This is a good, solid, and dependable printer.

I got this printer because it handles card stock well and it had excellent ratings. Problem is, I use Adobe Illustrator for a lot of my graphics and when I print my work as Adobe Illustrator files, the printer doesn't put enough ink down on the paper and there is no way to adjust it. It seems I must have a Post Script printer if I'm printing AI files! I can switch the file to a TIFF or some other rasterized file type but that makes for many more steps. Previous printers I bought handled AI files satisfactorily, why not this one?

Very good product with excellent services from canon and Amazon. Canon service people help me adjust the settings to get the best photo pictures.

The iP4300 replace my Canon i950. The i950 was very good but the print head continuously clogged requiring numerous deep cleanings (and corresponding reductions in ink). Like the dual feeds, bottom used for regular paper and top for ilford photo paper. Nice to have the auto duplex printing. Print quality very good for 8X10 photos, fairly fast. After replacing ink cartridges, realized this will be an expensive printer if used on High print quality. Overall, with the price, I'm very happy with the iP4300.

Brochure printing is relatively fast. Print quality is good. Ink cost is relatively high. You pay extra for the ink cartridge to have a light in it........ and whenthe printer decides that the ink is low, it stops printing. period. You CANNOT print until the ink runs out. Every time I've had to change the ink, there is still visable ink left in the tank.

My research indiciated that this was a highly rated printer and I was not disappointed with my purchased. Installation was easy and worked the first time through. The printer's performance is excellent especially on color photos. If you are strapped for space be sure to check the dimensions, I found this printer to be quite a bit larger than my old HP Inkjet printer. All in all, I'd say this printer is an excellent value.

I had a Canon BJC4200 for almost 10 years and it worked flawlessly. I got bored and bought a HP. My God! What a mistake, the HP were always cleaning its head, were slow, and when I printed a 10 pages document and went away, the pages were never in order! I quicky got rid of the HP and bougut an Epson. BIG MISTAKE. Epson economy printing is a joke. It is grey, faded, almost like if you had printed 1000 pages and the ink is in its last days. I called Epson and they told me that the NEW EPSON are programmed to print (in econo mode) in that way (grey and faded). I got angry for that rip off and bought this Canon. What a change! It is fast, it has dual tray, it never get jammed, it prints large documents and the pages are always perfectly rearranged and MOST OF ALL, in the Canon economy mode (even tough is very fast) the quality is excellent, like the NORMAL mode of the Epson. I just laughed at the people of Epson after seeing the economy mode impressions of Canon. My conclusion is the Canon is WAY AHEAD of its COMPETITORS. Canon makes the BEST ink jet PRINTERS in the industry. PERIOD.

received it in record time due to local warehouse. Flawless operation, easy set-up, great colors and speed. Have had Canon printers since '94.

This was a replacement for a B&W laser. It was easy to setup & connect and everything worked smoothly right from the beginning. It's fast and the quality is excellent. I've been blown away by the clarity of 4x6 color prints - as good as the lab - and at about 30 seconds for a print, the speed is great. Also, the included Canon software is extremely handy and accurate. The dual trays completely satisfy my needs...8 1/2 x 11 for correspondence & 4x6 glossy photo for my prints. Thank you Canon, and thank you Amazon for getting it here so quickly. -30-

We love the printer and it arrived in 2 days from when we placed the order. The footprint is a bit big, but it's the only printer we need now. Love the duplexing and multiple paper areas.

I generally don't write reviews unless my experience is very good, or very bad. In this case, it was very bad. The quality of a printed photograph is horrible. I tried it both from a Win XP machine and my MacBook running OS X. In both cases...bad bad bad. Maybe I got a lemon? I'm tossing it into the garbage and buying an HP. There is no reason to keep a bad printer since they are virtually free with the initial supply of ink.

I do not recommend that anyone purchase this printer. I did not get a USB cable with the printer so I called and was told they could not send me a USB cable that they had to send another printer. I was assured that they would check the contents to be sure it was included. I got the next printer again without the USB cable (the printer is useless without the cable to hook it up to the computer). Since I do not want to be shipping back multiple printers I gave up trying to get a USB cable sent to me. I had to go to Best Buy to purchase a USB cable to use this printer and it cost me $35.00, guess this is why they are missing from the boxes.

I have used the Canon for about a month now for document and website printing. It has been flawless. Quality is excellent. I havent used it for photos so cannot comment on that. A few features I appreciate are the duplex (2-sided printing), double paper feeder, auto on/off and the speed. A few have mentioned the high ink cost but I havent noticed it to be a problem. Perhaps, if I printed photos that would be a concern. I just purchased the PGI-5Bk for $13 and the 4-color pack for $42. Plus the store offers $3 rebate on used tanks. The cost of paper I save using the duplex mode cuts down further the ink price. Overall, I am very satisfied with the 4300. Paid $89.

I own the ip4000 at home and love it, so I ordered this printer for my office to replace my balky Epson 900, which I use mainly for printing dental X-rays. It generally works very well. It is quick, quiet, and convenient for loading two different types of paper in the auto feed and the cassette. My only complaint is that on the heavily black areas of printing on the X-rays, if printed on glossy paper, it takes surprisingly long for the ink to fully dry so that it doesn't smear, even if I choose the setting to allow for more drying time.

This printer is amazing... it prints ridiculously fast, and you can set it automatically to run quieter during certain hours, like at night. It has a duplex (double sided) printing feature that is usually available only on more expensive models. The ink is a bit pricy, but you can buy individual cartridges so you only have to spend money on the ones you need. (Black mostly.) It's slightly large for my liking, but with all its great features and its name, you can't go wrong. It is the easiest printer to use I have ever owned. Both HP's before this worked for about 5 months then stopped completely, and were more expensive to buy ink for. Canon rocks!

I know many of you wonder which printer to buy. I have been doing photography for almost ten years and this is the first time I have printed my own stuff. I did a lot of research and read many reviews and I must say that this printer put out high quality photos and compares very well with some of the more expensive printers based on test images I have seen printed. This printer is intended more as a photo printer than basic b/w but certainly is capable of anything. I would highly recommend you give this a shot. You won't be disappointed, I'm sure. I was also looking at the Epson R800 which is more expensive but honestly the output looks the same as the Canon 4300.

I love this printer! It's plenty fast, and the printing on text is excellent. I haven't tried photos yet, so can't really comment on that. All in all, I'm very happy with my purchase.

Prints very impressive photos on photo paper. Like the dual paper sources, tray and stack feeder. Quiet and pretty fast. Easy to set up. Photo paper does not work well in the tray as it jams easily. Use the stack loader for photo paper and keep normal paper in the tray.

I am using the printer with an iMac G4 Flat Panel under OS 10.4.

Howard

Things that are GOOD, for me:
-2 feed options, I can load up the bottom tray with plain paper AND feed cardstock/matte photo paper in the top with out any real effort.
-Duplexing, it will print double sided with a click of an option
-individual color carts, granted they are a little small but there are 2 blacks and the colors run about $13 each
-photo quality prints, not a huge need for myself, but it's nice to have that option
-sleek looking, many of my previous HP printers look like alien space ships, this is nice and boxie!
-I found it comfortably priced at $100 or less

Things that are BAD:
-It sometimes can take as much as 1-2 minutes to `warm up', sometimes it'll print right away other times it chugs and whirs for a bit first.
-I had to buy the USB 2.0 cable, gone are the days of the printer cable, now it's a USB 2.0
-it's pretty large, with the paper tray in, it's foot print is nearly 18" x 16", while this technically isn't a big deal for me, I kind of see it as a negative
-it's going to eat thru color carts if I don't remember to `dim' the color settings for stuff that's not important.


Very pleased with this printer for text, very fast, photos images adequate. sal

I guess I am fortunate in having both units to compare. While the build quality of the iP4300 seems equal to the iP4000 the photo quality is not. Outdoor photos seem comparable when printed through each printer, but indoor shots under tungsten lighting are very different. The iP4000 consistently produces pleasing and accurate flesh tones whereas the iP4300 consistently produces flesh tones with a definite pink unnatural quality. Using my Canon A630 I made sure the histogram was accurate for the photos I was testing and tried direct print from the camera. They produced consistenly inaccurate flesh tones only on the iP4300 and not the iP4000. Using several different brands and types of photo paper produced the same poor results.
Transferring the photos to the computer and editing with the Canon software I was unable to correct the poor flesh tones in the printout on the iP4300 although it looked perfect on a properly calibrated monitor and printed perfectly on the iP4000. Switching over to Adobe Photoshop 6.0 I did the same color correction and obtained the same poor results on the iP4300 yet perfect results on the iP4000.

This was the SECOND iP4300. I exchanged the first one thinking that it may have just been my particular unit. Amazon was GREAT when it came to the exchange. Unfortunately the second unit produced the same results as the first. Rather than return it I will use the iP4300 for outdoor photos and the iP4000 for indoor photos.

(Please see updates at the end of this review)

I know this machine is feature rich, and the print quality is excellent, but I am quite disappointed with the software. Twice the installer hung forever and required a system restart in Mac OS X (current version), and I finally ignored the CD and installed through CUPS (localhost:631). This was annoying enough, but it also selectively fails to print, with no indication that anything is wrong other than a job forever stuck in "waiting to complete" state. I have two other printers that work fine, so this is not a newbie issue, although it does entail the somewhat greater complexity of a printer-sharing setup and may be more reliable on a direct USB connection to the host machine.

When it works, it does so smoothly and quickly, and the envelope handling (from Endicia) is noticeably better than my trusty Epson. I have not tried the photo-quality printing for which this unit is famous, so this is not a comprehensive review... just a comment on the Mac integration. I'm fairly loyal to Canon as I love their cameras, but the bloatware that ships with this printer is both inscrutable and fragile in the OSX environment.

UPDATE 1: Since my initial writing of this review, it has died completely: it is convinced that the cyan ink tank is not recognized, even though it is FULL. This prevents any operation of the printer, and cannot be bypassed with re-inserting the cartridge, resetting, power cycling, or anything else.

UPDATE 2 (about 2 weeks later): I have to credit Canon's tech support for responding well... they quickly shipped a replacement Cyan ink tank, which fixed the problem. Stopping and restarting the printer in CUPS released the hung jobs, and it is now working quickly and smoothly.



I like this printer. It does everything just right. I surprised by the good quality of canon's software to print photos. It creates easy workflow for trouble free printing.

The iP4300 is super-fast on black & white text and has great quality on photos. Be sure to tell it what type of paper you are using. I mostly print high-quality graphics and text, but on occasion like to print photos at home rather than uploading them. This printer does well at both. The only con I see so far is its relatively large size and the cost of cartridges (cartridges are expensive no matter what these days...)

The PIXMA Printer is a great printer for our Youth Outreach Program. We use it for newsletter publications and photos. Thanks.

I had to buy a printer quickly to replace my old reliable HP Deskjet 932c that suddenly died after six years. After a lot of research, I decided not to go with HP because of all the paper handling problems I read about with current models, and I liked Canon's individual color ink cartridges, rather than Tri-color and Black. Indeed, I think a paper jam is what began the death of my 932c. It was probably my mistake that I chose the ip4300, as my most frequent use is printing text, along with some photo printing.

I have to say that it does do a good job printing photos. I've done very little printing on photo paper, but prints on good quality regular paper look good.

Even though its text printing looks good, here are the problems I've run into:

1) It's the noisiest inkjet I've ever heard. It has a "quiet mode" that works, but this mode seems to print slower.

2) I've found that the Canon genuine ink I need (not refills) for this printer is hard to find locally. Wal Mart doesn't carry it; one local Staples was out of stock and the other didn't carry it. I finally found it at Target, but if you want to save a few dollars, you'll probably have to get it online. I preferred HP's ink designation system, as it is much easier to remember than Canon's, which uses several letters and numbers. With my HP I had only to remember a few single numbers depending on which cartridge I wanted.

3) I also dislike that I couldn't set it to default to a "draft" setting for quick printing that uses less ink.

4) It's not intended to print labels. As I was learning its capabilities, I was astounded to find no reference at all to label printing in the Canon litereature. I contacted Canon, and indeed, they recommended not printing labels with it. I have printed Avery labels through PictureIt and MS Word satisfactorily, with no problems.

5) Not that this is so all-important, but it is downright boxy and ugly too.

So if you are looking for an all around general purpose printer, I'd recommend something else.



I really hate to rate a Canon printer low because my family has had such good success with earlier models -- i560, i850 (2), i860 and i960. This ip4300, however, which we bought to replace my wife's suddenly-dead i860, prints such poor photos we are abandoning it. I expected a newer generation printer with newer inks would print at least as well as the earlier series did, but in our case it has not. I'm glad so many have been pleased with their ip4300s, just wish we could get there. Problem is that the photos print too dark. I have adjusted settings to print lighter, hoping it would hold back the ink dumped out. Alas it's not a solution. The prints also don't show sharp edges as well as previous models did - lines look like they're smudged. If anyone has advice to help adjust the printer, I would like to hear it. Yesterday my wife printed another batch of pictures -- using genuine Canon ink cartridges and Canon matte photo paper as she always does -- and they're so bad we're disconnecting the printer. I'm assigning 2 stars because it prints text pages reasonably well. But that's not why we bought it. I'm reluctant to buy another Canon model, but maybe I can find one of the old printers.

I am very please to buy this printer, i was having very bad experience with HP printer i bough two printer HP before my Canon IP4300 but, only last to week to have rapair, canon is the best printer

LOVE THIS PRINTER. IT WORKS. IT IS SO SIMPLE AND RELIABLE. NICE LOOKING.
PICTBRIDGE ALSO. JUST GREAT SO FAR

I am very happy with my new Canon Pixma IP4300 printer. I especially like the feature that automatically turns the printer on if I send a print job to it. It also turns itself back off, which means I don't go off and forget I left it on. The photos I printed looked much better than my previous printer. On the glossy photo paper, the black was glossy also. My previous printer, the black was flat so the picture looked strange from a different angle. I also received my printer very quickly.

Great printer for my needs. If you want to print a pic it does a great job. Standard text project on standard paper, also just fine. On the slow side but not a concern to me. Priced right.

The software and driver installation requires that the printer be direct USB attached. This precludes this printer from any type of USB-to-Ethernet connectivity for print sharing. I wish I knew this before I purchased an ip4300.

Thinking that this might be a reasonable ink jet printer with separate cartridges, I tried it. I wasn't expecting much in terms of print quality - just something to handle the occasional need for color i.e. I wasn't expecting magazine quality photo printing.

WHAT a SURPRISE this turned out to be. It prints beautifully and FAST. It has two paper sources; I use one for good paper and the other for recycled (print on the back side) paper. It cleans itself and parks the cartridge carrier after a few minutes of non-use; so, you can leave it "on" all the time, if you like; it doesn't consume any power (I measured it.) when unused. The cartridges are nice and big - not the thumb-size of HP. Everything folds up into a nice sealed box - to prevent dust from collecting during non-use.

I'm delighted with it ... `couldn't be happier. Yes, I would buy one, again, without even thinking about it.

This photo printer is unbelievably fast! I was used to my deskjet printer speed, but man...Literally a 5 second color photo print with photo quality. No picture preview LCD, but the two input trays allow me to keep a pile of 4x6 paper below and standard 8 1/2 x 11 above. No changing paper all the time. Make sure you select the proper tray and paper in print setup the first time through!

This is the best inkjet on the market! It prints so fast. It has automatic two-sided printing. Great price too!! I am so happy with my purchase.

As received, the printer would not work because the accompanying software would not install. Troubleshooting as prescribed in the printer manual did not solve the problem, which caused frustration which caused me to call Canon Tech Support. Quick, expert diagnosis identified a faulty USB output port on the printer as the cause of the problem. Canon dispatched a replacement printer to me on the same day as the call, and I received it in two business days. The replacement installed and worked perfectly. Kudos to Canon for good Tech Support on a good product.

Prints excellent color pictures with good photo quality that stands out with quality paper. I have been using Canon printers for their individual ink cartridges that are easy to refill. Completely satisfied. Good price on Amazon also. My other two Cannon printers were researched and purchased online, one through AMAZON, also.

This summary from USA.
Certainly value for money. I download from a Canon IXY (10mp), adjusted contrast/brightness, hey presto, perfect prints. Important, ensure you set this printer profile in you software preferences. Another aspect to anyone from UK, this printer does not provide DVD/CD surface burning.
Beware purchasing compatible ink tanks, removing the chip from the origianl (installed) ink tank, and transferring the CHIP to the new (compatible) ink tank, WILL NOT WORK.
One final suggestion, if you mix you print sizes, say A4, AND 4"X6", use tray and feeder, that approach saves changing the print paper.

I've just upgraded from a Canon S900 printer that I've owned since 2002. My initial impressions are favorable based on direct comparison with S900 pictures. The ip4300 has darker (more accurate) reds than my S900 does. The ip4300 resolution set on standard appears as good as the S900 on fine. I haven't tried duplex printing yet. For less than $100, this is a bargain in my opinion since a complete set of inks for the S900 is around $75.

+ Great print speeds, very fine print quality, excellent photos, duplex (double sided) printing.

- Too big for it's own good. Loud... but tollerable. Quiet Mode doesn't do much for noise, just slows it down.

Great looks, great printing, excellent mechanics and design, you won't need to replace the printer because you can just replace the insides! (Print head)

I bought this printer because it was PC Mag Editors Choice. It's nice looking. . . .prints 81/2X11 photos just great and is pretty quick. I particularly appreciate the fact that you have two feed trays. I use the second tray for 4X6 blank photo paper. A push of a button switches you between the sources. At . . . I think . . . .around $89. . . .it can't be beat.

I bought this printer based on its good reviews. It does print beautiful photos BUT I haven't used it that hard for it to have failed so soon. Canon said they will send me a factory refurbished replacement for the body only. The problem began with a squeak in the rollers and yesterday it would not feed the paper properly. After several attempts to get it working per the instructions in the manual I contacted Canon. They ran me through a test with the machine after which they said the only thing they would do is send the replacement body.

Bought this Canon iP4300 to replace my Epson Photo 925 printer, which was not aging gracefully by the way. The fine detail on the photos this printer produces is absolutely incredible for the price. It's very quiet, has some really cool features like auto shut-off (after a pre-set time of non-use) and the double-side printing is very cool and helps save paper (and trees!). And it hasn't jammed or mis-fed once, which is more (much more) than I can say for the old Epson. Canon is the only way to go.

When the printer is used often (daily at least) the prints are very good. If the printer is left off for even a couple of days, what should be a red color begins as sort of a rust color. On another site I saw a similar comment for this printer. After some usage the red improves. To initially get good reds the nozzles must be cleaned. I have not used the printer enough to get a feel for ink usage but if cleaning is often necessary to get correct colors I do not expect this printer to be economical on ink.

I Love the printers the docs and picturs prints fast.....however the quality of pics are only as good as a $80 printer can get......so dont expect professioanl quality prints....but for general archiving the printer suits just fine... a good buy overall.

I've worked my way up from technician to network administrator in a school system and I've worked with all type printers from large networked printers to small local desktop printers, so when I say "WOW!" about a printer, I am impressed.

The quality of black and white printing and color printing is just as good as most laser printers around. The speed as compared to laser printers is close enough not to be a problem, especially with color printing where one might wait several minutes on the color laser printer to warm up, align itself, and then start printing. Of course on large print jobs laser printers rule.

The quality of photo printing blew me away! Out of the box my prints were equal to or superior than what I used to get from developers. Now, being able to crop, adjust color, tone, or whatever, my prints look much better than before. I will not go back.

And I got all this for just $88! Also, with this printer having seperate tanks for each color, the total cost of ownership is much lower than for printers with combination ink tanks.

The people in our IT department have tried a number of different printers for home use/photo printing and we've all ended up with one type of Canon printer or another. This printer has my highest recommendation!

I recently purchased this printer to use or documents as well as photos. The performance is outstanding! Photos print at an amazing speed with near photo lab quality. But it DOES guzzle ink and replacements are somewhat pricey. I especially like that you can not only monitor your ink usage on screen, but it also will notify you of low levels before it runs out. I am very pleased overall with iP4300.

It is nearly enough to comment that this printer was the Editor's Choice with PC Magazine and as I have trusted them through the years they have not let me down. I have two of these printers, one at home and the other is the mainstay printer in a busy Veterinarian Office. It runs flawlessly, the ink is less expensive than others, we print color pictures on each invoice and the color and reproduction on plain paper is great. The real test is ink usage as I have owned Epson's and other brands. The Canon inks DO NOT all run out at the same time, they really do allow ink replacement of only those colors being used which is a great money saver. Just runs and runs.

You searched diligently to find the right camera at the right price to capture those precious moments and exploit those eye-pleasing scenes. But once those amazing snapshots were taken, you needed a printer just as superb to make the photos worth their megapixels. I have always stuck with Canon for my camera, and because of this iP4300 I now stick with them for my printer. This printer produces phenomenal results, something I expect when I worked hard to take good pictures.

The set-up and installation guide is step-by-step. You don't need to worry about whether you'll be able to set it up or not, because it is quite simple. Everything you'll need is in the box EXCEPT a USB A to USB B cable. You will have to purchase a USB cable to connect the printer to the computer. The drivers and utilities installed total a little over 200 MB, not very big. Registration is extremely easy. Not a complaint about the installation (using Mac OS X 10.4).

The plastic that the iP4300 is made out of is a little flimsy, but not anything to worry about. You would still have to try very hard to break it. It is a slightly larger than normal printer, but not unmanageable. The fact that all of the trays fold up into a perfect box-shape is very convenient.

The photo quality is phenomenal. Of course, you will want to get some photo quality paper. I printed off 4 3x6s on a page, then an 8x10, and instantly saw a difference from any other printer I've dealt with. I did colors and black & whites, high contrast ones too, and in the all black areas I did not notice any streaks or lines. It was superb quality.

I was torn between this and the iP6700D. But in researching, I noticed that the iP6700D has two more photo colored ink cartridges (which sounds appealing at first) BUT less nozzles than the iP4300. So divide the already fewer print nozzles over 6 ink cartridges means a significant drop in nozzles per ink color in comparison with the iP4300's nozzle count. Then, the iP6700D offers the same B&W resolution as the 9600x color resolution, which also sounds better. But the iP4300's 600x is all you really need for B&W. The B&W print quality is amazing, do not worry. So unless you just have an insatiable desire for an LCD screen, I recommend to you the Canon iP4300 over any other printer.

I have always gone with Epson printers in the past because I felt the printouts were superior. This time I decided to go with Canon because I love my Canon cameras and the ip4300 got very high ratings. When I compared ink costs the decision was made. I have read that the Canon also uses less ink than the competing Epson but I'm not in a position to judge that.

I brought my printer home yesterday and I couldn't be happier. The set up directions were easy to follow and the prints are all "keepers". I really appreciate that when I printed a photo of my daughter I got exactly what I saw on the screen. The Epson had always printed a little dark and I'd learned to compensate when I processed the images but now I can have the same result online and on paper.

An unexpected bonus is that this printer is also very speedy and quiet. The only downside I can think of is that this printer takes up a bit more desk room than my old printer. I have plenty of room but the acreage challenged should measure their available space.

10 out of 10! 4 thumbs up!

My only complaint so far is that it seems to use too much ink on plain paper. I set the print quality to 'fast' and that helped a lot.

I realize I am using cheap paper, but I have plain paper selected in the setup and would think that the printer would be able to compensate for that.

I paid $60 after MIR from that 'S' office supply store, which I thought was a great deal!

This printer is BIG but very light in weight and it rolls out your prints quickly and velvety.

Like all Canon printers that I have had, the iP4300 needs to be programmed manually. This is easy to do, but if you run on automatic your printed images will be badly over-exposed. With adjustments the printer will produce excellent quality images on just plain paper.

Here are the settings I use for just plain paper. The printed page is rich in color, and is in sharp focus. If you use glossy papers you will probably have to change the settings from mine, but my settings will give you a ball park. The plain paper proofs are so good I'll probably not even use glossy papers. I prefer a matte look to glossy anyway. With these settings, I suggest using a matte paper. There are upscale matte papers.

Open the properties page
1. plain paper
2. high
3. manual
a. ICM (Windows color management)
b. sliders for cyan, magenta and yellow at 20
c. intensity 50 (dark)
d. contrast 0
e. brightness dark

Good luck and Godspeed, and I hope you enjoy your iP4300 as much as I do!



HEAD's UP: You can't just use the printer out of the box. You have to buy a USB cable to connect to the PC because the cable is NOT supplied with the printer. Adds $10 to the price of this printer.



I was so sick and tired of the consistently-poor performance that I had gotten out of my long line of HPs, that I had nearly given up on the idea of printing photos from home.

Then I found the Canon Pixma IP 4300. With its 9600 X 2400 resolution and its 3584 nozzles, I am getting near-photo lab prints every time.

I love Canon! I love this printer!



I was so sick and tired of the consistently-poor performance that I had gotten out of my long line of HPs, that I had nearly given up on the idea of printing photos from home.

Then I found the Canon Pixma IP 4300. With its 9600 X 2400 resolution and its 3584 nozzles, I am getting near-photo lab prints every time.

I love Canon! I love this printer!



My only complaint so far is that it seems to use too much ink on plain paper. I set the print quality to 'fast' and that helped a lot.

I realize I am using cheap paper, but I have plain paper selected in the setup and would think that the printer would be able to compensate for that.

I paid $60 after MIR from that 'S' office supply store, which I thought was a great deal!

This printer is BIG but very light in weight and it rolls out your prints quickly and velvety.

Like all Canon printers that I have had, the iP4300 needs to be programmed manually. This is easy to do, but if you run on automatic your printed images will be badly over-exposed. With adjustments the printer will produce excellent quality images on just plain paper.

Here are the settings I use for just plain paper. The printed page is rich in color, and is in sharp focus. If you use glossy papers you will probably have to change the settings from mine, but my settings will give you a ball park. The plain paper proofs are so good I'll probably not even use glossy papers. I prefer a matte look to glossy anyway. With these settings, I suggest using a matte paper. There are upscale matte papers.

Open the properties page
1. plain paper
2. high
3. manual
a. ICM (Windows color management)
b. sliders for cyan, magenta and yellow at 20
c. intensity 50 (dark)
d. contrast 0
e. brightness dark

Good luck and Godspeed, and I hope you enjoy your iP4300 as much as I do!



HEAD's UP: You can't just use the printer out of the box. You have to buy a USB cable to connect to the PC because the cable is NOT supplied with the printer. Adds $10 to the price of this printer.



I have always gone with Epson printers in the past because I felt the printouts were superior. This time I decided to go with Canon because I love my Canon cameras and the ip4300 got very high ratings. When I compared ink costs the decision was made. I have read that the Canon also uses less ink than the competing Epson but I'm not in a position to judge that.

I brought my printer home yesterday and I couldn't be happier. The set up directions were easy to follow and the prints are all "keepers". I really appreciate that when I printed a photo of my daughter I got exactly what I saw on the screen. The Epson had always printed a little dark and I'd learned to compensate when I processed the images but now I can have the same result online and on paper.

An unexpected bonus is that this printer is also very speedy and quiet. The only downside I can think of is that this printer takes up a bit more desk room than my old printer. I have plenty of room but the acreage challenged should measure their available space.

10 out of 10! 4 thumbs up!

You searched diligently to find the right camera at the right price to capture those precious moments and exploit those eye-pleasing scenes. But once those amazing snapshots were taken, you needed a printer just as superb to make the photos worth their megapixels. I have always stuck with Canon for my camera, and because of this iP4300 I now stick with them for my printer. This printer produces phenomenal results, something I expect when I worked hard to take good pictures.

The set-up and installation guide is step-by-step. You don't need to worry about whether you'll be able to set it up or not, because it is quite simple. Everything you'll need is in the box EXCEPT a USB A to USB B cable. You will have to purchase a USB cable to connect the printer to the computer. The drivers and utilities installed total a little over 200 MB, not very big. Registration is extremely easy. Not a complaint about the installation (using Mac OS X 10.4).

The plastic that the iP4300 is made out of is a little flimsy, but not anything to worry about. You would still have to try very hard to break it. It is a slightly larger than normal printer, but not unmanageable. The fact that all of the trays fold up into a perfect box-shape is very convenient.

The photo quality is phenomenal. Of course, you will want to get some photo quality paper. I printed off 4 3x6s on a page, then an 8x10, and instantly saw a difference from any other printer I've dealt with. I did colors and black & whites, high contrast ones too, and in the all black areas I did not notice any streaks or lines. It was superb quality.

I was torn between this and the iP6700D. But in researching, I noticed that the iP6700D has two more photo colored ink cartridges (which sounds appealing at first) BUT less nozzles than the iP4300. So divide the already fewer print nozzles over 6 ink cartridges means a significant drop in nozzles per ink color in comparison with the iP4300's nozzle count. Then, the iP6700D offers the same B&W resolution as the 9600x color resolution, which also sounds better. But the iP4300's 600x is all you really need for B&W. The B&W print quality is amazing, do not worry. So unless you just have an insatiable desire for an LCD screen, I recommend to you the Canon iP4300 over any other printer.

I recently purchased this printer to use or documents as well as photos. The performance is outstanding! Photos print at an amazing speed with near photo lab quality. But it DOES guzzle ink and replacements are somewhat pricey. I especially like that you can not only monitor your ink usage on screen, but it also will notify you of low levels before it runs out. I am very pleased overall with iP4300.

It is nearly enough to comment that this printer was the Editor's Choice with PC Magazine and as I have trusted them through the years they have not let me down. I have two of these printers, one at home and the other is the mainstay printer in a busy Veterinarian Office. It runs flawlessly, the ink is less expensive than others, we print color pictures on each invoice and the color and reproduction on plain paper is great. The real test is ink usage as I have owned Epson's and other brands. The Canon inks DO NOT all run out at the same time, they really do allow ink replacement of only those colors being used which is a great money saver. Just runs and runs.

I've worked my way up from technician to network administrator in a school system and I've worked with all type printers from large networked printers to small local desktop printers, so when I say "WOW!" about a printer, I am impressed.

The quality of black and white printing and color printing is just as good as most laser printers around. The speed as compared to laser printers is close enough not to be a problem, especially with color printing where one might wait several minutes on the color laser printer to warm up, align itself, and then start printing. Of course on large print jobs laser printers rule.

The quality of photo printing blew me away! Out of the box my prints were equal to or superior than what I used to get from developers. Now, being able to crop, adjust color, tone, or whatever, my prints look much better than before. I will not go back.

And I got all this for just $88! Also, with this printer having seperate tanks for each color, the total cost of ownership is much lower than for printers with combination ink tanks.

The people in our IT department have tried a number of different printers for home use/photo printing and we've all ended up with one type of Canon printer or another. This printer has my highest recommendation!

I Love the printers the docs and picturs prints fast.....however the quality of pics are only as good as a $80 printer can get......so dont expect professioanl quality prints....but for general archiving the printer suits just fine... a good buy overall.

I am not a "computer savvy" person -- so the effortless setup was a bonus for me! This printer was recommended by my son as "the best". That is why I purchased it -- and I am very pleased.

I am very pleased with my Canon Pixma iP4300 Photo Printer. It was easy to install and was up and running in short order. The instructions for installation were clear and precise. The ink cartridge's are easy to install and replace. My printer gives me top quality color photos as well as crisp black and white copy, and the speed of the printer is commensurate with my needs. My Canon Pixma iP4300 is as dependable and delivers good quality color and black and white prints that are equal to my more expensive printer the Canon Pixma iP5000.

I am very pleased with my new printer and find that having both regular and photo printer in one unit is very helpful. The instructions are clear and helpful. I am 84 years old so being able to find excellent instructions and guidance is a positive aspect as I try to keep up with rapid progress and updates in my computer.

My 1st Canon printer was a iP6700D. Shortly, an HP 8250xi came on sale for $89, which I also bought. The HP has truer colors and not as much vivid colors as the Canon. I sold the iP6700D. The Canon photo printing program is the best I have seen. I missed it. The iP4300 came up on sale for a rediculous price of $49. I bot one. It prints exactly as the iP6700D - fast and quiet, with the same photo program. But its colors are still not as good as HP, esp, with faces. There is a greater disparity with facial tones & hues than any other facet. It always seem as if the pinkness in facial tones shows up quite starkly, if compared with an HP print (of the same subject). I will keep the iP4300 because of its superior printing program, which has a tick which irritates me: the photo printing program is dedicated to a Canon printer ONLY. Once the choices have been made for which photos are to be printed, THATS IT. You cannot choose any other printer but the Canon. The HP allows the choice of any printer you have that is installed on your PC. Regarding ink: Its too bad that the photo printers have such small ink supplies. I am sure the cheap prices of printers are out there because the real $$ are made from the sale of ink.

This printer is a replacement for the ip4200 which I really liked. I think the ip4300 is an even better printer. The duplex printing feature is worth the price of the printer. I also like the ability to purchase the replacement ink in bulk - all the color and one of the black cartridges in a single bundle.

When the printer is used often (daily at least) the prints are very good. If the printer is left off for even a couple of days, what should be a red color begins as sort of a rust color. On another site I saw a similar comment for this printer. After some usage the red improves. To initially get good reds the nozzles must be cleaned. I have not used the printer enough to get a feel for ink usage but if cleaning is often necessary to get correct colors I do not expect this printer to be economical on ink.

Bought this Canon iP4300 to replace my Epson Photo 925 printer, which was not aging gracefully by the way. The fine detail on the photos this printer produces is absolutely incredible for the price. It's very quiet, has some really cool features like auto shut-off (after a pre-set time of non-use) and the double-side printing is very cool and helps save paper (and trees!). And it hasn't jammed or mis-fed once, which is more (much more) than I can say for the old Epson. Canon is the only way to go.

I bought this printer because it was PC Mag Editors Choice. It's nice looking. . . .prints 81/2X11 photos just great and is pretty quick. I particularly appreciate the fact that you have two feed trays. I use the second tray for 4X6 blank photo paper. A push of a button switches you between the sources. At . . . I think . . . .around $89. . . .it can't be beat.

I bought this printer based on its good reviews. It does print beautiful photos BUT I haven't used it that hard for it to have failed so soon. Canon said they will send me a factory refurbished replacement for the body only. The problem began with a squeak in the rollers and yesterday it would not feed the paper properly. After several attempts to get it working per the instructions in the manual I contacted Canon. They ran me through a test with the machine after which they said the only thing they would do is send the replacement body.

+ Great print speeds, very fine print quality, excellent photos, duplex (double sided) printing.

- Too big for it's own good. Loud... but tollerable. Quiet Mode doesn't do much for noise, just slows it down.

Great looks, great printing, excellent mechanics and design, you won't need to replace the printer because you can just replace the insides! (Print head)

I've just upgraded from a Canon S900 printer that I've owned since 2002. My initial impressions are favorable based on direct comparison with S900 pictures. The ip4300 has darker (more accurate) reds than my S900 does. The ip4300 resolution set on standard appears as good as the S900 on fine. I haven't tried duplex printing yet. For less than $100, this is a bargain in my opinion since a complete set of inks for the S900 is around $75.

Prints excellent color pictures with good photo quality that stands out with quality paper. I have been using Canon printers for their individual ink cartridges that are easy to refill. Completely satisfied. Good price on Amazon also. My other two Cannon printers were researched and purchased online, one through AMAZON, also.

This summary from USA.
Certainly value for money. I download from a Canon IXY (10mp), adjusted contrast/brightness, hey presto, perfect prints. Important, ensure you set this printer profile in you software preferences. Another aspect to anyone from UK, this printer does not provide DVD/CD surface burning.
Beware purchasing compatible ink tanks, removing the chip from the origianl (installed) ink tank, and transferring the CHIP to the new (compatible) ink tank, WILL NOT WORK.
One final suggestion, if you mix you print sizes, say A4, AND 4"X6", use tray and feeder, that approach saves changing the print paper.

As received, the printer would not work because the accompanying software would not install. Troubleshooting as prescribed in the printer manual did not solve the problem, which caused frustration which caused me to call Canon Tech Support. Quick, expert diagnosis identified a faulty USB output port on the printer as the cause of the problem. Canon dispatched a replacement printer to me on the same day as the call, and I received it in two business days. The replacement installed and worked perfectly. Kudos to Canon for good Tech Support on a good product.

This is the best inkjet on the market! It prints so fast. It has automatic two-sided printing. Great price too!! I am so happy with my purchase.

This photo printer is unbelievably fast! I was used to my deskjet printer speed, but man...Literally a 5 second color photo print with photo quality. No picture preview LCD, but the two input trays allow me to keep a pile of 4x6 paper below and standard 8 1/2 x 11 above. No changing paper all the time. Make sure you select the proper tray and paper in print setup the first time through!

I am very happy with my new Canon Pixma IP4300 printer. I especially like the feature that automatically turns the printer on if I send a print job to it. It also turns itself back off, which means I don't go off and forget I left it on. The photos I printed looked much better than my previous printer. On the glossy photo paper, the black was glossy also. My previous printer, the black was flat so the picture looked strange from a different angle. I also received my printer very quickly.

Great printer for my needs. If you want to print a pic it does a great job. Standard text project on standard paper, also just fine. On the slow side but not a concern to me. Priced right.

The software and driver installation requires that the printer be direct USB attached. This precludes this printer from any type of USB-to-Ethernet connectivity for print sharing. I wish I knew this before I purchased an ip4300.

Thinking that this might be a reasonable ink jet printer with separate cartridges, I tried it. I wasn't expecting much in terms of print quality - just something to handle the occasional need for color i.e. I wasn't expecting magazine quality photo printing.

WHAT a SURPRISE this turned out to be. It prints beautifully and FAST. It has two paper sources; I use one for good paper and the other for recycled (print on the back side) paper. It cleans itself and parks the cartridge carrier after a few minutes of non-use; so, you can leave it "on" all the time, if you like; it doesn't consume any power (I measured it.) when unused. The cartridges are nice and big - not the thumb-size of HP. Everything folds up into a nice sealed box - to prevent dust from collecting during non-use.

I'm delighted with it ... `couldn't be happier. Yes, I would buy one, again, without even thinking about it.

I am very please to buy this printer, i was having very bad experience with HP printer i bough two printer HP before my Canon IP4300 but, only last to week to have rapair, canon is the best printer

LOVE THIS PRINTER. IT WORKS. IT IS SO SIMPLE AND RELIABLE. NICE LOOKING.
PICTBRIDGE ALSO. JUST GREAT SO FAR

I really hate to rate a Canon printer low because my family has had such good success with earlier models -- i560, i850 (2), i860 and i960. This ip4300, however, which we bought to replace my wife's suddenly-dead i860, prints such poor photos we are abandoning it. I expected a newer generation printer with newer inks would print at least as well as the earlier series did, but in our case it has not. I'm glad so many have been pleased with their ip4300s, just wish we could get there. Problem is that the photos print too dark. I have adjusted settings to print lighter, hoping it would hold back the ink dumped out. Alas it's not a solution. The prints also don't show sharp edges as well as previous models did - lines look like they're smudged. If anyone has advice to help adjust the printer, I would like to hear it. Yesterday my wife printed another batch of pictures -- using genuine Canon ink cartridges and Canon matte photo paper as she always does -- and they're so bad we're disconnecting the printer. I'm assigning 2 stars because it prints text pages reasonably well. But that's not why we bought it. I'm reluctant to buy another Canon model, but maybe I can find one of the old printers.

The iP4300 is super-fast on black & white text and has great quality on photos. Be sure to tell it what type of paper you are using. I mostly print high-quality graphics and text, but on occasion like to print photos at home rather than uploading them. This printer does well at both. The only con I see so far is its relatively large size and the cost of cartridges (cartridges are expensive no matter what these days...)

The PIXMA Printer is a great printer for our Youth Outreach Program. We use it for newsletter publications and photos. Thanks.

I had to buy a printer quickly to replace my old reliable HP Deskjet 932c that suddenly died after six years. After a lot of research, I decided not to go with HP because of all the paper handling problems I read about with current models, and I liked Canon's individual color ink cartridges, rather than Tri-color and Black. Indeed, I think a paper jam is what began the death of my 932c. It was probably my mistake that I chose the ip4300, as my most frequent use is printing text, along with some photo printing.

I have to say that it does do a good job printing photos. I've done very little printing on photo paper, but prints on good quality regular paper look good.

Even though its text printing looks good, here are the problems I've run into:

1) It's the noisiest inkjet I've ever heard. It has a "quiet mode" that works, but this mode seems to print slower.

2) I've found that the Canon genuine ink I need (not refills) for this printer is hard to find locally. Wal Mart doesn't carry it; one local Staples was out of stock and the other didn't carry it. I finally found it at Target, but if you want to save a few dollars, you'll probably have to get it online. I preferred HP's ink designation system, as it is much easier to remember than Canon's, which uses several letters and numbers. With my HP I had only to remember a few single numbers depending on which cartridge I wanted.

3) I also dislike that I couldn't set it to default to a "draft" setting for quick printing that uses less ink.

4) It's not intended to print labels. As I was learning its capabilities, I was astounded to find no reference at all to label printing in the Canon litereature. I contacted Canon, and indeed, they recommended not printing labels with it. I have printed Avery labels through PictureIt and MS Word satisfactorily, with no problems.

5) Not that this is so all-important, but it is downright boxy and ugly too.

So if you are looking for an all around general purpose printer, I'd recommend something else.



I like this printer. It does everything just right. I surprised by the good quality of canon's software to print photos. It creates easy workflow for trouble free printing.

(Please see updates at the end of this review)

I know this machine is feature rich, and the print quality is excellent, but I am quite disappointed with the software. Twice the installer hung forever and required a system restart in Mac OS X (current version), and I finally ignored the CD and installed through CUPS (localhost:631). This was annoying enough, but it also selectively fails to print, with no indication that anything is wrong other than a job forever stuck in "waiting to complete" state. I have two other printers that work fine, so this is not a newbie issue, although it does entail the somewhat greater complexity of a printer-sharing setup and may be more reliable on a direct USB connection to the host machine.

When it works, it does so smoothly and quickly, and the envelope handling (from Endicia) is noticeably better than my trusty Epson. I have not tried the photo-quality printing for which this unit is famous, so this is not a comprehensive review... just a comment on the Mac integration. I'm fairly loyal to Canon as I love their cameras, but the bloatware that ships with this printer is both inscrutable and fragile in the OSX environment.

UPDATE 1: Since my initial writing of this review, it has died completely: it is convinced that the cyan ink tank is not recognized, even though it is FULL. This prevents any operation of the printer, and cannot be bypassed with re-inserting the cartridge, resetting, power cycling, or anything else.

UPDATE 2 (about 2 weeks later): I have to credit Canon's tech support for responding well... they quickly shipped a replacement Cyan ink tank, which fixed the problem. Stopping and restarting the printer in CUPS released the hung jobs, and it is now working quickly and smoothly.



I guess I am fortunate in having both units to compare. While the build quality of the iP4300 seems equal to the iP4000 the photo quality is not. Outdoor photos seem comparable when printed through each printer, but indoor shots under tungsten lighting are very different. The iP4000 consistently produces pleasing and accurate flesh tones whereas the iP4300 consistently produces flesh tones with a definite pink unnatural quality. Using my Canon A630 I made sure the histogram was accurate for the photos I was testing and tried direct print from the camera. They produced consistenly inaccurate flesh tones only on the iP4300 and not the iP4000. Using several different brands and types of photo paper produced the same poor results.
Transferring the photos to the computer and editing with the Canon software I was unable to correct the poor flesh tones in the printout on the iP4300 although it looked perfect on a properly calibrated monitor and printed perfectly on the iP4000. Switching over to Adobe Photoshop 6.0 I did the same color correction and obtained the same poor results on the iP4300 yet perfect results on the iP4000.

This was the SECOND iP4300. I exchanged the first one thinking that it may have just been my particular unit. Amazon was GREAT when it came to the exchange. Unfortunately the second unit produced the same results as the first. Rather than return it I will use the iP4300 for outdoor photos and the iP4000 for indoor photos.

Very pleased with this printer for text, very fast, photos images adequate. sal

Things that are GOOD, for me:
-2 feed options, I can load up the bottom tray with plain paper AND feed cardstock/matte photo paper in the top with out any real effort.
-Duplexing, it will print double sided with a click of an option
-individual color carts, granted they are a little small but there are 2 blacks and the colors run about $13 each
-photo quality prints, not a huge need for myself, but it's nice to have that option
-sleek looking, many of my previous HP printers look like alien space ships, this is nice and boxie!
-I found it comfortably priced at $100 or less

Things that are BAD:
-It sometimes can take as much as 1-2 minutes to `warm up', sometimes it'll print right away other times it chugs and whirs for a bit first.
-I had to buy the USB 2.0 cable, gone are the days of the printer cable, now it's a USB 2.0
-it's pretty large, with the paper tray in, it's foot print is nearly 18" x 16", while this technically isn't a big deal for me, I kind of see it as a negative
-it's going to eat thru color carts if I don't remember to `dim' the color settings for stuff that's not important.


I love this printer! It's plenty fast, and the printing on text is excellent. I haven't tried photos yet, so can't really comment on that. All in all, I'm very happy with my purchase.

Prints very impressive photos on photo paper. Like the dual paper sources, tray and stack feeder. Quiet and pretty fast. Easy to set up. Photo paper does not work well in the tray as it jams easily. Use the stack loader for photo paper and keep normal paper in the tray.

I am using the printer with an iMac G4 Flat Panel under OS 10.4.

Howard

I know many of you wonder which printer to buy. I have been doing photography for almost ten years and this is the first time I have printed my own stuff. I did a lot of research and read many reviews and I must say that this printer put out high quality photos and compares very well with some of the more expensive printers based on test images I have seen printed. This printer is intended more as a photo printer than basic b/w but certainly is capable of anything. I would highly recommend you give this a shot. You won't be disappointed, I'm sure. I was also looking at the Epson R800 which is more expensive but honestly the output looks the same as the Canon 4300.

This printer is amazing... it prints ridiculously fast, and you can set it automatically to run quieter during certain hours, like at night. It has a duplex (double sided) printing feature that is usually available only on more expensive models. The ink is a bit pricy, but you can buy individual cartridges so you only have to spend money on the ones you need. (Black mostly.) It's slightly large for my liking, but with all its great features and its name, you can't go wrong. It is the easiest printer to use I have ever owned. Both HP's before this worked for about 5 months then stopped completely, and were more expensive to buy ink for. Canon rocks!

I own the ip4000 at home and love it, so I ordered this printer for my office to replace my balky Epson 900, which I use mainly for printing dental X-rays. It generally works very well. It is quick, quiet, and convenient for loading two different types of paper in the auto feed and the cassette. My only complaint is that on the heavily black areas of printing on the X-rays, if printed on glossy paper, it takes surprisingly long for the ink to fully dry so that it doesn't smear, even if I choose the setting to allow for more drying time.

I have used the Canon for about a month now for document and website printing. It has been flawless. Quality is excellent. I havent used it for photos so cannot comment on that. A few features I appreciate are the duplex (2-sided printing), double paper feeder, auto on/off and the speed. A few have mentioned the high ink cost but I havent noticed it to be a problem. Perhaps, if I printed photos that would be a concern. I just purchased the PGI-5Bk for $13 and the 4-color pack for $42. Plus the store offers $3 rebate on used tanks. The cost of paper I save using the duplex mode cuts down further the ink price. Overall, I am very satisfied with the 4300. Paid $89.

We love the printer and it arrived in 2 days from when we placed the order. The footprint is a bit big, but it's the only printer we need now. Love the duplexing and multiple paper areas.

I generally don't write reviews unless my experience is very good, or very bad. In this case, it was very bad. The quality of a printed photograph is horrible. I tried it both from a Win XP machine and my MacBook running OS X. In both cases...bad bad bad. Maybe I got a lemon? I'm tossing it into the garbage and buying an HP. There is no reason to keep a bad printer since they are virtually free with the initial supply of ink.

I do not recommend that anyone purchase this printer. I did not get a USB cable with the printer so I called and was told they could not send me a USB cable that they had to send another printer. I was assured that they would check the contents to be sure it was included. I got the next printer again without the USB cable (the printer is useless without the cable to hook it up to the computer). Since I do not want to be shipping back multiple printers I gave up trying to get a USB cable sent to me. I had to go to Best Buy to purchase a USB cable to use this printer and it cost me $35.00, guess this is why they are missing from the boxes.

received it in record time due to local warehouse. Flawless operation, easy set-up, great colors and speed. Have had Canon printers since '94.

This was a replacement for a B&W laser. It was easy to setup & connect and everything worked smoothly right from the beginning. It's fast and the quality is excellent. I've been blown away by the clarity of 4x6 color prints - as good as the lab - and at about 30 seconds for a print, the speed is great. Also, the included Canon software is extremely handy and accurate. The dual trays completely satisfy my needs...8 1/2 x 11 for correspondence & 4x6 glossy photo for my prints. Thank you Canon, and thank you Amazon for getting it here so quickly. -30-

I had a Canon BJC4200 for almost 10 years and it worked flawlessly. I got bored and bought a HP. My God! What a mistake, the HP were always cleaning its head, were slow, and when I printed a 10 pages document and went away, the pages were never in order! I quicky got rid of the HP and bougut an Epson. BIG MISTAKE. Epson economy printing is a joke. It is grey, faded, almost like if you had printed 1000 pages and the ink is in its last days. I called Epson and they told me that the NEW EPSON are programmed to print (in econo mode) in that way (grey and faded). I got angry for that rip off and bought this Canon. What a change! It is fast, it has dual tray, it never get jammed, it prints large documents and the pages are always perfectly rearranged and MOST OF ALL, in the Canon economy mode (even tough is very fast) the quality is excellent, like the NORMAL mode of the Epson. I just laughed at the people of Epson after seeing the economy mode impressions of Canon. My conclusion is the Canon is WAY AHEAD of its COMPETITORS. Canon makes the BEST ink jet PRINTERS in the industry. PERIOD.

Brochure printing is relatively fast. Print quality is good. Ink cost is relatively high. You pay extra for the ink cartridge to have a light in it........ and whenthe printer decides that the ink is low, it stops printing. period. You CANNOT print until the ink runs out. Every time I've had to change the ink, there is still visable ink left in the tank.

My research indiciated that this was a highly rated printer and I was not disappointed with my purchased. Installation was easy and worked the first time through. The printer's performance is excellent especially on color photos. If you are strapped for space be sure to check the dimensions, I found this printer to be quite a bit larger than my old HP Inkjet printer. All in all, I'd say this printer is an excellent value.

Very good product with excellent services from canon and Amazon. Canon service people help me adjust the settings to get the best photo pictures.

The iP4300 replace my Canon i950. The i950 was very good but the print head continuously clogged requiring numerous deep cleanings (and corresponding reductions in ink). Like the dual feeds, bottom used for regular paper and top for ilford photo paper. Nice to have the auto duplex printing. Print quality very good for 8X10 photos, fairly fast. After replacing ink cartridges, realized this will be an expensive printer if used on High print quality. Overall, with the price, I'm very happy with the iP4300.

I got this printer because it handles card stock well and it had excellent ratings. Problem is, I use Adobe Illustrator for a lot of my graphics and when I print my work as Adobe Illustrator files, the printer doesn't put enough ink down on the paper and there is no way to adjust it. It seems I must have a Post Script printer if I'm printing AI files! I can switch the file to a TIFF or some other rasterized file type but that makes for many more steps. Previous printers I bought handled AI files satisfactorily, why not this one?

I mostly use this printer to print text and Internet graphics. It prints quickly and clearly. Having 2 paper trays saves me from constantly switching paper. I use the bottom tray for paper that I use most often. I use the top tray for special jobs, like envelopes. Although I did not buy this printer to print photos, it does an excellent job. I printed a 8x11 photo that looks like it came from a professional photo lab. The printer also looks good on my desk. When it's closed, the printer looks like a sleek black box. I didn't give 5 stars, because the printer is larger than I would prefer. I recommended this printer to a family member, and he loves it.

So far the Canon Pixma iP4300 printer has functioned flawlessly. There have been no disappointments. The only problem encountered has been to find a convenient online site where the printer cartridges can be purchased. Soon there will be a need to replace one or more of the cartridges and further searching for a vendor will be necessary. The quality of the printing is excellent. The printer worked flawlessly after being hooked up to my G5 iMac. This is a good, solid, and dependable printer.

Very fast printer, even when you print the best quality. The quality is great. Its stylish looking if you're into appeal. It tucks away into a cabinet that i have so its out of site, but it is a little bulky and heavy. I havent had any problems with it so far, and i've had it for about 3 months.

The print quality is excellent, and automatic duplex printing is very convenient. The print-profile system is greatly superior to any other printer I've used, in that it lets you quickly and easily set a profile based on all of the current settings. It's also nice to be able to switch paper trays with only one button.

The one caveat is the printer cartridges: they have a proprietary computer chip, and so must be either bought brand-name (which is expensive) or used without any indicator of ink levels. It's nice to be able to replace one color at a time, but overall the cartridges are more expensive than with most printers.

Excellant printer for price points. Replaced a Canon i960. Print quality of the PIXMA iP4300 is equal or better than i960.

Many people buy Canon printers because Canon printers used to allow refill the inks and their ink tank design.

However, since Pixma4200 and this 4300 also, Canon introduced 8 series ink tank has chip to measure how many times the printer had asked tank to produce the ink. The firmware inside the printer calculates what would be the max ink shot it could produce. If you refill before the ink tank was empty, it will still shut you off when the number of ink droplets reachs the pre-set number.

You will be forced to acknowledge that you will void the warranty on that printer head. If you think that is the end of trouble, you are wrong. The firmware will continue monitor how many ink droplets from this refilled ink, you will get may be one more refill, it will tell you that ink tank is empty, no matter what you want do. You may say, okay, I had agreed void my warranty, why does Canon still limit me from refilling? Ask those engineers in Japan will not get any answer back to you.

Worse yet. You are forced to buy a new ink catridge to use that printer now. However, when you refill the send Canon brand catridge, it will ask you to void your warranty again! How many times does Canon think is enough to ask user to void their warranty?

I would stay away from Canon, and go with Epson which has a model allowing ink refill. If people live in Japan does not fill their land with artificial waste like ink catridge, why do they fill our land in US with those artificial junk?

The ink out feature is disabled if you refill your own cartridges. My older Canon gave warnings and you could refill without having to disable the ink out feature. This model requires you buy the refill from Canon or the ink out feature is disabled. Prints fast and in duplex. You can also load a lot of envelopes which is handy.

A few days later and now it won't let the colors I refilled print - I have to say don't buy this printer unless you like buying expensive ink cartridges - a lot.

I was convinced to buy the 4300 because of the glowing reviews that I had seen and have been very disappointed in its performance. Specifically, I have been unable to generate printed pictures that match the color of an original digital picture. While some of the issue is with personal taste, my old HP printer can produce replicas of the original that was printed commercially.

A second more irritating issue is with the amount of noise the printer makes when warming up, warming down, and seeming adjusting the print head location. The noise just continues for at least a couple of minutes after the printing has been completed. I would certainly not recommend this printer. I just keep reminding myself that it was not very expensive.

I am on my third of these printers, mainly because of problems with the cartriges. It replaced an old HP 712C that I'd worn out after 5 years. The first one would not accept a new cyan tank. After 3 different tanks, I took it back. Up until then it had printed fine, good looking prints. The second one I had setup problems and it didn't want to be online. the third one has had no problems aside from a large appetite for ink. I do like the duplex printing for both sides, option of cassette or top feed, etc. I have been able to print on any paper I can fit into the machine, including heavy card stock.
My main concern at this point is the rapid use of ink with expensive tanks. I'd someday like to find a printer with refillable tanks. Give me refillable tanks! Charge more for the printers, just give me refillable tanks! You should be able to replace INK for the price of INK.
At least they have seperate tanks for each color, and you can run the printer until every drop is spent from the tanks, although it will complain, and if one tank is empty it will shutdown any printing until the tank is replaced, on the sheet where the ink runs out. So you won't waste paper if running 2 dozen copies of something and you won't end up with a large number of sheets that are unusable.
I had been influenced to purchase this printer because a university where I have been taking some classes had a Canon commercial grade printer that did have refillable tanks. So it can be done!
It is pretty quiet too, and I have run quite a bit of paper through this puppy, at least this third one has been reliable. I just would like to get a lower cost for ink.

Inexpensive to buy (but, like any inkjet, not to operate), fast, easy to use, attractive (if you keep the various doors closed). I love the duplexing feature--being able to print to the front and back of a page saves trees and make for thinner printouts.

Fantastic printer- the photo quality is superb & it is very quiet. Separate ink cartridges for each color and the cartridge design saves $s and time.

I like the fact that the print head can be removed and cleaned if it ever becomes clogged; this should keep the machine going for a long time.

I am adding to a Canon MP730 all-in-one that i thought printed photos pretty well. It does print ok - however, compared to this $100 Canon 4300, it's mediocre at best. This Canon 4300 printer prints photos from my 4-pixel digital camera that look like I bought them at the photo store. It's prints great regular text too. I've tried double-sided photo matte paper that I use to make customized calendars and they look great. I've printed on cheap Staples brand gloss 4x6 paper and they look even better. Now, I have yet to see how long the ink lasts and the ink does run a but high. Also, I sprung for an extra $15 and bought the 2-year service plan - just in case. I'll update this review in 6 months if the performance goes down hill, but for now, this is the best color printer out there for $100. It doesn't copy or fax, but I have the Canon MP730 for that. I did try to hook this up to a Netgear wireless server with no luck - so i tried the Netgear mini server - still no luck, but I'm pretty sure it's a problem with Netgear and maybe my router, not with the printer.

I just changed from an Epson 785epx(about 4-5 yrs old). I couldn't be much happier. This printer does seem a little cheap when it comes to the case, but I really don't plan on dropping it or moving it around. I tend to keep my printer right by my computer, so i wasn't to worried when it came to the outside.
I was more worried about the quality of the prints. I was debating between changing my brand to HP or Cannon. All the research I came up with kept pointing me to the Cannon for the photo quality(which was my main concern).
This little printer did not disappoint one bit. I think my favorite part about cannon is the individual ink tanks. I can not tell you how many times I had to waist some ink on my epson because only one color ran out and I still had ink in the other tanks.
I also found 100 sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 Kodak Premium High Gloss paper at Costco for $[...] and the prints came out great(my epson would not print on Kodak paper, only epson paper).
So, for under $[...] this printer should put a hurt on all other brands!!!! Cannon you found a new fan!!!

The Good:
-Outstanding output quality for the price
-Good speed
-Automatic Duplex printing
-Lightweight drivers/software
-Inexpensive ink

The Bad:
Aside from a slightly cheap asthetic feel, I can't find a thing. And for such a low price, it's to be expected. Other manufactures might have shnazzier printers at the same price point, but keep in mind most other manufacturers don't sell printers, they sell ink, so you pay for it in the long run.

Overall I am extremely satisfied with this printer. Coming from an IP4000, I had high expectations, and this did not dissapoint. I have owned every major brand of printers (HP, Epson), and Canon is absolutely where it's at. Cartridges are much more affordable, you aren't forced to install 400mb of junk that loads 5 processes at windows startup (HP), and the attention to detail is great (i.e., you can program the printer to shutoff after X minutes of being idle). Do yourself a favor and buy a Canon.


I was using an HP Photosmart 7260 which made very good photo prints. It used 6 color photo ink but I had to change one cartridge to pigment ink for text.
I bought the IP4300 and here are the differences:
**It uses separtate ink cartridges but uses 4 colors for photos.
**The print quality is equal or better than the HP (but close).
**The IP4300 is quiet and 2 - 3 times faster.
**The print driver has both auto and manual modes so you can tweak the print.
**It has two paper paths. I put photo paper in the back feeder and plain paper in the front cassett. Located below the pull out catch tray.
**I can set the default to plain paper and select photo settings when needed. The printer will automatically use the back paper feed.
**This printer has automatic head alignment and it works great.
**You can turn on a power save mode to have it shut off if not used after some time (I chose 30 minutes). It will automatically turn on when printing.
**All 5 cartridges are installed. Pigment black produces excellant text.
**I have seen some reviews where itwas stated that the prints have a red tint. I got the same thing at first. If you are not using Canon paper, start with this setting: Select paper "Photo Paper Pro" and High Print Quality. This removed my red tint (I use Kodak paper).

Overall, if you want a printer for text and high quality photos, this is it. If you are looking for advance photo printers Canon makes those too. These are not usually good for text.
Ron


I bought this for the speed and for it's ability to print directly from a Pictbridge camera. It not only prints blazing fast (compared to my Epson 1200) but uses lightfast ink resulting in a signifigant leap in image stability and longevity for the prints. After connecting the camera to printer I press four buttons (on camera) and the printer does it's thing and out pops a beautiful print without ever turning on the computer! Wow! It comes with separate ink cartridges for each color plus an extra larger black I assume for the laser quality text. It also closes up nicely keeping dust out and has two separate paper feeds for two paper sizes. I likey this printer!!!

I ordered this 4300 for the office on the basis of great results with its predecessor, the 4200, at home. If you're new to the Pixma line, expect the machine to function flawlessly if not beyond expectations, though at a slightly higher cost in ink than other printers. (Always keep a spare of each of the 5 colors on hand, and forget about finding clones for this model or cheaper ink prices than those posted on Amazon.) The iP4300 is a slight upgrade of the extremely popular iP4200 (see reviews of that machine). If you print a lot of photos, you'll notice a 40% increase in the rate of processing. If you want a preview monitor on your printer, you'll find it available on the higher-numbered, costlier Canon Pixmas (the ip6600 is the newest; the price of the ip6000 is currently attractive, but the machine is two years old). Finally, I wouldn't discount the duplex printing feature, retained on the 4300. It has saved me not only paper but numerous trips to the copy machine.

Advantage of the iP4300 over the 4200: Significantly faster printing of color copy because of added ink jets.

Disadvantage of IP4300: Slightly wider and deeper than the 4200, taking up more desk space. (Height and weight are the same.)

Bottom line: Still the best and most dependable all-around printer (not just photos) for home or office in this price range, at least until HP or Epson (I've previously owned both) return to form. If you need a clincher, it's the duplex printing.