If you are looking for a fast, quiet, and economical ink jet printer, put the Canon i560 on your list of possibilities. Its print quality, speed, and ease-of-use is sure to impress.
The included Quick Start Sheet made set up quick and easy. Take the printer out of the box and remove the packing tape, insert the ink cartridges, install the software, and the printer is ready to roll. The i560 connects to the computer by parallel cable or USB, but neither cable is included.
When installing the software you are asked if you want to install several additional programs. Unfortunately, there is little on-screen explanation of these programs, and no paper documentation to explain what these programs are, what they do, or how to access them. You will, however, definitely want to install these programs because they are excellent add-ons for the printer
At first I found the i560 to be quite loud with the normal grinding and rasping that many ink jet printers subject our ears to. That, however, changed when I investigated the Printer Properties where I found a Quiet mode. This option allows you to turn the quiet mode on, off, or on during certain periods of time. I chose the “always in” quite mode setting and found a dramatic noise reduction. In the Printer Properties you can also set the printer to automatically shut off after several minutes of inactivity. The printer will then power up automatically when you print again.
The i560 uses the printhead and many components from the popular i850 printer, but with a lower price. The i560 claims 22 pages per minute in black text and up to 15ppm in color. The print quality is excellent and rivals that of a laser printer. The true beauty, however, is in the impressive photo printing. This printer produces true borderless images up to 8 ½ by 11 inches.
The Easy-PhotoPrint software for PC or Mac automatically boosts color saturation and eliminates photo noise producing exceptionally vivid colors. It also automatically adjusts the size of the printer output so you can print that picture without a bit of hassle. Easy-PhotoPrint also lets you decide how many photos you want on a sheet, and prompts you to tell it the type and size of paper you are using so results are always excellent. Did I mention that it is very intuitive and easy to use? It is by far the best photo print software that I have seen.
The second included program is the Easy-WebPrint software. It is for Windows only requires Internet Explorer 5.5 or better. This software automatically smoothes and formats Web pages so that they print properly. It resizes Web pages to fit the standard printer page so they can be printed without losing information on the right side of the page as happens so often when you simply click on Print. Easy Web Print is easy to use and produced excellent results. It adds a toolbar to your Internet Explorer screen for quick access. Some will love the ease-of-use while others will morn the loss of precious screen space. In either case, this program is excellent for printing Web pages that can otherwise be cumbersome to print.
The PhotoRecord for Windows only software is basically for printing photo albums. The ZoomBrowser EX (Windows) and ImageBrowser (Mac) will help you organize all your photos. I was lamenting the fact that the Easy-PhotoPrint software wouldn’t let me print photos in custom sizes when I discovered that the PhotoRecord software would do just what I wanted. I now have 2” x 2” photos for my small picture frames. The PhotoStitch software works for Windows and Mac to make it easy to stitch together digital images shot in the panoramic mode. I used it to stitch together shots I had taken of the Alps and it worked beautifully. All-in-all, the included software will help you perform most any printing task quickly and easily.
The printer has a port on the front which can be used to attach a camera and transfer the photos directly to the printer without the need for a computer. To take advantage of this type of set up you must have a camera which is Bubble Jet Direct or PictBridge compatible. These are mostly Canon digital cameras and camcorders.
The i560 uses the Canon Think Tank System to help manage ink useage. This printer comes with four ink tanks so you only need to replace the color that is empty. This alone lowers printing costs. The black ink tank is double-sized which is also more economical. You can set your printer preferences to High, Standard, Draft, or Custom. This also allows you to save on ink while printing as light or dark as you like. The ink cartridges are also less expensive than most which will significantly lower the cost of ownership.
The i560 supports Exif Print, a worldwide standard for higher quality digital photo printing. If your camera is equipped with this technology, the printer is able to use data recorded in the camera itself to produce truer reproduction of digital images.
The Canon i560 is being distributed by several large discount stores like Sam’s Warehouse where you can get a better than retail price which makes this printer a real bargain.
