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It is 42x29x17cm and weighs around 6.5kilos. Paper is loaded face forward in a vertical stack at the rear of the unit and this adds around 21cm to the height. Paper is delivered face up from a drop down door that doubles as a tray to catch output and this adds another 21cm to the depth.

As always the stated print speeds are not met, I managed 12PPM printing a 200 word document and just on 9PPM printing a 1500 word - spread over four page - item.

I was very pleased with it's photo printing capabilities you can print direct from a range of cameras by plugging their USB lead into the front of the unit. When printing from within Windows the unit can support not only 15x10cm borderless but also A4.

See also: Inkjet printers

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Within reason I am not concerned about image printing speed as my main interest is quality. However this proved to be extremely nippy and full A4 borderless pages took only 190seconds a page, this was not a one off as I printed a range of pages and the timing was consistent over all of them. Excellent quality and pretty fast as well.

The added bonus with the iP3000 is the ability to print on CD/DVD media. This is only available on special media and of course, this is only available at a premium. I obtained some and was more than happy with the output. Canon supply a label printing module and once you select the Printable Disc as the print media it is simple and quick to design your project, you can of course print text but also logos and should you wish full images, I did all three and not only was the quality excellent it was also quick and immediately dry. Should you try printing on ordinary CD's I can tell you the ink would never dry.

The special CD tray supports not only the normal 12cm CD's but also the mini 8cm ones. I have reviewed a couple of printers with CD capabilities before and the fitting of the CD tray was never that easy. Here it is a dream, at the top of the paper delivery area is a small drop down shelf, load the CD tray with a CD already in place and it will slide in. Everything else is handled by the software once you have set the output to 'Printable Disc' under media type from the printer preferences. I doubt it could be easier.

Of course you can print labels and stick them on the CD but is that really that good? Certainly the CD's I produced really looked a lot better than the same image and text printed on labels and then applied to the CD. Recently announced is a new technology called 'light scribe' that another member has recently written about, however the drives seem likely to be very expensive and writing can only - initially - be mono and can take up to 28 minutes per CD.

Canon have always had a good selection of software and their Easy PhotoPrint module is a joy to use. So even though the text printing is not fast, image printing is, and, the quality is excellent, should you need to produce good looking CD's then this unit can do that in rapid time with professional looking results. www.dabs.com have it for £75.76

Link : http://www.canon.co.uk/for_home/product_finder/printers/bubble_jet/PIXMA_iP3000/