Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Dull photos? Ha! More like "best-kept secret." $30 is a STEAL for print quality at this level. In 10 minutes anyone half-serious about photography or digital color can have this little thing churning out some decidedly nice looking output on a wide variety of stock.
Think color space. Then think luminance.
Spend 10 minutes calibrating this thing and, erm, holy cow. Bright, screen-true prints with bandless gradients and a dynamic range that'll handle almost anything the 8-bit world can throw at it. 30 bucks? Two $20 (retail) cartridges? Are you kidding me?
"MY PICTURES ARE DULL AND WASHED-OUT!"
So adjust your printer. This basic calibration process should be performed on any new printer if you're serious about image quality. You need to make your printouts look as much as possible like the corresponding images on your monitor. Even if you're not obsessive about the subject, they should still come pretty close (assuming the device is for general use or generic proofing).
A. In the driver settings dialog, on the Main tab, change "Color/Intensity" to "manual," and click the Set button. This brings up a new dialog.
B. Skip immediately to the Matching tab, and change the settings as appropriate. You need to learn about color spaces if you're serious about digital images, but most likely your actual display is set to a profile called "sRGB," which corresponds to ICM->Standard on this driver settings screen.
C. Go back to the color adjustment tab. Now you're going to start tweaking the machine to compensate directly for the poor-quality output. You're going to make changes, and then print out a calibration image to see if you've hit your mark.
You can download calibration images on the web, which are often collages that include color gradients, color charts, skin tones, nature scenes, lighting variations, grayscale images, etc. Or you can make a collage from your own images. Just make sure it covers the subjects and attributes you'll be printing most. Usually if I can hit skin tones, everything else falls into place.
REMEMBER: The goal is not to get "appealing" skin tones. The goal is to get skin tones that match what you see on your monitor. Also, remember that your monitor is a source of light, and a photo is not. A printout needs to be lit sufficiently to make a fair comparison with its digital counterpart.
D. Start with the Intensity and the Contrast sliders. Move them SLIGHTLY to the right. I started at 4, printed a test, and then went in increments of 2 before finally arriving at an optimal value of 8 for both settings. You may get better results adjusting them more or less, in sync or not, whatever. Depends on how your monitor's calibrated, among other things.
E. That's PROBABLY all you'll have to do. But if there's a printout problem that's truly a question of a color's ***hue*** (which shouldn't occur if you've matched the profiles) and not its ***luminance***, you can adjust the ink volume CMY sliders at the top. I personally didn't have to do this.
"BUT THE INK RUNS OUT TOO FAST!"
1. The 30/31 cartridges that came with your printer are fully compatible with the PG40 and the PG41. Just like the box says. And your Quick Start Guide. And your manual.
So what? Well, the 40 and the 41 give somewhere between twice and three times the yield of the 30 and the 31. And they cost the same. Go figure.
2. If you want a high-volume printer, you bought the wrong machine. The 30 bucks should've been a hint. ;-)
"MY SHEETS FALL ALL OVER THE FLOOR!"
Umm, swing the little arm out.
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Canon Pixma iP2600 Photo Inkjet Printer (2435B002)If you want photo-lab quality prints at an exceptional price, the compact and stylish Canon IP2600 Photo Printer is what you're looking for.
Outstanding Print Quality Using an advanced patented print head and FINE technology, the IP2600 gives you beautiful, long-lasting borderless prints at a maximum resolution of 4800 x 1200 dpi with droplets as small as 2 picoliters. The printer can print at sizes from a credit card to 8.5 by 11 inches.
For even better results, the Auto Image Fix feature corrects your photos for exposure, color, brightness, and contrast by using scene analysis and face-detection.
Exceptional Speed There is no need for a photo-quality print: A borderless 4-by-6-inch lab-quality print takes approximately 55 seconds. The IP2600 also does a fantastic job with printing documents. By using a specially formulated pigment black ink, text is crisp and laser-quality, with a higher resistance to smudging. For black text, the IP2600 can print at up to 22 ppm; for text and graphics, it can print up to 17 ppm.
Support for Various Media and Sizes The Canon IP2600 supports a wide variety of media including plain paper, glossy photo paper, matte photo paper, photo stickers, T-shirt transfers, envelopes, and others. The sheet feeder can hold a maximum of 100 sheets, and can handle A4, B5, A5, letter, legal, envelopes, and even credit card-size media.
The Canon IP2600 uses a USB connection and is compatible with both Windows and Macs. It is backed by a 1-year warranty.
What's in the Box IP2600 photo printer, document kit, PG30 black ink cartridge, CL-31 color ink cartridge, power cord, print head, sample media.
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