Good Points
I bought the ip4300 5 months ago to replace a now non-working 5-year-old Hp 940c.
My main concern was printing photos along with fair text abilities. I got A+ on both
Just for kicks I re-printed some old photos with it. The colors were eye-popping by comparison and I had thought the HP940c produced outstanding prints.
I've even compared them to several other printers, new and old owned by friends. We all agree the ip4300 produces better prints and they are equal or better than we can get from local photo labs.
I use Canon EasyPhotoprint, Picasa2, MS Digital Image Suit 2006 and an HP printing program as my main photo editing software. The results from all are excellent.
Ink usage is about as good as the old HP, I get over 150 8X10s on a cartridge. I do my own Christmas cards and holiday photos for friends and family.
I've just replaced the 3 color cartridges, I get a kit of all 5 for around 56 just a bit less than what the HP replacements cost. I expect to use 3 or 4 kits a year.
Bad Points
The US printer does not come with the CD label writer and installing it voids the warranty.
Cartridges are still expensive.
The manual is a basic starter book. It could be a lot better and more inclusive.
General Comments
This is an excellent printer. I have used it with about 6 different photo papers. I always buy the most economical (cheapest) and so far all have given excellent results, after figuring out the best printer settings for each.
In the normal mode it is quiet and it also has a quite mode.
It is fairly fast: I get great prints, 4X6s in about 30 seconds and 8X10s in about a minute.
I get great text documents on regular paper and near professional ones when using high-grade paper.
The auto two-sided printing, an option on other printers but standard here, is great.
All features can be selected and controlled from the computer.
Cartridge info is adequate, the Canon program keeps you informed and provides warnings. The cartridges also have indicators informing you of their status.
It boasts true borderless prints but so far I have not been ale to get any. That may be me not figuring out the settings yet.
Unfortunately it feels flimsy, not nearly a sturdy as I would like but I don't intend to be moving it around much.
The ip4300 is hard to find now but the replacement ip4500 has the same Pixma technology and slightly better specs.
I would recommend the ip4300 to anyone needing a low cost (under US$100) photo printer with very good text capabilities.
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