This all purpose offering can print text pages clearly, reasonably quickly, print up to A4 colour images borderless nicely, and in fact could probably get the average small business out of a hole.
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The i455 is a functional rather than stylish printer. The dimensions are 38x30x30cm the depth is extended by another 23cm when the front flap is down to catch output. In fact the unit looks very like a beige box. This is not a derogatory remark unless you are only interested in looks. As far as I am concerned the look of the output is all that matters, the look of the box is irrelevant.
Printing real pages of mono text produced a somewhat disappointing 9PPM, however for draft the quality was good being as crisp as some 'normal' output. For the nonsensical 200 word document the print speed was 12PPM still not that close to the claimed speed.
For graphics this four ink two cartridge printer was rather good. It can print both A5 and A4 images borderless. The borderless process adds quite a lot to the time of printing as when printing near to edges of paper only a small proportion of the nozzles can be used. The quality of the output is down to the fact the i455 uses the very recent 2pl ink droplets.
It took 75 seconds to print an A5 bordered print, while the same image printed borderless was 114 seconds, both were printed on glossy photo paper using the supplied excellent Canon Easy Photo Print software. Moving on to A4 using the same paper type and software four borderless images - each image the same size as the single A5 offering - took 237 seconds. As far as I am concerned speed with images is not important - I only give speeds as an indication of performance - the only criteria to me is quality, here I was perfectly happy, in fact the quality matched some printers costing a great deal more.
A word about the printer driver this has a lot of extra features not always found on what is not an expensive unit. Twenty standard paper sizes and the optional custom size. It also has 'fit to page' as well as 'multiple pages' on a page and 'booklet printing'. Poster printing is also possible as are Watermarks.
Dabs are selling this printer at £69.99 and for a 'jack of all trades' printer this is excellent value. Anyone printing mainly mono will probably go for a laser and some of these can be had as special offers for not much more. However as a back up for a laser this is excellent, the occasional photos are fine and other colour work such as a newsletter can look great. As with all inkjets the real cost is with replacement ink cartridges and the ones in the i455 are of a reasonable size.
Link : http://www.canon.co.uk/For_Home/Product_Finder/Printers/Bubble_Jet/i455/
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