Canon MultiPass MP C545 Color Bubble Jet Printer, Fax, Copier, and Scanner (Mac)

Buying an all-in-one unit designed to be partnered with your Mac may be the perfect solution for your family or small business, rather than stocking a roomful of electronics. Canon's MultiPass C545 is an ink-jet-based multifunction unit with the key features of color printing, scanning, and copying that are designed to work together and are supplemented by a fax function. The black text in crisp 720 x 360 dpi brings a professional look to résumés, papers, and presentations at 5 ppm. Color prints at 2 ppm. You can print on all the papers you'd expect from a high-quality unit, including letter and legal papers, envelopes, glossy photo, gloss film, and transparencies. A one-touch button makes scanning and editing photos for all kinds of projects and e-mail easy, even for the novice. A flatbed scanner lets you scan books and magazines. You'll appreciate OCR software for scanning text, and the clear optical resolution of 600 x 600 dpi with 24-bit depth provides accurate color.

Use the color copy features of the C545 without starting up your computer. One button supplies posters, mirror images, and superzoom. Save time running around town to pickup photo reprints and enlargements when you can print your own on photo paper. The copier feature reproduces in 360 x 360 dpi resolution, for black and color, with reduction capability up to 70 percent. Load paper in the rear of unit and collect finished work on your desktop. A low-ink sensor alerts you to get more, and the separate black and tricolor ink tanks mount in a removable print head. Transmit faxes with another one-touch feature, automatically speed dialing to send up to 30 pages at 6 seconds per page (14,400 bps), or print incoming faxes at 4 ppm.

The MultiPass C545 offers family-friendly features and software. Children and adults alike will express themselves more creatively in home projects, school assignments, work, and community projects. And don't forget the advantages of an all-in-one unit with a small footprint of 14.4 by 12.7 by 8.1 inches and just 10.5 pounds for saving space, and reducing clutter and the need for disparate accessories and supplies. The software bundle includes the MultiPass CD-ROM for Mac with printer drivers and multifunction setup utilities, plus Canon Photo, TextBridge Pro, OfficeReady CC, ChromaFax, Printmaster SE, and EarthLink Sprint Total Access. The box includes a power adapter, phone cord, color and black ink cartridges, and an ink cartridge container. The unit is covered by a limited one-year warranty. --Barbara Price

1 Works OK, but no MacOS X support
I'm reasonably happy with how this printer performs in general, and it does the job as a quick and dirty copier.

However, I was extremely disappointed that Canon apparently doesn't have the slightest intention of writing MacOS X native printer drivers for it. As a workaround, I print my documents to a PDF file and then run Acrobat in the Classic environment to print from there. MacOS X PDF support is excellent, so this works quite well.

Nevertheless, given Canon's disgraceful lack of support, I doubt that I'll ever buy a Canon printer again.

2 Mine's just fine!
I am a Mac G3 user and for the price and all the functions this machine performs, I think it is great. I have space restraints and this is the smallest of the multifuntion machines. Probably the only thing I don't love is the quality of the printing, although if you instruct your computer to print on best quality (which is slow) the quality is much better!

3 Great idea, short on delivery.
The versatility and light-weight, compact design of this machine made it practically irresistible to an iMac man like me. But after experiencing some communication problems between the printer and my computer, and then noticing that the product is absent from the catalogs of most Macintosh dealers, I was able to determine that the Canon 545 uses a conversion cable for USB compatibility. The Canon 555, on the other hand, comes with "hard-wired", built-in USB capability. Only slightly larger and a few dollars more than the 545, the 555 may be the better bet for most Mac users, at least in this price range.

4 Not in the black.
I installed USB ports into my Macintosh G3 (to attach this specific printer) and finally got the computer to recognize it.... only to learn that the printer wouldn't recognize its own black ink.

It was nice that the printer came with two black ink cartridges (and the necessary cable), but the printer told me that both of them were empty.

Thinking maybe this printer had a unique way of installing cartridges, I actually followed the intructions. Still the same thing happened.

Then I found in their troubleshooting section that I likely had a damaged internal something or other.

I assumed I got a lemon and immediately sent it back to Amazon with the idea of getting another one. But after reading the other less than stellar reviews of this product, I plan to look to another printer.

5 Problem
MultiPass C545 would crash my Mac G3/OS 9.1 on start-up. Canon's solution to the problem was to disconnect the USB plug, before starting, then plug it in after the computer was on.

6 good idea to get a warranty
An excellent printer, good quality, decent print speed. I've had a little problem with it draining ink, but other than that, great item.