Canon i860 Photo Printer

The feature-rich i860 Desktop Photo Printer offers the ultimate in versatility with high-definition photos and laser-sharp black text at unbelievable speeds. It achieves a maximum resolution of 4800 x 1200 color dpi, impressive speeds of up to 23 ppm in black, up to 16 ppm in color, and edge-to-edge borderless 4" x 6" photos in approximately 50 seconds. Canon advanced MicroFine Droplet Technology uses a revolutionary nozzle system that ejects consistent prescribed-volume droplets as small as 2 picoliters, for nearly grain-free images. It features a symmetrical print head design that virtually eliminates color variance and banding problems typically found with conventional high-speed printing. Canon launches the next evolutionary step in digital printing with the introduction of ContrastPLUS, an advanced 5-color ink system. Offering the best of both worlds, the i860 printer delivers exceptional black text quality with a pigment-based black ink. Plus, it provides true 4-color photo printing with a photo black ink for improved image contrast and overall photo sharpness.With direct photo printing technology, you can print without a computer. Simply connect any Bubble Jet Direct or PictBridge-compatible digital camera or camcorder to the convenient front-panel Direct Print Port, and print! The i860 printer also enables you to print edge-to-edge true borderless photos in 4 x 6, 5 x 7 and 8.5 x 11 in. sizes effortlessly, with the look and feel of traditional photographs. The included 4" x 6" photo paper tray can be attached to the auto sheet feeder, so you'll always have your choice of paper ready for printing.

Note: The Canon i860 is no longer being manufactured. You may want to consider purchasing the newer Canon Pixma iP4000 instead.

If you're a serious photo hobbyist who seeks a single printer that combines home office needs with top-notch color capability, look no further than the Canon i860. Its laser-quality black printing churns out 600 x 600 dpi sheets. And it's fast, with speeds of up to 23 pages per minute. The pigment-based black ink delivers exceptional clarity and legibility, whether you're printing a holiday newsletter or a detailed spreadsheet.

Individual ink tanks save money, reduce waste.

This printer can connect directly to select digital cameras. Learn more about PictBridge.

Photo printing is where the i860 really comes in to its own, offering an exceptional 4,800 x 1,200 dpi resolution. With speeds of up to 16 pages per minute, or just 50 seconds for a borderless 4-by-6-inch print. Your images will be strikingly smooth, with clean, vivid tones, thanks to five photo ink tanks that spray ultra fine two-picoliter droplets.

A light beam can "see" the ink level.
A direct print port, combined with PictBridge and Direct Bubble Jet technology allows you to print images directly from your digital camera or camcorder. Built to handle photo papers of a variety of weights and finishes, the i860 can also handle transparencies, plain or high-resolution paper, and envelopes. Canon includes a one-year warranty with Instant Exchange service.

1 Awesome, except for ink messages
THis printer rocks. As a PC consultant, I don't like HP PCs because of their software. I have seen them blow up numerous operating systems, plus HP installs software by the shovelful and gives the user no control over if they want it.
This printer has reasonable software, the image quality is awesome, really amazing. The photos compared to my HP 812C are just amazing. Printing on the 4x6 paper it is finally indistinguishable from a real photo. IT is a bit loud, but I slowed it down using the software driver which made a huge difference. (night mode they call it?). Individual ink cartridges will save lots of cash.

My ONLY complaint it that they warn you when the liquid ink is out, but there is still tons left soaked into the fibers in the resevoir. I printed over 100 pages after getting the first message about black ink - getting the dam pop up message every time.

2 DON'T EXPECT QUALITY TEXT PRINTING
Apparently, this printer's forte is photo printing. I made the mistake of assuming it would print quality text documents too, which seems a much simpler task. I am very disappointed in the frequent ink smears, streaks, and blotches on the pages. It takes frequent cleaning procedures to minimize the streaks and blotches. I am incredulous that the ink smears when a highlighter pen is used on the text. This happens on pages with dry ink that were printed many months earlier! Highlighter pens seem to dissolve the dried ink. Periodically, during printing jobs, including the first page, the printer goes through some internal activity that can be frustrating when trying to print something quickly.

3 best printer you can get in this price range
I love to print off picturs I take with my digital camera. This one does them professionally and fast. I Love the separate ink cartriges also. I'm blown away with the features. You will love it so don't hesitate, if you need a printer that does photos this one is for you.

4 Great Value
I picked up this printer a few months ago, and it has exceeded my expectations. The photos that it has printed are fantastic. Honestly, it's hard to tell the difference between pictures printed on this printer from those you get from a photo processor. The printing of normal documents, web pages, etc. is good, but not great (it's a bubble jet printer, and the documents look like those that you typically get from a bubble jet). I got this printer for two primary printing purposes: (1) photos, and (2) basic documents for my own use. It excels at photos and is adequate for basic document printing (I wouldn't use it to print documents for work - laser printers are better for that - but it is fine for my own personal use). Yeah, you could get better document printing from more expensive printers, but if you're looking for a home printer that will let you print some documents for yourself and to print your photos extremely well, it's hard to beat the value of this printer. In fact, if you print a lot of photos, this printer could easily pay for itself in no time. For about $100, it's hard to imagine a better value for a home printer.

5 THIS PRINTER SUCKS
After years of using HP printers and spending a fortune on ink refills and cartridges a friend suggested I try a Canon printer. At the time a color cart. for my HP 970 was around $50.00.

As far as the savings on ink and cartridges, switching to a Canon printer was the best decision I ever made. I do a LOT of printing and the individual tanks and the ability to refill each is great! Plus, I haven't had to buy another cartridge since. I don't print photos but I do a ton of text printing and have to refill the black ink at least once a week even in the economy mode.

My first Canon was a i550, which I simply wore out. I have no complaints about the i550 since I saved many times the price of the printer on ink refills & cartridges.

When shopping for a new printer I saw all of the rave reviews about the i860 so I decided on that model. What a disappointment! Maybe its a great printer for photos but when it comes to text printing, IT'S A NIGHTMARE. The best thing you could do with this printer is to beat it to death with a ball bat and go buy something else. This printer has one paper jam after another, after another. I don't use cheap paper but I also don't buy the high priced specialty paper either. I use a good quality 20 lb. paper made for ink jet printers by Georgia-Pacific. Its the same paper I've used in the HP's and the Canon i550 without any problems.

Some genius at Canon that helped develop the i860 came up with the idea to place a rubber wheel in the paper feed tray to pull the paper down into the machine. The problem is, with only one wheel, on one side, it grabs the paper and pulls it down into the machine at an angle. The machine does have a quick shut off when this happens so the paper doesn't jam up inside, but paper jams occur CONSTANLY! One after the other!

Canon says to use a higher quality, thicker paper around 24 lbs. or more. Great! Now I have to spend the money I'm saving on ink to buy expensive paper. No wonder Canon pulled this model out of production so quickly!

6 Wouldn't trade it for anything!
This printer has been nothing but wonderful. I've had it for almost a year now and its FINALLY time to change the ink. Its quick and quiet for printing text, and the photo printing is better than my local lab! If you want a great, affordable printer that will not let you down, get it today.

7 excellent printing; 4x6 tray has been difficult
The printer prints great. The only nag I have is that the 4x6 feeder doesn't load properly on my machine about half the time. It got to the point where I just use the standard loader all the time, even for small paper.

8 Great printer...just one problem
This is a great printer that prints very quickly. I haven't had it for long. So far I've printed text and baby shower announcements. The announcements were perfect when put on high quality printing and not bad when put on normal quality. The text bleeds a little on normal documents but maybe someone can suggest a fix for this. I haven't had a chance to print photos yet but I'm confident it will produce quality results.

9 Fantastic printer that can print web pages perfectly, too
After using Epson printers for several years, I became increasingly frustrated with each printer's inability to print well on the first try. Invariably, the printer would clog while turned off and then would print poorly at first. I ended up wasting pages of expensive photo paper while trying to get a good print.

I finally made the decision to switch to Canon when I talked to someone who had bought the i860. No matter how long the printer sits turned off, when I turn it on it prints perfectly on the first attempt. The ink distribution is exactly what I expect for every print. I find no surprises when I need to print quickly and go; quality prints are delivered right away every time.

Regarding photos, the i860 is essentially a home-based photo lab. Using Canon glossy photo paper I obtains results indistinguishable from such labs. The colors are rich and even throughout the pictures printed. I have heard that other photo papers do not produce optimal results in Canon printers, so I rely on Canon papers to do the job.

If you often want your pictures in 4x6, the i860 conveniently accepts that size (along with 5x7, 8x10, and even 8.5x11) for borderless prints. You will no longer need to trim your printouts to remove the white parts of the paper. Just buy the paper size that you want; the printer will do the rest of the work.

For text, this printer does a very good job. I've never had any problems with the text quality of any of its printouts, and I examine the text carefully. Even if I wanted a printer primarily for text purposes, I would still buy this printer.

On the software side, I really like the printer driver that ships with the i860. It allows the user to print web pages perfectly. The pictures and text are shrunk just enough to fit such that the printout is as expected given the web page's design. With other printers (which use other drivers, of course) I find that text runs off the paper after I print a web page. Or the graphics are shoved down to a different page. No such problems are incurred with the Canon i860.

This printer is also the fastest I've ever owned. Photos and web pages print out very quickly. Plain text is lightning quick. I have no speed complaints here.

If I had to point out a flaw in this great product by Canon, the flaw would lie in the printer's rather cheap feel due to the plastic parts. The attached trays feel as if they could break in my hands were I not careful in handling them. I find this minor annoyance almost insignificant given the printer's superb print quality and convenient drivers -- no matter which type of printing I need. I highly recommend it to anyone.

10 takes awhile for 1st page to print, also a little too large
Other than those, it works fine.

11 This printer rocks!
Before I bought this printer I had a couple of HP printers through the years. Oh, the humanity! Don't get me wrong, Mr. Hewlett and Mr. Packard are probably upright citizens, but their printers are a curse from Lucifer and I'd sooner carve my documents into marble slabs with a toy hammer and chisel than buy another one of their printers. But enough about that. I bought the Canon i860 printer around Christmas 2003 and have been nothing but THRILLED with it. It prints speedily (once it gets all juiced up, which does take a couple of moments), prints incredible photographs, and I still haven't had to change any ink cartridges (almost 10 months later!). This is saying quite a lot since I've gone on several photograph printing sprees over the months. On top of all that, the printer looks cool. I will say that it seems a bit large for what it does, but It's nothing you'd have to build an addition onto the house for. How often you have to change ink cartridges is relative to how much you'll be printing, but I can say that these have lasted way longer than those garbage HP cartridges ever did. I'll update this review if anything stinky crops up with the i860, but all's great with it so far. Purchase this bad boy!

12 no USB cable
I just received my new i860, unpacked it to set it up and what to my surprise - no USB cable! So here I am with absolutely no way of using the thing.
I find it hard to believe that Canon would ship a printer that one cannot connect to their PC without going back to the store and buying a cable. I've heard of cheap products before but this takes the cake.

So I can't really rate this item because I can't connect it!

13 What an amazing printer, the best ever!
I was totally shocked when I first printed out the photo using the sample paper(Canon Photo Paper Pro) provided, I mean that I was really SHOCKED and was blowed away by the astonishing quality of photos came out of it! After using for a while, even using Canon Photo Paper Plus(Glossy), it gives great photos which can be compared with professional photo processing. I personally think the photo quality actually is even better than some professional photo labs. The photos are very vivid in color and well-balanced in contrast, true boaderless print. All I can say is that if you need a photo printer, get this one and you never regret!

I compared my photos with my friends' photos came out of Epson(using Epson high quality paper), HP($200 plus one, using HP high quality paper), definetely canon i860's photo beats them without a question. I don't say they are not good, but not good as this one.

However, i860 is picky on papers. I would stick with Canon paper, while I tried Kodak soft gloss regular paper(which is the cheapest one of Kodak papers and it looked cheap anyway), it didn't give promising results like using Canon photo paper plus(glossy). I don't even think to try other cheap generic papers.

Also ink usuage is remarkable, after printing about 100 pictures, I checked the ink, it still has about 4/5--3/5 left. Combined with the on sale Canon paper in Amazon.com, the cost per photo is close to professional processing labs but you got the convience and high quality photos at ease. I would recommend using genuine Canon inks for photo printing. They are a little more costy than other generic or compatible inks, but they provide the best quality for your photos and it's worth. Amazon.com sells these inks at reasonable price, about $45 a set, much cheaper than other stores. According to the some comments from the web, no other inks can match the quality of genuine inks which is true for all printers as for photo printing. Worst of all, generic or compatible inks prints usually would fade in color in a few days, not mentioning the printer head clogging problem.

Another nice thing is this printer is VERY QUIET, I even didn't know whether it's printing or not and the photo just came out smoothly. The 4x6 photo paper tray is indeed a handy device.

As for printing speed, it's not the fastest for photo printing but it's very fast for me. Text printing is very fast and quality is very impressive. Since it's using a different black ink tank for balck text, it's very economical to save inks.

Boundled Canon Easy-print software is a simple and nice program for photo printing, a good starting application with limited photo editing tools.

Printer set-up is easy and runs in few minutes. But it's a little hard to serve as a network printer. Driver is good and provide good interface and settings, easy to use and control the printer.

Overall, it's amazing that this outstanding i860 printer outputs such high quality photos and Canon sure is the leader in this field. I am very satisfied with this printer. There are some better printers around, but compared with price/quality, this one is the winner!

14 Great Printer
Just purchased this printer to replace a Canon S820. This printer is FAST in B/W and Color and produces great color photos.
Had no problems getting it up and running. Have used canon printers for several years due to the ability to replace individual color inks. Would definately recommend this printer for someone looking for a nice photo quality printer for a great price.

15 Excellent, all-rounded printer
Pros:
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Cheap to buy and run, Virtually Dotless Photo Prints, Fast and crisp text printing, Lasting Machine due to removable print heads.

Cons:
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Print fading, Loud paper loading, Occassionally Creases Cheap paper (doesn't jam), Occassional light cleaning

The Bottom Line
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Despite the potential inconveniences, I definitely recommend the i860 as it provides a niche for those who want stunning photos and prints yet desires rock bottom price and affordability.

In depth review
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All in all I am impressed with the speed, appearance, and quality of this printer. It's a bit bulky, but the exterior is quite attractive, being metallic silver on the top with white and gray on the sides and bottom. The expanding top loader and frontal tray feels a bit loosely attached, and needs a little coaxing to store and expand, but the plastic itself is sturdy.

The pictbridge is in front although the lack of an lcd makes direct from camera printing less intuitive. It comes with a relatively handy 4x6 photo tray that seems to do a good job directing the paper in a perfect manner.

It does NOT come with a usb cable necessary for printing from the computer. And for fans of the more expensive european/asian i865, this doesn't include the cd printing kit.

To make installing the printer trouble free you truly shouldread the step by step pictoral sheet as not everything is intuitive on the get go. The setup asks that you install the print head and so on, which is quite different from HPs and Epsons. Worthy to note is to hold the cartridges on the long ends NOT the sides when snapping off the orange tip so as not to spill the ink. After the printer is installed, it is powered off when you install the drivers so Windows does not autodetect until the drivers are ready. In the middle the software prompts you to turn on the printer and afterwards, the printer is ready to use.

Printing is alarming at first as the loading mechanism is quite loud. You may experience some strange cycle in the beginning that loops. The solution to this problem is to simply wait and not panic by shutting off the printer. I waited about 2 minutes (look at the clock, don't simply guess) and if your loop extends into 3, I would cancel the job through the software then try printing from another program. Remember not to use the native windows image viewer to print, as that caused problems for me. After some time it will start printing and working it's magic. From there on out, printing is fast, quiet (after the paper loading), dependable, and brilliant.

I have not yet tried the default draft setting, but using a 3rd party software to control the ink level (InkSaver) the economy prints are outstanding and speedy. The text is sharp and clear and there is visible dotting on the color pictures, but still a beauty for draft mode. Where this machine truly shines is on photo prints. Though it has a tendency to veer to the reds it is stunningly detailed and you cannot see the dots even on close inspection. After it's done, it has a habit of entering a quiet looping cycle that I speculate is a light head cleaning/realignment. While I feel this is a bit unnecessary I'll only complain if months later my ink levels drop at an alarming rate.

Paper is important for this printer, but vitally so for photo prints. For economy mode, I recommend a paper that is about 24lbs or heavier. My experience with using 20 lb copy paper is that it occassionally misfeeds then recorrects itself. A noteworhty trait of this printer is that it truly corrects jams before they happen. First the paper creases and looks like it's about to turn into an ugly jam that will make me worry about the hardware life. Then, with a cheerful snap, and a quick realignment, it starts printing dutifully like nothing ever happened. I'm not sure if this was intentional, but if so, I'm very impressed with this printer. It's better if no misfeeds ever happened, but admittedly people don't use the recommended inkjet paper and opt for cheaper copy paper that simply misfeeds more often in all printers (epson and hp included).

For photo prints you must make note of two papers:
Canon's own line
Epson glossy paper

I have heard good things about ilford, but other paper isn't recommended. I feel that since this printer isn't made for archival purposes that you can save by buying cheaper alternatives than the ilford and canon. Epson glossy is reputedly the cheapest and many have recommended it for beautiful borderless prints.

Aftercare of the printer is garnered from online readings and a bit of first hand inspection. First, Canon has a separate printhead you need to install, and I have heard you can purchase online from canon (ebay if you're willing) if you ever have a problem with the printhead. To avoid clogging, it's wise to print at least one photo print a day to minimize clogging. Also, after some time you'll run into the waste ink tank full notice. The fix for this can be found here.
http://www.neilslade.com/papers/inkjetstuff.html

These seem like inconveniences but throwing away 2 3 year old epsons, and having suffered heavy HP costs, canon's inconveniences are considerably better.

But most of all remember that your prints use dye based inks. What this means is that they are prone to fading unless they are kept framed and sealed. HP uses the same dye based process (not inks) but epson uses pigment and can back a longer print life than HP and Canon. However, Epson's archival printers are significantly more expensive to run, and have their own problems (mostly printhead related) so keep that in mind before rushing off to buy one.

16 Astonishing printer!! I am now confident in Canon!!!
After owning a near $400 Canon S900 and having the printhead totally die in less than 1.5 years, I thought the last thing I wanted was another Canon. I thought I would give Canon another try, with a newer model, and buy off of Amazon versus retail. Verdict is - I saved a ton of money versus retail, and this new Canon i860 is a dream come true for an avid printer! It creates the most BEAUTIFUL, CLEAR, and VIVID color photos I've ever seen - even compared to a photo lab! I use an Olympus C5060 5MP camera with this printer, and it couldn't be a better pair!

After getting this printer, I reprinted all the photos that my S900 botched with it's faulty printhead. We didn't print photos for months because we thought "we'll fix it or clean it soon" A half year passed, and it was time for a new printer. It'd be more expensive to fix my old printer, than it would be to buy this one!!

My reprinted photos look wonderful, the zoo pictures have beautiful colors, the nature pictures have vivid green bushes and trees and blue skies, and the people pictures look flawless - skin color reproduction is clear. I bought 4 packs of Canon Photo Paper Glossy 4X6 and reprinted almost every picture I had that meant something.

I especially like the SEPERATE 4X6 photo tray - very handy. My previous S900 required me to take out the 8X11 paper every time I wanted to print 4X6, and slide a lever over. How annoying! With the 4X6 tray, it always stays in front of the 8X11 paper, and you switch the dial from "print" for 4X6 to "Remove". Remove means it just raises the tray so the printer uses 8X11 paper instead.

VERY EASY SETUP - absolutely love this printer- SWEET deal! After a $50 promotional gift certificate from Amazon, a $30 rebate, and discounts, this printer will cost me thirty two dollars. How crazy is that!

Since I bought the printer, I noticed Amazon offered it at a lower price, TWICE. I asked for both differences from Amazon and was given credit! THANK YOU AMAZON for your wonderful customer service. :-)

Buy this printer, it will NOT let you down!!

17 WOW!!!
This has to be the best printer I have had. The quality is dark room quality. I can't believe how good this printer is.

Highly reccommend, can't go wrong.

18 great printer
Received this printer in the mail a week ago and since I have been using it, I have been amazed. For the price, I don't think that you could do much better. I really did not get this as a photo printer, but the 4x6 cassette intrigued me to try to print one of my digital pictures. I was amazed as to how great it turned out. You could not tell the difference from the photo lab.
The text is sharp, clear and very quick. It is also extremely quiet. It took about 30sec to print a borderless 4x6.
My only complaint so far is minor. I could not figure out how to print a 4x6 properly without using Canon's -Easy Print-software that comes with the printer. I'm sure that it is easy to do but it is very easy with their software.
All in all I'm glad that I got rid of my Epson C84.

19 Top-notch printer
I've had this printer for 3 weeks, and so far I'm happy with it. The Canon i860 has a solid, well-built frame, good speed, and the print quality is nice. Machine noise is about average.

The Canon i860 uses five ink cartridges, which supposedly is cheaper in the long run and results in better quality images.

The setup CD-ROM supplied by Canon does not install other programs without your knowledge, unlike the HP 5150, which I briefly owned.

The Canon i860 has a front USB port that CERTAIN digital cameras can use. This means you can print out pictures without using your computer.

If you are going to use your printer quite a bit, I recommend getting good quality inkjet paper, not the cheapest brand you can find. Believe me, the type of paper definitely makes a difference in print quality. And make sure the Canon i860 software knows which type of paper you are using, such as plain paper, photo paper pro, glossy photo paper, matte photo paper, etc...

20 Excellent printer for the price
Excellent printer. Very fast compared to our old Epson Stylus 440. Makes efficient use of ink. The photos we have printed on the Photo Paper Pro paper are as good as if they came from a 1 hour development center.

21 Professional looking pics!!!!!
I am absolutely amazed and impressed with the i860. Canon includes all the ink and a few sheets of their photo paper pro so that you can print out photos from the get go. I gave it a whirl and not only was it simple, the photos came out looking like processed film photos! I was so excited I showed them to my husband and he agreed, even on the lowest setting for standard photo prints, the prints looked awesome!

The camera I am currently using is the Fuji Finepix S3000. Excellent camera, that takes excellent photos. The end result used in conjuction with this printer is professional looking photos.

Beyond photo printing, regular printing is awesome too. I used cheap paper from Walmart to print out everyday stuff and it looks great. I haven't had it long enough to know how quickly the ink will go, but the ink cartridges for this are very cheap in comparison to others, plus with individual tanks, you only replace the color that is empty. Plus, there are also many different remanufactured cartridges out there for this printer, so you can get ink very cheaply.

I would recommend this printer to ANYONE I know. I really am enjoying it and am always looking for things to print!!!!

22 A very nice printer but....
A very nice printer but it's already obsolete. Canon is replacing this model (i860) with the soon to be released PIXMA iP4000 Photo Printer. The iP4000 will be even faster and feature automatic duplex printing. The iP4000 will have the same street price $149 USD. Hopefully, the quality of the iP4000 will exceed that of the i860 but its anyone's guess at this point. If you're considering the i860 I'd suggest that you wait a month until the iP4000 is released especially now since the $30 rebate on the i860 has expired (July 17). The other option is buying the i960 instead. Decisions, decisions...

23 Impressive Printer
I purchased this printer based on the top Consumers Reports rating it received plus the excellent reviews I've read of Amazon's customers reviews. Believe me, all the good comments about this printer are right on. It has worked perfectly and prints outstanding documents. I have not yet ventured into printing photo prints, but with the recent purchase of a digital camera, I am confident it will produce the excellent results I expect. Without hestitation, I endorse all the 5 star ratings this printer has received. Purchase with confidence.

24 Rapid advances in color printing
I formerly had a Canon S820 photo printer (6 inks). I can tell you that the i960 prints faster, lightning text, and even the photo quality is significantly superior. As all have said, the quality of the output is fantastic. For most people I doubt you would need the extra 2 inks of the i960, unless you are very picky (and that printer doesn't have the extra "black" black ink reservoir for regular text. I also love the auto on/off capability - no more hitting the power button!
My only very minor complaint is that if the regular paper is very full, the 4x6 tray can cause the paper not to feed. But it is great to have the option of 4x6 photo paper always ready to go without changing out the regular text printing paper. Go get this printer!!

25 Great printer!
I've had this printer for just under a month now and have to say that it's just wonderful! After my HP stopped working (it was about 10 years old), I was in search of a new printer that was affordable, but still high quality. I found it in my i860!

This printer is almost perfect. It's fast (23 ppm, even though I never printed that much), quiet, and the pictures it prints are gorgeous!! Everyone I showed them to couldn't tell the difference from a real picture. The ink tanks are reasonable, and you only throw away the ones that are empty - saving more money in the long run. Using the 'sample' cartridges that came with the printer, I've printed at least 15 4x6" pictures, and 2 8x10", as well as at least half a dozen CD labels (full color, not just writing on white), and a few documents... AND THEY STILL HAVEN'T RUN OUT!

The reason I said almost perfect is because of 2 downsides: #1 - you have to buy a USB cable separately. Given, you can pick one up for $6 or less, but that's like buying a kid a toy for his birthday and not getting the batteries - it's useless. I found out that after I bought the USB cable that it does work with a parallel port, which I happened to already have. I used the USB anyway. #2 - Like many other reviewers said, Canon paper is a must for photos!!! Trust me, it doesn't look any different from other paper, but it is. Pictures I printed on HP paper came out grainy. It was almost as bad as printing on my 600 dpi HP. I followed the same picture up with Canon paper, and as I said earlier, no one knew it wasn't a photo. The paper is reasonable, only $7.00 for 50 sheets (This is a sale, so it might go up).

If it wasn't for those 2 things, this would be a 5-star. I almost rated it 5 anyway. If you buy this printer, you will not be disappointed.

26 The Best!!!
I have never written a review, but felt I had to write about this great printer. After reading all the rave reviews on this printer, I went to a local computer store to see the printer in person. I was thinking of the i960, but found the i860 was just as good and less expensive. I was looking to add a better photo printer than my current HP990CSE.

I got home, followed the simple instructions to get it installed, and within 10 minutes was printing. WOW, was it printing. The prints that came off this printer are the most beautiful prints I have ever seen, and for the money, well it is a steal even at the Amazon price. I printed four 4x6 prints using the sample Cannon Glossy Photo paper, and it gave unbelieveable results out of a Nikon 2500 2.1 megapixel camera. That's right, a inexpensive digital camera, with photo lab results out of this printer. I used the Canon software to print with no editing, just downloaded from the camera and print from the file.

If you are into digital photos then I would highly recommend. I am sure you could spend more and get more features, such as larger paper size, but for me, the normal paper size with 4x6 tray included is perfect. The paper tray is great and can remain on the printer all the time, just switch to print to the different size paper. The ink system is great also, and look forward to saving money in ink over the HP printers.

In summary, I would, without any doubt, highly recommend this printer to anyone looking for a great, simple photo printer that produces superior results.

27 Quality printer, especially for the money
I wanted to buy the i960, but the store was out, so I went with the lesser model, knowing, through research, that this was also a good buy. I had a photo printer (HP 7350) for about two weeks before I moved my furniture and it fell and broke. In those two weeks, I kept wondering, 'Is this as good as it gets for digital printing'? Well, it took me a year, but I finally bought another printer. And the pictures are GORGEOUS. My camera is only 1.2 MP (was a lot when I bought it). But the pics I took turned out great. Other than the timestamp stretching out beyond the border, you would never know this was from a printer.

Granted, this review is from someone that has used it for one evening, but my standards are relatively high for a very amateur photographer. And so far, I'm thrilled. Hopefully if I keep it clean, it will keep giving me these great prints...

28 awesome printer!
I purchased this printer based on Consumer Reports and on-line reviews. Am extremely pleased. Great text and photo printing, very easy to set up, and great price! Prints quietly and quickly. (I'm extra-sensitive to the noise issue b/c I have a baby sleeping in the next room!)

29 Best printer I've owned.
After getting getting rid of my piece of junk Lexmark printer, I picked up the i860 for $100 after rebate. Wow. What a printer. My digital photos look better than the ones I pay to get processed. It also prints them many times faster than my Lexmark did. Installation was a breeze, and the ink cartidges are still going strong after printing many photos.

30 Wonderful Printer
Truly wonderful printer. The lines are crisp, and the colors clear (perhaps not quite as vibrant as photo quality, but hey, for the price...). I am very happy with this product.

31 Good printer and easy to refill
I used HP printers for years and recently switched to Cannon printers. With kids in school and a lot of photo printing, HP printers cost a lot for their ink cartridges. HP invests a lot of technologies to prevent people successfully refilling the ink cartridges, so does Epson. Canon is the only printer manufacture that does NOT put anything on ink cartridge to prevent people from refilling it.

Simply remove the empty ink tank and seal the bottom with electrical tape; peel off the platic label on top and expose the refill hole; Push the nylon ball into the tank and use a 10-24 tap slightly tap the hole; and you are ready to refill. Simply fill in the tank with color or black inks. Seal the hole with a 10-24 set screw (you can get tap and screws from Home Depot or other hardware store). Remove the electrical tape from bottom let extra ink drip out. You are ready to go!

If you tapped too much, the tank may not be able to build vaccum to hold the ink. Than you can get some Petroleum Jelly from Save-On wiped on the set screw thread. That will help the correct vaccum build up in the ink tank. After the inital work on the ink tank, subsequence refill only take less than a minute. I have been successfully refill one ink tank for over 30 times. Just think how much less landfill I help saved! I really praise Canon for not preventing people refill the ink tank. I think every person who cares about our Earth and want to reduce waste should use Canon printer and try to refill their ink tanks.

32 Get this printer!
Get this printer if you're in the market for a printer that will handle text documents efficiently as well as print top quality photographs,(...).

I printed out a borderless photo on the supplied sample of 4 x 6 paper and the quality is unbelievable. Just simply stunning.

And even web pages and text documents on plain paper at the "standard" setting look good enough to eat.

I bought this to replace a two year old Epson C80 whose black ink nozzle had become irreparably clogged. The eventual clogging of these Epson inkjets is a widely reported problem. Whether using generic inks (I used Carrot Ink cartridges) contributes to this or not, I don't know, but it's moot anyway, since Epson ink cartridges were so outrageously expensive, I couldn't have used the printer without using cheaper generic inks.

The Canon is one of the most satisfying hardware purchases I've made.

Other advantages:

It handles text quickly and beautifully.

It has a 5 cartridge ink system with separate blacks for text and photo and the Canon cartridges are affordable.

It's unbelievably quiet, especially in--yes--"quiet mode" (which does reduce printing speed a little (not noticeably to me).

The photo paper tray for 4 x 6 sheets works great.

The print head can be replaced.

Additional advantages if you're a Mac user:

It will work wirelessly with an Airport Extreme Base Station and it works beautifully with OS 10.3 (Panther).

Disadvantages:

Yes, there is no USB cable. I guess I can understand this, since most inkjet printers can't be repaired, and have to be disposed of, so I guess Canon figures you'll have a USB cable sitting around.

Yes, you have to install the print head, and I was a little fearful snapping it in but I had no problems.

And yes, you have to align the print head, but you can do an automatic alignment using the printer utility software.

For Mac users, at least, don't waste time installing the printer driver from the CD, as it is out of date. Download the latest driver from the Canon website. And be sure to repair permissions after installing the driver, as many of them were out of whack after the driver installation.

All in all, this is one of the most satisfying hardware purchases I've made.

33 Great printer
I can only echo what other have written. Photos are beautiful, text comes out fast and looks sharp, and the printer is quiet. A superior upgrade/replacement for my aging Epson 900 color. The i860 is so much better that I haven't been able to resist using it, even though I had planned to continue using the Epson 900 until my supply of its ink cartridges was exhausted.

34 Major disappointment
I purchased the Canon i860 based on the superior reviews. It was to replace an Epson 600 that was still functioning well. After years of heavy use, photos were not as good as I would have liked.

I uninstalled the Epson software and disconnected it. Installation of the Canon was easy. It does an adequate job of printing. I have not been able to get it to function as a shared printer. Reinstalling has not helped. The Canon will print a test page from the remote computers then freeze the computer upon subsequent attempts to send a print job to the computer from which the Canon is shared. I am at a loss to understand why the much newer Canon will not work as well as the older Epson. It will not work as a shared printer, so I have lost the print capability on two of my computers. This rating is based on the product being able to do at least what it is replacing.

I now have better photos but lost the printer support to two of my computers. This was not a good tradeoff. I would reconnect the Epson if I had a place to put it. I wish the reviews had addressed the ability of the Canon to be used as a shared printer. I will be shopping for another printer and it will not be a Canon.

Canon tech support has informed me that since the Canon is part of a network configuration, it is not their problem. Canon tech support indicated that I should contact the vendor for the router and PC, both of which have worked well in conjunction with old Epson for years. This is another case of a product vendor passing the buck. I suspect there is a way to get this work but it is obvious Canon has neither the technical expertise nor inclination to figure it out.

35 Compromise at a Cost
I was previously using a HP 895sce printer for text and HP 230 Photosmart printer for 4x6 color photo prints and was happy with the results. The photo printer died after one year and required a total replacement (HP said they could not repair it). I decided to ditch HP at that point and was atttracted by the promise of an all in one printer that could do text and 4x6 photos in one machine with the twist of a knob. It does work but the results have been disappointing. The text is slightly brown and not as sharp as the black lettering from my HP. The photo printing is good but the HP dedicated printer gave excellent results. The photo printing interface is cruder and has fewer options than the HP drivers which I miss. Overall the printer is more cheaply built and has interminable wait times as it cycles on and off and realigns while you wait for it to start printing a single page. In all the printer does a fair job, but I would not use it for professional prints. I hope Canon's customer service is not as bad as HP which drove me to switch brands in the first place.

36 Great text printer, too
I concur with all the other bright reviews of this product. All I can add is that it is a great text printer, too. I had an old laser printer (Okidata 6e) that was easily the oldest computer component that I still used (6+ years!) But its print quality was declining, and it was starting to jam regularly.

I was skeptical of inkjets because I thought they would be slow for text printing, which is mostly what I do, and I was afraid the print quality would be poorer than a laser. But I went ahead and tried this printer, and I am glad I did. It actually is faster than my old laser. Not only does it print pages faster, but it also does not require time to warm up. You tell it to print, and instantly, off it goes. The print quality is on par with the laser, too.

So now I have a great text printer like my old laser, and I can print color to boot. This is a very good deal.

37 Compared to what?
When compared to other printers, the 860 fares very well in some respects. It produces photo prints that are closest to those that you would get from store processing. It also does quite a good job with text. It merits its "best buy" status.

But is any printer really a "best buy" for photo printing when compared to photo processing? To get store-quality prints with the 860 you need Canon's best paper. And when you use that paper the prints cost far more than store processed prints, but you get nothing more for your expense than immediacy. So, if you need an instant print perhaps it is worth the extra, but the additional cost of printing from the 860 versus taking your memory card to the local store could be immense if you take a lot of photos.

In a couple of important respects the 860 prints you get even with Canon Photo Paper Pro are inferior to processed pics. If you bend the Pro paper you will not just get a crease in the paper, you will also get a pronounced line in the photo itself, and it doesn't take much of a bend to cause this. It is also very easy to scratch the surface of the prints. So, they are much more easily damaged than conventional photos. Also, the independent company that does the testing for print longevity has found that the Canon prints will only last about 25 years, while those of HP and Epson will last more than 75 years. Many people want pictures they can save for their grandchildren (or "posterity"), and the Canon prints apparently won't meet that desire.

Canon supples software that you need to utilize all print features. This consumes more time and reduces efficiency. (At least on a Mac.) Even using the printer tray, the pictures are not properly centered if you choose to have borders. There is more white space on some sides than others, so I consider that option useless.

Most people rate this printer compared to other printers. I prefer to compare it to other real-world options. In that respect it only does so-so. I prefer not to pay considerably more for prints that are no better than I can get by waiting for 60 minutes at a store, or sending them via the internet and picking them up at my leisure.

38 Best Printer I have evern owned
I have spent more on a printer before and have never come anywhere close to the quality of the prints this Canon gives you.

In addition, this printer is the most ink-efficient I have ever owned. I have printed over 100 4x6 photos with this printer, plus an uncounted number of documents - and none of the ink tanks are less than 1/3 full.

I am totally amazed. I have yet to find a downside - and hope not too!

39 A delightful printer! Quiet, great prints, inexpensive ink.
This is a great printer. It's quiet, fast, very inexpensive to refill the ink, and most importantly it makes great quality printouts. Consumer Reports loves it, too. HP used to make the best inkjets (Deskjet 560C, 952C), and I used to be loyal to HP, but not anymore. Canon includes FULL ink cartridges with the printer, not the mostly-empty "starter" cartridges like HP. Canon ink costs a LOT less per page than HP ink, and if you happen to print more of one color than another, you replace only the tank you run out of. Thank you, Canon, for breaking the HP-Epson scheme of underpricing the printer and charging a fortune for the ink!

40 What a deal !!!
This is my first photo printer. I purchased at AMAZON.com for $ 123.00. ( that included free shipping - thanks, AMAZON)

I am so delighted with the print quality and speed. I did my homework online reading many product reviews of the various photo printers available. I wanted the best quality without all the bells and whistles i.e. displays, card readers etc.
This printer does a fantastic job ! Just be aware that all paper is not created equal. The sample pack of CANON paper made extraordinary photos. I did my own tests with other brands of 8 1/2 X 11 glossy photo brand papers. I shopped at BJs and COSTCO and ended up buying over $100 of 7 brands of paper. Among those were : KODAK, HP, POLAROID and other lesser known brands. The best performance was by the POLAROID brand supergloss from COSTCO at 19.99 for 120 sheets. The POLAROID paper was equal to, maybe even a little better than the CANON sample pack.
One other recommendation - buy your replacement ink from inkgrabber.com. Very inexpensive and good quality ink.

You will be happy with this CANON i860 printer.

41 Excellent Value!!!
I bought this printer from Amazon.com right before Christmas and have used it primarily for printing photos. I cannot believe how awesome the photos look from something that was as cheaply priced as this printer!! My first photos were taken on Christmas Day and when I showed them to my family members on New Year's Eve, they (nor I) could not believe that they were not professionally processed.

I have not yet tried the sample 4x6 canon photo paper that came with the printer, but I can tell you that Epson Premium Glossy 4x6 Photo Paper works great for me with this printer.

This printer is fast (4x6 photos print in about 40 seconds)and has a "quiet" mode which make virtually no noise while printing.

Although my text printing has been limited, I can say that the print looks great even on the crummy paper I use to print out web pages and such...

I whole-heartedly recommend this printer!!!

42 Not looking back on this one...
This is the first time that I have ever posted a review of any product, good or bad. After reading all of the excellent reviews of this printer, I felt pretty confident that I was making a good decision by purchasing the Canon i860. Now that I have had it for a few days, I can see why the vast majority of the reviews are so high. I am confident that I chose the best printer.

My new Canon i860 replaced an Epson. The Epson was very noisy (it sounded as if it was going to self destruct every time I printed), very slow (although I didn't realize how slow until I got this Canon) and the quality was not the best. Now granted, the Epson was one of the cheapest models in their line-up. However, I have used other printers at work (HP's) and I can say without at doubt that this new Canon is the sleekest, quitest and fastest printer I have ever personally owned/used. The first pictures that I printed blew me away (as well as everyone I showed them to). The boarderless printing is awesome! From what I can tell so far, the Canon 4 x 6 paper (some came with the printer) is the preferred paper for this printer. I used some Kodak premium paper that I have on hand and the results were not as good when compared to the Canon paper (bummer, because I have a boat-load of the Kodak paper).

So far, the only negative issue that I have pertains to the 4 x 6 feeder cartridge. Although I like the concept, the whole assembly does not secure into place as tightly as I would like, and because I have to coax the paper path selection knob to get it to lock into place, it causes the whole assembly to dislodge if I am not careful. Although it bothers me enough to note it here in this review, it really is a very small issue overall.

I would say that the one main thing that sold me on the Canon i860 is its flexibility. The two separate blacks made so much sense to me, based on the fact that I expect to print both text documents and photos. Since I am not a photo printing maniac (although with this beast, that may soon change), and I knew that I would also be printing text only documents, I didn't feel that I needed a photo only printer. With the i860 and the text black ink tank, I feel that I have the best of both worlds - incredible photo and text capabilities.

As you might deduce from this review, I can, without a doubt, give the Canon i860 my highest rating! If you are thinking of making the plunge (a relatively small one - my total cost was $128.00...), I would ask, "What are you waiting for?"

43 Individual Ink Tanks are a BIG Deal
If you ever Get on a creative photo-print spree like we do at my house, The Canon system is the only way to go. I have had other printers and would have as much as $70 a month in Ink costs because the cartridge would run out, during an important project for the kids. With Canon you use ALL the ink and replace it when its gone, comes in a clear cartridge as well, the other companies hide the fact that you are throwing away the rest of your ink when you really only ran out of one color, to me Canon is the ONLY choice...This printer is fast and quiet and with the Highest Quality papers your photo quality is outstanding!...I have heard that Epson is good as well but they do not have the individual cartridges and Untill they do I will buy the CANON.
We own the i850 and it has printed flawless for over a year, quality constuction, the front cover is Aluminum, when have you seen anything made of metal for a hundred bucks?...Nothing is close for the money...buy it with confidence...hope this helps.

44 Canon i860
This printer is awesome. Read the reviews ... nothing to add what has already been written about it. It works and prints very good pictures. The installation and set-up are straight forward. What more can I say ... besides I am very happy with the purchase and the best printer I owned so far.

45 Unbelievable Photo Prints
I just installed this printer (which replaced an aging Epson 800) and printed a test photo that was taken with a 5.0 megapixel Sony P92 Cybershot digital camera. The results are unbelievable. The print, using Canon's "Photo Paper Pro" 4x6 paper, has got to be seen to be believed. I used the Easy Photo-Print utility that came with the printer, at its default settings. The print is as glossy and shiny as the paper it was printed on, with no surface imperfections and no evidence it came from an ink-jet printer. The sharpness and resolution is just remarkable, with a depth and richness of color that I didn't think was possible from an ink-jet printer. If I hadn't watched the print being made, I would swear it came from a professional photo processor.

The great thing is that the I860 produces very acceptable color results on copier-grade paper as well, with sharp edges and no bleeding or running of colors. I wet a finger and dragged it across the page 15 minutes after it printed and there was no smearing or blurring. That was never possible with my old Epson.

There's a separate black ink cartridge reserved solely for text documents, I think, that prints reasonably sharp black text that looks like it came from a laser printer. And black-and-white text prints are fast, too.

Installation was a breeze, after first uninstalling the Epson software and deleting the Epson printer from the Win98's printer list. The supplied CD is simple to follow and about 25 minutes later I was printing the test photo. Installation of the software on our other networked Win2000 computer went just as quickly.

All in all, this has got to be the best value for the money, ever.

46 Quieter high quality printer. Won't go back to HP!
I bought this printer to replace my 1 year old HP 3820 inkjet. I had many problems with the 3820, and although I had much luck with HP before that printer, I decided to switch to Canon.

Compared to my HP, this printer is VERY quiet. The HP would make all sorts of whirring and rolling noises at times when you weren't asking it to print, and I had just accepted that as normal. This Canon does the same thing, but you can barely hear it. I never have to worry about waking my roommate up by using this printer even though she sleeps in the same room.

Print quality was as good as I could expect. It was noticeably clearer than my HP, particularly with text. The other reviews cover print quality in more detail, but that's not what I bought it for.

Envelope printing was something I did a lot of with my old HP. This printer isn't quite as user friendly with envelopes. HP had a specific slot for them, but Canon, it appears, you just load it in with the regular paper as straight as you can (and don't use the attachment, which is what I assumed you'd use at first, for #10 envelopes). As far as I have seen, it works more reliably than HP in terms of envelopes, although it feels a bit less secure, if that makes any sense.

All in all, I have no regrets on switching from HP to Canon. I thought with ink cartridges that cheap, Canon was too good to be true. I am happily mistaken.

47 You guys still debating?
This printer is sweet, one of the best investments Ive made in a long time. Everything said about this printer is true. Canon rocks with this system. And the price is insane for the quality and versatility you have in this printer package. Guys, it really is a no brainer. I'm a man possesed..printing everything in sight. But remember, the quality of the finished product is only as good as the source. Quality in, quality out..simple as that. Although I installed the easy photo program that came with the system. Ive used many picture editing programs with great success. So its a thumbs up for this device, and a WELL DONE to the designers, planners, and assemblers of this wonderful printing system.

48 Fantastic Right Out of the Box!
After a year of almost drop-kicking an Epson Photo 820 out the window, I'm happy to report I have seen the light! Moving away from that noisy, slow, ink-drinker (possibly the most expensive ink on the market, I might add!) I am thrilled with the i860! I've just gotten it home, and right out of the box it prints amazing color and B&W photos. The price is fantastic, and from on-line retailers, it looks like the ink is relatively inexpensive as well. I'm a little embarrassed to say this, but here goes. It even passed the "drop test". While setting the i860 up and putting it in its new home, I accidentally left it on an unstable surface and just as I realized it - WHAM! It hit the floor from almost 5 feet up. I think the neighbor kids learned some new words. But anyway, I'm glad to say I was still able to pick up (literally) where I left off and continue installing. I think this could be the begining of a beautiful relationship!

Bottom line:
Great pics
Quiet
FAST!
-as the Epson was my 1st photo printer
I thought they were all slow across
the board...was I wrong!

Durable (whoops.)
A good value.

Umm...anybody wanna buy a slightly thrown-out-the-window Epson?

49 A Reason for Enthusiasm
First off, I'm a cheap chick. My little Canon Bubblejet has been on its last legs for about a year. But it still did pretty decent black and white, and when worse comes to worse, that's what Kinkos is for, right?

A few months back I purchased an incredible camera (Canon D60) I'm a shutterbug, and I take the quality of my prints very seriously. Its one of the few areas in which I spare no cost. I'd given Ofoto a fair amount of bussiness, but I was toying with the idea of printing my own photos. I had a lot of concern... the quality being on top of the list, and then the price of ink and paper, and what if the printer broke down?

I ordered the i860 based on the reviews. I installed it over 15 minutes using the incredibly easy instruction card. I then printed some cursory black and white pages. Crisp, fast, and almost silent. I turned out some color pages. I guess I need a new monitor, because what came out of that printer looked far different; brighter, more colorful. And then... (I had a hard time waiting to get to this part) I printed out some photos. Some high quality, vividly colored photos. When my husband came home he wanted to know what other prints I had ordered. They looked amazing! All I can do is make a happy little squeal that really shouldn't be coming out of a full-grown woman in public.

So forward three weeks. I've been using this printer like a pack mule. The ink levels are still hight. Still amazing prints. Not one jam (which was what finally made me sacrifice my bubblejet to pagan gods).

As a note: You have to purchase the cable seperately, but it comes with all the ink, and five 4x6 pieces of photo paper. You're going to want way more than that, but its a nice way to try out Canon's paper when your printer is fresh out of the box.

I will update this reveiw if there are any problems. But so far I think I've got an incredible printer.

50 A Reason for Enthusiasm
First off, I'm a cheap chick. My little Canon Bubblejet has been on its last legs for about a year. But it still did pretty decent black and white, and when worse comes to worse, that's what Kinkos is for, right?

I will update this reveiw if there are any problems. But so far I think I've got an incredible printer.

51 Absolutely Awesome
Great, great printer. I had read all the great reviews and had high expectations and this printer exceeded even those very high expectations. Photos on borderless Canon photo paper are amazing, even with low resolution on the digital camera (I do notice the photos are better with Canon paper than with Kodak paper). I am also pleasantly surprised with how little ink the printer uses. If you want a superior photo printer that also does text and documents at a high quality, this is the printer for you. Canon is leading the way on photo quality.

52 canon i860 printer
Purchased a i860 printer from Amazon a few days ago and could not be more pleased with the purchase.If you can read and count to ten you will have no problems with the soft ware or set up.The printing is fast and clear and copy from the web is easy to use.I have just printed a few color digital 8x10 prints using Kodak Soft Gloss and the results are as good if not better then from the photo lab I was using. If you are looking for a good printer in this price range I would look no further.

53 I'm impressed
I bought the i860 to replace an aging (and jamming) Canon 6000. As a professional editor, I needed a printer that would easily print out occasional long manuscripts (including colored edits) without the need for constant babysitting--in other words, fewer jams. As the owner of a new digital camera, I wanted a printer that would produce decent photos. And I had really appreciated the separate ink tanks in my old Canon printer. After reading the reviews, I decided this one for me, and I have been delighted. My manuscripts print out quickly and smoothly--and duplexing them is very easy. My photos are beautiful, rivaling photo-shop printouts. The printer is quiet and hardly ever jams (so far), and the ink seems to go a long way. My only regret is I had stocked up on ink tanks for the Canon 6000 right before it gave up the ghost, and this one uses different color tanks. No matter. The change is still worth it.

54 It keeps getting better
I had been really impressed with my friend's i850 and decided to get the i860. I cannot believe they could improve on the i850 but they did. The pictures are incredibly sharp and Canon has really easy to use software (which is just as important to me as the quality of the prints). I cannot imagine how anyone could be dissappointed with this product. I have had really bad luck with Epson printers. If you have a decent digital camera, you will not be able to tell the difference between prints with the Canon and photos from the drugstore photo lab.

55 Don't make the mistake I made
I got this printer based on the incredible ratings (average 5-star). Setup was very easy using the easy set up poster (do exactly as it tells you). With much excitement and anticipation, I printed 1, 2, 3, a total of 4 photos. The results were not good at all. I was SO disappointed, especially since everyone gave it rave reviews.

Then on a whim, I decided to use the software that came with it to print (easy print). I rarely do this, because I prefer the software that I have that allows for great edits. I decided to just print a couple of photos that looked great on the monitor, with the plan to start editing from that point.

Imagine my surprise when, in mere SECONDS, I got PERFECT photos, no editing NO TWEAKING of the printer's setting to use the optimum print features. Just straight photo printing using first canon, then hp 4x6 glossy photo paper.

Who would have thought that to get perfect pictures, absolutely NO TWEAKING IS NECESSARY. Hince, the title of my review, don't make the mistake I made by trying to be fancy. Just use the software that comes with it, select your photos, and print. INCREDIBLE!!!

56 Interesting Tips - Things your mother should have told you.
Quiet Mode - Doesn't just reduce noise. Will also slow the printer's operation a bit. Why would you want to do this, you may ask? I ran in draft mode and the printer was so fast it sucked the paper from the paper tray at an impressive speed ... so fast that it can feed the paper slightly askew and almost throw it across the room on eject. In "standard mode" plain paper printing can be so fast the ink hasn't completely dried. So ... it can sometimes be a good thing to slow this creature down a bit and Quiet Mode is the way to do it. I run that way all the time and life is good.

Ink Cartridges have no "stale date" - Don't make yourself crazy trying to read the dotted characters at the package bottom to read a date into it. They're lot numbers, not encoded dates. Unlike all HP cartridges and most Epson cartridges, Canon just doesn't date its ink. It "seems" that ink cartridges without self contained print heads have very long shelf lives since there are no internal jets to clog as the sealed cartridge ages. I will believe the Canon rep on this one since it makes sense, although I'm always more comfortable knowing the age of the ink. Like many of you I want a reserve of ink "at the ready" so I just buy from a retailer that always has a fresh supply like Best Buy, Staples, OfficeMax and probably Amazon.

The Nozzle Game - Don't let the salesman sell you a more expensive Canon (I860, I960) because it "has more nozzles". More nozzles doesn't mean anything in terms of printer resolution or precision. Each cartridge has a certain number of nozzles, no matter what printer it's used on. I believe Black has 320 and color 512 except yellow which has 256. The I560 holds 4 cartridges and if you do the math has 320+512+512+256=1600 nozzles. The I860 has an extra 256 nozzles but that's only because is can hold a 5th cartridge (black with 256 nozzles). Ditto with I960 which holds 6 cartridges at 512 nozzles each for a whopping 3000+ nozzles. So, consider the advantages of having more cartridges and the essence of these cartidges but don't be led to think that high nozzle counts means it prints better.

Warrantees and Print Heads - Just be aware that unlike HP printers the Canon I-Series has one installable print head which will likely determine the useful life of the printer. Since the cartridges do not have print heads they are less expensive, but they do not contribute to the useful life of the printer. I do know that the apparently simple and little print head is claimed by Canon to have a lot of electronics in it and is the most expensive component of the printer. So ... when it goes, the printer goes (costs around $70-$80). Canon expects their print heads to last 1-3 years, maybe more, and their $50 extended warranty covers it. I was tempted to buy the $30 extended warranty from Best Buy but was told the print head is a "consumable" and won't be replaced. So ... Buyer Beware on warrantees and expect to surrender your beloved Canon when the print head goes.

Enjoy your Canon and treat yourself to a new one every couple years or so. I'm very happy with my I560 and Canon support for this and my LiDE50 Scanner has been solid. (I pay for the phone call and in return they offer me courtesy, knowledge and they even speak English.)

-- Sam

57 Canon Won't Stand Up for Its Defective Products
Product failed after 4 months of very light use. Canon was initially responsive and sent a replacement print head, but that failed to resolve the problem. Canon refused to replace or give a refund. Was convinced by top Consumer Reports ratings that Canon was top notch manufacturer. Don't be fooled. Buy an HP.

58 The best...
This printer is the best. It has 2 different blacks, one for regular printing and one for photo printing. I printed a picture from my digital camera and if I didn't print it myself I would have thought it was printed at a professional place. This is worth the price. If I could give it more than a 5 i would.

59 It WOWED me!
Although this was not the latest or most expensive of the Canon consumer printers, I chose it because it had separate ink tanks for each color and an extra large black ink tank for printing text. Every time it prints, it gives me an update on how much ink I have left in each of the tanks. It was a snap to set up, very, very quiet (compared to my Epson), fast, and the output is just gorgeous. Not only does it print well, it's intuitive and friendly, like the Mac I use it on, so it's a perfect fit!

60 The Perfect Home Printer At a Great Price
I did a lot of research before purchasing an inkjet printer and my home's demands are very diverse. My wife wants good photo printing quality for pictures, cards, and labels while I need laser quality text printing and the occasional photo. I read the postive review for the I860 on CNET, but I was even more surprised when I read the reviews on Amazon. Everyone out of 47+ reviews gave it 5 stars. I have been buying computer products for a long time now and that is almost unheard of. Everyone thought it was that good? I had to see it for myself. Well, the reviewers are 100% correct. This printer does it all and at sub $150 how can you beat it? I work in IT tech support and have used many high quality photo printers in different price ranges(ink and laser) and have not seen one beat the quality of this printer for the price.

PROS:
5 ink tank system. Run out of yellow? Just replace the yellow not every tank! Sweet.
PortsGalore: USB 2.0, Parrallel, Pictbridge
Speed: This thing is fast. I printed a 23 page PDF over my 802.11b network with the printer using a USB 1.1 port and it printed in about 1.5 minutes. Using my old printer that would have been a 3 to 5 minute job.
Draft Quality: Draft is perfect without looking too faded when I just want to read an email or a web page offscreen. I even print parts of my e-books in draft quality and it is still easy on the eyes!
4 x 6 Feeder: It works well, looks cool and is easy to use.
No Dust: The trays fold up nicely to block any opening on the printer in order to keep dust from getting in. BIG PRO when it come to maintaining the printer.

Cons:
Some say its a bit to bulky and I might agree, but I still find the printer pleasing to the eye. It definately won't be a piece of equipment that you will want to hide.

Overall I would recomend this printer to anyone who needs a multifaceted printer at a great price. In fact I can't see any point to spend more on a printer (given my needs), although one day one may want a large format printer for photos.

This printer is the best I have ever owned!

61 Works perfectly on OS X 10.3
I've read a few reviews where people had problems using this printer on their Macintosh using OS X. Not me. This printer works perfectly with my Mac running 10.3.1. The Easy-Print software makes it SIMPLE to print your pictures, and it's lots faster than iPhoto. The prints are gorgeous. They are as good or better than prints from a photo lab, and my images are from a lowly 1.3 megapixel camera. I imagine better cameras would get even better results, though I'm not sure it's possible. This is a great deal, and the price seems to keep dropping. The price is right. The replacement ink tanks have the lowest price in the industry. The pictures are lab quality. It works like a dream on OS X 10.3. Buy this printer! Now!

62 Very Impressive Printer
I always said my next printer was going to be an HP, and when I decided to upgrade I started to do some research, and the new Canon i-series printers sounded very impressive. So I decided to get the i-860 and am glad I did! I have had this printer for almost 2 months now and it still amazes me. Its most impressive feature is the quality of photos it produces. With Canon 4x6 glossy photo paper the quality of prints I am producing equal and even surpass 35 mm prints I have recently had developed. And I really like the individual ink tanks. Should prove to be alot less expensive when replacing unlike HP, Lexmark, Epson, and many other manufacturers. I have recommended this printer to a few others, and they are just as impressed as me. You wont go wrong with this printer...especially for the price!

63 The BEST printer I have EVER owned
This is by far and away, the best printer I have ever owned. There are so many positives about this beauty that it is almost impossible to know where to start and stop. But I will try.

The Good: Speed, speed and more speed. This printer kicks out black and white pages like it was laser printer. I just finished printing my 22 page tax return for 2003 and this printer had it complete in under 2 minutes. The quality (on normal setting) is virtually indistinguishable from a laser jet printer. This printer is also remarkably quiet; almost to the point of being silent. Even the movement of the print head is virtually silent. As far as the photo printing capabilities of this printer go, there are no equals for the price range. The photos are truly indistinguishable from a commercial lab. If you think I'm joking, check out all of the other reviews here. The color management on the photo side is great, and photos actually come out looking like what you see on the screen. Imagine my amazement when I saw a commercial grade photo come out of the printer in under 45 seconds. Thats right, 45 seconds.

The Bad: Overall, the size of the unit is a little larger than I am used to/expected. There seems to be a lot of wasted space on either side of the printer. But hey, I can live with that for the quality of the printing.

The Ugly: The software package that comes with the printer is not really that impressive. I have other commercial programs that basically will do the same thing. In particular, one program, called Easy WebPrint installs itself into Internet Explorer and adds a toolbar to the application. Yes, I could have chosen not to install it, but geez, I was too excited about getting the printer up and running to worry much about that.

Overall, there is simply no reason not to purchase this printer. I would buy it over and over again if I had to. Just look at the reviews on here, there is a reason it is one of the few products with a perfect 5 star rating.

64 Excellent Printer!
This printer has by far exceeded my expectations. It is fast and the quality of the print is awesome! Easy to setup and use, you will not be disappointed!

65 Incredible bang for the buck!
First off let me start by saying why I only gave this printer 4 stars. My previous printer is a Canon BJC-8200 - the top of the line photo printer in its day. I still think the 8200 produces a better quality photo but it is slow, noisy and doesn't do the best job with my daughter's school papers. The new Canon i-960 would be an apples/apples comparison. I bought the i-860 kind of on a whim because I needed 4 new ink tanks for the 8200 and the price of the i860 is so low that I thought I would try it. I didn't realize until I opened the box that it is a 'hybrid' printer - part photo printer, part text-only printer (the 2 black print heads). For 99% of what I do this printer is perfect! It prints a very good photo *very* fast and my daughter's papers look much better and also print very fast.

Like all good photo printers you'll need to "tweak" the color profile a little but the Canon driver makes it easy.

Having both printers at my disposal gives me no regrets and I find myself turning the 8200 on less and less. The i-860 is very good at its dual-personality job...

66 Canon i860
I do a great deal of digital photography and have found this to be the most accurate reproducing printer I have scene yet. I have the Canon a80 digital camera and after combining this with the Canon i860 you have a perfect match. I am sure this will work well with any digital camera. Just remember the better the camera and the higher the megipixle count the better the quality from the printer.
It prints laser quality and is the quietest running printer I've ever seen or owned. I especially like the 2 black ink cartridges, the one for text and the other for graphics and photo I never knew the difference in the 2 inks until you see them side by side. Great photo printer I have recommended it to several other people who I work with.
Also saves you money with low cost ink cartridges.
(about half the price of HP)

67 Excellent Printer
Like others, I have been a true HP only person. My HP Inkjet I had could not produce the quanity I needed in a fast time so I started reading reviews and was interested in this printer because of the reviews I read on Consumer Reports and PC Magazine. I did not have a lot of money to spend so with my $20 coupon and a $20 rebate I went off to purchase this printer. I am in awe of it. The photo's are the best I have ever seen from an Inkjet. Looks like professionally done prints. Also it is nice to have seperate ink tanks for each color instead of all combined. They even have a special photo ink I have yet to purchase but will to see if there is a difference. I have printed out some photos on HP paper but the Canon paper that came as samples worked the best.

I read another review on here saying the color red in test was more orange... I agree with that statement that was the only thing I was slightly disappointed about... my husband was disappointed that they make you purchase a cable seperate... but overall I have already recommended this to many people...

68 Good photo results!
I've just had an i860 for a week, but I'm very pleased so far. Decided to try digital photography as the old wet darkroom takes too much time and bother. The i860 is significantly sharper and crisper for photo output than the HP3820 I played with earlier. Photos look very very good; sharp with accurate color. Please note, I have not tried any regular text or non-photo uses for this printer yet, but photos come out great. USB or parallel interface is handy--saves me a USB slot. Setup and software installation was easy as pie. At the price, you don't have to make many custom prints yourself (as opposed to sending them to a custom lab) to come out ahead with this printer! --Ken

69 This Printer Delivers
I picked this pinter based on the many positive reviews here, I'd like to add my praise to the list. Easy to install, easy to use; and unbelievably fast in standard mode with excellent results even on plain paper. Quiet too! Good job Canon, good price Amazon!

70 I love this printer!
My Epson stylus Color 900 died on me, so I needed a printer QUICK! I read the reviews and decided on the i860, and I am not disappointed! It is super quiet, prints really quick, and the thing I like most are the separate ink cartridges. I agree the 4 x 6 paper tray is awkward, but this wasnt enough to make me upset with the printer as a whole. The images I have printed out so far are awesome! The photos even on regular paper look better than the photos I printed on photo paper with my old machine. It was easy to set up; I opted for the USB so I had to buy a cable since it isnt included in the box, but that is probably because they cant predict if the purchaser will use USB or parallel port. If you need to print text and photos, get this machine!

71 Great Photo Quality Prints & Affordable Ink
I recently purchased the Canon i860 (from my regular office supplier) and right out of the box I was impressed.

My first printer was a Canon BJC-20 (I think that's the one) anyway, it was a good printer and served it's purpose well.
After using HP printers for several years now, I decided it's time to try another Canon, and because the HP ink cartridges are getting so expensive.

I looked at the Canon i560 (which uses one less ink tank than the i860) but I decided on the i860 mainly for the added quality of photo printing.
The i860 is well worth the few extra dollars!
The i860 uses 5 (FIVE) ink tanks, three for color and two different black tanks.

I've found all the Canon ink tanks to be very affordable (about eleven bucks each) and fairly common at most office suppliers.
Best of all is that if you run out of yellow, you don't have to toss a forty dollar cartridge that still has plenty of red. All you replace is what you're out of!
This is a MAJOR plus in my book.

They claim that each color ink tank can print up to 120 sheets of paper before you need to replace it, and the black can print about 700 sheets. I've only printed about 250 sheets of paper all together so far, photos and text and the software shows the ink tanks are only down about 1/32 of an inch... and that's hardly any ink at all.
I've also found that the print cartridge (not just the ink) is replaceable (although I haven't found a replacement for mine yet) which is also a plus, if you should happen to get a bad ink cartridge that leaks all over the print cartridge, you can replace it and not the entire printer.

Print quality is great!
I recently purchased the Canon Lide20 flatbed scanner and I've been scanning pictures at higher resolutions. I've printed several large photos with very good quality. I use quality photo paper and the highest print quality settings, and the only thing I've noticed is that sometimes the text (like on DVD or CD covers) seems slightly out of focus or blurry. NOT noticable at arm's legnth, but if I look very closely I can see. Still not bad for a printer in this price range.

When my photo paper comes out of the printer, it's DRY almost immediately. With my HP printer, I have to wait at least half an hour to touch a photo before the ink even thinks about drying.

Using the "draft" setting for text documents is fine, possibly a little lighter than my HP printer, but still good enough.

The printer is heavy at about 15 pounds, so make sure you have it setting on a sturdy table.
When the printer is doing it's thing, especially in draft mode, and I can see the printer physically moving (about 1/8 inch) back and forth on the table when printing. This printer has some power!
It's fast at printing text, printing a full sheet of paper takes only seconds.
The same can be said for printing photos... printing nearly 8x10 photos takes about a minute.

Like with most Canon printers, the paper loads from the top side and feeds out the bottom of the front.

It even has a usb port on the front to connect compatible digital cameras so you could print without a PC. I doubt I'll ever use this feature, because I don't think my Canon digital camera supports it, and I like to edit my photos before I print them.

The printer has BOTH USB and Parallel ports for connecting to your PC. You could even install the printer on two different PC's one using usb, one using parallel. This comes in handy if you don't have a printer switch or print network.
It would have been nice to include a USB cable with the printer (they're only a few bucks Canon!) But luckily I had an extra USB 2.0 cable on hand.

The feature that really sold me was the printer can do "borderless printing", meaning you can print an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of paper from edge to edge, top to bottom with no gap (or border) around the edges. This really comes in handy for printing DVD covers.

The printer also comes with a 4x6 photo paper tray adapter that will probably never see any use from me. When I need to print small high quality photos, I print several together on a standard 8 1/2 x 11 photo paper and trim them out. It's much cheaper than using special 4x6 paper in my opinion.

Unlike another reviewer mentioned, I have been able to print Legal and A4 sized paper with no problems. I haven't tried printing Legal size borderless yet, but I'm sure it will.

Bottom line, quit reading and start buying.
This is a great all around printer with great quality and a nice price.

72 if you test this at a store first....
don't be fooled if the thing isn't working properly. did ton's of research first, decided on the i860. went to a large, well-known electronics superstore, who shall remain nameless, to try it out. the darned canon's wouldn't work at all - the sheet feeder was messed up. asked a salesperson if this was typical of Canon's or what (two of them, in fact), and they said, "yeah, i would get an HP if I were you." but i found it hard to believe that all the reviews i had read online were wrong. plus, these guys said things that were inconsistent with the research i had done on what to look for in a printer. but then a third one came over and said, "look, people have been printing 20-30 sheets a day on these machines, at least, for the past year, and we're not really cleaning or maintaining them properly. you won't be abusing them the way they are by customers testing them out here. take it home and try it." i am so glad i did. no problems at all. in fact, the print quality is incredible (for photos especially), and i can't believe how fast it is! try it for yourself, and don't worry if the test unit at the store is messed up.

73 Perfect
I just recieved this printer and am THRILLED. It was so easy to set up and the pictures are beautiful. It is quiet and prints are made fast. Now if I can just figure out everything my Canon camera can do I'll be set. I highly recommend this printer for someone who wants to print pictures at home quickly and still maintain high quality pictures. I'm a stay at home mom and just wanted something to connect to the camera and print. This is it. Now the Grandparents don't have to wait forever for the pictures to be developed. I don't think I am even going to go through the computer to use this I'm so satisfied at this point with what I can do.

74 LOVE IT!!!
Returned my Epson c64 for this printer after reading reviews. Best decision I made. This printer rocks! Well worth the money, prints phenomenal pictures and quick to!! Look no further if you are in the market for a printer the answer is with the i860!

75 Great Printer At A Great Price
If you are looking for a printer that can print photo-store quality prints quickly, quietly...AND print high-quality text...then look no further...The low cost, separate (and relatively inexpensive) ink tanks, and separate black ink for text are just an added bonus!

I spent months looking and shopping around, and finally settled on the i860 after going to a store and testing the printers side-by-side. True, at the highest photo quality, a lot of these printers will look alike...but after "looking under the hood," I decided the Canon was the way to go...Here is the skinny:

"Top Ten Reasons To Buy This Printer"
(1) Great photo quality prints in a jiffy (some say like 43 seconds, but it seems faster);
(2) Quiet (it almost whispers);
(3) Good print quality on regular text/regular paper;
(4) Easy to set-up, and the documentation is excellent (took me less than 10 minutes);
(5) Fantastic software package that comes with the unit...try the "Easy Web Print" and I guarantee that you won't be disappointed;
(6) Ink tanks are separate (meaning you don't have to replace a whole 3, 4 or 5 color tank when one color runs out) and relatively inexpensive;
(7) The paper that works best with the printer is made by Canon, which is also relatively inexpensive;
(8) Their customer support is phenominal (I had one small issue that turned out to have nothing to do with the printer itself), and their support staff not only knew what they were doing, but I didn't have to hold for an hour;
(9) It's very moderately priced; and
(10) True borderless printing (no perforated paper).

"Top Six Reasons Not To Buy This Printer" (can't think of 10!)
(1) Maximum print size is 8 1/2 x 11. If you like to print posters, find another printer;
(2) No LCD screen, so the printer needs to be controlled from the computer (or Camera if you have PhotoBridge on your camera) and you cannot review pictures on the printer before you print;
(3) No USB or Parallel cable in the box (why not, I ask?);
(4) Photo quality prints do not look great on other papers besides Canon;
(5) It's really big;
(6) The 4x6 paper try is a tad bit awkward;

I hope this helps!

76 It was too good to be true -- I was wrong
I first encountered digital photography and photo printers in 1999-1999 when Epson was making both digital cameras and color photo printers. Back then 1MP+ and glossy paper were enough to make some hobbyists drool.

I just unwrapped my Canon i860 and put it to the test. Compared to the high-res digital pictures I had sent to Ofoto.com for printing, the pictures made by this can-do printer were better hands down. I printed a picture of an Arizona sunset in which color gradients and shadows were extremely subtle and a picture of four people all of different skin tone and wearing various holiday colors. The Canon i860 made these exactly to the digital image specs -- looking at the image in Photoshop and on the 4x6 print was the same. Ofoto's print job of my pictures turned out bland; they had dulled some of the hues in both.

I am very pleased with the quality of this photo printer, and I plan to print a lot of photos with it. I am also happy that it can connect directly to my Canon PowerShot SD100, which was also a good surprise.

The company where I bought this printer or UPS damaged the box, and the printer arrived with a *four-inch dent* in the hood and looked like it had been in a fender-bender. No worries. It worked fine and is no worse for the harsh treatment it received from some irresponsible deliveryman. That's saying something about the case and how well it handled the shock.

77 Excellent Printer
I could not be happier with my i860. Setup was a breeze and the printer is a joy to use. It's quick and quiet. The best thing though has to be the quality of the photo prints. I have only used the top quality Canon Pro paper (4x6) but I am just in awe of how great they look. Everybody I show them to is also amazed with the quality that is achieved from this printer and in less than 2 minutes. Without a doubt highly recommended.

78 A great printer with no available Linux/Unix drivers
This is truly a great printer. It features two black cartidges, one for type and black graphics, and another for CYMK printing. The type is almost as sharp as a good laser printer, and the photos are the best CYMK can do. This would be a 5 star printer if it had Linux/Unix drivers available.

79 Canon i'minlovewiththisprinter860 Photo Printer
Admittedly, I don't know the first thing about printers, so before I went out and paid big bucks for a photo printer, I consulted with a guru friend who does professional photography for a living. After a long lesson on how to take good photos, make them printer worthy, and printing, I was told to buy either a Canon or Epson printer.
After doing endless research and reading reviews, I had no doubt about going with the i860. And I'm very pleased I did. The photos (4.1 mpx camera) are PERFECT! The printer is super fast and extremely quiet. Definitely worth the price, which was also an extreme incentive.

80 Big WOW factor
This is the printer we wanted; trust me on this one. I have no experience with photo printers, and this Canon replaced a perfectly new and functioning Lexmark x125 (the biggest clunker of a printer on the market).

I've gone through several printers over the years, but this one's packaging has TLC written all over it. Every conceivable moving part was securely taped in place, so as not to be damaged during transit. Each strip of tape was folded over at one end, making the dozen or so strips easy to remove.

Installation instructions: clear, concise...even those with "moron" plastered on their foreheads can follow the brief steps.

Software and installation: just put the CD in your PC, and it does the rest. Comes with several freebie photo programs that are pretty cool.

Printer quality (B&W): Superb, even on "draft" setting. Really does appear to be laser quality. Fast as a bullet, too.

Printer quality (photos): I've never printed a photo before, but I had several digital ones on my PC (recently purchased a Canon digital camera). I picked out one of them, loaded some Kodak glossy paper I purchased about a year ago (but never used). WHOA, out came a gorgeous, professional quality photograph. AND IT PRINTED SO FAST!

I'm not used to this kind of quality.

This printer even has a front connection for a digital camera hook-up (can't wait to try it).

Yes, the printer is a bit bigger on the desktop. BUT, it folds up nicely into a sleek bubble shape. VOILA, no dust-cover needed.

Canon did it right, and those replacement ink/dye cartridges are available everywhere.

And I saved the best news for last: not once did I have to crack open the instruction booklet in order to do anything mentioned above!

81 Fantastic Printer for the Price!!!
I work in the printing industry for a living and I am very impressed with this photo printer! Here are my pro's and con's:

Pros
Quiet, VERY quiet
very friendly with odd paper stocks and weights
Resolution is great
super fast!
The chasis of the printer is very bare bones, which is nice. That means less parts for me to break.

Cons (pretty small nags, btw)
Ink monitoring keeps you in the dark.
Big printer, takes up your desk space
color matching takes some time, but that is the case with most printers.

Lets see if it will hold up to the thousands and thousands of prints I will be pushing through it, in the coming year...

Good job canon! Thanks for the great and affordable printer! And thanks to my GF'S GMA, for buying it for us! :>

82 Wow! Great Printer
Had this thing for a week and printed out about 50 photos and I'm still amazed at how fast this printer spit them out. They average about 55 to 70 seconds per photograph. Now that's fast. It is also very quiet. Still wondering how long the inks will last, otherwise this is a great purchase.

83 More Than Pleased
I received this printer about a week ago, and let me tell you, it is quiet, fast and using Canon 4x6 photo paper, samples of which were supplied, the results were better than I was expecting. If you are looking for a "text only" printer, there are cheaper alternatives out there. If you need to print text, but also want the ability to print stunning photos, this is the one for you. Setup was easy and the supplied software is useful and helpful. I was looking to upgrade my printer for some time now and know I made the right choice.

84 Bext text and photo printer in one box
After reading all the great reviews on here, and other sites, I decided to give this printer a try. I was amazed that it exceeded the high expectations the reviewers set for it.

First let me state I have an Epson Stylus Pro 2200, and Canon S9000 for photos and a Lexmark T630 laser for text, so I wasn't looking for the i860 to be a dedicated photo or text printer.

That said, I couldn't help but print out some photos to compare with my other printers. While the 2200 looks better on matte, and the S9000 has a slight edge on glossy, if I didn't have them, I would be more than satisfied with the photo quality the i860 produced. In fact I may use it for printing proofs due to the 4x6 cartridge.

I bought the printer for text and graphics, and it does an amazing job. The text is crisp thanks to the black pigment based ink tank, I wouldn't say it's laser quality but even 6 point type looks very crisp, lets say very near laser quality.

This printer is quiet, so quiet in fact, that after I sent a image to print, I thought the printer was broke because I never heard it load or print. I walked over to figure out what was wrong, and the print was sitting in the output tray. I printed another image and watched in disbelief as it printed with hardly a sound, very nice.

I have had HP and Epson inkjet printers, and none ever came close to offering both text and photo quality this good. If you don't need a dedicated laser or photo printer, then this is the best compromise I could imagine. I only wish Canon would offer an optional auto duplexer for it, as HP does with some of their printers, that would make it perfect.

85 Holy crap..
This printer really is as good as everyone is saying it is. I really can't believe I'm this excited about it but it is top notch, especially for the price.

I'm a little worried though because I saw a Canon i900D review that said it was the one to go with for pictures, but the pictures I've printed are beautiful. Better than the Wal Mart prints. Probably a little more expensive with ink and paper, but definitely more convienient.

The printer is really fast too, and amazingly you can drop water on the pictures and it doesn't damage them. At least a little water.

I had a Canon sales rep tell me the pictures would last 35 years minimum and if they were in a picture album probably 50 or 60.

After printing my pictures from my 4mp camera I don't know how the 960 could print them any better. Maybe the i900D could, but I don't know for sure. A Black and White page printed out in less than 3 seconds, you couldn't even hear it printing.

I feel like a Canon salesman but it's a great product. Telling all my friends about it. Here's to innovation and progression. Photo labs will be a thing of the past before too long.

86 Wow! Text and Photo Printer in One!
I admit, I have been out of the printer loop for some time. I had the HP Deskjet 990 CSE which is a great text printer but crappy on photos. I have a good digital camera, but did my printing using labs (ofoto, etc) as I didn't have the patience to fiddle with the HP printer settings, paper types (compatibility, quality, etc), and never could get a good print when I did try.

A friend mentioned that I might look into a new printer to handle photos as well as the text demands. I was impressed by the Canon i860 and I was quite impressed by reviews. I don't just need a photo printer, but do a lot of simple text printing as well. I knew there were good photo printers, but typically the text output on these was slow and not very good quality... These reviews pointed out that this printer does both tasks well (note the i960 is slow with text but a great photo only printer)

I now own the i860 and cannot tell you how amazing this printer is. Fairly priced, separate ink cartridges (two blacks, 3 color), very FAST for both text and photos (much faster text than my 990cse), and outstanding quality. The text looks great on cheap paper and the photos are lab quality (to my untrained eye at least). I have printed photos on plain paper, and 4x6 glossy (canon paper), and also printed an 8.5 x 11 format (Kodak premium glossy). All looked great, of course far better when on photo paper. Good color and well they just look great. A cool feature is the separate 4x6 paper tray and the extra pigment-based black ink for sharp text, this differentiates it from the cheaper i560, which is apparently also a great buy from what I have read. I might have purchased the i560 if I was paying for the printer myself. Because I wasn't, I went for the convenience of the paper tray and extra black ink.

The i860 is a great buy. If you are looking for an all purpose photo/text printer this is it! I have only had it for a day, but had to write this review to highly recommend it.

87 Comparing the i860 to the i960
I own both the Canon i860 and i960 printers, plus a Lexmark Z52.

If you are wondering how the i860 and i960 compare, this may help. The i860 operates on a five ink tank system, while the i960 has six ink tanks. Better to have six? No, because Canon has developed a wonderful photo-enhancement technology that AUTOMATICALLY selects the inks that it deems will produce the most beautiful photos. The photos from either printer are really very similar, and both will do a fine job. If I had to choose, I would have to say that the i860 has a very slight lead in photo appearance as far as crispness and color brightness, but the difference is minimal.

The i960 costs about $50 more, which is probably due to the extra USB port for high speed data transfer, and the extra ink tank.

One more thing: Dark values can sometimes go very dark with these printers and lose some detail. The i960 will show a little more detail when this happens, but I have found that unless I am printing night or very dark photos, this is not a real problem.

88 Astounding
I purchased this unit because I was looking to upgrade from an outmoded 1995 Brother laser printer. In addition to laser-like plain paper text printing, I wanted the added convenience of printing digital images at home. These desires appear satisfied with the Canon i860.

This printer was easy to set up due to the large, step-by-step poster included in the packaging. I found orange tape in fascinating in every nook and cranny, every crease and crevasse, and every place that would possibly moved if shipped by the roughest, part-time, holiday delivery service imaginable. Flipping poster and inserting the packaged CD completed installation of the drivers and software.

My first page was, of course, the Windows test page. I was not wowed by the sharp text on the 20 lb, 98 brightness page. Frankly, an older model 300x300 looks better, but not by much. At least is didn't streak like the older model inkjets. In addition, the paper wasn't as moist, but definitely not as crisp as a laser.

The next six pages that I produced from the i860 were 4x6 glossies that were included in the packaging. This is the portion of my review where my eyes roll back, my tongue flops out, and I droll on myself. Although I had a learning curve to get the sizing I wanted on the 4x6 paper, I cannot believe that the photos coming from this machine and not an Agfa film development machine hidden behind the wall. Truth be known, however, that I am no professional photographer. I am an amateur with a 4 MP digital camera.

So, from the eyes of novice, the picture printing quality is superb. But text printing with inkjet technology, at least with this model, although better than normal, is still sub-par in comparison to laser.

89 Best Printer I have ever bought - The overachiever
About 3 years ago, I purchased my first digital camera, and a top of the line HP printer. I was never really satisified with the print quality, but didn't know weather it was camera or printer or operator related. Last year I purchased an Epson 825 photo printer, hoping that this would produce the type of prints I was looking for. Both of these printers were disappointing in terms of picture quality and use cost per print. I bought the Canon I860 printer about 2 months ago after seeing it in action at my local Best Buy store. This is by far the best printer I have ever bought. Photo print quality is better than most photo labs. I downloaded the same set of pictures to 3 different labs to try to determine the best photo quality. The results from this printer put all 3 labs as well as my epson printer to shame. If you buy this printer for photos, stick with Canon paper. I tried some leftover Epson paper I had as well as Kodak's best paper. The Canon paper blows them all away. If you need a good all around printer that is quiet, very fast, and produces great prints of any size, you will not be disappointed with the printer.

90 Best multipurpose printer available on the market!
After having disastrous results with a Hewlett Packard printer which died shortly after purchase, I learned my lessons and did some research before purchasing a new printer.

The Canon i860, although not perfect, performed well in all the critical evaluation areas from places like Consumer Reports to the reviews on Amazon.

Here is what I love about it:

1)It is EXTREMELY fast. (Especially with text)

2)Quiet. The occasional rumble, but nowhere near the cacaphony of most printers.

3)Great photo prints.

4)4 separte ink cartridges so that you only have to replace what you need to. AND, the ink mileage on this printer is excellent.

5)It's relatively cheap. It only cost me $320 Canadian.

6)Prints internet pages in full without cutting off the right margin.

7)Has substance. Actually contains some METAL parts!

8)Suits all my needs as a student and a desktop publishing hobbyist.

I'm extremely satisified and I would recommend this printer to anyone who needs a multipurpose, fast office printer capapable of producting professional graphic and photographic output.

Have fun!

91 Small, fast, perfect pictures.
This printer was easy to set up. The software that comes with it makes printing soo much easier as it has a built in layout program to do various sizes, corrections and cropping. Allows you to do borderless or bordered pictures. The colors are perfectly printed. When I used my Epson 1270, I never got perfect color matching. The Canon i860 delivers fast, clean, acurate pictures. I am very impressed with this affordable printer. It has 5 cartridges so that you only replace the ones that you need for far less money then replacing the color cartridge in other printers at $50.00. The Canon replacement cartridges are about $11.50 and you only replace the ones you use up. I recommend buying the 2.0 fast speed usb cable as this printer uses that technology for it's super fast printing. Took about 25 seconds to print a 4" x 6" photo. Load up the images you want to print in it's software program, clik one button and it prints all your pictures at one time. Super fast, Super Brilliant colors and the inks dry very fast. I replaced my $600. overrated Epson printer with this one. I made a great choice. I used my left over Epson photo paper on this printer and they print just as nice as the Canon paper. No need to buy special paper in my opinion. Epson's ink never dried and ink would bleed on to the backs of other photo's when you stacked them together and forget about putting them into a photo album, they would get stuck to the plastic. The Canon prints that I created with this printer came out of the printer dry. The inks do not stink like the Epson inks and I cannot say enough positive things about this printer. I wish it could print bigger prints but I chose the smaller model. Otherwise, this printer gets the thumbs up. Go and buy it, you won't really find anything bad about it. If you own a Canon digital camera, you can print from the camera to the printer using the plug in option in the front of the printer. Great Value, Awesome results. You will be satisfied.

92 perfect all around printer for home use
I've own a digital camera for 3 years, but I always had my photos developed by ifoto, shutterfly or snapfish. Recently I bought a new camera, and was looking for an all around printer to go with it. I was trying to decide between i850 and i950, when the new ones came out. Not only were they cheaper, they print better quality photos!

My hardest decision was to get the i860 or i960. After visiting the local electronic store countless times and scrutinizing the photo print quality of both printers. I decided to get the i860. The print quality for both is excellent, with the i960 a tiny bit better. But the i860 is much faster in printing regular documents. For home, sometimes I need to print driving directions or emails, so the i860 seems more appropriate.

Don't worry, you're not giving up much to the i960. I still can't believe the quality of photos coming out of this baby. Compared to photo developed at drug stores and supermarket, it blows them away. And for less than $150, you really can't go wrong!

You if want a printer solely dedicated to photo printing, then go for the i960. Otherwise, get the i860 and you'll get the best of both worlds.

93 I LOVE THIS PRINTER!
I've been an HP person for many years. I've recently had to replace my printer but didn't want to spend a lot of money. I also recently started taking digital photos and need a photo printer that actually prints good quality photos, like the samples that they put out next to the printers at computer stores (but you can't actually achieve at home). Well, look no further. I was so excited when I printed my first 4x6, the colors were so brilliant; this photo looked like I had it developed. It was on the Cannon photo paper pro, the sample paper that came with the printer. I also printed on 2 types of HP photo paper (hp premium plus glossy and the hp premium glossy). The results were good but if you want excellent, you need to buy the Cannon photo paper. I finally found an awesome printer and it cost less than $150. WOW! Haven't yet attempted 8 1/2x11 but when I do, I don't think I'll be disappointed.

94 Excellent Price to Performance Ratio!!!!!
I have had this printer for a few days. I just returned from a trip to Japan and needed to print photos from my digital camera. I searched Amazon and this printer was right at my price range and seemed to be rated well. Bought it and after 15 min of setup i was printing 4x6 prints with the enclosed sample photo paper. WOW these prints are just as good as if i had went to a camera shop to get them developed. The printot is slower w/ a parallel cable. When you use a USB it is quick and quiet.

My only caveat. Do not use cheap paper. I tried a bargain brand just to see if there was a difference. The ink doesnt dry properly and the prints stick together.

This printer Rocks!!!

95 Quality of a laser, versatility of an ink-jet
I really wanted to buy a b&W laser printer, but with a small kid at home, I knew I also needed color, both for digital pictures and crafts projects. After doing a *ton* of research online, I decided on the i850, only to discover it was relpaced with the i860, which I bought based on the strength of the 850's reviews.

This printer is great -- for text printing it uses a pigment-based black ink which looks sharp on *any* paper (even some crappy old typing paper I had lying around). For printing color images, it uses a dye-base black in (and dye-based cyan, magenta, and yellow inks).

The results are great: When printing text, this printer is FAST -- nearly as fast as my laser-jet at the office. The pigment based text is genuinely laser-quality. You simply cannot tell it was done on an ink-jet. For printing color images, the usual caveats apply (items look best on Canon products, etc.), but the results easily outpace six-color ink jets.

Finally, I've found that the ink is *much* cheaper than with competitors, making your cost per page much lower with this printer than with a Lexmark, Epson, or HP. If you're so inclined, it also does not have chips in the ink cartridges, so you can refill them easily as well.

96 Unbelievable quality for the price!
I received this printer from Amazon a few days ago and I am blown away by the quality of the prints that come out of this inexpensive printer! The quality of the prints are just as good as photo lab prints! The printer was very easy to set up and the EasyPhoto print software that came with it is easy enough for my eighty-year-old grandmother to use. NEED I SAY MORE! Just get it and you won't be sorry!

97 An excellent all-purpose printer for both text and graphics
I bought this printer because I need to print clear text for work and also want to print good photos and other graphics. Most products, especially in the low to midrange, do one or the other better (or suck at both), but so far (after a week) this one has excelled at both tasks. The text clarity comes very close to a laser printer, even for small text, and the photo quality is just amazing, especially given the printer's price. It also offers easy two-sided printing, which I use a lot to save paper when printing articles, and comes with a photo-paper cartridge to make photo printing easier. The setup process was simple and fast, and the software interface is easy to use.

I highly recommend the i860 if you're looking for a versatile, high-quality yet affordable printer. And if you're looking at the low end of the inkjet price range (which I was), seriously consider spending a bit more for this one. I'm SO glad I did.

98 Previously Owned the Canon i850
After returning the Canon i850 due to a defect the sales manager at Best Buy informed me that it had been upgraded and I was thrilled!!! The i850 was incredible and now....the i860 is just fantastic. I put it to the test since owning the i850, I printed the exact same picture with the i860 and the i860 takes the lead with its sharpness! It's much bolder, I love it. I never hesitated (due to the defect in my i850) to ask for the same printer when I was returning it-it was great and I had so many comments from scrappers (I do scrap booking) about my photo quality. Noone could believe that I printed my own pictures!!! I've recommended it to several scrappers and my scrap book supplier. I'm glad that if they decide to purchase the i850 they will get a little bonus--the upgraded i860!! Love the paper tray too!

99 the i860 Rocks!
I have never written a product review before, but I have often used them when shopping. This time I felt obligated to submit my own.

After failing to research printers adequately, I purchased an HP 7550...I hated it! It was loud, slow, and the quality of the photo prints were at best mediocre. When I knew I was planning to replace it I looked up some reviews and found that the i860 was highly recommended, so I decided to try it.

I am both thrilled and amazed at how much I love this printer. It is fast, it is quiet, and the prints of photos I get on high gloss paper are the highest quality I have ever seen on a home printer.

I would recommend this printer over most of the $200-$400 printers out there. I've seen demos and comparisons, the i860 hangs with the best of them for far less $$.

On the $$ note, the i860 aslo kills the HP when it comes to ink replacement. The HP seems to use up ink faster and the replacement cartridges are too expensive.

100 Great Bang for Your Buck!!
This printer prints beautiful pictures! I was amazed at the quality of the prints. Don't know why you would want to spend any more. I would recommend using Canon Matte paper - great photo details. For non-photo printing, the black text looks almost laser quality. This printer comes with a larger black ink cartridge for everyday printing. Very easy to set up, just follow the quick set up guide and you're set to print.