Canon PIXMA iP4000 Photo Printer

This is probably a great printer - fast, brilliant output, quiet, great price, top notch review in PC Mag and C/Net and all sorts of other places. I will never get the opportunity to experience this brilliance however because this printer flat out don't work with with an external print server.

Since I have 3 PCs that my family and I need to print from, since the printer is in the basement and none of the computers are there, I use an HP JetDirect external print server, meaning I don't have to dedicate an extra machine to run everyone's printing through. HP practically invented the print server, and I've never had a problem with any other printer - usually Epson.

Canon tech support confirmed the printer is unsupported through a print server. They suggest the iP4000R with a wireless one built-in which I may buy and sell my HP print server on eBay or something. But the beauty of an external one is that I shouldn't have to spend extra to buy future printers with this capability. I did find some postings on newsgroups hinting that some people have been able to get this printer to work through a print server, but usually some capability was lost, some other printer's device driver had to be used, etc. and I don't think many people are willing to give up features.

In the end as more features are stuffed into these printers, my guess is that this specialization will obsolete a lot of the printer servers out there.

This is my fourth Canon printer, and generally I've been happy with all of them. Happier, on average, than I was with the three HPs.

I bought this one because, what with the cost of photo paper (and inks, though Canons tend to be a bit lower in this department), I was reluctant to print out my growing libarary of digital photos at less than optimum quality. I had a 2 1/2 year old Canon S520, which did well but was still noticeably below a good commercial 35 mm print.

Well, my wife needed a printer for her office at church, so she inherited the S520 and I sprung for the PIXMA. Good move. The photo quality is much better, now at least comparable to a 1-hour 35mm job. And, it's fast! A text page just blazes through. Not as razor sharp as my best HP, but you'd be hard pressed to notice without your nose down on it.

The up side of the Canon system is the permanent print head. You don't throw it away, which makes ink tanks cheaper. However, be aware it's not really the half price you might be hoping for. My best guess is that I'm going 70% the distance of an HP cartridge of same rated quanitity. But at closer to half the price, I'm still ahead of the game, so no complaints here. Also, you don't throw a whole color cartridge away when one color runs out. Makes sense.

Now, the down side is that, I assume, running ink through the same print head for years means you need an ink of greater fluidity so it is less likely to clog. And that is probably what makes it smeary for a bit longer as it dries. But with most office paper, you're fine in a few seconds, and with photos inside a minute or two. Thumbs off until then!

Bottom line: if you're printing lots of smooth-coated shipping labels, like our one-star reviewer, you should look elsewhere. The Canon method is not for you. But me, I'm still a happy Canon camper.

I am impressed with the printer! The print quality is GREAT if you use Canon Papers to print on (so-so on other paper).
Easy to use too!

I have had many printers in the past; HP, Epsons. This is by far the best I have ever used. Set up was so simple and printing was incredibly fast. I was amazed at how fast the 4 x 6 prints came flying out. If you can't figure out how to print with this simple, user friendly printer, I would suggest going back to using crayons. Two thumbs up to Canon for making an inexpensive simple to use printer.

Black smudges so badly that as an all purpose printer, the IP4000 is USELESS.
The paper cannot be handled even after 30 minutes drying. We have tried plain paper and labels that used to print fine on our old Epson C63 (a printer that was half the price) Are a mess.
We sell on eBay full time and use our printer mostly for address labels. While this may not be the use of most home users, it is safe to say most people use there printers for black ink letters most of the time.
If that's the case don't buy this printer.
Not sure what I will do now. Maybe try to buy some copy ink that dries better than the canon original. We gave the old printer away to friend in need. Once we saw what great colour test prints the IP4000 produced. Who would have thought that smudging would be such a problems? It wasn't something I had considered. It's a silly problem but means I can't use the printer.
No response at all from canon...