Looking for the fastest Inkjet printer - only needed to print text

[Tin Ho]

I used an i560 before. I had an ip4000 and an ip4200 too. I replaced all of them with an ip4300. I can tell you it is way faster than ip4200 in both text and photos. I got the ip4200 for a brief time only and sold it to a co-worker when there was a sale of ip4300 and I bought it. Ip4300 is a much faster and better printer than ip4200 (ip4000 and i560 included). The ip4300 can print text down to font size 6 with very decent quality. It prints a 4x6 photo in highest resolution just about as fast as an i9900. I9900 does it about 2 or 3 seconds faster. I got my ip4300 at $59 more than a year ago. That's after $30 rebate. There is no more ip4300. It has been replaced by ip4500. Yes, ip6220D is a slow printer judging from its nozzle count. It is for users who print a few pages a month, like a friend of mine did. But with an ip4300 or 4500 you can print in large volume everyday. I don't see why not due to its printing speed. Of course when it hits the print head's end of service life it will die and you will neeed a new print head.

 

[Trigger 37]

TinHo,...Thanks for reminding me about the iP4300 and the newer iP4500. The 4500 is a big step down since the cut the nozzles from 1024 to 512. Each person has a different need for any printer they buy. It is not always about speed. For example, I still have a MP730 All-in-One that uses the same printhead as the i560 and therefore can print at 22 ppm in fast black. That is about as fast as I need to go. It is attached to my second system and networked to both computers over high speed Ethernet. On my primary system I have the iP6600d which I got for the highest resolution and the 6 color inks. I use this for printing the best quality photos up to 8x10. Without the Photo Cyan and the Photo Magenta, I don't feel the color gamut is good enough to make a studio quality print. I knew when I bought it that it did not have pigment black and was going to be slow printing any kind of text. That didn't matter to me.

To PrinterLP, if you are mainly interested in printing on card stock and in Black Pigmented text, sounds like any of the 4200, 4300, or even the 4500 would be a good choice.

 

[Tin Ho]

Trigger 37, I just looked up Canon's support web site for ip4300 and ip4500 Specs. It showed that they both have 512 nozzles for black text. But the color print heads are quite different. The total nozzle count for ip4500 is 4608 and 3584 for ip4300. Based on these numbers ip4500 can be even faster than ip4300 for color prints. For text they should be about the same. I have found that ip4500 sells for much higher prices than ip4300 used to be. I believe ip4500 is a faster printer than ip4300 in photo prints.

 

[Trigger 37]

TinHo,... I saw the number also, but I think there is some mistakes in here somewhere. Here is an exact copy of what the Canon web site states for each printer;

iP4300
Printer
Print Speed (up to) 4" x 6" borderless photo:approx. 36 seconds
Black: Up to 30 ppm (as fast as 2.0 seconds per page)
Color: Up to 24 ppm (as fast as 2.5 seconds per page)
Number of Nozzles Black: 512
Color: 1,024 x 2 colors (C, M), 512 x 2 colors (C, M), 512 x 2 colors (Y, BK)
Total: 3,584
Print Resolution (Up to) Black: 600 x 600 dpi
Color: 9600 x 2400 dpi1


PIXMA iP4300 Print Head

Ink Tanks:
PGI-5BK Black
CLI-8BK Black
CLI-8C Cyan
CLI-8M Magenta
CLI-8Y Yellow

iP4500
Printer Type Photo Printer
Print Speed (up to) Black: 31 ppm (as fast as 1.9 seconds per page)2
Color: 24 ppm (as fast as 2.5 seconds per page)2
Postcard Size: 4" x 6" borderless photo: approx. 21 seconds2
Number of Nozzles Black: 512
Color: 512 x 3 (C/M), 512 x 1 (Y/BK)
Total: 4,608
Print Resolution (Up to) Black: 600 x 600 dpi1
Color: 9600 x 2400 dpi1

Ink Tanks for iP4500, same as iP4300

Now if you read the number really close, things don't add up. For example,.. on the iP4300 they say there are;
Number of Nozzles Black: 512
Color: 1,024 x 2 colors (C, M), 512 x 2 colors (C, M), 512 x 2 colors (Y, BK);..... but this adds up to 4,512 nozzles,....not 3,584?????????

And for the iP4500,...they say;

Number of Nozzles Black: 512
Color: 512 x 3 (C/M), 512 x 1 (Y/BK);..... and this is full of errors. It should say 512x3 (C,M,Y) + 512 Dye Blk, + 512 Pig blk,... and this adds up to 2,512 nozzles.
not 4,608.??????

The real question is,... if a printhead has 1024 nozzles of one color, is this printer faster than a different printer that only has 512 nozzles of the same color.?????

The answer is,... you have to look at the layout of the printhead and see how many nozzles are in a straight line and how many are parallel, and which ones are 5 pl and which ones are 2 pl.

As far as the difference in speed,... they claim the black text is only 1ppm faster. This could have been a round up marketing trick or they could have "Twiked" the performance of the printer that much. It doesn't matter since you will only get that speed if you are printing the same document in the same font that Canon used for the test. The color specs for both printers are the same, yet they claim to have the exact same resolution. I think there is a lot more to this that what Canon is telling us. The printer with more nozzles of one color, like the iP4300, must have faster print speeds,.. or the driver has been de-tuned for some marketing reason.

 

[PrinterLP]

Immediately after posting yesterday I tried to find an i560 and quickly found out that it was only available refurbished.

My next try will be to look at the iP4300and iP4500

It had just occurred to me yesterday that it's probably not necessary to run my current iP6220 in its best quality mode, but based on your responses, it sounds like even that will make it less than quick.

What I'll be printing is invitations - varying card sizes (approx 5 x 7) with text saying "come to our party, date, time, rsvp, maybe a logo" I'll be doing this in both black ink and color ink. I'd like something that can handle at least 1,250 pieces each month. It doesn't necessarily have to last a super long time - especially if it's under $200. But speed is the main objective, so I'm definitely going to check out the iP4300 and iP4500.

Again, a million thank yous for your help! I'll keep you updated on how it goes.

 

[Tin Ho]

Trigger 37, you are absolutely right. The numbers are very confusing. They could be just marketing hypes. Let's assume that the total number they advertise is correct then ip4500 has higher number of nozzles for color than ip4300's. I think this makes some sense. Ip4000 was knwn for its fast text printing speed but it's not very impressive in clor printing. Ip4200 appeared to be similar in performance to ip4000 but with chipped cartridges. Then I noticed the performance jump in color printing in ip4300. I also noticed better text quality in 4300 as well. Now if ip4500 has even more nozzles for color it must be faster in color printing. Canon claims that it prints a 4x6 photo in 21 seconds. That's the fastest 4x6 speed I have ever seen. But again, you are right that the calculation actually leads to nowhere for ip4300. No idea how the total number is derived from the individual numbers. My ip4300 is a very impressive text/color printer. If you get one and you already have an ip4200 you will probably toss or sell your ip4200 quickly like I did. I believe ip4500 is even better especially for printing photos. I am watching for sales through year end. If it gets below $100 I may consider to replace my ip4300 with it.

PrinterLP, judging from your printing of invitation cards you will appreciate the performance of an ip4300 or an ip4500. It's not just speed of printing. It is the quality of text I am talking about. I found that I do not need to print at max resolution and the text quality is already more than just good. In fact I almost never print text in highest quality any more. I found that the quality is simply great in standard quality (default) already.
My advice is don't buy an i560. It is no comparison to the performance and quality of an ip4300 or ip4500. Since ip4500 is the current model you may want to watch for sales from your local stores. It can be had around or less than $100. Save the $100 to shop for high quality pigmented ink for your black text. You will see why I am so pleased with my ip4300. Good luck.

 

[PrinterLP]

My advice is don't buy an i560. It is no comparison to the performance and quality of an ip4300 or ip4500. Since ip4500 is the current model you may want to watch for sales from your local stores. It can be had around or less than $100. Save the $100 to shop for high quality pigmented ink for your black text.

I was wondering - and this is my ignorance coming through - would I be able to use non-Canon ink or different quality options for ink? I just got through with speaking to Canon on the phone. No stores within a few hours of me carry the iP4500, so an in-store check out wouldn't be possible. They would not print me any text samples, only photo samples printed in High Quality. My interest was to see the text quality in the various quality/speed modes. If buying a nicer quality ink would make a difference or make up for the lack of quality when printing in Fast mode, then I can consider that an option too.

At this point, I may just order the iP4500 and see what happens...
Any insights about ink would be appreciated.
You all have been SO helpful. Thank you.

 

[KnightCrawler]

It should be listed like this:

Number of Nozzles

* Black: 512
* Color: 1024 x 2 (C,M), 512 x 2 (Y,BK)

Total: 3584

Number of Nozzles

* Black: 512
* Color: 1024 x 4 (C,M, Y,BK)

Total: 4608

 

[fotofreek]

I would guess that the quality of ink won't makeup for fast mode as opposed to higher resolution slower modes. I think that most of us would agree that the best quality ink for Canon printers is OEM Canon inks. That is the yardstick by which aftermarket inks are measured. There are good quality aftermarket bulk inks for refilling, and the major downside is more rapid fading over the months or years. This isn't an issue with invitations as you don't need archival quality. The black ink in the larger carts of the ip4200, 4300, and 4500 (and some others) is supposed to be pigmented ink. From what I've read, some vendors sell dye-based inks for refilling. There are participants on this Forum that can steer you to the vendors that sell true pigment-based inks for these carts. I've used MIS pigment-based inks in my wife's ip5000. I haven't tested it for water fastness, but it does make for sharp text printing. As far as speed is concerned, printing a page of text with a small area of graphics goes much faster than photo printing and the series starting with the ip4000 and through the ip4500 are pretty fast for inkjet printers. Remember - you are still dealing with a "line printer" as opposed to much faster contemporary lasers which are "page" printers.

 

[Tin Ho]

KnightCrawler, That's fantastic. Thanks for figuring it out.

PrintLP, have you tried to look at Amazon? there are a lot of ip4300 and ip4500 there. Look for shipping specials on Amazon. Sometimes Amazon offers free shipping for purchase meeting certain amount. I think for text ip4300 and ip4500 are about the same. So either one you will be fine. Don't buy a used one as you will never known how much life of the print head is already spent unless you plan to buy a new print head anyway.

Fotofreek, inks from different sources are indeed different, including pigmented ink. I will not say OEM ink being really better. It is quite common that people use OEM as a standard. If aftermarket ink shows a slight difference in colors people think it is off, or not as good. An aftermarket ink could have a wider gamut than OEM yet is regarded as not better because slight color difference. The fact is aftermarket ink is formulated differently. When it is used in a default color management environment dominated by Canon's default color profiles the ink will show some extend of color differences. If a professionally made profile is set up for the ink you may be surprised that it actually produces better colors than the OEM ink. But of course there are bad ink all over everywhere too. So it makes everyone's life harder in finding good quality aftermarket ink. I think this forum has a good recommendation based on member input for a few names of the suppliers. The names are in the FAQ I think.