The Canon Pixma iP6700D is an affordable photo ink-jet printer that’s capable of printing superior-quality photos comparable to those developed in a photo lab. In addition to producing photos with great shadow detail and accurate colors, this printer offers a multitude of customization options such as noise reduction, face brightening, and color adjustment. Equipped with two input trays, six ink cartridges, and a user-friendly control panel, the iP6700D can help create a smooth production process that won’t leave veteran photographers missing the time they previously spent in a darkroom.
Design and usability
The iP6700D’s two input trays should keep your photo papers organized: an automatic sheet feeder holds larger media, and a cassette drawer holds smaller papers. The cassette drawer, located under the printer’s output tray, conceals smaller photo papers and protects them from dust. Before printing, you can easily choose the input tray from which to print by pressing the Feed Switch button on the control panel.
If you’re an avid digital photographer, you’ll appreciate the fact that the iP6700D’s picture-card reader accepts several formats: CompactFlash, MicroDrive, SmartMedia, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, SD Card, and MultiMediaCard v.3.31. These picture-card slots are found behind a removable cover on the front of the printer. However, while I was unpacking the printer, this cover snapped off; even when I managed to get the cover back on, it would fall off very easily.
Printing from a picture card is very easy with the iP6700D’s control panel. A bright, large (3.5-inch) color LCD screen displays a variety of menus that are easy to navigate with the four directional arrows. After inserting your picture card and selecting a photo, you can push the Settings button to change paper size or choose from advanced settings. In the advanced settings, you can change brightness, contrast, color hue, noise reduction, and tweak other details. After you’ve tailored the photo to your liking, press the Print button, which will bring you to a print dialog screen.
Quality and speed
The iP6700D’s photo print quality is excellent: in my tests, colors were very accurate, images were very clear and not oversharpened, and shadows were very detailed. When printing four-by-six-inch photos, we noticed very faint scratches on some of the prints—likely made by the printer’s roller. However, you can see these scratches only when you look very closely in bright light, so this isn’t much of an issue. Our Macworld jury gave the iP6700D’s photo printing a Superior rating.
The iP6700D’s color-document printing is also impressive. In our testing, curved and thin lines were very well preserved, with few breaks in the lines—atypical compared with most ink-jets we’ve tested in the past. Our jury gave the iP6700D’s color-document printing a Very Good rating. Gray-scale text prints were smooth and clean, but the black ink looked a little light; the jury gave this printer’s text quality a Good rating.
In terms of speed, the iP6700D prints at moderate rates. In my testing, it took 1 minute and 36 seconds to print a 22MB Photoshop image, 2 minutes and 52 seconds to print a four-page PDF, 24 seconds to print a one-page Word document, and 3 minutes and 14 seconds to print a ten-page Word document.
timed trials
| Ten-page Word test | 3:14 |
|---|---|
| One-page Word test | 0:24 |
| 22MB Photoshop image | 1:36 |
| Four-page PDF | 2:52 |
| 4 x 6 photo | 1:29 |
| Five 4 x 6 photos | 7:26 |
Times are in minutes: seconds.
jury tests
| Graphics-Fine lines and gradients | Very Good |
|---|---|
| 22MB Photoshop image quality | Superior |
| Text quality | Good |
Scale: Superior, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor
How We Tested: We ran all the tests with the photo printer connected via USB 2.0 to a 2.66GHz Mac Pro, with Mac OS X 10.4.8 installed and with 1GB of RAM. We recorded the time it took the printer to print a one-page Word document and a ten-page Word document, as well as the time it took to print a 22MB Photoshop image and a four-page PDF. We then recorded the time it took to print a 4-by-6-inch photo and the time it took to print five 4-by-6-inch photos. A panel of experts examined samples of the printer’s output to rate its print quality as either Superior, Very Good, Good, Fair, or Poor in comparison to the output of past photo printers we’ve tested.—Macworld Lab testing by Brian Chen
specifications
| Print resolution | 9,600 x 2,400 dpi (black or color) |
|---|---|
| Connection | USB 2.0 |
| Paper sizes | Credit card (2.13 x 3.39), 4 x 6, 4 x 8, 5 x 7, 8 x 10, letter, legal, U.S. No. 10 envelopes |
| Cost to replace ink/toner cartridges | $86 ($14 each for black, cyan, magenta, yellow, photo cyan, and photo magenta) |
| Weight (in pounds) | 16.5 |
| Dimensions (height x depth x width, in inches) | 7.20 x 11.97 x 16.89 |
| Paper capacity | 300 (two trays that hold 150 sheets each) |
| Special features | Duplexing; large (3.5-inch) LCD screen; Bluetooth connectivity option |
Macworld’s buying advice
The iP6700D printed some of the best photos we’ve seen out of all the midrange ink-jet printers we’ve tested. This printer’s flexibility, ease of use, affordability, and excellent photo-print quality make it a no-brainer purchase for photographers of every skill level.
[ Brian Chen is an assistant editor at Macworld.]
Canon Pixma iP6700D