As with all borderless printing, the image must be enlarged a bit to get to the edge of the paper. The borderless menu gives you an interesting option. However, if you want consistently good quality prints or are running a studio of any size, your monitors should be calibrated regularly. Color Options offered color correction sliders for RGB, intensity and contrast along with a brightness menu of light, and normal or dark that will help with any unusual color shift you might experience. The drop-down menu for Quality and Media gave me a choice of draft, normal or high quality print of course I chose high.
The options available to me in the printing software were just enough.
I chose the Canon Photo Paper Plus Glossy II and set up the printer for A3+ 13"x 19" 33 × 48cm (borderless). When I first began testing, I picked out a beauty photograph of a bride I shot in one of my classes with delicate highlights and reasonable shadow detail and put it through the usual Photoshop retouching that I would give anyone. It is also equipped to print wirelessly as well as supports iOS, Android, and Windows RT, for anyone who wants to print directly from their mobile devices. This was a pleasant surprise and will be welcomed by some small businesses, amateurs starting out and those of us who won’t fall into this new iteration of planned obsolescence.
The one thing that I thought was a nice touch is that they wrote the driver software to support as far back as OS 10.6.8 for the Mac and Windows 7 for the PC. After downloading the appropriate driver, set-up was uneventful, just the way I like it. Certainly not an overwhelming footprint, considering it prints thirteen-inch wide paper. Straight out of the box, it is pretty nice. So, my level of expectation for color and contrast is fairly high.
I also had the privilege working closely with some of the first custom print shops of our latest revolution. I am familiar with the constant monitoring and calibration needed to keep the paper and chemistry in line. Long before the digital revolution began, I worked with some semi-automatic commercial printers and enlargers lots of smelly darkroom chemistry. (I have found it retailing for as low as $255).īefore we get started, let me give you a brief history of my printing experience. All this before I even talk about the very reasonable price of $300. So it should come as no surprise that they have developed a top-quality, six color (more on this later) printer that is fast, efficient, quiet and handles paper up to thirteen inches wide. I’ve been shooting Canon for over thirty years and have never been disappointed with the quality of their gear. They have been making large, hardworking business machines for decades (not to mention their history with photography in general). It’s not like Canon doesn’t have a history in the printing industry. You see, I have been using a certain brand since they first introduced an 8.5 × 11 inch, 3-color “photo” printer many, many years ago and I have been very happy with them. I honestly wasn’t expecting to be too impressed by it. When I was asked to test and write a review for the canon_pixma_ip8720 this printer I thought sure, I have extensive experience with printers and I can put aside my loyalties.