Canon Selphy CP760

This is my second dye-sub printer, and it is an improvement in size, noise and speed. The picture quality is similar, which means it is still very good. I opened the box and set everything up quickly, the… paper tray and ink only go in one way so it is easy to use. The problems started when I installed the software. The install was OK, but when I tried to use it I just couldn't find how to get it to print. I am a geek, and build my own machines and play with lots of software, so I can usually work things out, but with this I had to use the last resort of reading the manual. Even then, I only managed to do a simple print, the other features to customize a print were too confusing to even attempt. The next day I wanted to use the printer again, and I couldn't remember the name of the software program in the Start menu, so I had to go back to the install disk and start the install again to work out what it was called. I have another Canon printer which uses a completely different piece of software, which is slightly better, but why doesn't Canon make a standard program for all their printers? This looks like it was thrown together by the hardware engineers with no regard to how a user would use it. I prefer using software that comes with a machine, as it has access to all the features. Its like trying to use a universal remote control, its fine for start/stop/pause but to get into the setup menu you need the manufacturers remote. Now I am just printing from other programs and possible missing out on cool features, but I could not use that program again. I did not remove any stars as I purchased this printer for the quality of the prints, and that is certainly 5 star.

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If you absolutely have to do your own printing, this is a good printer to buy. Bottom line: most photo labs will print cheaper, with better quality control, with known sizing, and with known print… lifetime. Quality: This dye-sublimation printer will match the quality of a lab. The prints are clear and well colored. (I use a color calibration tool for my monitor, so I know the colors are correct out of the printer. I suspect that may be the problem with other reviewers who have complained of mismatched color.) Cost: you are looking at about $60 to buy the unit, plus $0.27 per print. Photo labs tend to start at $0.19 per print. You pay extra for the convenience of print-it-here-and-now, but it's not too bad of a cost. The "sample media" provided by Canon was good for exactly 5 prints. Be sure to buy your first 108-pack if you order this printer. Quality control: A dye-sub printer will (in my experience) give more consistent quality than an inkjet. Inks dry out, colored films do not. Ink nozzles can block up, leaving streaks in your prints, colored films do not. Even so, an imperfection in the ribbon or the paper will be visible in your prints. I've already seen this happen with this unit in the 3rd image that I printed. There is a bright green spot in my print where the magenta film had a defect. This is another win for a lab: if I'd received this print from a lab, I could get them to reprint it for free. To redo it myself will cost me another $0.27 for the new print. Sizing: as has already been mentioned in another review, the sizing of 4x6 prints is about 3-15/16" by 5-13/16", when printing "borderless" on the perforated 4x6 sheets. Any professional printer will tell you that you have to plan for bleed space when you send imagery for printing, and this is a good example. Don't print pictures with the content all the way up to the edges, or you will be disappointed when it gets cut off. This is probably true of your photo lab as well, so plan ahead and save yourself the grief. Note as well that the aspect ratio of a 4x6 print is 3:2 and the aspect ratio of most point-and-shoot cameras is 4:3. Some labs will offer 4.5x6 prints for this very reason, to avoid cropping the image. There are no cropping/positioning tools on the printer, so you'll want to pre-crop in your favorite image editor before sending 4:3 images to this printer. That or shoot with a DSLR that has a 3:2 ratio sensor anyway (All current Canon and Nikon SLRs). Lifetime: Photo lab prints done on photographic paper have been around dozens of years. Their long-term resistance to fading is well known. Printer paper and dye-sublimation inks are not nearly so well known. I had an older (circa 2001) Olympus dye-sublimation photo printer, and the prints that I still have from that machine have NOT lasted. The colors have separated unevenly, or faded away entirely in some cases. I'm glad I didn't trust anything important to that medium. Canon claims prints from this printer will last 100 years. I'm hoping so.

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Don't be put off by the 300dpi rating of this printer. The dye-sublimation technology prints dots of actual color, as opposed to inkjets who need a lot more dpi because they sputter many microscopic… single-color droplets over the "dot" space to make it appear as a single color from a normal viewing distance. The CP-760 photos are indistinguishable from the ones you order at a photo lab. It does need special Canon-made paper and ink packs, but the Canon KP-108IN Color Ink Paper Set (3115B001) has everything you need for printing 108 4x6 photos at a cost of about 27 cents each (or perhaps a bit more if you take printer cost into account, which you should). Worth the convenience compared to walking to the store, especially when you only want a print or two. The consumables are for exactly the number of photos they say they are, it does not matter how much or how little color is in the photo. The "ink pack" contains a roll of 4" wide film with 6"-long sections in each color (yellow, magenta and cyan) followed by a 6" clear coat, of exactly the number needed to make the number of photos indicated. After printing, each section ends up with a negative of that color from the image so it can't be reused. I imagine one could recover the photos from the discarded negatives, so if that is a problem, you should yank the film out after it's "empty" and dispose of it in some other way than throwing the cartridge in the trash. Size-wise, a 3:2 format photo (as from a DSLR) fits the 4x6 paper better than the standard 4:3 format found in most digicams, which will get chopped top and bottom. Color came out very nice. You can print 8 images in one photo if you want to check the color levels. The LCD is low-res and should not be used to judge image color under any circumstances, luckily there is little the LCD can do that you can't do from a camera. You can print straight from a memory card, using the clunky image selection interface on the LCD that does not allow for much control. Or you could prepare a "print order" in the camera, so called DPOF. As you view your images in camera in PLAY mode, look for a "Print" or "DPOF Print" in the image MENU. Then follow the prompts. When you're done take the card out and put it in the printer, who will execute your "print order". Another way is to connect the camera directly to the printer with the camera's USB cable, if the camera supports a "print mode" on the dial (PictBridge), most do. In this mode you can also choose 2-up or 4-up modes and once you push "Print" it will send them straight to the printer. Nice but wastes camera battery. You can also print wirelessly, straight from your phone or laptop, by sending photos to the printer via Bluetooth. Canon says to buy the BU-30 adapter for that, but I had an Iogear Bluetooth USB adapter (GBU311) lying around from an old laptop and had to try it. I am happy to report that it works just fine in this printer and I could print from my phone, which may suggest that there is a good chance any USB Bluetooth adapter might work. Finally, you can print from the computer via USB. There is a CD with software for Mac and Windows which I haven't tried yet. It works with Linux. Gutenprint-cups 5.2.4 knows of some CP models but not this particular one, so you need to select the driver manually as Canon SELPHY-CP-520 CUPS+Gutenprint (note that 750, which is the closest model, does NOT work). There's also a gutenprint-plugin package that allows printing directly from GIMP. With these I recommend scaling the image to the paper size prior to printing, to avoid visible aliasing that happens when you let the driver do the scaling. In GIMP, resize with Lanczos(Sinc) to a width of 1740 (3.9") or a height of 1170 (5.8"), then apply a bit of unsharp mask if necessary. I can't tell from the Canon product chart what is different in the new models outside of physical appearance and some gimmick software features (borders and such), because the CP series are all dye-sub 300 dpi printers using the same ink and paper. So given that the 760 is at a very sweet price point at Crutchfield right now, if you don't need a bucket or option for optional battery, I'd say go for it.

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