Canon PIXMA iP4000 printer is more than a home inkjet printer as it makes color and black & white printing in high speed possible and provide very high resolution. With its two-sided printing function, Canon PIXMA iP4000 reduces your paper costs. Direct printing from cameras is also possible with Canon PIXMA iP4000 printer. It has no memory card slots.

Here are some of the specifications and features of Canon PIXMA IP4000:

* Direct print port & PictBridge compatibility (PictBridge is an important feature that is good to have on a inkjet printer that you print a lot of pictures)

* USB and parallel interfaces; PC and Mac compatible

* Color resolution up to 4,800 x 1,200 dpi & black resolution up to 600 x 600 dpi (This is a pretty high resolution for home use)

* Up to 25 ppm black, 17 ppm color; 4-by-6-inch photo in about 36 seconds (of course this is assuming draft mode printing, but even normal printing is pretty fast for a photo printer

* ContrastPLUS 5-color ink system; built-in two-sided printing (again great for a home printer, you probably will not use it a lot but still is good to have)

* Printer ink cartridges: BCI-3eBk, BCI-6Bk, BCI-6C, BCI-6M, BCI-6Y (good cartridge models that you can easily find inexpensive compatibles for, below we will show why this is so important)

* Paper handling (standard): Letter, legal, 4″ x 6″, 5″ x 7″, U.S. #10 envelopes

* Nozzle configuration: Black: 320, Color: 512 x 2 (C, M), 256 x 2 (Y); Total Nozzles: 1856

Here what comes in the regular box: Canon PIXMA iP4000 Printer, Canon PIXMA iP4000 Printhead, BCI-3eBk Black ink cartridge, BCI-6Bk Black ink cartridge, BCI-6C Cyan ink cartridge, BCI-6M Magenta ink cartridge, BCI-6Y Yellow ink cartridge, Canon Photo Paper Plus Glossy 4″ x 6″ Sample Pack, power cord, documentation kit, Setup Software & User’s Manual CD-ROM

The street price of this printer ranges between $110 and $164 but this is only a part of the story as we all know. It is the supplies that will make the bulk of the cost of ownership. Since Canon PIXMA IP4000 printer uses cartridges that you can easily find compatible generic cartridges online, the true cost of ownership will be pretty reasonable.

This is how we calculate cost of ownership of a printer: “number of prints per month” times “cost of the printer cartridge” divided by “the yield of the printer cartridge”.

For example, lets assume that you will print 50 photos per month using this printers ink cartridge set that yields about 75 photos and a set of cartridges cost $28 for compatibles and $85 for genuine Canon brand ink cartridges. The monthly “cost of ownership” is then
(50 photos) x ($28) / 75 pages = $19 / month while using compatible cartridges and (50 photos) x ($85) / 75 pages = $57 / month.

Using inkjet printer cleaning cartridges on a regular basis can prolong the life of your inkjet printer’s printhead and provide consistently better print quality.

How do you understand if your print head is clogged? Here are some signs that indicate a clogged print head problem:

If white lines occur when printing,
If faintness or broken lines occur in the nozzle check pattern,
If ink doesn’t come out while you are printing,
If the printer is being used again after a long period of time for the first time,
If you are having to perform a printhead cleaning cycle more often than usual (one or two times),

If your inkjet printer print-head is clogged, then you can follow these steps.

1. Install the cleaning cartridge with the same method of replacing ink cartridge.
2. Execute head cleaning and nozzle check procedures. If print quality is still poor, clean the print head again. This method is not suitable for cleaning deteriorated and damaged print head.

If your ink cartridge nozzles are clogged (not the print-head), then follow these steps instead:

1. Rest the clogged nozzles in warm water and then soak them until the dried ink begins to flow from the nozzle.
2. After a couple minutes, take the nozzles out of the water and dry it with a soft tissue
3. Reinstall the printer ink cartridge and run the print-head cleaning mechanism
4. If this does not work, repeat the process.
5. If your ink cartridge still does not print after repeating, uninstall the cartridge and place it on a soft tissue or cotton swab with rubbing alcohol in an upside down position. Let the ink cartridge sit on it for the night.
6. Reinstall the ink cartridge and run the print-head cleaning mechanism

Your ink cartridge nozzles could also be blocked with dried ink. If your ink cartridge has waited outside for more than a few of days, it is likely that they are clogged.

ALWAYS check the ink cartridge prices before you purchase a printer. Why? Sometimes cheaper printers end up costing you more due to the high costs of their ink cartridges. You should calculate the “cost of ownership” per month.

The math is simple: “number of prints per month” times “cost of the printer cartridge” divided by “the yield of the printer cartridge”. Yield is the number of pages that can be printed with one particular printer cartridge. For example, assume that the average home user prints 150 black pages per month using a black printer cartridge that yields 200 pages and costs $28. The monthly “cost of ownership” is

(150 pages) x ($28) / 200 pages = $21

Also look at the printer ink alternatives; besides the original manufacturer’s printer cartridges (OEMs), you may have the se lection of remanufactured printer cartridges, compatible ink/toner cartridges, and refill kits.

Here are some top seller photo printers that I saw in the market recently. The prices below reflect the Amazon.com prices.

Canon PIXMA iP3000 Photo Printer $89.99

Canon PIXMA iP4000 Photo Printer $144.99

Epson Stylus R320 Photo Printer $179.99

Canon PIXMA iP5000 Photo Printer $183.25

HP PhotoSmart 8450 Photo Printer $199.99

HP PhotoSmart 375 Compact Photo Printer $199.99

Epson PictureMate Deluxe Photo Printer $249.99

Canon i9900 Photo Printer $398.99

Epson Stylus Photo R1800 Inkjet Printer $549.99

Also don’t go photo printer shopping without knowing the important photo printer terminology. That way you will have an idea about what you are looking at:

Bluetooth: A technology that enables wireless communication between Bluetooth compatible devices. It is used for short-range connections between desktop and laptop computers, pocket pc’s, digital cameras, scanners, cell phones and printers.

Duplexing: Printing on both sides of a page.

Color balance: Changing the overall color tint of an image when it’s too red, too green, or too yellow.

Output Capacity: Maximum number of pages the printer can handle for one job.

Media Size: The size range of the paper the printer can handle (letter, legal, etc.).

Resolution: The number of pixels in a digital photograph.

Memory Card: A storage device used to store data, like picture and movie files, available in different sizes, such as 8 MB, 32 MB, and 256 MB.