Canon 4300 or 6700 ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Talal Itani
  • Start date Start date
T

Talal Itani

I am going to buy a Canon inkjet printer, but I am split between the 4300
and the 6700. The 4300 has 3 color cartridges and 2 blacks. The 6700 has 5
color cartridges and one black. I do not know which way to go? Please help
me make up my mind. Thanks.
 
Talal Itani said:
I am going to buy a Canon inkjet printer, but I am split between the 4300
and the 6700. The 4300 has 3 color cartridges and 2 blacks. The 6700 has
5 color cartridges and one black. I do not know which way to go? Please
help me make up my mind. Thanks.
Click to expand...

The 4300 is regarded as a general purpose printer. The large black cart is
pigment-based ink and is used for printing text on plain paper. It does a
good job with photos as well.

The 6700 is regarded as a photo printer. It does not have the pigment-based
ink that tends to print text documents better on plain paper. It has two
"low-dye-load" ink carts, photo magenta and photo cyan, that are used to
give better color gradations. If I can apply the knowledge I have from
using previous generations of Canon printers, the 4300 will be lest costly
to use because the six color printers use considerably more of the
low-dye-load inks than any of the other colors when printing photos.

I personallyvuse the i960 Canon printer, a six color printer that preceded
the 6700 by two generations. It produces outstanding photo prints. I use a
laser printer for text printing and don't need a general purpose inkjet
printer with the pigment based inks. My wife uses an iP5000, a general
purpose printer that is a previous generation printer with similar
capabilities to the ip4300. She prints lots of text or web pages on plain
paper. Occasionally I use it to print photos when I am on her computer. It
is, frankly, difficult to tell the difference between some photo prints from
the ip5000 and the i960.
 
The main draw for the 6700 is the viewer/editor for those snap shooters
who do not want to use a real photo editor in a computer who want
serious results. That said, the addition color cart in the 6700 may be
only somewhat effective in very few photos that are taken that require
subtle shades. In most of the cases the IP4300 will produce somewhat
better and more contrasty photos faster.

Notwithstanding the IP4300 as a better choice, you can get even better
results in all of the subtleties by going for a wide format Pro9000.
With 8 carts you should get better results in addition to larger photos
but that comes with a relative hefty price tag.

So I would recommend the IP4300 as the best value. Last week I saw it
for $59.95 after sale price and rebate.
 
You say that your i960 with six colors generates outstanding prints. You
also say that it is difficult to tell the difference between some prints
from your i960 and your ip5000. Can I conclude that your ip5000 also
produces outstanding photo prints? When using the ip5000 to print text on
photographic paper, which of the two black inks is used? By the way, I will
buy this printer in order to print high quality brochures on photo paper.
The brochure has photos and black, sometimes color text.
 
The IP5000 and the IP4300 are similiar but the IP4300 uses an advanced
ink formulation and is the latest technology. The IP5000 is now 2
generations old. I would say that the overall print quality of the
IP4300 is better because of the ink.
 
Talal Itani said:
You say that your i960 with six colors generates outstanding prints. You
also say that it is difficult to tell the difference between some prints
from your i960 and your ip5000. Can I conclude that your ip5000 also
produces outstanding photo prints? When using the ip5000 to print text on
photographic paper, which of the two black inks is used? By the way, I
will buy this printer in order to print high quality brochures on photo
paper. The brochure has photos and black, sometimes color text.
Click to expand...
(snip)
The ip5000 photo prints look great. I think the i960 photo prints are a bit
better when held side-by-side with the same print fromt he ip5000, but I
don't think most people would notice. With the ip4300, if you select
anything other than plain paper you will use the black dye-based ink and not
the larger pigment-based inks. The pigment-based inks don't work well on
glossy paper. You didn't say that the photo paper you are using is glossy -
there are excellent matte photo papers as well, and when you select matte
paper, I would expect that the printer uses all dye-based inks. With
uncoated paper (plain paper) the dye-based inks tend to absorb into the
fibers in the paper and make the text slightly less distinct. Having said
that, however, I've printed plain paper text files on the i960 (all
dye-based inks) and they looked just fine.
 
Thank you. I currently use glossy photo paper for brochures. Maybe I
should try matte paper. You mentioned that there are excellent matte photo
papers. Can you recommend some?
 
I used Epson Double-Weight matte in my Canon IP4000 and of course I use
only factory Canon ink and get great results. For photos I source Abobe
98 RGB and in the Canon driver I set it to Canon MP2 for matte.

If I want to water proof it I spray is with Krylon Protectoret.
 
Talal Itani said:
Thank you. I currently use glossy photo paper for brochures. Maybe I
should try matte paper. You mentioned that there are excellent matte
photo papers. Can you recommend some?
Click to expand...
(snip)
Depends on the weight paper you wish to use. I've used Epson, Kodak, and
Staples photo supreme papers and all printed well. Since I only use coated
matte papers for greeting cards, I use Staples photo supreme double sided
matte paper as it has the weight and stiffness that I like. Kodak's heavy
weight matte paper is less stiff. If you want to print on both sides with
color, graphics, photos, etc, you will need double sided matte paper. If
you want a lighter weight paper that is less card-like, someone else may
have experience with that type of material.
 
Back
Top