Labs

Although the iP4500 only has the usual four colours of ink, it takes five separate ink cartridges. These include separate dye-based and pigment blacks. The pigment black is used for document printing, to create sharp, long-lasting text, while the intensely coloured dye-based ink is more suitable for photos. Other features include an automatic duplexer (to print two-sided pages without manual intervention) and CD printing. Two paper trays can hold up to 300 sheets of A4 between them, a lot for an inkjet, and although there's no memory card

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reader you can print directly from a compatible digital camera using the PictBridge USB port.

The PIXMA iP4500 put in an excellent performance in both photo and document printing. Photos were sharp and bright, with natural colours and warm, realistic flesh tones. Fine detail was clear, and although the overall picture quality didn't quite rival that of the Epson printers in the group, our photos looked great. They also printed quickly: like the cheaper iP3500, the Canon took five and a half minutes to produce six 6x4in snaps.

We were equally pleased with our document prints. Ten pages of very legible draft text appeared in just 35 seconds, while the same quantity of laser-sharp correspondence-quality text took just over a minute. The iP4500 printed our mixed text and image document faster than any rival, with sharp, solid areas of colour andneat lettering.

This is one of the best all-round printers we've seen, and it tops that off with the most economical ink costs in the group. Best of all, you don't haveto choose between great photos and high quality documents, because this model gives you both.