Canon Bubble Jet i990

Colour inkjet printers tend to be either nippy at the expense of quality or capable of high-class output if you don't mind waiting up to ten minutes for each sheet. Photo printers with additional ink colours can be even slower. But Canon's i990 looks like changing all that, producing perfect photo prints at what currently seems an unfeasibly quick rate.

The attractive silver and charcoal case follows Canon's regular layout, with a lean-back feeder tray on top and printouts emerging at the front. Both input and output trays can be folded shut flush with the unit to keep the dust out when not in use. The i990 comes with a photo card reader that slots into the top without forcing you to remove any paper already in the main tray. On the plus side, it will print borderless photos on 6 x 4in and 7 x 5in stock. It's rather large and cumbersome, though, as well as ugly.

Digital camera owners may appreciate the direct connection port at the front of the unit, allowing you to print out images without needing to access or even switch on your PC. Just bear in mind that the port is only compatible with Canon's Bubble Jet Direct system built into its own cameras and DV camcorders, and the limited range of cameras that support the PictBridge standard. We tried the connection with a couple of HP digital cameras to no avail.

Unusually for an A4 desktop photo inkjet, the i990 makes use of no less than seven ink cartridges: the standard black, cyan, magenta and yellow, a pairing of light cyan and light magenta for enhanced gradient tone transitions, plus a special red. The red is supposed to improve the red-yellow range. These are all installed separately, although setup is quick and painless thanks to a light sensor mounted on the printhead, which conducts semi-automated printhead alignment each time you swap out a cartridge.

Print quality is very good on plain paper and outstanding on glossy stock. We simply haven't seen better photo inkjet results anywhere else. If we have one reservation, it concerns the black ink on plain paper which comes out rather grey compared to the rich blacks produced on glossy paper. For all Canon's spin about the i990's two-picolitre droplet, HP and Epson still have a plain paper advantage with their pigment-based black inks for sheer black-on-white opacity.

Yet it's the i990's speed that could turn the industry on its head, churning out top-quality photo cards in a few seconds, right up to a full hi-res A4 print on glossy stock in under a minute. Even printing office documents onto plain paper was relatively nippy at an average nine seconds per sheet, roughly equivalent to 6ppm, which is no slouch for a dedicated photo printer. And it does all this almost silently, suggesting Canon is no slouch at manufacture quality either.

The Canon i990 is now the best A4 photo inkjet on the market, setting a new standard for the competition to aim for. Greyish-looking blacks on plain paper, as well as a steep asking price, prevent it from being an ideal all-rounder. Photographers, however, will love the i990.

Author: Alistair Dabbs