Everything or Nothing
The most disappointing thing was when the printer ran out of ink, and it displayed a non-desrcript error message that could not be bypassed. I was pretty sure it was only out of black, and would have been happy to print in blue. Worse though was that it turned off access to the scanner as well. I was unprepared without backup ink, and really wanted to fax a document, but my printer was convinced that everything required some black ink it didn’t have.
Why Didn’t I Monitor Ink Levels?
The printer didn’t provide this information to the Mac OS X PrinterProxy application (the utility you use to monitor print jobs and supply levels), nor did it come with a separate Canon Printer Utility for the Mac.
Perhaps A Better Driver Is Now Available
I do have to give Cannon credit for keeping up with updates in a timely manner (they just released a new driver this week). However, downloading these drivers i another story.
What Did the Reviewers Have To Say?
The reviews praised the quality and speed of this printer.
In the End, it was a Trade-Off of Benefits
I was looking for a multifunction printer in the $150-200 range. My printing usage is very light, and I primarily wanted it to scan in receipts and other documents. I wanted a duplexer with an automatic document feeder and an OCR bundle. Quality in terms of text crispness was important as well as ruggedness of the hardware (I’d had 2 previous printer belts break). Realizing I was on the lower end of the price range, I was willing to give up some ease of use as well as the best possible Macintosh compatibility. I would agree with the reviewers that when this printer is fully operational, I am very pleased with the quality and ease at scanning and printing documents. Had I had I higher price range, I am guessing I would have found another model that matched my wish list better in terms of maintenance and troubleshooting.