i455 Desktop Photo Printer

CNET editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 7.6 (3.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Jeffrey Fuchs
• Reviewed on: 11/26/2003
• Released on: 09/07/2003

The Canon i455 photo printer is a compact but sturdy sub-$100 printer that prints your photos slowly but well. It also prints text and graphics cleanly, and it comes with a high-speed, USB 2.0 direct-print port for direct-from-the-camera printing with PictBridge-compatible cameras. With all this in mind, the i455's $79 price makes it hard to beat. For a slightly faster photo printer (that's slower at text, however), budget-minded photographers should check out the comparably priced Epson Stylus C84.

Although it can print directly from a compatible digital camera, the best way to use this two-tone, light-and-dark-gray photo printer is to hook it up to a PC or a Mac via a USB cable (not included). The software that the i455 bundles is the same as what you'll get with the more expensive Canon photo printers, and it includes Easy-PhotoPrint, a painless and fun app that arranges, groups, crops, and enhances weak photographs. For example, select the "Photo noise reduction--strong" print option from the Easy-PhotoPrint options menu, and slightly muted-looking colors brighten, and any banding will disappear. The Vivid Photo option, found within in Easy-PhotoPrint, also enhances colors. The print driver includes Image Optimizer, Photo Optimizer Pro, and Photo Noise Reduction options.

Another useful piece of software is Easy-WebPrint, the program that puts the i (for Internet) in the i455. Easy-WebPrint helps print Web pages by intuitively handling tricky issues such as whether to print background colors and how to avoid cutting off text along the right-hand side of the page.

As for speed, the i455's performance was varied in CNET Labs tests; it printed a letter-size photograph in 3.3 minutes per page (mpp). This is comparable to the Canon i475D's performance, at 3.2mpp, but it's much slower than the 1.1mpp taken by the i560. The i455 text-printing rate was 5.5 pages per minute (ppm); again, that's comparable to the i475D's results, but it's slower than the i560's 6.8ppm.

The photo-enhancement tools in Canon's printing package help to make the i455's photo-printing skills remarkable for such an inexpensive photo printer. A test photo, printed on photo paper at default settings, showcased the i455's ability to print professional-looking, smoothly detailed images.

Inkjet-printer text speed  (Longer bars indicate better performance) Pages per minute

Canon i560 6.8  Canon i475D 5.6  Canon i455 5.5  Epson Stylus C84 4.6

Inkjet-printer text speed  (Shorter bars indicate better performance) Minutes per page

Canon i560 1.1  Epson Stylus C84 2.6  Canon i475D 3.2  Canon i455 3.3

Where to buy

i455 Desktop Photo Printer: $289.00

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Recent user reviews

• Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 6 reviews
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• Showing 3 of 6 user reviews

• 4.5 stars

  "Incredible product-especially for the price!"

  by chadwickreed on June 12, 2005

• 1.0 stars

  5 out of 5 people found this helpful

  "Canon will not fool me again!"

  on September 1, 2004

• 4.0 stars

  "cheaper than the cartidges, sharper than the epson i use(d)"

  on July 6, 2004

• See all 6 user reviews Write review