Dan Littman

Canon S300 Color Bubble Jet Printer

Canon priced the S300 at only $99, yet gave it enough oomph to churn out text at a speedy 5.1 ppm and graphics at 0.8 ppm. And despite the low buy-in, ink costs only 2.3 cents per page of black and 12.1 cents per color page. We also liked the S300's text output quality, which was clean throughout and preserved serifs and other fine details.
Photo output looked good, although slightly washed out with some feathering on the edges. However, the S300 did not fare particularly well on our test file of narrow lines, and it rendered rough-looking, streaked gray-scale graphics with little detail. The unit also makes a racket, even when idle.
Canon provides an excellent online manual with wizards. This printer offers only a USB connector--you won't find serial or parallel connectors. The software CD-ROM includes PhotoRecord digital photo album software.
The S300's low purchase price plus its reasonable ink costs equal a great value for this all-purpose printer.

Buying Information

Canon S300 Color Bubble Jet Printer Rated 11-ppm monochrome/7.5-ppm color, 2400-by-1200-dpi maximum resolution, 100 sheets input, 50 output. $ 99 Rated 11-ppm monochrome/7.5-ppm color, 2400-by-1200-dpi maximum resolution, 100 sheets input, 50 output. http://www.usa.canon.com 800/652-2666