Dan Littman

Canon S500 Color Bubble Jet Printer

The S500's graphics quality ranks among the best on our chart. We especially liked the great detail and realistic highlighting and textures of photos on glossy paper. Another advantage: cheap ink. With this printer, your cost is only 2 cents per text page and just 10.7 cents per page of color graphics--the least-expensive model on our chart to operate. Over its USB connection, the S500 also performed quickly, delivering text at 5.8 ppm and graphics at 0.7 ppm.
The ink bled somewhat on our text samples, and letters appeared slightly jagged in places. Though the paper trays look sturdy, they fall off if you bump them accidentally.
The S500 sports a parallel port for legacy PCs. Its useful software bundle includes Canon's PhotoRecord digital photo album software and PhotoStitch for combining several side-by-side photos into one panoramic image.
The $149 S500's combination of print quality and ink value makes it well suited for personal use, but its middling text quality may deter business users.

Buying Information

Canon S500 Color Bubble Jet Printer Rated 12-ppm monochrome/8-ppm color, 2400-by-1200-dpi maximum resolution, 100 sheets input, 50 output. $ 149 Rated 12-ppm monochrome/8-ppm color, 2400-by-1200-dpi maximum resolution, 100 sheets input, 50 output. http://www.usa.canon.com 800/652-2666