Getting a Canon MP560 Printer

These days, less and less people are dropping their Gs on those massive all-in-one printers, opting instead for sleeker (and considerably cheaper) devices like the Canon MP560. The MP560, after all, looks really great (some people stop at that actually) and has a number of useful features like bright 2-inch LCD displays and auto-document feeders. While it can't keep up with the more powerful features of all-in-one printers, the Canon MP560 is invested more on speed and print quality.

Understanding the MP560

For the most part, the Canon MP560 looks the same as other printers from Canon in the past. The MP560 though has a matte silver and glossy black finish and measures just 6 inches tall, 14.5 inches deep, and 18 inches wide. When the paper tray is extended, this adds about 4 inches more to the width measurement of the MP560. This is good news actually because a lot of the cheaper printers like the MP560 usually don't make an effort to look pretty. But Canon has always been known to come up with interesting shapes and the professional matte-gloss combination never goes out of style.

The Features

The control panel towards the right side of the Canon MP560 opens up to show the colored LCD display with all function buttons, and the Easy Scroll Wheel that allows you to navigate between on-screen menus and image albums with the least amount of effort. Jog dials are not usually great for two-line LCD displays but it works quite well if you have a 2-inch screen. Underneath the display is another door, smaller than what covers the LCD display, and this door covers the printer's card reader that supports microSD, MMC, SD, xD, and Memory Stick cards. In the same area, there is also a PictBridge-compatible USB port for that direct-to-print accessibility that the PIXMA is known for.

Paper trays can fit 150 sheets and an auto-duplexer is included for ease with double-sided prints. Wireless connectivity is also offered, easily taken advantage of after software installation. Connectivity is expected to be established in less than a minute. The Canon MP560 ships with separate ink cartridges for black, pigment black for photos, yellow, magenta, and cyan. Total prints that you can get out of a full set of ink cartridges are pegged at about 4 cents for every page that uses pigment black ink and 3 cents for every page that uses full-color ink.