Like most Canon ink jets, the iP6700D offers two paper trays—one in the front, one in the back—and each one holds 150 sheets. This is a highly convenient setup that lets you keep plain paper in one tray and photo paper in the other, for example, or different sizes of photo paper in each tray. Either way, you can easily switch between paper types and sizes without the burden of having to change paper continually to match what you're printing.

Also like most Canon ink jets, the iP6700D offers automatic duplexing. This is a useful convenience in any instance, but especially so if you want to take advantage of Canon's double-sided photo paper for creating albums and the like. (The paper is available in two sizes: 5 by 7 inches and letter.)

Print speeds usually improve from one year's model to the next, so I was surprised to find that the iP6700D's performance (timed with QualityLogic's hardware and software, www.qualitylogic.com) was essentially identical to that of last year's iP6600D, file by file. Its total time on our business applications suite was a sluggish 25 minutes 57 seconds. In comparison, the directly competitive HP PhotoSmart D7360 took 15:09. The good news is that the iP6700D matched the iP6600D for photo speed, too, averaging 47 seconds for a 4-by-6 and 1 minute 56 seconds for an 8-by-10. This makes it one of the fastest ink jets for printing photos in its price range; the D7360 averaged 1:06 and 2:47, respectively.

The iP6700D is not only fast, but it prints quality photos, too. Though advanced photographers might quibble with the colors in one or two photos printed from our test suite—particularly the slight tint I saw in a monochrome photo—every photo was at least as good as you would expect from the consumer-level processing you'll get at your local drugstore. That makes the iP6700D's output quality good enough for anything up to and including important photos you'd want to frame and hang in your living room.

The iP6700D's text quality is much better than most ink jets can manage. Every font from our tests that's appropriate for business purposes was easily readable, with well-formed characters at 5 points; most of them were also easily readable even at 4 points. The edges weren't quite as crisp as with laser output, and one highly stylized font with thick strokes needed 20 points for easy readability, but unless you have an unusual need for small fonts, the iP6700D can print anything you need.

Graphics quality is on a par with most ink jets—easily good enough for any internal business use, and potentially good enough for output you'd hand to an important client. The one problem worth mentioning is that images that cover most of a page tend to make plain paper curl—a problem I've seen with other Canon printers and AIOs that use the same ink.

Despite its reasonably high-quality text and graphics output, the Canon Pixma iP6700D's slow speed for business applications limits it to light-duty all-purpose printing. But if your primary need is printing photos, it belongs on your short list. And if you're looking strictly to print photos, it will be hard to beat.

See how the Canon Pixma iP6700D measures up to similar machines in our printer comparison chart.

Benchmark Test Results
Check out the Canon Pixma iP6700D's test results.

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