As a group, small-format dedicated photo printers are built around one of two technologies—thermal dye or ink jet. There used to be significant differences between the two on everything from output quality to cost per photo. Today, they've converged to the point where there's hardly any difference. Just in case you have a preference, however, Canon will happily sell you either kind of printer. The Canon Selphy ES2 ($199.99 direct) falls in the thermal dye category.

One of the few remaining practical differences between thermal dye and ink jet printers is that for any given maximum photo size (4 by 6 inches in the case of the ES2) thermal dye printers are, as a rule, much smaller than ink jets. The ES2 breaks that rule. At 7.5 by 8.4 by 5.2 inches (HWD) and 4.3 pounds, it's closer in size and weight to the ink jet–based Editors' Choice Epson PictureMate Zoom than to the thermal dye-based Sony Picture Station DPP-FP90. But there's a good reason for the relatively large size. It's a direct result of the way the ES2 handles paper.

With most thermal dye printers, physical setup consists of inserting a dye roll into the printer, and then loading paper. This two-step procedure isn't particularly onerous. On the other hand, if you take advantage of the printer's portability, keeping track of a separate paper tray and paper supplies when you take the printer with you can be a minor headache.

For the ES2, Canon solved that problem by combining the dye roll and paper in a single pack. Slide the pack into the side of the printer, connect the power cord or the optional battery ($99.99 direct), and you're ready to print from a PictBridge camera or memory card. According to Canon, the battery is good for printing 100 photos on a full charge. To print from a computer, simply connect a USB cable and run the printer's installation program. For my tests with a computer, I used a system running Windows XP, but Canon says the disc the printer comes with also has drivers for Windows Vista, Windows XP 64-bit, and Windows 2000.

Combining the paper and dye roll is a little trickier than it sounds. To make the arrangement work, the paper is mounted sideways—90 degrees from the orientation it needs to be in for printing. When you print a photo, the first thing that happens is that the paper slides out through a slot in the bottom front in landscape orientation, and rotates to portrait orientation. Only then does the actual printing start. According to Canon, the mechanism that rotates the paper is largely responsible for printer's relatively large size.

Aside from the rotating paper trick, the ES2 is a fairly typical thermal dye printer, complete with an ample 3-inch color LCD for previewing photos. In addition to printing from a PictBridge camera and most memory-card formats, it can also print by way of an infrared port and a $49.99 (direct) Bluetooth adapter. One feature it misses, unfortunately, is printing from a USB key.

Output qualifies as true photo quality in almost every way, but with one small flaw. For some images at some resolutions, diagonal lines—as in spokes on a bicycle wheel—print with jagged edges. This is only a minor annoyance, however. Most photos don't include straight diagonal lines, and even for those that do, the problem doesn't always show up. Overall, the photos are at least a match for anything you'll get from, say, your local drugstore.

The photos are also reasonably long-lived and rugged. Canon claims they will last 100 years in dark storage (as in an album), 30 years when framed behind glass, or 10 years exposed to air. In my tests, they also proved to be highly water-resistant and scratch-resistant. If you hand a stack of photos out for a group of people to look at, you won't have to worry that they'll come back ruined.

The ES2's print speed, like its photo quality, is more than acceptable, though not quite the best available. It averaged 1 minute 18 seconds per standard 4-by-6 photo when it printed from a computer. Printing from a CompactFlash card was about the same, at 1:15 to 1:20, and printing from a Canon PowerShot S60 camera was just a touch faster, at 1:12 to 1:14. As a point of comparison, the Sony DPP-FP90 was a bit faster across the board, at 43 to 56 seconds. The Epson PictureMate Zoom, similarly, ranged from 40 to 49 seconds.

Cost per photo is a reasonably low 28 cents, based on $28 (direct) for a 100-photo pack. That's well within the range for dedicated photos printers today; the most economical print packs for most models generally work out to from 25.3 to 29 cents per photo.

The Canon Selphy ES2 doesn't take first place on any single feature, but it offers an attractive balance of speed, quality, price, cost per print, and features, with no serious drawbacks. I'd like it even better if it didn't have the problem with diagonal lines, but that's not a deal breaker by any means. Overall, it's easy to recommend. I also suspect that it would be easy to get spoiled by the convenience of its combined dye roll and paper pack.

Check out the Canon Selphy ES2's test scores.

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