If you are researching a new Color Inkjet Printer , we hope that our Canon i450 Review, Rating & Buyers Guide will help you.The low price of many inkjet printers lulls consumers into a false sense of thriftiness. It's easy to believe that you saved a bundle when you compare, say, a $50 inkjet printer against a $300 laser printer. Reality hits when it's time to replace the ink cartridges. Per-page printing costs for most inkjets range from high to very high, making them impractical for daily use.

The i450 is a pleasant exception to the rule. With a price of less than $50 and reasonably low per-page printing costs, you can indulge your desire to print your own photos or other color images without breaking the bank.

Installation couldn't be easier. The package comes with almost everything you need for most operating systems. You can plug the i450 into any USB port, but you'll have to supply your own USB cable (which costs about $20 to $25). Once you plug in the printer, installation wizards will walk you through the rest of the setup process.

The i450 accepts 4x5-inch, 5x7-inch, and 8.5x11-inch sheets of paper and can print borderless, edge-to-edge photos on all three paper sizes.

The paper tray can hold from one sheet of high gloss photo film up to 100 sheets of plain paper. The i450 can handle a wide variety of paper stocks, including matte and glossy photo paper, transparencies, banners, envelopes, and iron-on transfers, as well as standard paper.

Bundled software includes Easy-PhotoPrint (Windows/Macintosh) for rotating, cropping, and editing images; PhotoRecord (Windows) for creating your own photo albums; ZoomBrowser EX (Windows) and ImageBrowser (Macintosh) for basic photo cataloging and editing; PhotoStitch (Windows/Macintosh) for stitching multiple images together to create a panoramic view; and Easy-WebPrint (Windows and Internet Explorer) for putting your photos on the Web.

Pro: A fast printer that delivers vivid color photos and sharp black text. True edge-to-edge borderless photo printing. Per-page printing costs are relatively low for an inkjet.

Con: USB connection only (no parallel port connection for older computers). Photo print quality is above average for a general-purpose inkjet, but not as good as a dedicated photo printer.