Canon Selphy CP760 Compact Photo Printer

A fun little printer that prints out high-quality photos pretty quickly, the new Selphy CP760 will be a welcome addition to any gathering where digital photos need to be printed out. The dye-sublimation ink looks great and, though the printer's footprint is not as small as it seems, it's a great deal for $100 or less.

The Canon Selphy CP760 Compact Photo Printer was actually fun to use. When I used it to print out a photo, my first thought was "Wow!" The printer uses dye-sublimation ink which comes in a convenient and easy to change single cartridge. In a nutshell, to print a photo, the paper goes in and out of the printer four times; the first three to add a different color, the last pass to add a protective coat to the print to help keep it from fading. And yes, it was fun to watch the photo go in and come out with different colors!

The 4x6 paper is fed from a tray that plugs into the front of the printer, and while printing the photo ejects almost completely from the back between passes. That adds some space to the otherwise small footprint of the printer (you could pack at least two into a shoebox), but that seems a minor quibble.

Prints come out fairly fast; somewhere between a minute and a minute-and-a-half, depending on how you connect (the Selphy can connect to a computer or camera via USB; to a camera via PictBridge; and can take various media cards as well).

The Selphy was very easy to set up; just plug it in, attach your camera or computer, and start printing. You're limited to what you can print; the paper cassette holds 4x6 paper though the printer can print up to a 4x8 photo, but that doesn't seem like much of a problem for a compact printer. Some basic editing features, such as red-eye removal, are built in and easy to use. The printer features only a small number of buttons, so there's not much you can do wrong.