Canon mini260 Ink
PIXMA mini260 Ink Cartridges

For the home user who wants to print photos and skip trips to the drugstore, the Canon PIXMA mini260 is a gas-saving alternative. The Canon mini260 ink comes in cyan, magenta, yellow and black and is contained in one cartridge. For quietly and quickly printing borderless prints, this is a means to keep the process at home. It takes about one minute to print a color photo.

As a standard print producer, the mini260's dimensions are compact, measuring just 8.9" in width, 8.9" deep and 3.3" high. Resolution is an incredible 9600 dpi by 2400 dpi. The Canon mini260 ink cartridges print borderless 4"x6"s and 4"x7"s.The Canon mini260 ink cartridges have a minimum printer ink droplet size of 1pl.

Connection is made through infrared or USB. The included PictBridge-enabled USB port allows for printing directly from compatible cameras. Direct printing from an integrated card reader is also possible. Supported memory cards include Memory Stick, Microdrive, MultiMediaCard, SmartMedia, Memory Stick Pro, CompactFlash and SD Memory. It requires a third-party adapter to read the xD-Picture Card. The mini260 comes with Canon's Easy-PhotoPrint 305 software, drivers and utilities. It is compatible with Mac OS X 10.2.8-10.4 and Windows 98/ME/2000/XP, as well as being Vista certified.

Printing standard size prints from the Canon PIXMA mini260 inkjet printer cost about .28 cents apiece. While that may be a little more than some chain stores, it is a small price to pay for convenience. Reviewers, like PC World, found the prints to be slightly washed out looking compared to commercial services or full-sized photo printers. They still reported printer ink colors to look accurate.

Dedicated home snapshot printers have become popular in recent years. The convenience of printing directly from a camera or from a memory card without leaving home is an attractive feature. The Canon mini260 achieves this reasonably well.