Canon's newest budget MFP is the Pixma MP240, an all-in-one inkjet printer, scanner and copier.
It uses a tri-colour cartridge and also a cartridge of pigmented black ink designed for normal document printing. It doesn't have a dye-based black for picture printing, and so creates photographic black by means of merging cyan, magenta as well as yellow. We were initially worried with regards to the grade of the MP240's picture prints. Light colours were vivid and also precise, however grey tones as well as dark shades appeared pale as well as greenish after they appeared from the printer. Dark colours turned even more powerful when our prints dried out yet were still inferior when compared with those coming from photo printers employing a specific photographic black.
The MP240 is not amazingly quick, however a regular quality print speed of 5.6ppm is actually quick enough for many duties, and document quality is actually up to the high standard we count on from Canon's inkjets. Colour illustrations were found to be vibrant as well as correctly shaded also, the pigmented black cartridge created sharp, smooth-edged text. Likewise in draft mode, which prints at a swift 7.5ppm, text was crystal clear as well as properly defined. Both colour and mono copy quality were excellent, having crystal clear reproduction of text as well as correct colour and shading in photos.
The ScanGear scanner software has been simplified and streamlined. Fortunately, Advanced Mode functions which include software-based dust and scratch removal and also tone and shadow correction remain available. By default, the scanner interface shuts following every scan but may be set up to stay open. It's also possible to control whether your preview image is going to be stored between scans. A highest possible resolution of 1,200dpi is actually higher than those of the majority of cheap MFPs, but the incorporated Contact Image Sensor (CIS) scanner is however best suited to scanning photos intended for the net or even documents intended for archiving. Colours and also shading were found to be precise, though.
The MP240 is lacking in the functions among costlier MFPs, for example Canon's £170 Pixma MX850. There's no display screen, automated duplexer or even photographic black Canon Pixma MP240 ink cartridge. It's not ideal if you need to print a whole lot of pictures or scan images at very high resolutions, nonetheless it put in a fair overall performance in most of our testing. It features a PictBridge port for direct printing from digital camera models, yet no memory card slots. A lot of inexpensive MFPs tend to be inexplicably limited to merely nine photocopies in a single run, but the MP240 can make up to 20.
Print rates of 7.3p per mixed colour page in addition to 2.9p per mono page seem to be a bit expensive, and also the use of a tri-colour cartridge means you'll have to replace everything if you happen to use up a single colour. Print rates are slow in contrast to those of Canon's higher end inkjets and MFPs however print as well as scan quality are generally both fine. Should you not print very often or in huge amounts, this home MFP is an effective buy.
