Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsIts Hideously Expensive. It's Also the Best.
Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2017
Whenever you purchase ink for an inkjet printer, you have to ask yourself a couple of questions. Are you printing on quality photo paper to reproduce high-quality photos you have taken? Or are you printing out memos that were sent out to everyone in the company? Do you need a long-lasting print, or is the print something that only needs a "shelf life" of a year?
For my inkjet printer at the office, I use an inexpensive, third-party ink brand for printing up occasional items that I need to distribute at the office. And this approach works fine (also using a Canon printer, by the way). But when I am printing photos I took and want A3+ (13"x19") suitable for framing, I use only professional Canon printer paper (either matte or one of the glossy types), and there is no substitute for the REAL Canon ink. Yes, it IS hideously expensive. But it makes a significant difference in the printing of photos for display on high-quality paper. By doing so, you'll get the correct colors, smooth operation, and a print that will last a number of years before fading sets in. These inks are indeed expensive, but there is also no substitute for them: they work great, they look great, they print the correct colors, they have a generally long life before fading, and so on. It hurts to recommend them at this price. But then again, it's hard NOT to recommend them if you want good prints, particularly if you are a semi-professional or enthusiast photographer, and the difference is obvious in the final print. Most of the prints that come out from my PIXMA ix6820 using real Canon ink and their high-end matte and premium papers look astonishingly good, sometimes revealing sharpness and clarity that I don't even notice on my 4K monitor! So, Five Stars. For printing photos, this is the way to go.