Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This printer is getting rave reviews from both PC Magazine and PC World. That said, there's a big problem with this printer that neither review mentions: namely, duplex black text printing from ALL applications produces inferior results than when duplexing is off--and uses colour ink to produce black text when printing in duplex mode. Consequently, until this issue is addressed, the MP830 is difficult for me to recommend. Why? According to Canon technical support, the design flaw is by choice. But more on that later. If I don't duplex print on fast mode, the text looks very good (the problem is duplex text printing). The print quality when duplex text printing looks dotty and washed out. If you turn duplexing off, the text print quality is vastly superior. I've reproduced this problem on two different systems with two different MP830s. The difference on fast mode when not duplex printing is quite astounding. Simply using duplex printing makes the text quality significantly worse on fast mode. One might be inclined to believe bad quality from fast mode text printing isn't a big deal (except that the MP830 is quite capable of producing very good text quality even at fast mode--except when duplexing), but this problem also extends to standard printing when duplexing is enabled. That said, in standard mode the problem isn't as pronounced. Basically the MP830 is using the colour inks to produce black text instead of the pigment black ink when printing text in duplex mode. I find this to be extremely bothersome. The problem exists when duplexing text in other printing quality modes, but it's most apparent or obvious when duplexing text on fast mode. You won't find this issue listed in professional reviews from PCMagazine or PC World, simply because the reviewers probably didn't bother to check. For whatever reason, missing this issue is pretty sloppy. If you want good text quality when duplex printing, it's best not to use this printer at all: you're using color ink instead of the black pigment ink--and the text looks vastly inferior as a result. This is from Canon technical support: "The unit was designed to print using "composite black" when duplexing. Composite black is created by using color inks. Unfortunately, we do not have answers as to why Canon USA made this decisions, these decisions are determined by the developers at Canon INC." Absolutely brutal. Composite black text print is vastly inferior to the text print produced when using the black ink cartridge. Canon technical support is basically telling me that duplex black text printing on the MP830 is horrible by design. Oh, plus you have the added bonus of wasting color ink when printing inferior black text while duplexing. Inexcusable Upon inquiring further, this is the reason Canon technical support gives for using color ink to produce black text while duplex printing: "Composite black is least likely to show through the other side of the document, which may occur when using black ink and printing on both sides of the paper. " Then why can I print text on one side, flip the page over manually, print text on the other side, and not experience any issue with ink showing through to the other side? The text quality looks vastly superior when I do this instead of duplexing (I do not experience any issues). It shouldn't be that difficult to allow a printer driver option to use the pigmented black ink with a longer drying time (because I've also been told by Canon pigmented black ink may smear when duplex priting) if that's what the customer would prefer, instead of inflicting poor text quality produced by color inks when duplex black text printing. This issue is very easily reproduced: Print text in fast mode with duplexing on. Then print text in fast mode with duplexing off. Night and day It's not just fast mode that's affected either; it's all print quality modes when duplex printing is enabled. More importantly, all customers have the added bonus (in addition to poor black text quality while duplexing) of wasting color ink when printing black text with the duplex printing option enabled. Canon's response to this is that pigmented black ink will smear, bleed, or show through to the other side when duplex printing. Contrary to Canon's claim, I am not experiencing any issues when printing black text on standard on one side of cheap Britex Premier Multiusage paper (20 lb 92 bright . . . I paid less than a dollar for 500 sheets on sale), flipping the page over manually, and printing the other side again on standard. Regardless of whether I've tested using tons of different papers (and I admit I haven't), again, it shouldn't be that difficult to allow a printer driver option to use the pigmented black ink with a longer drying time if that's what the customer would prefer, instead of inflicting poor text quality produced by color inks when duplex black text printing. The option should be made available. Pigmented black ink may smear or bleed through to the other side on some papers, but it certainly doesn't do so on all papers. What's really annoying is that even if one just uses manual duplexing (have duplex selected in the driver and have "automatic" unchecked), this issue still raises it's ugly head. Doesn't matter if you're manual duplexing or using automatic duplexing. You'd think if one were to select manual duplexing (select "duplex" and have "automatic" unchecked in the driver), the MP830 would use pigmented black ink, but it doesn't: it's uses composite black to produce black text if "duplex" is selected.