Printers: The daylight darkroom

Forget darkrooms, enlargers, trays of toxic processing chemicals and the tedium of producing a single colour print. Today, you can have dry, bright, well-balanced colour prints within minutes of switching on a compact photo printer.

Canon manufactures three ranges of personal photo printers, using two different printing technologies and three ink types. Deciding which to buy can be a minefield, but knowing the type of prints you want to produce, and how much you want to spend, are key to choosing the right printer.