Canon has done well over the past couple of years with its photo print technology.

One of its latest launches is the Pixma iP6220D, a six-colour inkjet intended primarily as a photo printer, but with the option to print on plain paper, too.

It accepts paper sizes from 6 x 4in up to A4, fed from a tray at the back, to another that pulls out from the front. The rear paper tray folds down to become part of the top surface of the machine, when it's not in use.

Control buttons on the Canon Pixma iP6220D sit either side of a small, yet bright and clear, screen that displays images from memory cards and general menu options.

There are memory card slots for all the common types under a hatch on the left-hand side, and a PictBridge socket at bottom right for printing directly from a digital camera.

Lift the top cover and you can insert the two tri-colour cartridges: one with standard cyan, magenta and yellow inks and the other with photo colours.

These cartridges are a little fiddly to fit, as they have to be pushed up to click into place. They both contain Chromalife inks, which are guaranteed for 30 years, under glass.

Canon's printing software (the driver) deals with all aspects of its function in a well-designed and logical way. Photo print quality is very high, particularly when considering the Pixma iP6220D’s price, with sharp clear colours and smooth transitions. Even black text is particularly sharp and clean for an inkjet print.

It costs around 45p to print a full A4 colour photo and around 5p per black page of text.

There has to be a catch somewhere and here it's the print speed, which isn't particularly good. A 6 x 4in photo takes around a minute and a half and we couldn’t produce an A4 text page in under 35 seconds, which works out to less than two pages per minute.

However, if you can bear the wait, the quality that this printer offers is exceedingly good.

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Rating: 4
Price: £149