There are a lot of printers to choose from when you're printing A4 pages. Go larger than that, though, and there’s much less choice.

Canon’s PIXMA iX5000 can go right up to A3+, which is large enough to print a borderless A3 page. Printing on large paper is seen to be the province of business or graphics professionals, so there's much less in the way of fancy extras or controls.

The square-cut design of the PIXMA iX5000 incorporates just two buttons; one for power and the other for paper feed, plus there's no screen to display printer status, let alone to preview digital photos. However, the software is comprehensive, allowing good control over its functions.

The printing path is conventional, with a large, near-vertical tray at the rear feeding to a telescopic tray, which pulls out in four sections at the front. This takes paper from 6 x 4in up to A3+.

There's a PictBridge socket at the front, allowing direct prints from digital cameras, and a USB 2 socket at the rear for conventional connection to a PC.

Lift the cover and you have a four-colour print system, using individual ink cartridges. It's a bit surprising that the iX5000, which is obviously intended for printing large photographs, should rely on a four-ink system.

Nevertheless, the test prints we produced were in general pretty good. Colours proved natural and well-balanced and were as good in bright, well-lit areas of photos as they were in more pastel and shadowed sections. Text print wasn't quite as clear, with some spreading of the ink, but it was quick.

A five-page text document finished in 51 seconds and a 6 x 4in photo took only seven seconds longer. Even an A3+ print completed in three minutes 15 seconds, which is impressive.

Equally impressive are the printing costs, with an A4 text page coming out at 2.2p and a colour page costing 5.9p. Both costs are good compared with the PIXMA iX5000’s main competitors, so those looking for a simple, large format printer, this is a good option.

Also consider
HP Photosmart 8750 Pro
Overall: Nine-colour print, memory card slots and LCD display.
Rating: 4
Price: £257

Epson Stylus Photo R2400
Overall: The Epson Stylus Photo R2400 is an expensive, yet amazing A3+ printer for the real photo enthusiast
Rating: 4
Price: £504

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