Canon imageCLASS MF5750

The Canon imageCLASS MF5750 looms 17.4" high and 19.1" wide. I liked the layout of the front panel, which includes three large buttons for copy, fax, and scan, flanked by fax settings and copy settings and a good-size LCD menu in the middle.

The MF5750 was reasonably quick, too, matching or exceeding the average speed of most other monochrome laser MFPs we have looked at on all three functions--printing, scanning and copying. During testing, it printed both text and graphics documents quickly, at 14.9 pages per minute and 7.9ppm, respectively. This unit also scanned a colour image in 27.2 seconds, and it copied a page of text in 4.1 seconds.

The MF5750's print quality, though not stellar, was reasonably good. It produced sharp, dark text that was legible even at 2-point type size. A series of narrow parallel lines looked straight and even, with virtually no banding. A greyscale photo printed at default settings appeared too light and a bit washed out, though it was smooth and clean. Photos printed in the Best mode yielded graphics with much better contrast.

The MF5750 delivered top-class copy quality, with straight black letters in a copied page of text. Colour scans from the Canon had a smooth texture and reproduced colour accurately.

Canon's MF Toolbox scan software allows scanning via the PC and saving the image to an email message or graphics file. The user can configure two custom buttons to choose the scanner and to designate where to put the scan; thereafter, clicking a button will save the scan to the preconfigured place. Other than a fairly extensive driver, MF Toolbox is the only software Canon bundles with the MF5750.

The main paper tray holds 250 sheets, but Canon doesn't offer any additional paper trays as options. Ethernet is an optional extra, however.