holiday gifts

For Love of Ivy: My Beloved Mini Printer

For Love of Ivy: My Beloved Mini Printer
An expensive gift becomes less pricey when it’s a gift for everyone in the family. One such option: A mini printer that works with your smart phone. 
Photo by Cynthia Hochswender

Here’s an idea for something everyone in the family will love and should in theory be able to share: A Canon Ivy mini printer that works with your smartphone ($98.99).

I bought one a few weeks ago and I’m completely in love with it. I’ve already bought two for friends.

The quality of the images is very good. If you are able to work with your phone camera and do any light editing to make images brighter, darker etc, you will find this printer to be very easy to manage.

This is a no-ink printer (or ZINK, which stands for Zero Ink), so you’re not always fussing with expensive cartridges.  The ink is in the paper; but the paper is smooth, not puffy like the old Polaroids.

Each piece of photo paper has a sticker back; the images are small (2 by 3 inches), which is perfect for journaling, keeping a travelogue and doing step-by-step or Final Masterpiece photos of new recipes for your own recipe file.

You can also buy coin-sized pre-cut sticker paper for your printer, perfect for kids to decorate their laptops or schedule books.

A pack of 20 pieces of 2-by-3-inch photo paper is $10; 50 sheets is $24; 20 sheets of sticker paper is $12.

Another brand worth looking into is the Kodak Mini 3 Square 3x3 Retro Portable Printer. As its name suggests, this printer (also known as the P300R) gives you 3-inch-square prints.

There are other models that make different-sized prints. The P210R prints are 3.4 by 2.1 inches, and there is a 4-inch printer called the Dock Plus.

The prices vary, depending on who’s selling them and which model you get. Most of the Canon and Kodak printers usually are sold bundled with some packs of ZINK printer paper. It does make sense to order some paper, so the family can test drive the printer right away (before it gets put in a drawer and is forgotten).

One thing you do need for both these printers is Bluetooth on your phone. The Canon Ivy has a USB cord that allows you to charge it up; the charge seems to hold for a fairly long time (I haven’t yet run out of power). I’m not certain whether the Kodak units can be charged or if they are battery-only.

I’m not a super high-tech person and I found the Canon Ivy stunningly easy to set up and use. If you’re unsure, you can go online and find several YouTube tutorials.

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