An all-in-one whose scanning outshines its printing
The Canon Pixma TR7820 all-in-one (AIO) is unusual. Most AIOs focus more on printing than scanning, but the TR7820 ($179.99) does the reverse. The cartridge-based print engine leads to a high running cost that makes this model best limited to light-duty printing even by home and home-office standards. But the 35-page automatic document feeder (ADF), with support for manual duplexing (two-sided scanning), makes it suitable for moderate-duty scanning and copying in a home office. In short, if you’re looking for an AIO printer primarily for scanning and coping, with some light-duty printing thrown in, the TR7820 may be just what you need.Design: Efficient Paper Handling
Weighing in at 16 pounds and measuring 8.2 by 14.8 by 13.8 inches (HWD), the TR7820 offers a small enough footprint that it won’t take up much space on your desk. Even better, physical setup is easy. Just plug it in, turn it on, and follow the instructions on its 2.7-inch touch-screen control panel to insert the two ink cartridges—black and color—then wait while it runs its fully automated alignment routine. Downloading and installing the driver and other software is similarly straightforward.
Connection options are Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, and USB, which I used for testing. If you want to print and scan from your phone or tablet, you can also download Canon’s mobile app to your Android or iOS device. As with the Canon TS7720, which offers essentially the same print features but lacks an ADF, you can set the control panel to your choice of “scenes” with presets for the commands you use the most (see the screenshots below).
Paper handling is a notable strength, thanks to two 100-sheet paper trays and automatic duplexing (two-sided printing). Although the front drawer is limited to plain paper at up to letter size, the rear tray can hold up to legal size, and can also handle other media, including photo paper. The tray also has the advantage of being easy to refill or empty to change to a different paper size or type quickly without having to open a drawer. In my tests, I was able to automatically duplex using letter-size paper from either tray, and was able to set the driver to auto duplex with smaller paper sizes using the front tray. When I set the driver for the rear tray, however, it would not let me set it for both duplexing and either legal-size paper or custom sizes smaller than letter size.
For scanning and copying, the TR7820 offers a letter-size flatbed and the ADF, whose manual duplexing capability can scan one side of a two-sided document, wait for you to flip the stack over and reinsert it, then scan the other side, and interfile the pages to put them the right order for either a scanned or copied document, depending on which function you’re using. You can also copy both simplex and duplex originals to either simplex or duplex copies. However, note that the 35-sheet capacity is for letter-size paper only.
