Buying a printer is a bit like buying a mobile phone. The initial outlay is modest, but every month you have dip into your pocket to pay for your phone calls or ink for the printer.

The average printer lifetime is three years. During this time, we reckon you will have printed 2 reams of paper a year (i.e. 1000 pages per annum), half in black and half in color and, with high-end models, about a dozen 10x15cm photos a month, or 120 photos a year. The total cost of your printer in this situation, not counting the paper, will then be:

Total price = initial cost of printer + 1500 color pages + 1500 monochrome pages + 360 photos.

No matter what side of the Atlantic you live on, the conclusions are the same. Canon soon cancels out its higher initial cost against the C84; a photosmart 7760 will have cost as much as two i860s after three years.