The BJC-8200 can be used as a monochrome plain paper document printer or for general colour graphics, but print quality of this type is not brilliant, and it is relatively slow and expensive. The BJC-8200 avoids the pitfalls of wasting unused ink thanks to the inspired revival of separate ink tanks for each base colour used. There are two magenta and cyan tints and one yellow, but there is no non-photo colour cartridge option or extended capacity black tank. All the tanks are physically identical and the lack of a keying system means care must be taken to insert the correct tanks. When a new printhead cartridge is installed it must be aligned.
Printing is remarkably quiet.
The printhead carriage appears to have a damped mechanism as there is little lateral momentum transmitted to the printer. The paper transport motor shatters the peace only after printing is finished and the paper ejected. Initial results using ordinary glossy photo paper revealed very good, if unexceptional, results. The new Pro paper is reassuringly thick and shiny. Its key trick is to enable the inks to dissipate their solvents very quickly.