Canon imageCLASS D780 review

A legacy copier and fax with direct computer printing

The Canon imageCLASS D780 combines monochrome printing, copying and telephone fax. Its exact U.S. support record is retired, and its original setup uses historical Windows CAPT software. It is most useful as a reference for an existing machine and its documented paper workflows.

Standard connections are USB and parallel. Canon lists the AXIS 1610 network adapter separately as optional, so an Ethernet cable alone does not turn the base unit into a network printer. The direct USB arrangement reviewed here excludes that accessory and does not establish Wi-Fi or mobile printing.

USB installation depends on the correct CAPT port

The original USB setup covers Windows 98, Me, 2000 and XP. It tells the user to connect the machine and computer, let the USB class driver be detected and install the corresponding CAPT printer driver. For Windows 2000 or XP, the printer port must be USBPRNXX or USBXXX, where the final characters are numbers.

The neighboring parallel instructions use a different port selection. Applying an LPT1 example to a USB connection is therefore a practical mistake to avoid. A printed test page can confirm that the historical installation works, but these procedures are not proof that the same driver will operate on a much later computer.

Legal originals fit, with an important glass setting

The actual document-handling table supports originals up to 8.5 by 14 inches on both the glass and automatic document feeder. The glass also takes books or other suitable originals up to 4.4 lb. This is a genuine Legal-size copying glass rather than a smaller glass paired with a longer feeder.

Check the maximum scan-length setting when copying a full Legal original. The guide allows 330 mm or 356 mm, and the longer setting matters when the content extends toward the bottom of a Legal page. A paper-size headline does not replace that operating adjustment.

Feeder capacity changes with original size: up to 30 Letter or A4 sheets, but 15 Legal sheets, at 20 lb or 80 gsm. Originals go face down in this feeder. Use the actual orientation and quantity instructions rather than a loading habit learned from a newer model.

Two-sided copying requires turning the paper yourself

The manual's two-sided copy procedure is explicit. Copy the first original, turn that output over, reinsert it in the multipurpose tray, select that tray and copy the next original onto the other face. Canon gives separate orientation instructions for portrait and landscape originals.

Flatten a curled first copy before reinserting it to reduce creasing and jams. The same manual reinsertion approach is described for both feeder and glass originals. It should not be represented as an automatic duplex output mechanism or automatic two-sided original capture.

The read sources also do not establish a computer scanning workflow. A copier necessarily captures an image internally, but that does not show how to save a file on a connected computer. This review therefore assigns no scan-to-computer route, despite the useful glass and feeder hardware.

Paper supply and cartridge claims have specific limits

The normal-paper supply is 500 sheets in the front cassette plus 100 in the multipurpose tray at the stated 20 lb basis. The cassette accepts 64–80 gsm stock; the multipurpose path allows a broader 56–128 gsm range. Load the correct size and keep the stack within its limit rather than applying the normal-paper quantity to every medium.

Special media such as envelopes, labels and transparencies use the multipurpose path under the guide's conditions. Paper feeding and original feeding are separate systems: the 600-sheet output-paper supply does not imply a similarly large document feeder.

The setup package includes the L50 S cartridge. Canon rates that cartridge at approximately 2,500 prints and the L50 at approximately 5,000, using an A4 original with 5% coverage. Dense pages and photographs alter consumption; these are not claims that every document will achieve those quantities.

Allow room beyond the closed body

The reference guide gives a body of 18¾ inches wide, 17⅜ deep and 15⅛ high. Its installation width reaches 32½ inches with the output tray attached and multipurpose tray open. The support page's attachment-inclusive width is another configuration, so a closed-body measurement alone is insufficient for desk planning.

Weight is approximately 52.9 lb including the cartridge, and the U.S. operating requirement is 120 V at 60 Hz. The appendix gives 16 Letter copies per minute and 12 Legal copies per minute. The separate support page calls printing 16 ppm without naming the paper basis, so this review does not silently convert the copy measurement into a verified Letter printing speed.