A mobile printer creates fun sticker photos

The camera’s transition from film to digital meant that photos no longer needed to be printed on paper to exist. But, photographs should exist in more than just pixels. That’s why I’ve started trying out portable smartphone printers, compact devices that spit out prints on-site without the wait. The Canon Ivy 2 is not just a photo printer that you can take with you, but spits out sticky-back photos that you can stick almost anywhere.

Mobile photo printers are no longer hard to find. Still, the Canon Ivy 2 differentiates itself with cartridge-free Zink printing, a seamless setup, and the option to print borderless business-card-sized prints or circular stickers. But as a professional photographer, I’m picky about my prints. So how does the Ivy 2 hold up to scrutiny?

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Canon Ivy 2

$86 $100 Save $14

Using Zink technology, the Canon Ivy 2 spits out small photo prints or stickers using a smartphone app and Bluetooth. The printer creates colorful, borderless prints with a sticky back. I found the Ivy 2 to be easy to set up and fun to print with. Plus, the replacement paper is more affordable than many competitors. But, the colors are often a little off and the battery life is limited to 20 prints. Still, it’s a win for anyone who wants to easily turn their photos into stickers.

Dimensions

4.7 x 3.3 x 0.8″

Photo Size

2 x 3″

Connectivity

Bluetooth

Brand

Canon

Film type

Zink

Battery life

20 prints

Pros

• Easy to use
• Borderless prints with a sticky back
• Option to print circular stickers
• Affordable paper refills

Cons

• Low battery life of just 20 prints
• Colors can often be different from the screen

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Specs, price and availability

The Canon Ivy 2 was announced in the fall of 2022, with a list price of $99. The portable printer uses Bluetooth to wirelessly print photos from an iPhone or Android device. The Ivy 2 uses Zink technology, which embeds dye crystals into photo paper, eliminating the need to buy or load ink cartridges. Paper for the printer ranges in cost from about $30 for 50 sheets to $15 for 20 sheets of circle pre-cut stickers (40 stickers total).

What I like about the Canon Ivy 2

The printer is effortless to use

The Canon Ivy 2 is a portable photo printer small enough to tuck into a purse or even an oversize jacket pocket. Measuring about 4.7 inches long, it’s thicker but shorter than a typical smartphone.

The Ivy takes very little setup before the gadget is ready to print. After charging and downloading the app, the printer connected to my iPhone using Bluetooth in just a few seconds, without any of the connectivity confusion that wireless printers sometimes bring. The on-screen instructions then walked me through loading paper, which simply involved opening the pack and loading the entire stack with the blue calibration sheet face down. The Ivy 2 holds up to 10 sheets at a time.

The Canon Mini Print app is nearly just as simple as the printer itself. The home screen is populated with shortcuts for printing a borderless photo, or working with collages, pre-cut stickers, graphic layouts, or even using the printer as a label maker. Before making a print, you can use some of the simple built-in tools to crop, add filters, make minor adjustments, or add stickers and text. From there, it’s a simple matter of tapping the print icon.

One of the reasons that the Ivy 2 is so compact is that it doesn’t need ink cartridges. Instead, it uses Zink paper. Zink paper uses embedded ink crystals, which are activated by heat during the printing process. The result is a water-resistant, tear-resistant image. The Canon Ivy 2 uses 2×3 inch paper for business card prints. The back can also be peeled away to turn the photo into a sticker. Or, the Ivy 2 is also compatible with pre-cut circular sticker paper, which prints two circle images on one sheet.

The sticky-back design and hard-to-destroy nature of the Zink paper is one of the biggest reasons to choose the Ivy over a printer that uses a different process. The sticky back makes prints fun to decorate with. I even stuck some circle stickers on my phone case. Of course, there are practical uses as well, like the app’s label designs for tasks like labeling all your kids’ school items.

Another key feature is that the Canon Ivy 2 is capable of spitting out borderless prints, a feature that differentiates the printer from options like the Fujifilm Instax Mini Link 3, which uses a bordered instant film instead of paper.

The cost of Zink replacement paper is another key highlight. A pack of 50 sheets sells for about $30, making the cost around 60 cents a sheet. By comparison, Fujifilm’s instant film printers typically cost between 90 cents and $1.50 per image.

What I didn’t like about the Canon Ivy 2

Color results can vary and battery life is low

As a photographer, one of my biggest struggles is that colors on a photo vary from screen to screen, as well as from printer to printer. The Canon Ivy 2 is no different. The prints had a tendency to be slightly more saturated and, at times, a bit darker than the digital file. Gradations and transitions from one color to another also weren’t quite as smooth, at times appearing textured or noisy when the original file contained little noise. At times, the edges of the image or sticker don’t quite line up with the preview on the app, so leaving some wiggle room on the edges is essential.

This is all par for the course on a printer that fits in your pocket, however, and while the print quality varied a bit from the screen, the image quality was still acceptable. Printers that only print a three-inch image aren’t going to be very detailed by nature. Text printed on the images should be kept fairly large and in a simple font for the best quality. I would still readily use the images the Ivy 2 spat out for handing out to friends, scrapbooking, label making, or hanging on the fridge.

Because the Ivy 2 uses heat to activate the ink crystals embedded in the paper, the battery life on the printer is short-lived. The specifications list the battery life at 20 prints and, sure enough, after 15 images, the remaining juice was hovering around 30 percent. The battery life is good enough for handing out a few prints to friends, but if you’re planning a marathon scrapbooking session, you’ll want to pack a charger. Thankfully, the Ivy 2 uses a standard USB-C cable to recharge.

While I loved the simplicity of the Canon Mini Print app, at times I found the app a bit too simple. I would have loved it if the screen could list the number of pages remaining, as there’s no sort of indication on the printer or the app how many pages remain inside. I also found the app’s built-in camera mode too simple — I got better results when I used my iPhone’s native camera app, and then imported the image from my camera roll.

Is the Canon Ivy 2 worth it?

Buy it for the durable sticker prints

The Canon Ivy 2 is a capable portable photo printer ideal for handing out prints to friends, scrapbooking, or decorating your gear with custom photo stickers. The Zink technology means that the printer is capable of not just borderless prints, but sticky-back images that are hard to damage. Few mini printers can print in more than one size, but the Ivy 2 can create business-card-sized prints or circular stickers depending on the paper you buy. All that is also wrapped up in tech that’s exceptionally easy to use.

Canon Ivy 2

$86 $100 Save $14

Is the Canon Ivy 2 my new favorite photo printer? My favorite is still the Instax Mini Link 3 which converts digital images to instant film, but that’s primarily a personal choice motivated by my love for the film’s colors and nostalgia. If neither nostalgia nor retro colors are high on your priority list, the borderless, hard-to-destroy, affordable prints will likely make the Canon Ivy 2 a top choice. It’s an excellent gadget for crafters as well as anyone who wants to print (and stick) photos right from a smartphone.