D.M. Procida wrote:
I want to replace my old HP PhotoSmart 7150 with something smaller,
neater, a built-in scanner, and very importantly, better output.

The PhotoSmart's OK, but not brilliant.

The model I was considering was the Canon Pixma MP970, but I'm not
really up-to-date with printing.

That's an all-in-one, I think. Do you really need one? Maybe it
might be better to buy just a printer.

Are the latest dye-based inks significantly better than they were five
years ago?

I believe so.

Is it worth trying to find something that uses pigment-based inks?

Definitely. For permanent colour, pigment is still the only way to
go.

Is the number-of-ink-colours (7 in the MP970) a pointless bragging game
between manufacturers?

No: light cyan and light magenta certainly improve image quality, as
does grey. Some of the additional colours such as vivid magenta give
an expanded gamut. This won't matter for most photographs, but is
very useful if you really need to hit specific colours.

Andrew.