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Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 Photo Printer

Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 Printer

Review Summary: The Canon PRO-1000 is an excellent printer and an excellent value. Selling for US$1300 and coming with a full set of inks, the PRO-1000 makes fantastic, professional-quality prints. Colors are rich and vibrant, and the black levels are very good. Prints have a wide dynamic range and images show great detail and depth. Canon’s latest pro photo printer blends a footprint similar to the PRO-1 with technology from their large-format printers for the ultimate desktop-sized professional photo printer.

Pros: Rich, vibrant colors; Automatic black ink switching; Deep blacks; Very good dynamic range and shadow detail; Large ink cartridges; Simple setup & configuration.

Cons: No roll-paper media support; “Standard”-quality prints are fast, but highest settings can take a while; Surprisingly heavy & awkward to remove from box.

Pricing and Availability: The Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 has been available since late October 2015 for US$1,299.99, with ink cartridges retailing for US$59.99 each and the Chroma Optimizer for US$54.99. The printer is supplied with a set of full-size, full-volume ink cartridges.

Canon PRO-1000 Printer Review

New pro desktop printer makes fantastic prints with deep blacks

by Jeremy Gray
Posted: 12/21/2015
Updates:
12/22/2015: Added print sizes
07/13/2016: Firmware v1.1 increases max print height to 25.5″ or 647.7mm

Introduction

Canon’s new imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 printer is a statement that Canon is very serious about the professional desktop printer market. The 17″-wide desktop printer combines features from Canon’s large-format imagePROGRAF series of printers with the size of their pro-oriented desktop models. Canon has succeeded in their efforts to produce an affordable 17″ printer that offers excellent, professional-quality performance. Retailing at US$1299.99 with a complete set of inks included, the Canon PRO-1000 goes head-to-head with Epson’s recent SureColor P800 printer.

Key Features

Anti-clogging technology: Canon’s FINE print head uses a tubular ink delivery system which leads to faster print speeds and a reduced risk of clogging. The printer uses sensors to check the condition of nozzles (the PRO-1000 has 18,432 of them), and if a nozzle is clogged, the PRO-1000 automatically uses surrounding nozzles to compensate for the clogged nozzle. This feature helps prevent wasted prints and reduces the frequency that the nozzles must be cleaned.

Air feeding system: The PRO-1000 uses an air feeding system to help to keep paper aligned and flat, which results in more accurate ink placement on the paper. The air feeding system allows the printer to maintain a consistent height between the print head and the paper.

Lucia Pro Ink System: The Lucia Pro Ink System in the PRO-1000 utilizes an 11-color plus Chroma Optimizer ink system. The PRO-1000 has the following eleven inks in addition to the Chroma Optimizer ink tank: matte black, photo black, cyan, magenta, yellow, photo cyan, photo magenta, gray, photo gray, red, and blue. The Lucia Pro Ink System leads to denser droplet placement, which results in a larger color gamut and better gloss uniformity. The new formulas for the blue and magenta inks provide better nightscape and sunset prints as well. The newly-formulated photo black ink and Chroma Optimizer work together to provide deeper blacks, and there is also enhanced detail in darker areas. The new ink system doesn’t need to switch black inks, either, so there is no fuss or delay when switching to and from matte media. Additionally, ink cartridges are 80mL in size and have an MSRP of $60 each. The Chroma Optimizer costs $55.

Fast printing: The PRO-1000’s print head is 1.28″ wide, which expands the printing area by 50% compared to the PRO-1. The L-COA-PRO control engine in the PRO-1000 can process a high volume of data and quickly generate print data and control the ink layout of the prints. In addition, the PRO-1000 includes 1GB of on-board memory to help the printer handle large files. The PRO-1000 can print a color bordered 17 x 22″ photo in 4 minutes 10 seconds.

A straightforward set-up process

The PRO-1000 printer comes very well-packaged, but its hefty size (the PRO-1000 weighs a hair over 70lbs) means that it’s a two-person task to get the printer unpacked and set up. The printer comes covered with a lot of protective tape and materials, which can be a bit tricky to get all of it off as some is in various nooks and crannies. While the weight of the printer doesn’t matter much once you’ve gotten it unpacked and set up, the footprint of the printer does matter to many people. The PRO-1000 is 28.5 x 17 x 11.2″ (72.4 x 43.2 x 28.4cm). For a 17″-wide printer, that’s a pretty large footprint and quite a bit of height. To put that in perspective, Epson’s new SureColor P800 is 26.9 x 14.8 x 9.9″ (68.4 x 37.6 x 25.0cm). That’s a noticeable difference in size. The Epson does not have the dual air feeder system nor as many ink cartridges as the PRO-1000 though, so Canon needed some additional size to accommodate these features.

The Epson SureColor P800 side-by-side to the Canon imagePROGRAF Pro-1000.

The printer comes with all of the necessary documentation and setup materials, of course, but it also comes with a full set of inks. Some printers come with ‘starter’ inks, which is just a buzzword for ‘less-than-full,’ but the PRO-1000 comes with full 80mL cartridges. You also get five 8.5″ x 11″ sheets of Photo Paper Pro Luster (LU-101) paper and a couple of special sheets of paper for getting the print head set up.

Regarding the print head, it does not come installed. Installing the print head is pretty simple though, as the printer shows you how to do it via a series of images on the printer’s 3″ LCD display. Likewise, for installing the ink cartridges, the printer shows you how to do it, although it’s very simple. The display also shows you a real-time image of which inks are installed and how much ink the cartridges contain. The ink cartridge door itself is manually opened rather than electronically-controlled, which I like a lot.

After you’ve installed the inks and the print head, the printer has to put itself through a series of initialization tasks. These tasks took the PRO-1000 about a half an hour for me. This time allowed me to get the printer set up on my LAN and make sure that all of the necessary software and drivers were installed. Getting the printer to play nicely with Photoshop CC was easy. The PRO-1000 also comes with various management tools like Print Studio Pro v2 and the Device Management Console. Using the Device Management Console, you can manage multiple printers no matter where they are, provided that they are connected to the internet. For businesses and schools, there’s also the Accounting Manager software, which allows you to account for every sheet of paper and the quantity of ink that was used, allowing for easy tracking and cost calculation.

Connecting the printer to my network was as simple as plugging it in via its Ethernet port. I also tested its wireless LAN capabilities (802.11b/g/n), and it connected to my wireless network easily and printed over wireless just fine. The PRO-1000 also allows for wireless printing via AirPrint, although printing from an iOS device is hampered by a general lack of control within most apps on my phone. This isn’t Canon’s fault, but I’m always going to print from my computer if possible. AirPrint is a nice feature for those who want it, though.

Overall, the most difficult part of getting the PRO-1000 up and running was getting the printer out of the box, which is to say that the set-up process was really simple.

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The PRO-1000 made a good first impression

Now that I had the printer set up, connected to my network, and fully initialized, it was time to make some prints. But first, I’d like to talk briefly about the printer itself. It has a very distinctive look and is much flashier than most pro-series printers I’ve seen. The printer looks uniquely ‘Canon’ with an L-series red stripe all the way across the front of the unit. The top of the printer also has a textured black finish that is reminiscent of the texture of an L-series Canon lens. Much of the printer has a smooth matte black finish which looks very nice, but the textured finish adds a bit of flair to the device. The ‘power’ and ‘stop’ buttons on the front of the printer are large and shiny. It’s never a bad thing to have distinctive buttons, but they’re surprisingly large. On the top of the front of the printer is a 3″ LCD and operation panel. There is also an alarm lamp to the right of the operations panel that lights up orange when there is an issue.

The 3″ LCD on the Canon PRO-1000 looks good. You can see the estimated ink level display here. To the right of the display is the home button, back button, and the navigation buttons with an ‘OK’ button in the center.

So, making my first print. The first thing I noticed is that the air feeder system (which works great by the way) is quite loud. For most people, I can’t imagine that this would be an issue, but it is still something worth mentioning. There is a ‘quiet mode’ option within the printer’s device settings that reduces the printer’s volume, but it’s still pretty loud. As a side note, while the PRO-1000 is printing, you cannot access any options on the printer except for ‘Job Management.’ The second thing I noticed is that the PRO-1000 prints very fast at the ‘standard’ print quality setting. Using the 8.5 x 11″ luster paper supplied with the printer, I made an 8 x 10 print in a couple of minutes, and the print looked really good.

Superb print quality

No matter which of the three papers I printed on, Photo Paper Pro Luster (LU-101), Photo Paper Plus Semi-Gloss (SG-201), or Photo Paper Pro Premium Matte (PM-101), the PRO-1000 made fantastic prints with rich, vibrant colors and deep blacks.

Canon’s newly-formulated high longevity pigment inks look excellent. When printing at “highest” quality, ink is distributed well, evenly, and with a density that creates very rich, vibrant colors. Details are excellent as well. I threw some of my most challenging images at the PRO-1000, and it handled them easily. Not a single color or situation tripped the printer up. Reds and blues can sometimes prove tricky for a printer, but the PRO-1000 has dedicated red and blue inks that allows the PRO-1000 to handle these colors (and purple) with ease.

The PRO-1000 handled the difficult colors in this print very well. Note that images of prints in this review were taken with a Sony A7S II with 90mm macro lens. ‘Magenta,’ copyright Jeremy P. Gray

The Chroma Optimizer ensures smooth, consistent color on all types of paper. In my testing, this technology did its job. On luster and semi-gloss paper, color was very consistent with no bleed and no areas with inconsistent ink placement. From all angles, the prints look great. On matte paper, which can be a bit tricky to work with at times, the PRO-1000 delivered surprisingly vibrant, rich colors.

Utilizing 1,536 nozzles per ink (18,432 nozzles total as there are twelve inks), the PRO-1000 prints excellent detail. While prints are best viewed from a reasonable distance rather than with your face right up against it, prints look very sharp at unreasonably close distances. Fine details are rendered well on the three papers I tested. Canon”s FINE (Full-Photolithography Inkjet Nozzle Engineering) technology works wonders. Put simply, what that mouthful of an acronym actually amounts to is great prints.

The print above on luster paper at ‘highest’ quality of ‘Indigo’ managed to retain detail in the very dark shadow areas of the image. A crop from the actual image can be seen below. It’s difficult to show a print via an image, but to the naked eye, the print and the image on my display are very close in overall brightness and tone.

The colors are very impressive from the PRO-1000, but even better are the black levels. My very first print on the PRO-1000 took me by surprise. Compared to prints from my Epson 3880, which is an excellent printer in its own right, the PRO-1000 produces noticeably deeper blacks. (For reference, I’m currently also testing an Epson SureColor P800, and the black levels from the P800 are very impressive as well). Prints from the PRO-1000 just have a special quality to them because of the deep blacks. Contrast is more impactful and the dynamic range of the prints is very high.

With excellent black levels, black and white prints from the PRO-1000 look fantastic. The PRO-1000 is able to automatically switch between photo and matte black inks without any delay whatsoever, which is something that the competing Epson SC-P800 cannot say. Further, because the PRO-1000 doesn’t have to switch inks, it also doesn’t waste ink. Despite being monochrome, photo printers like the PRO-1000 do use color ink when making monochrome prints, so a test of the printer is whether or not it is able to make monochrome prints that lack any real color casting issues. The PRO-1000 avoids this issue very well, printing very neutral black and white prints. The only noticeable impact on the color cast of a black and white print from the PRO-1000 will come from your paper selection.

This monochrome image with a large dynamic range and a lot of detail was printed very well by the PRO-1000. The black shadow of the rock in the bottom left corner was rendered essentially pitch black, as it is meant to be viewed. Despite printing very deep blacks, the PRO-1000 retains detail in shadow areas.

Through Canon’s print driver, you can also print a color image in black and white if you’d like, but you will get better control over the final quality if you do the black and white conversion yourself outside of the print dialog. In any case, monochrome prints from the PRO-1000 have excellent dynamic range, excellent shadow detail, and very deep blacks. My black and white images have never looked as dynamic and rich in detail and depth as they do coming from the PRO-1000.

Ultimately, the PRO-1000 passes the ‘eye test’ with flying colors. I’ve seen my images printed on a variety of printers over the years, and the PRO-1000 renders my images better any of them.

The PRO-1000 prints well on multiple Canon papers

Prints on Canon’s luster (LU-101) paper look great. The paper has a slightly textured finish to it and a subtle sheen. The luster paper provides a very wide dynamic range. It is a bright white paper, but it also provides very deep black levels. Colors are rich and vibrant, and the paper can present fine details well. Of the three papers Canon sent me, luster was definitely my favorite.

The semi-gloss paper (SG-201) was good as well, with a slightly smoother finish than the luster paper. The semi-gloss paper printed deep blacks and vibrant colors as well, but in my opinion lacked a bit of the punch of the luster paper.

While I prefer the luster paper slightly, the semi-gloss paper is able to print very fine details as well. This is a close-up image of a 17 x 22 monochrome print of my ‘Staring into the Sun’ image on Canon’s semi-gloss paper.

The matte paper (PM-101) is thick and heavy-duty, which means that it has to be fed through the manual feed slot in the back of the printer. The quick and automatic switching from photo black to matte black ink really shines here, as the PRO-1000 doesn’t miss a beat when changing the kind of media you’re printing on. The paper itself is quite nice, although obviously the blacks don’t render as deep as they do on the luster and semi-gloss papers. Colors are rendered with a good vibrancy on the matte paper, however.

On matte paper, the PRO-1000 printed ‘Dusk at Pemaquid’ with deep blacks and a lot of shadow detail.

Regarding the manual feed slot on the PRO-1000, it’s simple to use thicker media with the PRO-1000. The automatic rear tray can take media up to 11.8 mil (0.3mm). For media thicker than that, you have to pull the manual feed slot open on the back of the printer. The manual feed slot can take media from 3.9 to 27.6 mil (0.1 to 0.7mm) thick.

Print sizes

The Canon PRO-1000’s specifications state the maximum print size is 17 x 22 inches and the minimum size is 4 x 6 inches. According to the user manual, though, the maximum print size is 17.00 x 23.39 inches for either the rear tray or manual feed slot, while the minimum size supported by the rear tray is stated as 3.5 x 5.0 inches and 8 x 10 inches for the manual feed slot.

To determine what the actual maximum print size possible is, I tried a 17 x 25″ print using a custom size in Photoshop’s print dialog box. That caused issues as the printer took 10 minutes to even start printing and then only printed a roughly 8 x 10″ section of the print. After that I tried making a second custom size using the PRO-1000’s custom size dialog, which allowed a maximum size of 17.01 x 23.39 (with a maximum printable length of 23.07 inches due to a software-enforced non-printable area). So in the end, I was able to get an image to print 23 inches long, which is still a full inch longer than the maximum 17 x 22″ print size as stated by the printer’s specifications.

Note: Canon has since released firmware version 1.1, which expands the maximum printable height up to 25.5 inches or 647.7mm. Click here for details.

‘Standard’ quality is very fast, but ‘High’ quality looks noticeably better

While Canon advertises the printer as being very fast, and it is when printing at ‘standard’ print quality, the PRO-1000 has a few different print quality options to choose from (available options vary from paper to paper). The default print setting is “standard,” but there are also “high” and “highest” options available (“high” is not available with all paper types, like semi-gloss paper for example). When printing at standard quality, the PRO-1000 is very fast, capable of printing a full 17 x 22″ print in just over 4 minutes.

The print speed story is very different when you print at “highest” print quality. During my testing, printing an image at “highest” quality led to a very large increase in the time it takes to print an image. During my testing, 17 x 22″ prints at “highest” quality on both luster and semi-gloss paper took between 20 and 22 minutes. This extra time gives you prints that are slightly more detailed with denser ink distribution, richer colors, and deeper blacks. The difference, however, is subtle. From a distance, ‘Standard’ and ‘Highest’ prints are nearly indistinguishable. It is only up close and when you’re looking very carefully that the difference can be seen.

Monochrome print of ‘Autumn Storm’ at ‘standard’ print quality on luster paper.

Monochrome print of ‘Autumn Storm’ at ‘highest’ print quality on luster paper. You can see in these close-up images that the ink is denser on the ‘highest’ print and fine detail is slightly sharper. At normal viewing distances, only the overall richness of the ‘highest’ print is noticeable whereas you must view the print at close distances to see any difference in sharpness.

With that said, there is a visual difference and for fine art prints, I would always opt for the highest possible print quality, especially with 16 x 20 or 17 x 22 prints. For 8 x 10 or 11 x 14 prints that will not be used in critical settings, however, the much faster ‘standard’ option is a good choice. Also, if you’re needing to churn out a lot of images in a short period of time, ‘standard’ will suit many applications well. It is also worth noting that ‘standard’ print quality uses a fair bit less ink than ‘highest’ print quality does, with ‘standard’ using about 3/4 of the amount of ink that ‘highest’ uses. For being both dramatically more time efficient and moderately more ink efficient, the small decrease in print quality will make sense for some applications.

Print speed results tell an interesting story

Print speed test results (rounded to nearest 5s)

Size	Color or BW	Quality	Paper Type	Time
8 x 10	BW	Highest	Luster	04:30
8 x 10	Color	Standard	Luster	02:30
8 x 10	BW	Highest	Matte (manual feed)	03:00
11 x 14	Color	Highest	Matte (manual feed)	04:50
11 x 14	Color	Standard	Luster	02:35
11 x 14	Color	Highest	Luster	06:45
16 x 20	Color	Standard	Semi-gloss	04:00
16 x 20	BW	Highest	Matte (manual feed)	07:30
16 x 20	Color	Highest	Semi-gloss	18:00
17 x 22	Color	Standard	Luster	05:00
17 x 22	BW	Highest	Luster	15:15
17 x 22	BW	Standard	Semi-gloss	04:55
17 x 22	BW	Highest	Semi-gloss	14:30
17 x 22	Color	Highest	Luster	22:00
17 x 22	Color	Highest	Matte (manual feed)	10:00
17 x 22	Color	Highest	Luster	17:10
17 x 22	Color	Highest	Luster	18:20

For a wide variety of print qualities, sizes, and paper types, I kept track of the time it took for the image to complete printing from me clicking ‘Print’ in the print dialog box in Photoshop. To account for any minor differences in timing, I rounded the times to the nearest fifth second. Every image and media is different, so take this chart simply as a guideline to what you might expect for print speeds. The most important thing to takeaway is that ‘standard’ print quality is much faster than ‘highest’ print quality while reducing overall print quality only marginally.

Canon PRO 1000 versus Epson SureColor P800 (and Epson 3880)

While I was reviewing the PRO-1000, an Epson SureColor P800 arrived for me to review. The PRO-1000 is Canon’s direct competition to the P800 (and to a lesser extent, the Epson 3880, which still remains popular). Pitting these two very capable printers against each other led to some interesting results.

I utilized various test images from here and here and printed them both on 17 x 22″ luster paper at their respective highest quality setting, which was ‘Highest’ for the PRO-1000 and ‘SuperPhoto’ on the P800. The PRO-1000 printed the image in 15 minutes 57 seconds and the P800 printed the image in 20 minutes 30 seconds. That’s a pretty big difference in print speeds.

Comparing the two prints, you have to really study them up close to see any noticeable differences. Firstly, black levels are pretty much indistinguishable. Both printers do a fantastic job. For reference, I printed the same test image on my own Epson 3880 printer, and they both easily surpass the black levels of the 3880. For sharpness and detail, using a magnifying glass I could see a very slight difference between the two printers as the P800’s print was the tiniest bit sharper. The difference is ridiculously small, though, and maybe comes down to a difference in paper rather than in the printer itself. The only noticeable difference between the two prints is that the PRO-1000 produces slightly different colors than the P800. The PRO-1000’s print has more vibrant reds (and to a lesser extent, oranges) than the P800. Looking at indigo and violet on the test prints revealed that the PRO-1000 produces slightly cooler and darker purples, but I wouldn’t say that they’re necessarily more vibrant. They are, however, more similar to the test image on my calibrated display. On that note, the Canon actually pushed reds a bit further than they appear on my display.

Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 test image close-up. Notice the vibrancy of the red and orange. There is also a distinct difference in the green swatches compared to the two Epson printers. The blue and violet swatches are also darker and denser on the PRO-1000 test image. Both the PRO-1000 and Epson P800 print have deeper blacks than the Epson 3880 print further below. (Note: This image was printed on Canon’s luster paper at ‘highest’ print quality whereas the two Epson test images were printed on Epson’s luster paper at ‘SuperPhoto’ print quality. The difference in paper could affect color rendition, but I wanted to have each printer print on its respective luster paper. Also note that these three images were taken with a Sony A7S II and a 90mm f/2.8 Macro G OSS lens at ISO 100 in raw mode using the same settings and processing. Hue and saturation won’t be absolutely accurate, but still useful for comparison purposes.)

Epson SureColor P800 test image close-up. Notice that the red and orange are very slightly less vibrant than the Canon print. But notice how the leftmost green is lighter while the middle and right greens are a bit darker on the P800 print. The blue is a bit warmer on the P800 print and the violet is lighter. The magenta is darker on the P800 print as well. (Note: This image was printed on Epson’s luster paper at ‘SuperPhoto’ print quality whereas the Canon test image was printed on Canon’s luster paper at ‘highest’ print quality. The difference in paper could affect color rendition, but I wanted to have each printer print on its respective luster paper.)

Epson Stylus Pro 3880 test image close-up Across the spectrum of colors, the 3880 print is just not quite as vibrant as either the PRO-1000 or the P800. The black levels, while impressive, just don’t quite match the superb black levels found on the PRO-1000 and to a slightly lesser extent on the P800. (Note: This image was printed on Epson’s luster paper at ‘SuperPhoto’ print quality whereas the Canon test image was printed on Canon’s luster paper at ‘highest’ print quality. The difference in paper could affect color rendition, but I wanted to have each printer print on its respective luster paper.)

When you get right down to it, the Canon PRO-1000 makes fantastic prints. It makes prints that are noticeably better than those from the Epson 3880, an excellent printer in its own right, and that are very similar in quality to prints from the Epson P800. The differences in color rendition between the PRO-1000 and P800 could come down to the difference in media, but in any case, it’s difficult for me to say that one prints better than the other, as it is a very subjective issue. The PRO-1000 makes prints much faster than the P800, though, and does give reds and blues a bit more impact than either Epson printer (probably due to the PRO-1000 having dedicated red and blue inks).

Efficiency

My PRO-1000 is not a retail version, so it did not come with full ink cartridges, and thus it is not possible for me to give specific details on how long a set of inks last. Printing is very much a ‘your mileage may vary’ situation as it is, because print quality and image selection has an important impact on ink usage. However, I did take screenshots of my supply levels after setting the printer up and after printing a wide variety of color and black and white prints, including: eighteen 11 x 14 prints (three of which were on matte paper), five 17 x 22 prints, eleven 8 x 10 prints (one of which was on matte paper), and nine 16 x 20 prints (one of which was on matte paper).

PRO-1000 ink after setup (left) and ink after a wide variety of prints (right)

Looking at job history information for the printer, I’m able to see how much ink was used for a few different prints. Obviously this is a case-by-case basis and every image is different. For a 17 x 22 color image printed on luster paper at ‘standard’ quality, the PRO-1000 used 2.9mL of ink. The same image printed at ‘highest’ quality used 3.8mL of ink. A black and white image printed on 17 x 22 semi-gloss paper at ‘standard’ used 2.8mL of ink, and the same image printed at ‘highest’ quality used 3.7mL of ink.

You’re also going to want to stock up heavily on gray ink because the PRO-1000 went through gray ink much faster than any of the other inks, as can be seen in the screenshots above. I printed more color images than black and white images during my testing, but it was not a dramatic difference. Gray ink was the most used ink in the 17 x 22 color prints referenced above by 0.6mL and 0.1mL with the ‘standard’ and ‘highest’ quality prints respectively. A 17 x 22 black and white print referenced above used more photo black (printed on semi-gloss paper) than gray ink, but gray ink was still heavily used. The majority of the increase in ink usage on the ‘highest’ quality black and white print came from blue ink and the Chroma Optimizer (0.2mL and 0.7mL more respectively were used printing the image at ‘highest’ quality).

What about roll paper? A potential blemish on an otherwise excellent printer

So the PRO-1000 is excellent, but there must be a catch, right? Well, maybe there isn’t, it depends on how you intend to use the printer. The one potential issue for some users is that the PRO-1000 doesn’t accept roll paper, and doesn’t support panorama printing. The P800, its main competitor, can accept 17″ wide roll paper. If you want to use roll paper, then the PRO-1000 won’t fit the bill. Other than this, which will not be an issue for some users, the PRO-1000 is fantastic.

Canon PRO-1000 Review Conclusion

An excellent printer at a great price

What I like:

• Stylish. The PRO-1000 has a distinct look to it that makes you think of Canon’s professional-quality lenses.
• Automatic black ink switching. The PRO-1000 switches black ink automatically and without delay.
• Black levels. The PRO-1000 produces prints with very deep blacks.
• Speedy. While the advertised speeds rely on printing at ‘standard’ quality, the printer is still fast at ‘highest’ print quality.

What I dislike:

• No roll paper or panorama printing. This is a big one for some people. The PRO-1000 cannot accept roll media.

Other Pros:

• Ships with set of full-size, full-volume ink cartridges ($715 worth of ink)
• 80mL cartridges mean fewer refills and cartridge swapping
• Built-in sensor identifies clogged nozzles, uses others to compensate. BIG reduction in wasted in for cleaning cycles.
• Chroma optimizer works well to avoid bronzing
• Very neutral black & white prints
• Temperature-controlled ink delivery system for reduced clogging
• New ink composition permits denser pigment lay-down
• Increased color gamut from new ink system
• Vacuum feed system for more precise ink droplet placement
• Good support for thick media
• Device Management admin tool helps maintain consistency between multiple printers
• Accounting Manager software great for educational settings or per-print customer billing
• Big push by Canon to support better print profiles for other paper brands
• Plug & play Ethernet connection
• AirPrint support

Other Cons:

• Air feeder system is fairly loud
• Big and heavy (Likely not a make/break issue, but make sure you have space and a sturdy table)
• Maximum print size is 17 x 23 inches (17 x 25.5 inches with firmware v1.1)

Summary

The Canon PRO-1000 is an excellent printer and an excellent value. Selling for $1300 USD and coming with a full set of inks, the PRO-1000 makes fantastic, professional-quality prints. Canon nailed it with the PRO-1000 as colors are rich and vibrant and black levels are very good. Prints have a wide dynamic range and images have great detail and depth.

You can crunch numbers and run extensive tests on color gamut, color accuracy, and ink density, but at the end of the day, the only thing that matters about print quality is how a print actually looks. When you frame and hang a print, how it looks on the wall trumps everything else. I’m pleased to report that prints from the Canon PRO-1000 will look fantastic on any wall.

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Epson SureColor P800 Photo Printer

Epson SureColor P800 Printer

Review Summary: The Epson SureColor P800 is a substantial upgrade from the popular Epson Stylus Pro 3800-series of printers. There is a distinct improvement in print quality and the ability to accept roll media is a great feature. Competition is heating up for this class of printer, but the P800 is a very good 17″ desktop printer that every photographer ought to consider. If you’re looking to get your first printer of this class or upgrade your current printer, the Epson P800 is a great option.

Pros: Vibrant color reproduction; Deep, rich blacks; Roll paper & panoramic printing support; Front-loading fine art media system better than rear-feed method of predecessor.

Cons: Touchscreen controls a bit finicky & slow at times; Print speeds not as quick as the competition; Automatic black switching is nice, but uses same nozzle for black inks.

Pricing and Availability: The Epson SureColor P800 has been available since June 2015 for about US$1,295, with 80mL ink cartridges retailing for around US$55 each. The printer ships with a set of 64mL starter ink cartridges.

Epson SureColor P800 Printer Review

Deep blacks & vibrant colors make it a worthy successor to the Stylus Pro series

by Jeremy Gray | Posted 12/22/2015

Introduction

The Epson SureColor P800 is the 17″ desktop printer successor to the Epson Stylus Pro 3880. There are some key feature differences between the P800 and 3880 that make the P800 a worthy replacement for what was already a very good printer (I’ve thoroughly enjoyed using my own 3880 for the past five-plus years). After having made a wide variety of prints with the P800, I can confidently say that it not only outclasses the 3880 in every conceivable way, it also matches up well against the new and very good Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 printer.

Key Features

Compact The Epson SureColor P800 is currently the world’s smallest 17″ photo printer.

All-new inks For the first time, Epson has made a completely new set of inks. Each pigment and density per droplet is different from the previous-generation inks. Epson has also reformulated the resin technology that coats each pigment.

• The new Photo Black pigment is one and a half times denser than the previous generation ink set, which leads to improved contrast and clarity in your prints.
• For the first time in fourteen years, Epson has made a new matte black ink. Designed to stay closer to the surface of the paper, the new matte black ink leads to deeper blacks.
• With the new ink set, prints from the P800 have up to twice the permanence of prints made using the previous-generation ink set.

Precise The eight channel, 1″ Epson MicroPiezo AMC print head has 180 nozzles per channel and offers a maximum resolution of 2880 x 1440. It can utilize droplets as small as 3.5 picoliters.

• In conjunction with the new ink repellent surface coating, the Advanced Meniscus Control (AMC) technology ensures that dot placement is accurate and consistent.

Versatile Like the 3800-series, the P800 is able to accept sheet media up to 17 x 22″. The P800 can accept media up to 1.5mm thick through its front heavy media path. Unlike the 3800-series, the P800 can accept roll media by utilizing an optional roll media attachment.

Connected With Hi-Speed USB 2.0 and Ethernet ports, the P800 can also connect wireless via 2.5GHz Wi-Fi. The P800 also supports Apple AirPrint and Google Cloud Print.

Fast The P800 can print 8 x 10″ prints in as little as 1 minute, 53 seconds. It can make a 17 x 22″ print as quickly as 6 minutes, 19 seconds.

Simple and fast setup

The Epson P800 comes well-packaged with a lot of protective materials and tape. Once you go through the task of removing all of these bits, you have to plug in the printer, install the inks, connect the printer to your computer, and you’re basically good to go. Ink installation is very simple with the P800 as the ink cartridges snap easily into place. Once you’ve done that and the printer initializes, which is pretty quick, you just have to get the printer set up on the computer. The only issues I had setting up the printer was that the 2.7″ touchscreen is somewhat finicky. On-screen elements are often quite small and the touchscreen sometimes failed to register my touches accurately. This made some aspects of setting up the printer a little slower than anticipated. I had no problems whatsoever getting the P800 set up on my network and installing the print drivers to my Mac. Once the ICC profiles for Epson’s papers were all installed to Photoshop, I was ready to get started. All in all, not a difficult setup process, in my opinion.

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Taking a closer look at the stylish P800

Once I got the printer set up, I realized just how nice its styling is. The matte black finish with blue accents look modern, yet understated, and the printer will look good no matter where you place it. It is also nice that the P800 is the world’s smallest 17″ desktop printer according to Epson. At 26.93″ (W) x 14.80″ (D) x 9.85″ (H) (68.4 x 37.6 x 25.0 cm), the P800’s dimensions are impressively compact. The printer does add some depth and height with the optional roll adapter installed, however, as that attachment brings it to 23.07″ (58.6 cm) deep and 11.26″ (28.6 cm) tall. Without the adapter, the P800 weighs 43 lbs (19.5 kg). With the adapter, the weight increases to 49 lbs (22.2 kg).

The front of the P800 is quite simple. To the right of the print tray, there are three buttons (power, home, and back buttons) and a touchscreen (which has two touch-sensitive arrows to the right of it). There is no directional pad anywhere, just the few buttons and the screen. In my experience, there are pros and cons to this set up. For quick selections, such as entering into menus and checking ink supplies, the touchscreen works great; you just tap and have quick access to information. For moving through longer menus, the arrows to the right of the display work okay. When you have to scroll using arrows on the display itself, the touchscreen becomes a bit of a nuisance. The touchscreen is neither big enough nor responsive enough to be a perfectly reliable method of interaction. I regularly had to touch the display multiple times to get the desired result and sometimes it felt like certain actions just took too long to complete. With that said, the entire panel with the buttons and touchscreen can be tilted, which is a really nice feature.

While the touchscreen didn’t impress me, the overall menu system did. For anyone who has used an Epson printer before, it will feel familiar. The menu options are well-organized and plentiful. The introduction of control over automatic black ink switching and automatic skew check are fantastic and really help the P800 to feel like it is aimed at serious photographers. Gone are the days of user errors in the print dialog on your computer wasting your precious time and ink. And for those of us who have struggled at times with slightly crooked fine art papers triggering a skew check and bringing printing to a halt, being able to turn that feature off is great. In both cases, this means that you will need to be more aware than before when printing on different medias and loading fine art papers, but giving users more control is nice.

The Epson P800 offers the option to turn off the automatic paper skew check. This is a good option for photographers who print on media that occasionally has a very slightly crooked cut, which can trigger the sensitive skew check system.

Superb print quality

Prints from the P800 are sharp and vibrant and blacks are rich and deep. Any decent printer these days can produce good prints, so where the excellent printers set themselves apart is through their subtleties. The P800 achieves its excellence through particularly deep blacks and accurate colors. When matched with high-quality paper, such as Epson’s Hot Press Bright (one of my favorite papers), the P800 produces professional-quality prints that I would be proud to put my name on.

The all-new Epson UltraChrome HD inks deliver excellent colors across the gamut. The Photo Black, Matte Black, Light Black, Light Light Black, Cyan, Light Cyan, Vivid Magenta, Vivid Light Magenta, and Yellow inks, which each have access to 180 nozzles, work together to create prints with accurate colors and smooth tonal gradations. I was particularly impressed with the P800’s ability to achieve vivid prints without going overboard. While saturated colors are often desired, it is easy for a printer to go too far and introduce issues with transitions and accuracy. The P800 manages to strike an excellent balance between creating saturated prints and being an accurate representation of the original image.

The P800 was able to print this image (close-up of a 17 x 22″ print on Epson Ultra Premium Luster paper at 1440 dpi printed with ‘high speed’ enabled seen below) without pushing the red too far. It also handled the yellows and rendered the subtle transitions from yellow to orange throughout the leaves very well. The printer was also able to retain the shadow details in the bark of the background trees. Note that images of prints in this review were taken with a Nikon D800E with 60mm macro lens, unless otherwise noted. ‘Birches,’ copyright Jeremy P. Gray

Black and white prints look very nice from the P800. With the new, denser Photo Black ink, blacks are deep and prints have an expansive dynamic range. The smooth transitions from black to dark gray allow for the P800 to produce prints that retain good shadow detail. An area of dramatic improvement of the P800 over the 3880 is printing black and white images on matte papers. With the newly-formulated matte black ink, the ink doesn’t penetrate as deeply into the paper and therefore the blacks appear richer. I occasionally shy away from printing certain images on matte fine art papers with my 3880 due to the lack of contrast, but that is no longer an issue with the P800. While there are improvements to print quality in all regards with the P800, the improvement to printing on matte papers is the biggest step forward in my opinion.

Monochrome printing using Advanced Black and White mode

The P800 can make great black and white prints using the standard print dialog and paper profiles, but you can also utilize the Epson’s Advanced Black and White (ABW) mode to make more fine-tuned black and white prints.

On the left is the default ABW ‘Advanced Color Settings’ menu. On the right is the same menu with the settings that were used in the second print below.

With ABW mode, you can change the brightness, contrast, shadow tonality, highlight tonality, and overall tone of the image. You can even convert color images to black and white via ABW mode. You get a live preview of a stock image in the print dialog rather than your own image, so it can be a bit tricky to get a good sense of how the changes you’re making will impact your own image.

On the left is the default ABW print. On the right is the ABW print made using the settings above: +12 brightness, +10 contrast, -10 shadow tonality, +5 highlight tonality, tone: darker, and -11, -19 color tone.

I prefer to handle black and white conversions and editing on my own, but the ABW mode is a great way to ensure the most neutral black and white prints as certain paper profiles can sometimes produce a color cast. You can also use ABW mode to compensate for different qualities in a paper that you might not have a profile for or to add your own unique twist, such as a color tone, to your prints.

Printing on Epson media

In addition to the printer itself, Epson supplied me with a wide array of papers to use, including Ultra Premium Luster, Hot Press Bright, Velvet Fine Art, Metallic Luster, and Metallic Glossy. They also sent me a roll of Exhibition Canvas Satin, which I discuss in the next section.

With Photo Black ink, the P800 printed very well on both the luster and metallic glossy papers. Prints are vibrant and sharp. Epson’s Ultra Premium Luster is a great paper for making your images pop. It works well for basically any image and should always deliver good results. The Metallic Glossy paper, on the other hand, doesn’t work for every type of image. It has a subtle warm tint to it and it is very reflective. Its sheen makes bright colors appear even brighter, but it also means that you can lose a bit of detail. In addition, its overall tone isn’t neutral enough for me to want to use it for black and white prints.

Close-up of ‘Brilliant Pillars’ printed on Epson Metallic Photo Glossy paper.

Printing on matte paper meant switching the black inks. Unlike the Canon PRO-1000, the P800 does not have dedicated nozzles for the individual black inks, so the printer has to switch the inks, which consumes both time and ink. According to Epson, switching from matte to photo black ink takes 3 minutes 30 seconds and uses up approximately 4.6mL of ink. Switching from photo to matte black ink takes 2 minutes 30 seconds and uses up approximately 1.6mL of ink. In case you’re curious as to why switching from matte black to photo black ink consumes more ink and takes longer than switching from photo black to matte black ink, there is actually a very specific reason related to the different pigments. Matte black ink cannot be used on non-matte papers. The pigment will not be absorbed and you’ll be left with black dust that sits on top of the paper, which is undesirable and also bad for the printer itself. On the other hand, photo black ink can be used on matte papers (although it obviously won’t look as good at matte black). What this means is that the P800 has to get all of the matte black ink out of the nozzles before it starts printing on non-matte papers, which as a result takes longer and uses up more ink. Photo black ink left in the nozzles won’t ruin the prints or paper, so it is not as critical to cycle all of the leftover photo black ink out of the nozzles, which means less time and less ink are required in the switching process. As I discussed in the previous section, matte prints from the P800 look very good though, so any wait for black ink switching is definitely worth it if you desire to use matte paper.

I’d personally toggle this option off. It is unfortunate when you make a mistake in the print dialog and lose paper and ink because the wrong ink was being used. I think that it’s better to have more control as long as you remember to make the manual switch when switching types of media.

Close-up of ‘Fallen’ on Epson Velvet Fine Art paper.

When printing on thicker papers (anything from 0.29-0.70mm thick), you have to use the front Fine Art paper feed. Rather than feeding fine art paper through the rear of the printer like you do with the Stylus Pro 3880, you instead open up the front of the printer and release the gray fine art front loading tray. By pressing this tray open and opening the rear feed support on the top of the printer, you are able to slide thicker media through the front tray and the printer will then pull it through into the rear feed support. Once the paper has been fed through, you close the light gray tray and you’re good to go. I like this system for loading thicker paper a lot; it’s very simple to use and much more convenient than having to reach around the printer to get to a feeding slot on the back.

Roll adapter provides a lot of versatility

Using the optional roll media adapter, you can print up to 17″ wide and 129″ long images on roll paper with the P800. Attaching the adapter itself is easy as there are two slots on the back of the printer where you just slide on the adapter and then you tighten two screws in at the bottom. It takes less than a minute to do. Epson supplied me with a roll of Exhibition Canvas Satin. Once the roll was on the roll media adapter, I unrolled the canvas and fed it into the rear slot of the printer. By tapping ‘Load Guide’ on the printer’s display, the printer will give you step-by-step instructions on how to load the roll media.

Epson’s Roll Media adapter is available for ~$200 USD. It does add size and weight to the P800, but it allows for much more versatility.

There is not a built-in cutting tool, but you can have the P800 print a cut line on the canvas to guide you with cutting the paper. You’ll want to be very careful to cut a straight edge when working with roll media to ensure proper feeding.

30″ long canvas print of ‘Through the Mist’ on Exhibition Canvas Satin.

This was my first experience working with roll paper, and I was able to get everything set up and working correctly in short order, so I think that speaks to how well the P800 is equipped for printing on roll media.

You can see the printed cut line here. After you cut the canvas with a sharp pair of scissors, the printer will load the roll back up into the printer to minimize waste. After the media is fed back into position inside the printer, you need to tighten the roll media spindle so that the canvas remains tight.

Epson’s new Legacy papers impress

In addition to the media listed above, Epson also supplied me with a sample pack of their yet to be released Legacy Paper. The Legacy Paper line includes four papers: Legacy Baryta, Legacy Platine, Legacy Etching and Legacy Fibre. The latter two of which are matte papers.

The Legacy Baryta paper features a smooth, satin finish and has a whiteness rating of 90. It’s 12 mils thick and feels very nice. It has two barium sulphate coatings and an industry leading microporous inkjet receptive layer. This results in the Legacy Baryta paper producing prints with deep blacks, vibrant colors, and smooth tonal gradations. If you’re after the look and feel of silver halide F-surface darkroom papers, this is the paper for you.

Epson’s Legacy Platine paper is thicker than the Baryta paper at 17 mils, a bit less white (82 whiteness rating), and it has a slightly less smooth surface, although it is still considered a smooth satin finish. Whereas the Baryta paper is 100% alpha cellulose, the Platine paper is 100% cotton fibre. While they’re both excellent satin papers, I have a slight preference for the Legacy Platine paper due to its subtle texture.

‘Dancing Lights’ printed on Epson’s new Legacy Platine paper. Although all four of Epson’s new Legacy Papers are excellent, this was my favorite paper due to its slightly-textured satin finish.

At 20 mils thick, the Legacy Etching paper is the thickest of Epson’s four new papers. It’s also the whitest at 99 whiteness and the brightest at 96 ISO brightness. It’s a 100% cotton fibre paper with a textured matte finish. On the P800, the Etching paper produces very rich blacks and vibrant colors. It is the perfect paper for gritty, raw images with lots of depth and texture.

For a smooth paper, Epson offers the Legacy Fibre paper. At 19 mils thick and with 98 whiteness rating and a 93 ISO brightness rating, this semi-smooth satin paper works very well. Deep blacks and vibrant colors make this a great matte paper. Which of the two matte papers, Etching or Fibre, you prefer really comes down to whether or not you want a textured or a semi-smooth finish.

Overall, the Legacy papers are all very good. They are thick papers that just feel substantial in the hands. Making prints is a very tactile experience and handling any of the four Legacy papers just feels like a good experience. Most importantly, any of the four make excellent prints with the P800. Paper selection is very subjective; everyone has different preferences and every image is different, but you can’t go wrong with any of Epson’s new Legacy Papers. They will all be available in cut sheets and rolls with rolls releasing in December and cut sheets in January. I will be writing a separate article about printing with the Legacy Papers soon, so keep an eye out for it.

P800 prints well on third-party paper

During my time using the P800, I was sent papers by both Red River Paper and Hahnemuhle, which I printed on using the P800 to great success. While I am a big fan of Epson’s own papers, it’s important that a printer be able to work well with third-party media as well.

Using .icc profiles for the Red River and Hahnemuhle papers, the P800 consistently produced very good prints on the third-party papers. For the thicker medias, I regularly used the front fine art paper feed. Through this extended use, I came to really appreciate how much better this front-feeding system is compared to the rear-feeding system found on my 3880. I will be discussing the Red River and Hahnemuhle papers in separate posts.

‘Autumn Storm’ printed on Red River Paper 66lb. Arctic Polar Gloss.

Some specialty papers can sometimes be cut very slightly skewed (none of the ones that I’ve tested with the P800 were skewed, but I have experienced it with thick fine art papers before), which can trigger a printer’s skew check and bring your printing to a grinding halt. Fortunately, this issue (which was an issue for me with the 3880 from time to time) has been addressed and auto skew check can actually be disabled through the menus. However, with auto skew check disabled, the printer will print even if you loaded a piece of paper very poorly, so you need to be cautious.

Print quality and high speed printing

Through Epson’s print dialog, you have the option to print with a high speed option, which is disabled by default. When you print at high speed setting, the print head lays down ink in both directions, the outward direction and the return direction. In the case of the P800, this leads to a dramatic increase in print speeds without a noticeable decrease in print quality. I looked at images printed with high speed on and off using a magnifying glass and would be hard-pressed to tell you which one is which if I hadn’t labeled them. The difference in quality, if it exists at all, would never be seen when viewing the prints from a normal distance.

Above: Print with high speed disabled. This print took 20 minutes and 20 seconds. Below: Print with high speed enabled. This print took 11 minutes and 10 seconds (slightly longer than half the time with high speed printing enabled, which makes sense as the printer head lays down ink in two directions instead of one). Even with a magnifying glass, I wouldn’t have been able to tell the two prints apart had I not labeled them.

There is also a print quality option. Depending on the selected paper, your options vary, but for most photo papers you can select between 1440 dpi (FinePhoto) and 2880 dpi (SuperPhoto) print quality. There is a difference in print speed, but not necessarily in print quality. Supposing that you have a very sharp image file to begin with, the difference in sharpness is minuscule. Even with a magnifying glass, I couldn’t tell the image printed at 1440 dpi apart from the one printed at 2880 dpi. In fact, many papers, such as the fine art papers I used from Red River and Hahnemuhle, come with recommending print settings on Epson printers of 1440 dpi resolution.

These are macro images of two prints of ‘Clutching.’ One of them was printed at 2880 “SuperPhoto” resolution and the other was printed at 1440 “FinePhoto” resolution. See if you can figure out which one is which without looking at the file names. The 1440 print took 8 minutes and 50 seconds. The 2880 print took 15 minutes and 40 seconds.

Print speed results

Print speed test results (rounded to nearest 5s)

Size (inches)	Color or BW	Quality	Paper Type	Time
8 x 10	Color	1440 DPI (High Speed)	Epson Metallic Glossy	02:25
8 x 10	Color	1440	Hahnemuhle Torchon	04:05
8 x 10	Color	2880 (High Speed)	Hahnemuhle Albrecht Durer	03:35
8 x 10	BW	2880	Epson Legacy Baryta	07:00
12 x 18	BW	1440 (High Speed)	Red River Paper Palo Duro Satin	04:40
12 x 18	Color	1440	Red River Paper Palo Duro Satin	08:50
12 x 18	Color	2880	Red River Paper Palo Duro Satin	15:40
12 x 22	Color	2880 (High Speed)	Epson Exhibition Canvas Satin	07:20
13 x 20	BW	1440 (High Speed)	Epson Exhibition Canvas Satin	05:45
16 x 20	Color	2880 (High Speed)	Epson Ultra Premium Luster	11:10
16 x 20	Color	2880	Epson Ultra Premium Luster	20:20
16 x 24	Color	1440	Red River Palo Duro SoftGloss Rag	13:40
17 x 22	Color	1440 (High Speed)	Epson Ultra Premium Luster	07:40
17 x 22	Color	1440	Epson Ultra Premium Luster	14:15
17 x 22	Color	2880	Epson Ultra Premium Luster	25:40
17 x 32	Color	2880	Epson Exhibition Canvas Satin	32:45

Epson SureColor P800 versus Canon PRO-1000 (and Epson 3880)

With Canon’s recently released 17″ imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 printer, the P800 has a new rival. Having reviewed the PRO-1000, I was able to directly compare the two printers.

The Epson P800 (left) is noticeably smaller than the Canon PRO-1000 (right).

Printing various test images from here and here on the two printer’s respective 17 x 22″ luster papers and using the highest possible settings, the P800 printed the test sheet in 20 minutes, 30 seconds and the PRO-1000 printed the same file in 15 minutes, 57 seconds.

Only when viewing the prints up close is there any noticeable difference. Both the P800 and PRO-1000 produce similarly impressive black levels. The P800 produces slightly different colors, but I wouldn’t say that they’re overall better or worse than the colors from the PRO-1000. Specifically, I think that the P800 handles greens a bit better and that the PRO-1000 produces better reds and blues. I also printed the same image on my Epson 3880 to see how that fared against the P800 and the P800 bests the 3880 across the board. Colors are more vibrant and the black is much deeper.

As far as sharpness and detail is concerned, both Epson P800 and Canon PRO-1000 produce very sharp prints. When viewing prints up close, perhaps the P800 produces very slightly sharper prints, but I couldn’t confidently tell the two prints apart with regards to sharpness and fine detail. Besides, if you have to use a magnifying glass to distinguish between two prints, then they’re not different in any meaningful way.

Epson SureColor P800 test image close-up. Notice that the red and orange are very slightly less vibrant than the Canon PRO-1000 print below. But notice how the leftmost green is lighter while the middle and right greens are a bit more distinct from one another on the P800 print. The blue is a bit warmer on the P800 print and the violet is lighter. The magenta is darker on the P800 print as well. (Note: This image was printed on Epson’s luster paper at ‘SuperPhoto’ print quality whereas the Canon test image was printed on Canon’s luster paper at ‘highest’ print quality. The difference in paper could affect color rendition, but I wanted to have each printer print on its respective luster paper. Also note that these three images were taken with a Sony A7S II and a 90mm f/2.8 Macro G OSS lens at ISO 100 in raw mode using the same settings and processing. Hue and saturation won’t be absolutely accurate, but still useful for comparison purposes.)

Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 test image close-up. Notice the vibrancy of the red and orange. There is also a distinct difference in the green swatches compared to the two Epson printers. The blue and violet swatches are also darker and denser on the PRO-1000 test image. Both the PRO-1000 and Epson P800 print have deeper blacks than the Epson 3880 print further below. (Note: This image was printed on Canon’s luster paper at ‘highest’ print quality whereas the two Epson test images were printed on Epson’s luster paper at ‘SuperPhoto’ print quality. The difference in paper could affect color rendition, but I wanted to have each printer print on its respective luster paper.)

Epson Stylus Pro 3880 test image close-up. Across the spectrum of colors, the 3880 print is just not quite as vibrant as either the P800 or the Canon PRO-1000. The black levels, while impressive, just don’t quite match the superb black levels found on the P800. (Note: This image was printed on Epson’s luster paper at ‘SuperPhoto’ print quality whereas the Canon test image was printed on Canon’s luster paper at ‘highest’ print quality. The difference in paper could affect color rendition, but I wanted to have each printer print on its respective luster paper.)

The P800 makes excellent prints that are noticeably improved compared to prints from the Epson 3880. Going up against Canon’s PRO-1000, the differences are subtle. The P800 and PRO-1000 render colors a little differently, but which one renders them better is more of a personal preference.

Efficiency

Every particular image and media places different demands on a printer’s ink supply, so it is not possible for me to determine how efficient the P800 is and how its ink use would be for any individual user. Anecdotally, for me, it went through Photo Black ink pretty quickly. I’ve made only slightly more prints using Photo Black ink compared to Matte Black ink, but the Photo Black ink decreased more than twice as fast during my testing. Compared to printing with my 3880, the P800 definitely seemed more efficient, though. Like the 3880, the P800 uses high-capacity 80mL ink cartridges, although the printer comes with a starter set of 64mL ink cartridges.

Epson P800 Review Conclusion

An excellent printer that bests its predecessor across the board

What I like:

• Versatile media handling. Accepts media up to 1.5mm thick and can print on roll media with the optional roll media attachment.
• Front-loading fine art papers is much better than the rear-loading mechanism of the 3800/3880 printers.
• Additional menu options, such as disabling automatic black ink switching and skew check, provide users more control.
• All-new UltraChrome HD inks produce vibrant prints with rich, deep blacks.
• The new Matte Black ink helps the P800 make fantastic prints on matte papers.
• Print drivers are easy-to-use yet powerful. Advanced Black and White mode works well.

What I dislike:

• Touchscreen is an occasionally slow method of input.
• Printer is a bit slower than the competition.
• While black ink switching is automatic (by default), efficient printing requires that you consider the order in which you make prints when using various media.

Other Pros:

• Easy, quick setup.
• Stylish design with relatively compact footprint.
• Wi-Fi connectivity with Apple AirPrint & Google Cloud Print support.
• Versatile: high-quality prints on both Epson and 3rd-party brand print media.
• High-speed print option lays ink in both directions with little negative affect on print quality.

Other Cons:

• Does not ship with 80mL ink cartridges (only 64mL starter kit).
• 2880 dpi (SuperPhoto) print quality shows little improvement over 1440 dpi FinePhoto (so save time on printing!)

Summary

The Epson SureColor P800 is a substantial upgrade from the popular Epson Stylus Pro 3800-series of printers. There is a distinct improvement in print quality and the ability to accept roll media is a great feature. Competition is heating up for this class of printer, but the P800 is a very good 17″ desktop printer that every photographer ought to consider. If you’re looking to get your first printer of this class or upgrade your current printer, the Epson P800 is a great option.

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Canon Pixma MG6320 Multifunction Photo Printer

Canon Pixma MG6320 Printer

Review Summary: If you haven’t tried an all-in-one, inkjet
photo printer lately, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the sleek and efficient
Canon Pixma MG6320, which produces superior photo prints for a device in its
class. The MG6320 also offers a robust set of wireless tools, helping you cut
down on cord clutter. While it’s not the fastest printer we’ve tried — or even
the fastest all-in-one inkjet photo printer — the six-ink MG6320 is a very
good home or small office solution, which prints high-quality color and black-and-white
photos on par to those produced by some older professional photo printers.

Pros: Sleek, streamlined design won’t take up much space in
your office; High-quality color and black-and-white photos from six individual
ink tanks; Ethernet and wireless connectivity offers a variety of connectivity
options; Very easy and fun to use.

Cons: Plastic build feels a bit flimsy; Limited volume
options not good for big jobs; Relatively slow overall print times.

Pricing and Availability: The Canon Pixma MG6320 has been
available since December 2012 for $199.

Canon Pixma MG6320 Review

by Dan Havlik
Review Date: June 2013

With the Canon MG6320, Canon has created a Pixma all-in-one inkjet printer
designed to be sleeker and more versatile than previous models, while adding a
robust set of tools for connecting wirelessly to computers and mobile devices.
If you’re familiar with Canon’s previous all-in-ones, you actually might do a
double take when you see the MG6320, which comes in either glossy black or white, and
boasts a streamlined profile with beveled edges and rounded corners. Don’t be
fooled by the MG6320’s slimmed down style. Though it looks more
like a dedicated, flatbed scanner from yesteryear than a multitasking
all-in-one printer, this device is designed to do much of the work of a small
office while printing lab-quality photos, thanks to its six-ink print
system.

Along with printing photos, the Pixma MG6320 can output documents with text
or graphics (or both), make copies, and scan documents and photos — either in
color or black-and-white. Sound multi-talented? It is, and thanks to the
MG6320’s wireless capabilities, many of this inkjet all-in-one’s skills can be
accessed on your computer or mobile device without having to attach a clumsy
cord. And best of all, for the budget conscious, the Canon Pixma MG6320 retails
for a reasonable $199.

Printing. For printing, the Canon Pixma MG6320 uses a
6-color, individual ink tank system, which includes Canon’s standard-capacity
251 BK (Black), 251 GY (Gray), 251 Y (Yellow), 251C (Cyan) and 251 M (Magenta)
dye inks along with a 251 PGBK (Pigment Black) ink for printing text. The
MG6320’s dedicated gray ink is for both black-and-white and color photo
printing. Since the MG6320 uses an individual ink system, you only need to
replace the specific ink tank that runs out rather than the whole set.

The Canon Pixma MG6320 offers 9600 x 2400 color dpi resolution with one
picoliter drops, designed to produce finer gradations and
photo prints with less visible grain. You can print borderless or bordered images. Canon’s
ChromaLife100+ ink system, which combines the MG6320 printer’s Fine print head
technology with the Canon inks and Canon’s photo papers, has a claimed
archivability of over 300 years, when the prints are stored in an archival
photo album.

For printing documents and web pages, Canon says the MG6320 can print 15.0
images per minute (IPM) for black and 10.0 images per minute (IPM) for color.
IPM speeds are a relatively new standard for printers created by the
International Organization for Standardization to measure print speeds for
documents. To measure IPM, the ISO provides three sets of standardized test
documents in Microsoft Word, Excel and PDF formats. The standardized test
documents contain a single photograph and corporate logos but are primarily
text-based rather than graphical. The IPM standard is designed to be more
accurate than the pages per minute (PPM) measure for printing documents.

A borderless, 4-x-6-inch photo takes about 20 seconds with the MG6320, according to Canon specs (read our hands-on test results below), and you can print photos up to 8.5 x 11 inches. To save on
paper costs (and time), the Pixma MG6320 has built-in auto duplex printing, which allows you to automatically print on both sides of the sheet of
paper. You can also print labels onto printable
CDs, DVDs or Blu-ray discs with the MG6320.

Scanning. The Canon MG632 has a built-in flatbed scanner
using a Contact Image Sensor (CIS) scanning element. The scanner has a maximum
optical scanning resolution of 2400 x 4800 dpi and an maximum interpolated
resolution of 19,200 x 19,200 dpi. Scanning features include Auto Scan Mode,
Attach to E-mail Scan, Network Scan, Push Scan, Scan to Memory Card and
Wireless Scanning.

The MG6320’s scanner has 48-bit input color depth and 24-bit output. The
maximum document size you can scan with the MG6320 is 8.5 x 11.7 inches.

Copying. As a copier, Canon claims an FCOT (First Copy
Output Time) of approximately 14 seconds from the MG6320 for color copies. You
can copy at a reduced size of down to 25% of the original document or photo
with the MG6320, or enlarged to up to 400%. Other copying features include
4-on-1 / 2-on-1 Copy, Auto Exposure Copy, Auto Photo Fix II, Borderless Copy,
Disc Label Copy, Fade Restoration, Fit-to-Page, Frame Erase Copy, Multiple
Copy: 1-99 Pages, Photo Reprint, Preset Copy Ratios, Two-sided Copy and
Zoom.

Build. The Canon Pixma MG6320 has dimensions of 18.4 (W) by
14.6 (D) by 5.9 (H) inches and weighs in at 18.4 pounds with the six individual ink
tanks loaded. It comes in a glossy black or white finish and boasts a 3.5-inch
LCD touchscreen on the all-in-one’s top front section. Unlike some other Pixma
all-in-one printers, the MG6320’s LCD screen does not flip up — but it is
slanted, making it viewable from an angle.

Software. The Canon MG6320 comes with a suite of software
designed to make printing, scanning and copying easier. Canon’s My Image
Garden software, which is included on the setup CD-ROM, helps organize and
print photos while offering several editing and organizing tools including
facial recognition, calendar organization, and automatic layout suggestions.
There’s also a bevy of “fun filter effects,” similar to what you’d find offered
from most of Canon’s digital cameras. These include Fish Eye, Miniature, Toy
Camera, Soft Focus and Blur Background, all of which you can add to your images
before you print.

Also offered with the Canon MG6320 is Full HD Movie Print, which lets you
turn footage from HD movie clips shot with compatible Canon EOS DSLRs or
PowerShot compacts into still photo prints. Other built-in software includes
Easy-WebPrint EX, which lets you gather and combine several web pages to create
and print in your own layout, and Auto Photo Fix II, which will automatically
categorize your images into five types: Portrait, Scenery, Night Scenery,
Snapshot with Scenery, and Snapshot with Night scenery. The software will then
apply the best image and multiple-zone exposure correction for the type of
scene that was captured, with underexposed areas automatically brightened, as
well as faces that are backlit or underexposed.

Connectivity. There are multiple ways to connect the Canon
Pixma MG6320 to computers and mobile devices, either with cords or wirelessly.
For a traditional, wired connection, the MG6320 has a Hi-Speed USB, letting you
plug a USB cord into the all-in-one device and connect it with a computer for
high-speed transfers. The MG6320 also has built-in ethernet, letting you
connect the device to a home or office network via a wired LAN interface so
several workstations can use and monitor the printer at once.

The Canon Pixma MG6320 has a built-in card reader, letting you insert
compatible memory cards, including popular SD, Compact Flash and Memory Stick
formats, and see the images on the LCD screen before printing them directly
from the card.

While all that’s well and good, it’s the wireless features in the MG6320
that will likely get the most use. For starters, this Canon
Pixma’s built-in wireless capability lets you print and scan wirelessly
from any Wi-Fi enabled computer in a home or office. Mobile printing features,
meanwhile, let you print wirelessly from compatible Apple iOS
and Android-based devices. For Apple users, the MG6320 has AirPrint built-in,
letting you seamlessly print photos, emails, web pages, and documents from your
iOS-based device without having to install extra drivers.

Google Cloud Print, meanwhile, lets you print wirelessly to the Canon MG6320
from Gmail and Google Docs on a mobile device, or from a Google Chrome browser
on Mac, Windows, Linux and Chrome devices. Google Cloud Print also lets you
wirelessly share the MG6320 with anyone you choose. With the Pixma Cloud
Link, you can print photos from photo albums you create in Canon Image Gateway
and Picasa. You can also create templates including seasonal stationary and
calendars from wherever you are to a compatible Canon Pixma wireless
all-in-one, such as the MG6320, without a computer.

Printing Photos and Working with the Canon Pixma MG6320

by Dan Havlik

I’ve used Canon’s all-in-one Pixma printers in my home office for a number
of years now and they’ve been very handy for helping me complete a number of
tasks in my daily workflow. Along with adding wireless capabilities, which has
vastly decreased the number of cords I have cluttering up my office, Canon’s been able
to streamline the design of these multitasking devices with recent models. One
of the most streamlined models yet is the Canon Pixma MG6320, which — when
placed side-by-side with its predecessor, the Pixma MG6220 — looks almost like a
different product all together.

I know this because the MG6220 has been a staple in my office for the last
year, and while I never found it to be bulky, per se, the new MG6320 that I’ve
been testing has a thinner profile overall, while adding a few new
features.

Let’s take a look at this wireless inkjet photo all-in-one from
Canon, which is designed not only to help you take care of mundane office
duties such as copying and scanning, but also to produce good quality photo
prints thanks to the MG6320’s six-color ink tank system.

Set up. Weighing in at just 18 pounds and with relatively compact dimensions, the Canon Pixma 6320 is not the type of
all-in-one printer that requires two people to set up. As is the case with most
photo printers, however, getting it out of the box, fully unwrapped, and
operational does take a bit of time — but that’s mostly because of the careful
packaging involved.

The first thing I noticed about the Canon Pixma MG320 as I tugged it out of
the fitted, Styrofoam encasements that swaddle the printer in the box, is that
it felt relatively light but not chintzy. It weighs about two pounds lighter
than the previous model and is much more angled and contoured overall. (More
about the design later.)

Canon’s done a fairly decent job over the years of presenting clear,
illustrated directions for setting up its printers via the “Getting Started”
guides that come in the Pixma box. These red-and-white, fold-out pamphlets are
usually the first thing I look for when unboxing a Canon printer. Make sure you
have enough room for the set-up; the Getting Started guide folds out to a 20 x
30 rectangle itself and the printer and all its attachable parts can fill a
large carpet.

After removing the various clear protective sheets and orange tapes that
seem to fill every nook and cranny of the MG6320 — make sure you get them all,
there are a lot! — you’re ready to attach the power cord to the rear of the
printer and fire it up. The next step is to select a language for the printer,
and while that might not seem worth mentioning (English, for me, duh!), it’s
the first time you get to utilize the MG6320’s 3.5-inch LCD touchscreen and
you’ll discover it’s a good one. While touchscreens on printers and cameras haven’t
reached the responsiveness of a iPhone yet — which, for me, is still the
pinnacle — they’ve improved quite a bit and the MG6320’s screen is a good case
in point. I was able to easily scroll through the language options on the
screen, select English, and move on.

Six inks. Next up is installing the ink tanks. The first
thing that might strike you, if you’re moving up in class in all-in-ones to the
MG6320, is that it uses individual ink tanks for six different colors including five
dye-based inks for photos and a black pigment ink for text. The reason that’s
important is two-fold: 1) All those inks give you richer color; and 2) If one color runs out you don’t need to replace the whole
set.

The MG6320 ships with Canon’s standard-capacity (9 mL) 251 BK (Black), 251
GY (Gray), 251 Y (Yellow), 251C (Cyan) and 251 M (Magenta) dye inks and the 251
PGBK (Pigment Black) ink, but I’d recommend getting the larger capacity (13 mL)
XL versions of those inks when they run out. The XL inks, which are available
in all colors, cost a hefty $16 to $18 per tank, but it’s worth it if you print a
lot. In comparison, the regular inks sell for about $12 a piece.

There’s more protective wrapping and plastic protectors around the ink tanks
that need to be removed before installing — again, make sure you get rid of
all of this junk before using the printer or it could potentially damage it —
but once you’re done with that, you can start installing the inks. Fitting the
individual inks into the correct slots in the print head is relatively easy
thanks to Canon’s well marked, color-coded system. Small orange lights on the
ink tanks also light up when they’re correctly seated in the print head. (These
illuminated ink tanks have become something of a Canon Pixma trademark.)

Once all the lights come on and the inks are properly installed, close the Pixma MG6320’s inner cover and
operation panel, and the printer will whir and churn for up to four minutes as
it charges the inks. After that’s completed, the all-in-one will walk you
through an automated print head alignment, in which a blue-black pattern is
printed out to make sure the head wasn’t damaged during shipping. There are a
few more minor steps before the printer asks you if you want to connect to
a wireless LAN. I held off on that initially because I wanted to find out how the
Pixma MG6320 functioned with a traditional, wired USB connection to my iMac.
The final step is to load the included CD-ROM in your computer to install the Mac
or Windows version of the software. As mentioned in an earlier section, there’s
a lot of software to install — not all of which you’re going to use — but I went ahead and
installed the whole package for testing purposes.

In use. The Canon Pixma MG6320 was one of the easiest to
use all-in-ones I’ve tried. That’s important to note because some
multi-function printers can be frustratingly (and seemingly unnecessarily)
complicated to operate. Considering that many of these all-in-ones are aimed at
novices and consumers, that’s troubling for users and the printer
industry.

The MG6320’s slenderized design is not just aesthetically pleasing, it’s
convenient. I use a number of printers in my office, including a large Epson
Stylus Pro 3880 for making 17-inch prints, and a Lexmark black-and-white laser
printer for large volume text jobs. Consequently, room for extra printers is
scarce. But with a height of just under 6 inches, the Pixma NG6320 slid into
a shelf just below my Canon Pro-1 13-inch professional printer with room to
spare.

My test unit was the glossy black model, but I must point out that this version of the Canon MG6320 isn’t entirely
black. The top panel that covers the flatbed scanner has a partial bronze,
reflective tone to it, giving this all-in-one a classy look. While it’s well
designed and feels well built, there’s no getting around the fact that the
MG6320 is lightweight because it’s made primarily of plastic. The MG6320
certainly doesn’t feel cheap, but some of its trays, covers and attachments
seem a little on the flimsy side.

Another keen space-saving move with the Canon MG6320 is to use two front
paper cassettes rather than using an often hard-to-reach rear loading paper
path. With the MG6320, the bottom tray can be used for 8.5 x 11 paper for text
or photo printing, while the top can be dedicated for photo printing with photo
paper measuring up to 5 x 7 inches. (It wasn’t clear to me why the MG6320 doesn’t allow you to
print photos at up to 8.5 x 11 inches on top, as well.) There’s also a slot in the top
cassette to feed printable DVDs or CDs.

Below the two front paper cassettes is the output tray, which like the other
trays on the MG6320, folds away discretely when not in use. When you are
printing something out, you can quickly open the output tray by pressing in a
plastic button on the side of the printer. Perhaps because I’m lazy, I like
that the output tray self-opens with the plastic paper catch flipping out
automatically when the MG6320 starts to print out a document or photo.

If you have huge text or photo jobs to print, the Pixma MG6320 is probably not for
you. The main paper cassette — the lower of the two trays — can fit a maximum
of 125 sheets while the upper, photo cassette (for 4 x 6s and 5 x 7s) fits just 25
sheets. The MG6320’s built-in auto duplexer will help somewhat with your
print volume needs, but not everyone likes documents printed on both sides.
(Plus it takes extra time.)

When you do need to replace one of the inks — after just one day of making test prints the standard-sized ink tanks were half
full — the MG6320’s “snap edge” design lets you easily open the print head
section of the printer to swap tanks. Again, I was able to perform this task in
a limited amount of space with no problem. The only issue I encountered was
that it’s easy to accidently open the ink tank section of the printer when
you’re trying to lift the cover to the flatbed scanner. This will cause the
printer to whir and churn as it performs an ink cycle charge, which drove my cats
crazy.

Touch control. You access most of the Canon MG6320’s
features via the 3.5-inch LCD touchscreen panel — which has swipe control —
on the front of the device, and I really liked how easy and responsive the
display was. While this LCD doesn’t flip up as with some previous Canon
all-in-ones, it’s placed front and center at a slight angle on the MG6320, so I
was able to easily see and use it, even when the all-in-one was tucked into its
shelf.

Canon tries not to complicate things too much with the icons and choices in
the MG6320’s touch-based menu system. The opening screen shows three options:
Copy, Photo, Scan. Touch one and you’re off and running in that particular
mode. Functions and settings in the various modes are crisp, easy to read and
intuitive, and I never found myself getting too lost in unnecessary detail. If
you find yourself headed down the wrong navigation path, an illuminated panel of touch
options surrounds the LCD screen, including a “go back” arrow and a home
button, which will bring you back to the main menu.

Canon calls this set-up its “Intelligent Touch System,” and while that’s
marketing speak, it is very well thought out, indeed. I liked that buttons and
modes would fade out in the background when not needed, so you aren’t overwhelmed with a set of unnecessary choices. Both touch and swipe control
on the LCD were responsive, and there was little noticeable lag as I moved from
screen-to-screen and function-to-function in the menus.

Print and copy speeds. Because of its easy-to-set-up, snazzy
space-saving design and its intuitive menu system with touch and swipe control on
the 3.5-inch LCD screen, the Canon Pixma MG6320 is a fast all-in-one to figure out and
operate. However, it’s not the fastest all-in-one I’ve tried for printing out
text or photos. I averaged about 2.5 to 3 pages per minute when printing color
documents with graphics and 10 to 12 pages per minute when printing
black-and-white text. That isn’t terribly slow, but if you have a major print
job to do, you’re going to want to get yourself a cup of coffee while it
processes. The MG6320 can also spend considerable time at the start of a print
job and between print jobs as it cycles the inks. I timed this “warm-up” period
to anywhere between 1 and 5 minutes, which can be aggravating if you’re in
a hurry.

Print speeds for color photos were actually pretty decent,
relatively speaking, when compared to other all-in-one photo printers. My
color, 4 x 6-inch prints at the MG6320’s highest quality setting came out in
less than a minute, while color 8.5 x 11-inch photos at highest quality averaged
1.5 to 2 minutes. Black-and-white photos, however, took significantly longer,
averaging 2 minutes per print for 4 x 6s and more than 5 minutes per print for
8.5 x 11s.

As a copier, the Canon MG6320 isn’t going to break any records either, but it gets
the job done. I averaged about 10 seconds for 1 letter-sized, black-and-white
copy and 25 seconds for 1 letter-sized, color copy. So, overall, the MG6320
is certainly not fast or efficient enough to help you run a large office or
photo studio, but it definitely helps out in a pinch for small office/home
office usage if you’re not in a huge hurry.

Print quality. I was pleasantly surprised with the quality
of the photo prints I produced with the Canon Pixma MG6320. Not that long ago,
high-quality professional photo printers were using six inks with 1-picoliter
droplets, and it’s nice to see this level of print quality drift down to
consumer-targeted all-in-one devices. My color photos from the MG6320 looked
particularly rich, with strong but not oversaturated reds (a typical Canon
strong suit) that really made my images pop. The 1pL droplets the MG6320 was
able to produce created the desired finer gradations in the ink in my photos,
making them look more like smooth, traditional silver halide prints then the
grainy, splotchy photos you get from lower quality inkjets.

Light, Caucasian skin tones look a bit on the pink side, but nothing compared
to the atrocities that some lower end printers and all-in-one devices with fewer inks can commit.
Skin tones produced by those machines can look plasticky and almost doll-like.
Darker skin tones printed with a dusky, slightly yellow cast to them which, while it
didn’t look bad, did not accurately reproduce how they appeared on my computer screen.

Image sharpness in my prints was also surprisingly good. A photo I shot of a
basketball player making a jump shot was tack sharp in all the right areas —
the ball and the player’s eyes and face — just as it had looked on the
computer screen. The MG6320 also did a very good job with my black-and-white
photos, although as noted earlier, it took a long time to print them out. My
black-and-white prints showed very good contrast, with plenty of detail in dark
areas, nice neutral grays, and white areas that didn’t look blown out. If I had
one criticism it would be the slightly blue cast in some of the gray areas. For
an all-in-one, though, the MG6320 produced some of the best monochrome prints
I’ve seen.

The Canon MG6320 also produced decent quality black-and-white and color
documents. Even under a magnifying loop, the individual letters in
black-and-white text showed good edge sharpness and no sign of smudging, which
can be evident in lower-quality inkjet printers. That edge sharpness wasn’t
quite as crisp in the color documents I printed. I saw some bleeding of color
along the edge when I looked at the print under a loupe. For an in-house printed
report or studio project, however, it should be perfectly adequate.

Wireless features. Anything that can reduce the tangle of
wires I have in my home office is appreciated, and getting the Canon MG63220
connected to my computer via its built-in wireless connectivity was one of the
first things I did when I set up the all-in-one printer. Finding my WiFi router via the
MG6320’s easy-to-use touchscreen interface and linking it wirelessly to my iMac
computer took all of five minutes, and I was impressed with how much Canon has
streamlined this process. (Older wireless printer models, as well as many current digital
cameras with WiFi capability, are notoriously difficult to set up.)

While the MG6320’s wireless printing and scanning capabilities were
easy-to-use and quite handy, Canon’s done an even better job of wirelessly
connecting to smart phones and tablets thanks to its well-designed Canon
Easy-PhotoPrint (Canon iEPP) app. It was great to be able to wirelessly zap
Instagram shots — that I’ll admit have been sitting on my iPhone and iPad for quite awhile — to be printed on
the MG6320 without any hassles (or having to install extra drivers.) The same
is true for emails, Web pages and documents, which can also be printed to the
MG6320 from iOS-based devices, thanks to Apple’s built-in AirPrint tool.

You
can also print wirelessly to the MG6320 from photo albums on Canon’s Pixma
Cloud Link. And speaking of cloud-based printing, Google Cloud Print also lets
you print wirelessly to the MG6320, rounding out this all-in-one’s diverse set
of WiFi tools.

Canon Pixma MG6320 Conclusion

Pro:

Cons:

Sleek, streamlined design won’t take up much space in your office and it fits well on a tight shelf Relatively light build (18.4 pounds) makes it easy to set up and move Simple, clear, illustrated directions will help you get MG6320 quickly operational Excellent 6-ink color system for color or black-and-white printing One picoliter droplets produced photo prints with finer gradations, making them look like traditional, silver halide photos Individual ink tanks let you replace each one when it runs out rather than the full set, cutting down on ink cost Built-in duplex printing, which can help you save on paper costs DVD/Blu-ray discs printing Easy to use overall, with clear menu system of choosing between Copying, Scanning and Printing Nice, bright 3.5-inch LCD touchscreen with swipe control that’s responsive to the touch and easy to use Superior print quality for an all-in-one device, with very good color and black-and-white photo prints Color photo prints demonstrate excellent sharpness and great color that was punchy but not oversaturated Very good black-and-white print quality with nice detail in dark areas, neutral grays, and whites that didn’t get blown out Two front paper cassettes saves on space Snap-edge design gives you easy access to print head Robust built-in wireless capabilities for printing and scanning Canon’s wireless printing app for smart phones and tablets is one of the best we’ve tried and interfaces nicely with MG6320 Ethernet connectivity lets you network the printer

Plastic build seems somewhat flimsy Not good for big print jobs; only fits 125 sheets of letter size paper and 25 sheets of 4 x 6-inch or 5 x 7-inch photo paper in two front cassettes Spends a lot of time churning and whirring as it cycles inks before print jobs Easy to accidentally open print head area when trying to access flatbed panel, causing device to cycle through warm-up process again Relatively slow print speeds overall; very slow for black-and-white photo prints Slightly blue cast in the gray areas of our black-and-white photo prints No USB port to print off thumb drives

If you haven’t used an all-in-one, inkjet photo printer lately, you’ll be
pleasantly surprised by the sleek and efficient Canon Pixma MG6320, which
produces superior photo prints for a device in its class. The MG6320’s stylish,
slimmed down design won’t take up much space in your office and studio but, at
the same time, it’s packed with features for handling many
of your basic office and printing needs.

Getting the Pixma MG6320 up and running is a snap, thanks to its lightweight build and compact design that makes it easy to move
to the desired spot in your office. Canon’s simple and clear illustrated
directions all but eliminate the typical installation frustrations. Printing novices will like that the MG6320 is very easy to use
overall, with a straightforward menu system that lets you quickly choose between copying,
scanning and printing. Meanwhile, the Canon MG6320’s 3.5-inch LCD touchscreen with swipe
control was surprisingly responsive to the touch and easy to use. Not only is the built-in
duplexer handy, but also it will help you save on paper costs.

The
MG6320’s excellent 6-ink color system employs individual ink tanks, so if one
color runs out you won’t need to replace the whole set. The 6-ink system also drives the quality of the printer’s color and black-and-white
photo prints; our test prints were on par to some older
professional printers we’ve tried and much better than most typical
all-in-ones. We also liked
that the MG6320 offers built-in ethernet if you want to network this all-in-one
in your office and a robust set of wireless features, which will let you do a
number of tasks wirelessly, including printing and scanning, while helping to
cut down on cord clutter.

On the downside, the MG6320’s plastic build feels a
bit flimsy and we worried about the durability of some of the accessories,
particularly the paper trays. It’s also not the ideal device for large prints
jobs, fitting only 125 sheets of of paper for documents, and only 25 sheets of
photo paper for 4 x 6 and 5 x 7-inch prints. Prints speeds overall were
slow, and the MG6320 slogged through our letter-sized black-and-white photo
prints, taking more than 5 minutes to produce each one.

However, these are relatively minor
quibbles since the Canon MG6320 really isn’t designed for heavy duty office or
photo studio work, but is more of an agile and easy-to-use multitasker for
copying, scanning or printing documents — either while connected by a cord or completely wirelessly. It also just happens to be a very capable photo printer on top of its all-in-one duties. For a variety of small but important business or creative tasks, the Canon Pixma MG6320 is an ideal Dave’s Printer
Pick.

Digital Camera Home >
Photo Printer >
Canon Pro-10 Printer

THE AFFORDABLE PIGMENT PRO

Canon Pro-10 — A Pigment Pro
For the Rest of Us

By MIKE PASINI
Editor
The Imaging Resource Digital Photography Newsletter

Review Date: November 2012

The $699.99 Pro-10 uses a 10-ink cartridge system with Lucia pigment-based inks. The ink set includes three monochrome inks, including Matte Black for matte papers, plus a Chroma Optimizer to give a uniform appearance on glossy and semi-glossy sheets.

If the dye-based Pro-100 was something of a hybrid between the Pro-1 and the Pro9000 Mark II, the Pro-10 is more a Pro9500 Mark II updated with a few Pro features for the photographer who doesn’t need to make 13×19 prints every day.

You get the improved media handling of the Pro series without the overhead and expense of the tank system on the Pro-1.

And while the Pro-10 does add a gray ink to the stable, it doesn’t add two grays like the Pro-1.

If we had one complaint about the Pro-1, though, it was that Matte Black soaked into the sheet too much, resulting in a less dense black than we wanted.

As for speed, Canon claims the Pro-10 can print a 13×19 high-quality color or black-and-white, bordered image in five minutes and 20 seconds.

FEATURES

Canon lists the major features of the Pro-10 as:

✓ Professional quality photos on various media up to 13×19 inches

✓ Canon Full-photolithography Inkjet Nozzle Engineering features a patented print head that enables printing with microscopic droplets and high resolution up to 4800×2400 dpi

✓ The Optimum Image Generating System uses two image optimization technologies first introduced in the Pixma Pro-1

✓ The new Print Studio Pro plug-in provides more “effective printing solutions and can directly hand-over image data”

✓ Two-way paper feeding provides a rear tray for most supported media types and a dedicated manual feed in the back of the printer to load thicker papers

✓ Print on printable CD, DVD or Blu-ray Discs and jackets

✓ Built-in WiFi and Ethernet connectivity plus Hi-Speed USB and a USB PictBridge port

✓ AirPrint for printing from iOS

SPECIFICATIONS

The Pro-10 specifications include:

• Printer Type: Wireless professional inkjet printer
• Features: AirPrint, Auto Photo Fix II, Borderless Printing, Chroma Optimizer, Optimum Image Generating System, Photo Printing, Grayscale Photo Printing, Wireless Printing
• Print Speed: Up to 3:25 for an 8×10 image on A4 with a border; up to 5:20 for an 11×14 image on A3+ with border
• Number of Nozzles: 7,680
• Maximum Resolution: 4800×2400 dpi
• OS Compatibility: Windows 7/7 SP1/Vista SP1/Vista SP2/XP SP3 32-bit; Mac OS X v10.5.8, 10.6, 10.7
• Standard Interfaces: Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11 b/g/n), Ethernet, Hi-Speed USB, PictBridge
• Ink Compatibility: PGI-72
• Ink Droplet Size: 4 picoliters
• Ink Capacity: 10 cartridges
• Paper Sizes: 4×6, 5×7, 8×10, Letter, Legal, 11×17, 13×19
• Paper Compatibility: Plain: Plain Paper, Canon High Resolution Paper; Super High Gloss: Photo Paper Pro Platinum; Glossy: Photo Paper Plus Glossy II, Photo Paper Glossy; Semi-Gloss: Photo Paper Plus Semi-Gloss, Photo Paper Pro Luster; Matte: Matte Photo Paper; Fine Art Paper: Fine Art Musem Etching; Other Fine Art Papers; CD/DVD: Printable CD/DVD/Blu-ray Disc
• Maximum Paper Size: 13×19
• Output Tray Capacity: Auto Sheet Feeder: 150 sheets of plain paper, 20 sheets photo paper (4×6); 10 sheets (letter/8×10); 1 sheet (A3+) manual feeder: 1 sheet of photo paper (all sizes)
• Noise Level: Approx. 33.9 dB(A)
• Physical Dimensions: 27.2 x 15.2 x 8.5 inches (WDH)
• Weight: 43.9 lbs.
• Power Consumption: 17 watts (2.3 watts standby)
• Warranty: One-year limited warranty with InstantExchange Program. One-year toll-free technical phone support.
• Software Included: Setup Software & User’s Guide CD-ROM, Pixma Pro-10 Printer Driver, My Image Garden: Full HD Movie Print, Creative Park Premium, Fun Filter Effects and Image Correction/Enhance are accessed through My Image Garden Print Studio Pro, Quick Menu

IN THE BOX

The retail box includes:

• Pixma Pro-10 inkjet printer
• CD/DVD disc printing tray
• Manuals and other documents
• Setup CD-ROM
• Setup ink cartridges
• Power cord
• Print head
• USB cable

CONSUMABLES

The 10-ink Lucia pigment-based ink set includes Matte Black, Photo Black, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Photo Cyan, Photo Magenta, Chroma Optimizer, Red and Gray inks. A set of setup cartridges is included with the printer.

It’s interesting to compare the Lucia ink sets of the Pro-10 and Pro-1.

On the monochrome side, the Pro-10 uses Matte Black or Photo Black (depending on the paper) and Gray. The Pro-1 uses Matte Black or Photo Black also but adds Dark Grey, Grey and Light Grey for a richer palette.

On the color side, the Pro-10 adds to black a Cyan, Photo Cyan, Magenta, Photo Magenta, Yellow and Red. The Pro-1 adds to black a Cyan, Photo Cyan, Magenta, Photo Magenta, Yellow and Red.

Both also use a Chroma Optimizer.

Replacement cartridges are $14.99 each directly from Canon. A complete set of inks runs $149.90, purchased individually. But Canon typically bundles replacement catridges at a discount, although no such package was available at launch.

Because the Pro-10 can print varied images on a variety of surfaces a page cost is not feasible to calculate. It will vary with the cost of the paper you run through the printer. And the Pro-10 can, like the Pro-1, handle a lot of different kinds of paper.

The Pro-100 can handle those sheets too but because it’s a dye-based ink set, you won’t get quite the same longevity printing on porous matte sheets as you will printing with pigment inks on the Pro-1 or Pro-10. Although, we hasten to add, you’ll do very well on swellable gloss and semi-gloss sheets.

PRINT STUDIO PRO

Print Studio Pro is a new printing plug-in from Canon. It’s compatible with Canon’s Digital Photo Professional (version 2.1 or later), Adobe Photoshop CS (but not CS6), Adobe Photoshop Elements and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

The new plug-in is designed specifically for Pro-series printers, Canon told us. The company interviewed “a wide range of photographers at various professional levels to help determine what users want out of a printing application.”

Print Studio Pro consequently provides “a simple and seamless photo printing solution from a number of applications such as the Canon Digital Photo Professional and Adobe’s Photoshop, Photoshop Lightroom and Photoshop Elements.” The user-interface has been designed “to maximize ease-of-use with a number of options to adjust the page formats and layouts, accommodate for different user preferences and manage a number of variables including color management and printer settings.”

We installed it and worked with it from Photoshop CS5 where it appears under the File, Automate menu. It didn’t handle a PSD file but worked fine with a JPEG. It’s a nice attempt to work around what’s often a confusing print dialog box, standardizing it in your photo applications for Pro printers.

Just below the image there is a toolbar which allows you to change the orientation of the image on the sheet, rotate the sheet and image together, change the print or Exif information (although that was grayed out), crop the image, zoom in or out, display at 100 percent and display the next or previous image in the filmstrip below the toolbar.

In the Print Settings section, we set it up to use Canon’s Photo Paper Pro Luster, letter size from the rear tray with High print quality. We also checked the Black and White option to print the image in grayscale without converting the color image in Photoshop.

In the Layout section, we selected Bordered (x1), which means a one-up bordered image. Options go up to x4 but the preview didn’t display the image four-up.

There’s also a Color Management section with four settings: Color Mode (use either an ICC profile or Pro mode, which circumvents the rest of this), Printer Profile which displays all installed ink/paper profiles), Rendering Intent (Perceptual or Relative Colorimetric) and Color Matching Method (which was grayed out). There’s a Black Point Compensation check box as well.

In the Correction section you can adjust color cast, darken white areas in a photo (apparently to let pigment printers print uniform gloss optimizer), set color balance sliders for cyan, magenta and yellow, plus use a brightness and a contrast slider as well. You can also get a Pattern Print that shows and prints variations of these settings in a nine-row, five-column grid of images.

And once you’ve got everything the way you want it, you can save the setup.

It’s no secret that print dialog boxes are easy to get lost in. Print Studio Pro doesn’t hide the complexity from you. You still have to know what you’re doing and check all the boxes, although the defaults will take you pretty far. But it does order them intelligently so you don’t skip something important. And it does enforce a single interface to the printer from Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and Lightroom.

If you’re using printers from other manufacturers, though, it doesn’t really represent any advantage. You’ll still have to navigate the print dialog box for your non-Canon gear, so you might as well master it. But mastering it is easier said than done and we applaud Canon for trying to make life a little easier. They have.

And just for the record, Pro-1 owners will need to update their driver to use this package.

HARDWARE TOUR

From the outside, the Pro-10 (like the Pro-100) looks like a smaller Pro-1 with a bit of a flare on the front panel. The paper feeds on the back are very similar to the Pro-1, as is the output tray in front.

Inside, however, the printer resembles the Pro9500 Mark II. The ink cartridges are not the large tanks of the Pro-1 and they ride in the print head itself rather than sit in separate compartments.

A walk around the printer shows the USB and Ethernet connections in the right rear and the power connection on the opposite side (which was oddly a little wobbly), just as on the Pro-1 and Pro-100. Under the front panel is a shallow storage bay for the CD holder, a nice touch. The holder has a small lip at the end to make it easier to pull back out.

Hardware Tour
Power cord		Ethernet, USB Hi-Speed
Controls		Output tray
Manual feed tray		Rear tray

The controls are all on the right side of the printer: A Power button with a white LED, a Resume/Cancel button with an orange LED, a blue WiFi lamp to indicate a wireless connection and the covered PictBridge port.

The output tray drawer opens to reveal a two-step extension and, in the printer itself, the inner cover hiding access to the CD printing tray slot.

The hood itself opens for access to the ink cartridges and print head.

Two paper trays are available on the back of the printer. The multi-sheet tray opens with one extension and the heavy paper tray has two small extensions.

The paper guides are coordinated so when you move one in or out, the other moves in or out as well, centering the paper in the feed slot. There are fingers on the guides that retract for small paper sizes, a nice touch.

A common mistake when using the rear tray is forgetting to close the inner cover. This will return an error with the amber Resume LED flashing until you flip the cover closed and press the button to continue.

INSTALLATION

Unlike the Pro-1, the Pro-10 is pretty easily handled if not exactly light. There are no wheels to roll it into position but we walked it to the end of our work table without any trouble.

Hardware. Canon’s wonderfully clear installation chart made it easy to set up the hardware. Connect the power cord. Wait for the printer to signal it’s ready with the small white LED on the Power button, open the hood and install the print head.

The print head, which resembles the Pro9500 Mark II head, just drops in after you open the Lock Lever. Locking the lever back into place, though, requires a good healthy push. It will actually click into place, parallel to the table. Don’t be shy.

Then you’re ready to install the software.

Software. As with the Pro-100, our software install wasn’t straight-forward. But we’d learned from our mistakes.

We made a wired connection to an Ethernet switch connected to our router, first of all. While the Pro-10 supports a wireless connection, a wired connection gets the data there quicker.

Our wireless router provides all the wireless connectability we need from other machines on the network. Once the Pro-10 is on the network, they can easily find it and print to it. Our test machine is wired to the router and the router to the switch and the switch to the Pro-10, avoiding wireless.

The installer confused us about whether or not it had found the Pro-10 on our Ethernet network, though. It’s just poor software design, we figured, because it did find it, it was just terribly confused about telling us. We ran through a few screens about using a cable to connect and how to do it, but in the end, the installer did admit it had found it and we were able to “register” it with our operating system. And without the AirPrint hassles we had with the Pro-100 installation.

We may have had a pre-release version of the installation CD because, as with the Pro-100 CD, a few things were missing. Like Easy-PhotoPrint software to print CDs or it didn’t install the Pro-10 manual either. That’s very unusual. We were able to download it from the Canon Pro-10 page, however.

One thing that is included, however, is Quick Menu. Quick Menu pops up with every possible option you can think of, much like Canon’s Navigator. When we selected CD printing from the options, it launched Easy-PhotoPrint EX v4.0.0, which we already had installed.

PRINTING

One of the design goals of the Pro line, according to Canon, was to get a good print right out of the box. That means that your first print, after tweaking the image in your image editor, should be no surprise, even a delight. If you’re making prints for sale, that’s more than a convenience.

And with the Pro-1 and Pro-100 we did indeed find that to be the case. It was not, however, with the Pro-10. And the problem we experienced delayed this review as we tried to discover what the difference was.

The problem, in short, was that the prints were almost always significantly darker than what we were expecting. That’s a common problem, of course, but it isn’t one here. There are certainly differences between the screen image, made of transmitted light, and the print, made from reflected light, but they are credible ones. The darkening we saw wasn’t correctable even with significant lightening of the on-screen data.

We made prints on Canon Lustre using the Pro-10 profile supplied by Canon. Both color and black and white images from Photoshop CS6 were too dark.

We made 4×6 color prints on Kodak instant dry paper designed for pigment inks using the Canon Platinum Pro profile (as we’d done for the Pro-100) and got usable prints a bit darker than we expected.

Our best result was with Moab Entrada printed with the Moab profile for the Pro-10 and that sheet. We got exactly what we were expecting.

At first we suspected that the images we were printing suffered an exposure point issue. These were Samsung Raw files processed in Adobe Camera Raw. But when we printed a 35mm film scan and still had the print darkening issue, we realized it wasn’t the Raw conversion.

Our best prints were all from Olympus Raw files, oddly enough. They matched the Pro-100 output.

Print Studio Pro isn’t a solution for this problem because it also relies on either the ICC profiles or letting the printer manage color. All it does it organize the various settings in a top-to-bottom flow to make it easier to cover the bases. And it isn’t available in CS6.

We’d suspect a problem with the ICC profiles even though we had the problem across several Canon-supplied profiels. The simple thing would be to let the printer manage color but that really flies in the face of what you’d do when selling a print.

Still it was worth trying. We used DxO Optics Pro 8, which now includes a Print command but does not use ICC profiles itself, relying on the printer to control color. We did identify the glossy Canon paper we were using in the driver, of course.

The print was acceptable but significantly darker than what we had tweaked on screen again. DxO’s automatic edits left us with a less saturated image, which we preferred, so there wasn’t a match with what we had gotten in Photoshop CS6. But whether we used ICC profiles or let the printer manage color, we had significantly darker prints than our screen edits led us to suspect.

With that issue out of the way, let’s discuss a few other quality points.

Black and White. Our Moab Entrada Natural image of the Golden Gate Bridge printed very nicely from the Pro-10. In fact, we thought it printed better than the Pro-1, despite the use of one less gray ink, because the matte black didn’t soak into the sheet quite as much.

Is it a different matte black? We can’t say. But we can say it behaved differently.

How did it compare with the Epson R3000 print? We preferred the Epson print. It’s just a better black, period. But the Pro-10 got much closer to it than the Pro-1, although have one less gray did matter.

Our smaller black and white prints on both Canon Lustre and Ilford Galerie Prestige Smooth Pearl showed more of a dot pattern than the Pro-100 prints, which were very hard to distinguish. Pigment picoliter sizes are larger than dye sizes as a rule, so that’s no surprise. The Pro-10 has a 4-picoliter droplet while the Pro-100 uses a 3-picoliter droplet, in fact. A detectable difference? We doubt it.

There are other factors at play in the complex world of laying ink to paper. Like the encapsulation the dye and evaporation of dye vehicle versus the pigment’s application on the surface of the sheet.

Whatever the reason, it isn’t a significant issue. It can’t be seen by the unaided eye. These are all, for normal viewing purposes, continuous tone prints.

Color. Color work on the Pro-10 was difficult, as we noted above. By lightening our on-screen image to a ridiculous degree we were able to get results we liked, but that’s no way to work.

One clue to the issue was revealed under analysis with a loupe. We noticed a good deal of black used to “draw” detail in a seascape. Because the printing primaries when combined don’t deliver a good black as they theoretically should, the areas of the image in which they combine are stripped of the primary colors and replaced with black ink (more or less). Normally, with this gray undercolor removal, we’d see black used for shadow detail and very, very little of it if any in the highlights. And that trend generally did hold for the Pro-10, although we felt more black was used than we would expect.

Our print of a Rouault painting, which itself was low key, looked identical to the Pro-100 print. This was not only low-key but also only represented the limited colors of Roualt’s palette, not the rich range of a scene from real life.

Our 4×6 knock off prints (and who doesn’t have to do these every once in a while) were acceptable. By which we mean, No complaint. A bit darker than we expected but not muddy. On the other hand, we still drool looking over the 4×6 family portrait 4×6 we printed on the Pro-100. But we attribute the difference to the dye inks.

CD Printing. Our experience printing discs on the Pro-10 was identical to our pleasant experience on the Pro-100 and Pro-1. In the end.

It did take Easy-PhotoPrint a very long time to find all our Pro printers (only one is online at a time, so two must have had to time out). And then it took a very long time to switch from the Pro-100 to Pro-10 in the popup menu.

But printing itself went exactly the same and, to our surprise, the Pro-100 CD and the Pro-10 CD were identical. The Pro-10 CD was not darker.

Update. When we were able to get the results we expected, we were pleased with them. But that took more work than usual and we haven’t answered our own question why that is the case. So we’ll update this review with any further discovers as we continue to test the printer.

Note also that the 1200-ppi/inch detail scans are themselves compromised by JPEG compression and the inevitable scan sharpening. We avoid them in printer reviews for that reason but think that they show both remarkable detail and make an interesting comparison with the Pro-100 scan. which itself was notable. But looking through a loupe, the dot patterns are not quite as speckled as the JPEG representations here.

MAINTENANCE

The Pro-10 doesn’t appear to require any special maintenance. The manual does mention cleaning the paper feed foller, accessible from the Rear tray, and the small “protrusions” inside the printer along the paper path using a cotton swab.

The normal caveats apply to cleaning the exterior and anything you can see in the interior (although it isn’t very accessible). Turn off the power, don’t use volatile chemicals and stick to a microfiber or cotton swab. At least there’s no piano black finish to scratch with ordinary cleaning cloths (use a microfiber cloth on piano black).

The driver’s utility function provides several routines using letter-size paper:

• Cleaning the print head, with a Deep Cleaning routine if the lighter doesn’t work
• Plate cleaning
• Roller cleaning

In addition you can check the print head nozzles by printing a nozzle check pattern. If there’s a problem, you run the cleaning routine above.

You can also align the print head using two sheets of plain paper.

And you can check the current ink levels.

But there doesn’t appear to be any routine maintenance required.

PRICE & AVAILABILITY

The Pro-100 lists for $699.99, the same as the Pro9000 Mark II, $200 more than the dye-based Pro-10 and $300 less than the Pro-1. Canon tells us they are available now.

Canon told us the Pro-10 did not officially replace the Pro9500 Mark II.

CONCLUSION

The Pro-100 added dye printing to Canon’s new Pro line of printers. The Pro-10 provides a second pigment option in the lineup. It brings the Pro-1’s paper handling and CD printing to the simpler cartridge/print head design borrowed from the Pro9500 Mark II. That, we feel, is ideal for the photographer who isn’t printing 13x19s every day.

The Pro-1, with its ink tank system, takes longer to start up and expects to be printing. The Pro-10 is quicker to start up and clean its nozzles and get to work. It doesn’t have the capacity of the Pro-1 but that’s not a problem with infrequent use.

While the Pro-10 delivered the Pro experience in paper and CD handling with a pigment ink set, we were troubled by the much darker than expected prints. We felt the Pro-1 did a better job on everything except black and white printing on matte paper. And, as we said in our Epson R3000 review, we felt the R3000 beats the Pro-1 there.

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Canon Pro-100 Printer

A PRO-1 & PRO9000 MARK II HYBRID

A Canon Pro Printer
To Dye For

By MIKE PASINI
Editor
The Imaging Resource Digital Photography Newsletter

Review Date: October 2012

Canon shipped both the Pro-10 pigment and Pro-100 dye printers to us for review. These are the second generation of Pro printers after last year’s Pro-1 introduced the line.

We decided to start with the Pro-100 because we remembered a remark Canon’s Katsuichi Shimizu made in an interview with Dave at the Pro-1 launch.

Today’s dye technology, he said, has “a 300 year lifespan, and the fading durability is almost identical to pigment. But in the minds of photographers, a printer must be pigment-based to sell.”

In our Pro-1 review we found that the pigment was not as brilliant as the dyes used in the Pro9000 Mark II so we have been anxious to try a Pro dye printer. Even if you have a Pro pigment printer, the Pro-100 might be a worthwhile addition.

FEATURES

The $499 Pro-100 uses the eight-color ChromaLife 100+ dye-based ink system, which includes three monochrome inks. Previously the Pro9000 Mark II dye-based printer included just one black ink, making the Pro-100 the first Canon dye-based printer with multiple monochrome inks.

Faster than the Pro-10, Canon says the Pro-100 can print a 13×19 high-quality color, bordered image in 90 seconds and a high-quality, bordered black-and-white print in three minutes, 5.4 times faster than previous models.

You might think of the Pro-100 as something of a hybrid made from the Pro-1 and the Pro9000 Mark II.

Canon lists the major features of the Pro-100 as:

• Professional quality photos on various media up to 13×19 inches
• Canon Full-photolithography Inkjet Nozzle Engineering features a patented print head that enables printing with microscopic droplets and high resolution up to 4800×2400 dpi
• Three monochrome inks (ChromaLife 100+ Black, Gray and Light Gray) for true monochrome prints
• The Optimum Image Generating System uses two image optimization technologies first introduced in the Pixma Pro-1
• The new Print Studio Pro plug-in provides more “effective printing solutions and can directly hand-over image data”
• Two-way paper feeding provides a rear tray for most supported media types and a dedicated manual feed in the back of the printer to load thicker papers
• Print on printable CD, DVD or Blu-ray Discs and jackets
• Built-in WiFi and Ethernet connectivity plus Hi-Speed USB and a USB PictBridge port
• AirPrint for printing from iOS

SPECIFICATIONS

The Pro-100 specifications include:

• Printer Type: Wireless professional inkjet printer
• Features: AirPrint, Auto Photo Fix II, Borderless Printing, Optimum Image Generating System, Photo Printing, Grayscale Photo Printing, Wireless Printing
• Print Speed: Up to 51 seconds for an 8×10 image on A4 with a border; up to 1:30 for an 11×14 image on A3+ with border
• Number of Nozzles: 6,144
• Maximum Resolution: 4800×2400 dpi
• OS Compatibility: Windows 7/7 SP1/Vista SP1/Vista SP2/XP SP3 32-bit; Mac OS X v10.5.8, 10.6, 10.7
• Standard Interfaces: Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11 b/g/n), Ethernet, Hi-Speed USB, PictBridge
• Ink Compatibility: CLI-42
• Ink Droplet Size: 3 picoliters
• Ink Capacity: 8 cartridges
• Paper Sizes: 4×6, 5×7, 8×10, Letter, Legal, 11×17, 13×19
• Paper Compatibility: Plain: Plain Paper, Canon High Resolution Paper; Super High Gloss: Photo Paper Pro Platinum; Glossy: Photo Paper Plus Glossy II, Photo Paper Glossy; Semi-Gloss: Photo Paper Plus Semi-Gloss, Photo Paper Pro Luster; Matte: Matte Photo Paper; Fine Art Paper: Fine Art Musem Etching; Other Fine Art Papers; CD/DVD: Printable CD/DVD/Blu-ray Disc
• Maximum Paper Size: 13×19
• Output Tray Capacity: Auto Sheet Feeder: 150 sheets of plain paper, 20 sheets photo paper (4×6); 10 sheets (letter/8×10); 1 sheet (A3+) manual feeder: 1 sheet of photo paper (all sizes)
• Noise Level: Approx. 38.5 dB(A)
• Physical Dimensions: 27.2 x 15.2 x 8.5 inches (WDH)
• Weight: 43.2 lbs.
• Power Consumption: 19 watts (2.3 watts standby)
• Warranty: One-year limited warranty with InstantExchange Program. One-year toll-free technical phone support.
• Software Included: Setup Software & User’s Guide CD-ROM, Pixma Pro-10 Printer Driver, My Image Garden: Full HD Movie Print, Creative Park Premium, Fun Filter Effects and Image Correction/Enhance are accessed through My Image Garden Print Studio Pro, Quick Menu

IN THE BOX

The retail box includes:

• Pixma Pro-100 inkjet printer
• CD/DVD disc printing tray
• Manuals and other documents
• Setup CD-ROM
• Setup ink cartridges
• Power cord
• Print head
• USB cable

CONSUMABLES

The 8-ink ChromaLife 100+ dye-based ink set includes Black, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Photo Cyan, Photo Magenta, Gray and Light Gray inks. A set of setup cartridges is included with the printer.

Replacement cartridges are $16.99 each directly from Canon. A complete set of inks runs $169.90, purchased individually. But Canon typically bundles replacement cartridges at a discount, although no such package was available at launch.

Because the Pro-100 can print varied images on a variety of surfaces a page cost is not feasible to calculate.

HARDWARE TOUR

From the outside, the Pro-100 looks like a smaller Pro-1 with a bit of a flare on the front panel. The paper feeds on the back are very similar to the Pro-1, as is the output tray in front.

Inside, however, the printer resembles the Pro9000 Mark II. The ink cartridges are not the large tanks of the Pro-1 and they ride in the print head itself rather than sit in separate compartments.

A walk around the printer shows the USB and Ethernet connections in the right rear and the power connection on the opposite side, just as on the Pro-1. Under the front panel is a shallow storage bay for the CD holder, a nice touch. The holder has a small lip at the end to make it easier to pull back out.

The controls are all on the right side of the printer: A Power button with a white LED, a Resume/Cancel button with an orange LED, a blue WiFi lamp to indicate a wireless connection and the covered PictBridge port.

The output tray drawer opens to reveal a two-step extension and, in the printer itself, the inner cover hiding access to the CD printing tray slot.

The hood itself opens for access to the ink cartridges and print head.

Two paper trays are available on the back of the printer. The multi-sheet tray opens with one extension and the heavy paper tray has two small extensions.

INSTALLATION

Unlike the Pro-1, the Pro-100 is pretty easily handled if not exactly light. There are no wheels to roll it into position but we walked it to the end of our work table without any trouble.

Hardware. Canon’s wonderfully clear installation chart made it easy to set up the hardware. Connect the power cord. Wait for the printer to signal it’s ready with the small white LED on the Power button, open the hood and install the print head.

The print head, which resembles the Pro9000 Mark II head, just drops in after you open the Lock Lever. Locking the lever back into place, though, requires a good healthy push. It will actually click into place, parallel to the table. Don’t be shy.

Then you’re ready to install the software.

Software. We had a little trouble with this and that’s unusual. We installed everything for a wired connection to our local area network, which is the fastest way to move the data to the printer.

But it seems the installer only managed to install the AirPrint driver. And our laptop doesn’t use AirPrint. So we couldn’t proceed to the print head alignment because the printer couldn’t be found.

We tried a wireless setup, and while the printer found the network and the network recognized the printer, that didn’t help getting us to head alignment because we still didn’t have a driver. It’s worth noting that you hold the small WiFi button in while you press the Resume button to tell the printer you want a WiFi connection, whereas for a wired connection you hold the Resume button in until the LED on the Power button flashes 11 times. That’s how you switch connections.

In the end, we simply reinstalled with our wired connection but selected only the default tools. That went fine. We saw two options when we Added a Printer, not just one that defaulted to AirPrint. Both the options, in fact, used the Canon Pro-100 series driver, not the AirPrint driver, although AirPort was enabled.

We never have any trouble with Canon software installations, so this was a puzzle. But a reinstall resolved the problem.

We should note, however, that the software install list seemed pretty sparse, missing the usual Canon utilities. The Print Driver, on-screen manual, Quick Menu, Canon IJ Network Tool and the new Print Studio Pro, which we discuss below, were the only options.

Quick Menu pops up with every possible option you can think of, much like Canon’s Navigator. When we selected CD printing from the options, it launched Easy-PhotoPrint EX v4.0.0, which we already had installed.

You might think the installer is cleverly checking disk contents before it offers to overwrite current versions, but we couldn’t find an installer for Easy-PhotoPrint on the CD. It’s a curious omission.

Alignment. We put two sheets of plain paper in the printer and let the installer execute the print head alignment. Both pages were used, printing a row and backing up to scan it. Magenta, cyan and gray inks were used.

First Print. For our first print, we just sent an image from Photoshop Touch on the iPad to the Pro-100 using AirPrint. And that worked fine.

PRINT STUDIO PRO

Print Studio Pro is a new printing plug-in from Canon. It’s compatible with Canon’s Digital Photo Professional (version 2.1 or later), Adobe Photoshop CS, Adobe Photoshop Elements and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

The new plug-in is designed specifically for Pro-series printers, Canon told us. The company interviewed “a wide range of photographers at various professional levels to help determine what users want out of a printing application.”

Print Studio Pro consequently provides “a simple and seamless photo printing solution from a number of applications such as the Canon Digital Photo Professional and Adobe’s Photoshop, Photoshop Lightroom and Photoshop Elements.” The user-interface has been designed “to maximize ease-of-use with a number of options to adjust the page formats and layouts, accommodate for different user preferences and manage a number of variables including color management and printer settings.”

We installed it and worked with it from Photoshop CS5 where it appears under the File, Automate menu. It didn’t handle a PSD file but worked fine with a JPEG. It’s a nice attempt to work around what’s often a confusing print dialog box, standardizing it in your photo applications for Pro printers.

Just below the image there is a toolbar which allows you to change the orientation of the image on the sheet, rotate the sheet and image together, change the print or Exif information (although that was grayed out), crop the image, zoom in or out, display at 100 percent and display the next or previous image in the filmstrip below the toolbar.

In the Print Settings section, we set it up to use Canon’s Photo Paper Pro Luster, letter size from the rear tray with High print quality. We also checked the Black and White option to print the image in grayscale without converting the color image in Photoshop.

In the Layout section, we selected Bordered (x1), which means a one-up bordered image. Options go up to x4 but the preview didn’t display the image four-up.

There’s also a Color Management section with four settings: Color Mode (use either an ICC profile or Pro mode, which circumvents the rest of this), Printer Profile which displays all installed ink/paper profiles), Rendering Intent (Perceptual or Relative Colorimetric) and Color Matching Method (which was grayed out). There’s a Black Point Compensation check box as well.

In the Correction section you can adjust color cast, darken white areas in a photo (apparently to let pigment printers print uniform gloss optimizer), set color balance sliders for cyan, magenta and yellow, plus use a brightness and a contrast slider as well. You can also get a Pattern Print that shows and prints variations of these settings in a nine-row, five-column grid of images.

And once you’ve got everything the way you want it, you can save the setup.

It’s no secret that print dialog boxes are easy to get lost in. Print Studio Pro doesn’t hide the complexity from you. You still have to know what you’re doing and check all the boxes, although the defaults will take you pretty far. But it does order them intelligently so you don’t skip something important. And it does enforce a single interface to the printer from Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and Lightroom.

If you’re using printers from other manufacturers, though, it doesn’t really represent any advantage. You’ll still have to navigate the print dialog box for your non-Canon gear, so you might as well master it. But mastering it is easier said than done and we applaud Canon for trying to make life a little easier. They have.

And just for the record, Pro-1 owners will need to update their driver to use this package.

PRINTING

We decided to reprint a set of images we’ve already printed on other 13×19 printers, with both dye and pigment inks. The comparisons, we thought, would be useful.

Black & White. Black and white printing is one of the hallmarks of the Pro line, although only the Pro-1 compares with the Pro-100’s three black inks. We had trouble getting a good matte black on the Pro-1, such that its prints on matte paper were clearly inferior to the Epson R3000.

Our first black and white on the Pro-100 was from a color image that Print Studio Pro converted into a black and white. So we didn’t fiddle with the tonality at all. We printed it on Canon’s Photo Paper Pro Luster.

And we compared it to an Epson R3000 black and white print on Ilford Galerie Prestige Smooth Gloss. Not exactly equivalent.

The image was shot from the window of City Lights Bookstore in North Beach under an overcast sky.

The first thing we noticed on this low key image was that the middle tone and shadow detail on the Pro-100 print were a bit more distinct than on the Epson.

But the second thing we noticed was that the highlight detail was gone in the Pro-100 print. The sky was washed out and light-colored clothing didn’t have as much detail.

Under a loupe, the Pro-100 had a less noticeable screen pattern. With the naked eye you can’t detect a screen pattern in either of them, but with the loupe it was clear that the Pro-100 image was smoother.

We really can’t draw any conclusions from this. Different sheets, different black and white treatment. We can think of several ways we might get them to match more closely.

Instead, we turned to our troublesome image of the Golden Gate Bridge, the one that had stumped the Pro-1.

We printed the Pro-100 print on Canon Museum Etching fine art matte paper because the Moab Entrada Natural sheet we’d used on the Epson R300 and Canon Pro-1 did not yet have a profile for the Pro-100 (but Moab Pro-100 profiles are now available). Since the Pro-100 uses a completely different set of inks, we couldn’t simulate a profile, either.

Printing from the Manual feed tray (rather than what Canon calls the multisheet Rear tray) is pretty simple. Just push the heavy fine art paper in until it stops and, after you give the Print command, press the Resume button (which will be flashing its orange LED). The flashing LED is supposed to give you a chance to load the Manual tray, but there’s no need to wait.

The image itself is RGB color but grayscale so we could use color information to adjust tonality. The driver has a check box for black and white printing, so we checked that to make sure the Pro-100 would use its three gray inks instead of its color ink set.

And it did. But the print was a disappointment. It was generally lighter than the other two in the highlights. The Pro-1 actually printed a muddy sky. The Epson R3000 printed a very dramatic sky. The Pro-100 printed a light sky. The black foreground was gloriously handled on the R3000, a middle gray mess on the Pro-1 and a bit darker on the Pro-100.

That, as we suggested in our Pro-1 review, is more about how the ink soaks into the paper than it is about the printer. And to prove it, we printed the image on Canon’s Pro Luster sheet.

When we first looked at the dark foreground in the print we thought the Pro-100 had a light vertical line scribed through the middle of the black foreground. But it was actually in the image itself, the side of the bridge anchor. On the matte prints it was sufficiently blurred into obscurity but on the Luster sheet it was sharply delineated.

This print is breathtaking on the Epson with Moab Entrada Rag Natural. The same sheet printed by the Pro-1 produced a forgettable image, the black shadows soaked up by the paper. Luster on the Pro-100 produced an excellent image, rich in detail, demonstrating how important it is to use the right paper for the job.

Dye Color. The advantage of dye color is its saturation. Got sunsets? Got flowers? Got intense radiating light? A brightly-painted vehicle? You’ll get a more vibrant print with dye inks than with pigments.

The rap on dyes has been that they are not as permanent as pigments. And, you know, once rapped, forever dinged. But the longevity of dye prints has been greatly improved in recent years and nobody should really worry about fading a properly stored print. What you should worry about is if you want the subtlety of a pigment print on a variety of supports or the vividness of a dye.

We have a favorite image of some yellow-orange dahlias dancing across the scene that can use all the vividness it can get. But we like to print it on a matte fine art sheet, rather than a glossy sheet because it’s a flower.

Our first problem, to our amusement, was that Canon does not supply an ICC profile for the Pro-100 and its Photo Rag paper. So that was out. Instead, we used a Museum Etching sheet, much heavier with a rougher pattern. There was a profile for that.

We compared it to our Pro-1 print, which was all pigments. It’s such a nice print, you would be happy to pay us $500 to have a copy. And every morning, when you rolled out of bed, it would make you dance.

But the Pro-100 dye print is noticeably more intense. This extends to the blacks in the background, not just the bright flowers themselves. Seen side by side, everyone prefers the dye version printed by the Pro-100.

So you can have your dye and sell it, too.

Skin Tones. And if what you’d sell most often are portraits, you’ll want to know how the Pro-100 renders skin tones. We printed our profile portrait of five sisters and compared the print to the Epson R3000 and Canon Pro-1 pigment prints.

You do have to give the swellable Luster sheet a while to relax back into its normal surface, encapsulating the dyes. At first blush it’s hard to evaluated the results. We routinely waited 24 hours before comparing the prints.

We sent the same image data we had sent to the Epson R3000 to the Pro-100. It was, on screen, how we wanted the print to look.

And the R3000 had printed them beautifully. The five faces were so natural, you might easily mistake them for the people themselves. The Pro-100, however, simply rendered them with more saturation than the R3000. Unnaturally so.

This isn’t so much a fault as it is a demonstration of the difference between pigments and dyes. We would have to tone down the saturation a good deal to make a good dye print of skin tones on the Pro-100.

Canon i9900 Comparison. For a long time, the Canon i9900 was our 13×19 dye printer. It can’t handle heavy media but you usually print on thin glossy and semi-gloss sheets with dyes anyway. Our favorite sunset photo was printed with the i9900.

So we printed the same image on the Pro-100 but on Luster paper.

The images, apart from the finish, were identical. That’s a good thing because pigment printers just don’t come close to capturing either the intensity of the orange sky or the deep black of the silhouetted landscape. We have an HP pigment print of the same image that is dull in comparison.

But that’s what dye printers are all about.

Canon Profiles. Dyes, however, rely on encapsulation in a gel layer of the sheet to protect themselves from fading. Porous sheets (like instant-dry glossy papers and all matte papers) are the wrong medium for dyes.

Consequently, Canon provides profiles for its Photo Paper Plus Glossy&Gold, Photo Paper Pro Luster, Photo Paper Pro Platinum and Photo Paper Plus Semi-Gloss, which are all coated sheets, and its Museum Etching, Other Fine Arts papers and Matte Photo Paper uncoated sheets. If you must.

Third Party Papers. Give Ilford credit for already posting Pro-100 ICC profiles for its Galerie papers, including Smooth Pearl and Smooth Gloss in both weights. Moab hasn’t been as quick.

Just for laughs, we made a 4×6 print using HP’s Premium Plus glossy photo paper. For the profile, we selected Platinum Pro, telling the driver we were printing on Platinum Pro, too.

The image was taken on Twin Peaks on a sunny day. We lined up a row of relatives with the city in the background and the sun coming in strongly from the side.

Why Platinum Pro instead of the Other Photo Paper setting? Well, we didn’t want the Pro-100 to do less than its best. After all, if you confess from the start that you’re using Other Photo Paper, why should the printer try to exceed what it can do with its own brand?

Anyway, the print was just gorgeous. A perfect equivalent to what we’d wrestled out of the DNG image, adjusting the shadows to show a good deal more detail in the bright sun.

But note that we didn’t use an instant-dry sheet (like the Kodak porous papers). Those require pigments to stand up to the light. With dyes, they would fade before you could get out of town.

We’ll be testing a few Galerie sheets shortly. And by that time maybe Moab will have some profiles available. But you can see from our HP experiment that a swellable glossy sheet from a third party shouldn’t be a problem.

CD Printing. In our Pro-1 review, we observed that Canon’s software isn’t nearly as refined as Epson’s, which has been printing CD/DVD media much longer.

There are a number of layouts to select from and you can import any of your images into the layout and change the type. But the options are pretty limited, enough to aggravate anyone who’s done any graphic design.

There are third-party alternatives, as Michael Steinbach of Bach Photography in Wisconsin mentioned. He recommended Discus [MW], a CD label printing application by Magic Mouse.

We tested CD printing with the included Easy-PhotoPrint EX, which took a very long time to find the Pro-100. Don’t touch the printer until you’ve gone through Easy-PhotoPrint’s routine. All the way through Print. Then you’ll be switched to your printer driver display for the all-clear to load the CD tray. You’ll notice that the Resume button is flashing orange when the printer is ready for that.

Drop a printable CD or DVD into the tray. The tray itself is loaded into the printer with big arrow pointed forward.

To load the tray into the printer (with the orange Resume button LED flashing), open the output tray drawer and find the finger opening just above the “Canon” on the front of the tray drawer to open the CD slot. Then slide the tray into the narrow opening until the two white arrows on the tray align with the two white arrows on the slot.

Printing was quick after that and the results were gorgeous. But they aren’t waterproof. A rinse under tap water erased the image but you can buy waterproof CD/DVD products like the JVC Taiyo Yuden Watershield and the Imation Aquaguard discs.

MAINTENANCE

The Pro-100 doesn’t appear to require any special maintenance. The manual does mention cleaning the paper feed foller, accessible from the Rear tray, and the small “protrusions” inside the printer along the paper path using a cotton swab.

The normal caveats apply to cleaning the exterior and anything you can see in the interior (although it isn’t very accessible). Turn off the power, don’t use volatile chemicals and stick to a microfiber or cotton swab. At least there’s no piano black finish to scratch with ordinary cleaning cloths (use a microfiber cloth on piano black).

The driver’s utility function provides several routines using letter-size paper:

• Cleaning the print head, with a Deep Cleaning routine if the lighter doesn’t work
• Plate cleaning
• Roller cleaning

In addition you can check the print head nozzles by printing a nozzle check pattern. If there’s a problem, you run the cleaning routine above.

You can also align the print head using two sheets of plain paper.

And you can check the current ink levels.

But there doesn’t appear to be any routine maintenance required.

PRICE & AVAILABILITY

The Pro-100 lists for $499.99, the same as the Pro9000 Mark II, and Canon tells us they are available now.

Canon told us the Pro-100 did not officially replace the Pro9000 Mark II.

CONCLUSION

With the Pro-100, Canon has expanded its Pro printer lineup by cross-breeding the Pro-1 and the Pro9000 Mark II. From the Pro-1 we get the improved media handling and CD/DVD printing as well as a three-ink black and white printing option, although not the same inks. From the Pro9000 Mark II, we get the fast print head, the more affordable if smaller ink cartridges and dye-based inks, although not the same set.

Canon has also tossed in a replacement print dialog plug-in that keeps your eye on the ball. It’s hard to get excited about alternatives here, but it’s attractive and it does the job nicely.

Image quality was excellent, the dyes doing what the Pro-1 pigments just can’t do. Performance was reliable without the delays of the Pro-1 priming, making it more suitable for infrequent use.

Outright prolonged applause for the Pro-100.

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Canon Pixma MX892 Multifunction Device Printer

AIRPRINT & SNAPSHOTS

Canon Pixma MX892 —
Photos at the Office

By MIKE PASINI
Editor
The Imaging Resource Digital Photography Newsletter

Review Date: July 2012

There were two things that intrigued us about the Canon Pixma MX892 when we read the press release announcing its introduction. First, we wondered how well a current generation office printer could print photos. And secondly, we wondered how well Canon had implemented AirPrint for printing from an iPad.

As the user manual points out, with the $199.99 MX892 you can print photos from any network-connected device (including an iPad), print from a cable-connected camera or a Bluetooth-capable device with an optional Bluetooth dongle, print from any flash card or thumb drive connected to the device itself, copy original photos and documents, scan from the device to its card reader or computers on your network and transmit or receive faxes.

While the features of this WiFi-enabled device are impressive, two of our favorite options are missing in the MX-series: CD printing and negative scanning. For those options, look into Canon’s MG-series of photo multifunction devices. We compare the two series at the end of this review.

List price for the MX892 is $199.99 but it’s available at a 25 percent discount for $149.99 via the Imaging Resource Amazon affiliate program, which helps support reviews like this.

Canon shipped a review unit to us and we put it to work as our main office printer for a few weeks.

While we did have occasion to use the Automatic Document Feeder to scan multipage documents, we didn’t setup or use the fax capabilities of the device. Otherwise we gave the MX892 a pretty good workout.

In the process, we discovered an even better solution than AirPrint for printing and scanning from iOS and Android devices to the MX892.

FEATURES

So what can the MX892 do for you? Canon touts the speed, ease of use and connectivity of the device:

Speed

• Its printing resolution of 9600 x 2400 dpi is sufficient for any document or photo.
• The five-color ink system of individual cartridges consists of a pigment-based black ink and four dye-based inks.
• A borderless 4×6 photo print can be produced in approximately 20 seconds.
• The ChromaLife100+ system combines Canon’s FINE print head technology with Canon photo papers and inks for borderless photos that will last up to 300 years when stored in an archival-quality photo album.

Ease of Use

• The dual-function control panel’s buttons transform into a keypad in fax mode.
• The 35-sheet Duplex Auto Document Feeder allows you to copy, scan and fax multiple documents without having to load them one page at a time.
• The built-in auto duplex printing prints on both sides of the page to reduce paper consumption and cost up to 50 percent.
• Full HD Movie Print software turns your favorite HD movie clips captured with compatible Canon EOS dSLR or PowerShot cameras into prints.
• The 3.0-inch LCD allows you to view, select and edit your images for computer-free printing.
• Auto Scan Mode can, with one press of the Scan button, recognize your original automatically and save it in the correct format.
• Auto Document Fix analyzes and corrects both text and image documents so text will remain clear and easy to read while pictures keep their true color with highlights, shadows and dots being smoothed out.
• Dual Color Gamut Technology automatically optimizes your originals so copies stay true.
• Quick Start lets you begin inputting commands seconds after pressing the Power button.
• Auto Photo Fix II technology automatically categorizes your images into one of five types (Portrait, Scenery, Night Scenery, Snapshot with Scenery and Snapshot with Night Scenery) before optimizing image and multi-zone exposure correction.
• Two-Way Paper Feeding lets you load paper from the front cassette or rear tray.

Connectivity

• Built-In Wireless to print and scan wirelessly from any Wi-Fi enabled computer around the house.
• AirPrint to wirelessly print photos, emails, web pages, documents and more from compatible iPad, iPhone or iPod touch devices.
• Google Cloud Print to print from Gmail and Google Docs on a mobile device and from Google Chrome browser for Mac, Windows, Linux and Chrome devices.
• Pixma Cloud Link to download and print office templates like stationary, check lists, calendars, memos, envelopes and print photos from the online photo album sections of Canon image Gateway and Google Picasa.
• Built-in Ethernet
• Super G3 fax for 100 coded speed dials and up to 250 incoming pages.
• Mobile printing with the free EasyPhoto-Print app lets you wirelessly print and scan jfrom compatible iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, and Android devices.
• Memory Cards, USB, PictBridge & optional Bluetooth
• USB 2.0 Hi-Speed

SPECIFICATIONS

Specifications for the MX892 include:

Printer

• Print Speed: 4×6 borderless photo in about 20 seconds; black at about 12.5 ipm and Color at about 9.3 ipm
• Number of Nozzles: 512 Black, 4,096 Color for a total of 4,608
• Picoliter Size: 1,2 and 5
• Print Resolution: Up to 9600 x 2400 dpi in color and up to 600 x 600 in black
• Paper Sizes: 4×6, 5×7, 8×10, Letter, Legal, #10 Envelopes
• Paper Tray Capacity: Automatic Sheet Feeder holds 150 Sheets; Cassette holds 150 Sheets; ADF holds 35 Sheets
• Paper Compatibility: Plain Paper, High Resolution Paper; Photo Paper Pro Platinum; Photo Paper Plus Glossy II, Photo Paper Glossy; Photo Paper Plus Semi-Gloss; Matte Photo Paper; Canon Photo Rag Fine Art Paper; #10 Envelope
• Printer Features: AirPrint, Auto Duplex Document Feeder, Auto Duplex Print, Auto Photo Fix II, Auto Sheet Feeder, Borderless Printing, Dual Function Panel, Document Printing, Full HD Movie Print, Google Cloud Print,Photo Printing, Template Print

Copier

• Copy Speed: Color up to 7.4 ipm
• Reduction/Enlargement: 25 to 400 percent
• Copy Features: Auto Exposure/Intensity) copy, Auto Duplex Copy, Borderless, Fit-to-Page, Gutter Shadow Correction Copy, Image Repeat, Intensity, Multiple Copy: 1-99 pages, Preset Copy, Ratios, Reserve Copy, Sort (ADF), Zoom

Scanner

• Scanning Element: Contact Image Sensor
• Max. Resolutions: 2400 x 4800 dpi optical resolution; 19,200 x 19,200 dpi interpreted; ADF features 600 x 600 dpi optical
• Scanner Features: Auto Document Fix, Auto Duplex Scan, Auto Scan Mode, Network Scan, Push Scan, Scan to Memory
• Color Depth: 48-bit internal/24-bit external
• Max. Document Size: Flatbed takes up to 8.5 x 11.7 inches; ADF handles up to 8.5×14

Fax

• Modem Speed: 33.6 Kbps (Super G3 color FAX)
• Transmission Speed: Approx. 3 sec per black page and 1 min per color page
• Memory Capacity: Approx. 250 Pages
• Speed Dialing: 100 Locations
• Fax Features: Answering Machine Connectivity, Caller Rejection, Check RX Fax Info., Fax Reception Reject, Fax Number Re-Entry, F/T Changing (manual), Group Dialing, Memory Transmission, Redial, Remote Reception

Card Reader

• Media Card Support: SD, SDHC, MultiMediaCard (v4.1), MultiMediaCard Plus (v4.1), miniSD Card, miniSDHC Card, RS-MMC (v4.1), microSD, microSDHC, CompactFlash. Microdrive, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO Duo, Memory Stick Micro, xD-Picture , xD-Picture (Type M), xD-Picture (Type H)

General

• Other Features: AirPrint, Google Cloud Print23, Wireless Printing, 3.0-inch LCD, Dual Function Panel, Dual Color Gamut Processing Technology, Ethernet, Full HD Movie Print, Fully Integrated Auto Duplex Auto Document Feeder, PictBridge, Mobile Printing, Quick Start, PIXMA Cloud Link
• OS Compatibility: Windows 7, Windows 7 SP1, Windows Vista, Windows Vista SP1/SP2, Windows XP SP2/SP3 32-bit; Mac OS X 10.5.8, 10.6, 10.7
• Standard Interface: Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11b/g/n). Ethernet, USB 2.0 Hi-Speed, Card Slots, PictBridge, Bluetooth v2.0
• Software Included: Setup Software & User’s Guide CD-ROM, Pixma MX892 Printer Driver, Easy-PhotoPrint EX, Easy-WebPrint EX, MP Navigator EX, Solution Menu
• Dimension: 19.4 x 17.7 x 8.6 inches (W x D x H)
• Weight: 25.7 lbs
• Warranty: One-year limited warranty with InstantExchange Program. One-year toll-free technical phone support.

IN THE BOX

The retail box includes:

• PIXMA MX892 Wireless Office-All-In-One Printer
• Document Kit with Cross Sell Sheet, Getting Started, Important Information Sheet, Network Setup Troubleshooting, Read Before Setting Up the Machine, Setup Software & User’s Guide CD-ROM and Warranty Card
• Ink Cartridges for PGI-225 (Pigment Black) and CLI-226 dye inks (Black/Cyan/Magenta/Yellow)
• Power Cord
• PP-201 alignment paper, 3 sheets
• Telephone Line Cable

If you want to print via Bluetooth, you’ll need a Bluetooth dongle. We used a D-Link DBT-120 but Canon sells a BU-30 Bluetooth adapter for $50.

CONSUMABLES

The PGI-225 pigment black cartridge, which is quite a bit larger than the color cartridges, is $15.99 with a two-pack available for $29.99.

The CLI-226 color cartridges (cyan, yellow, magenta and black) are $13.99 each. They can also be purchased together for $55.99.

The MX892 supports a variety of papers. We used an HP multipurpose sheet for letter-size documents and Canon PHoto Paper Plus Glossy II 4×6 photo paper.

HARDWARE TOUR

The top of the MX892 includes not only the LCD and operation panel but also the Automatic Document Feeder, so it’s a little bulky. Its hinges do telescope out about an inch to accommodate thicker materials like books on the scanner bed.

The platen glass occupies most of the scanner bed but a small window to the left scans pages from the Automatic Document Feeder.

The bed itself opens to reveal the print head and ink cartridges when the cover is closed (a small latch locks it when the cover is open). A small strut swings out to keep the heavy top open. There isn’t much room to work in there. Fortunately you don’t need much. The cartridges can easily be slipped into place.

From the front, you have access to everything, even the rear tray, which must be raised, angled and locked before you can put any paper in it. The guides are linked so moving one moves the other in or out as well. That feeds small sheets of paper (like 4×6 photo paper) into the middle of the printer.

The Automatic Document Feeder has a swing out tray with adjustable guides to hold the unscanned pages and a document output slot beneath it to deliver the scanned pages. There’s also a feeder cover that helps you get to any paper jams.

On the front panel, the automatic paper deliver tray door takes up most of the space with a small door to the left covering the card reader. Under the card reader is the PictBridge USB port to which you can also plug in a Bluetooth adapter. A blue WiFi indicator sits on the lip of the scanner bed.

On the rear panel, the power cord connector is on the lower right. Only a power cord is required, not a brick. On the right left is a wired RJ-45 LAN connector above a USB port. There is also two RJ-11 jacks, one for a telephone or answering machine and another to connect to a telephone line. The rear cover is removable to get at paper jams.

CONTROL PANEL

The control panel is well thought-out and a pleasure to use. Let’s go through the controls reading from left to right:

Farthest left, you’ll find in the first section the Power button, a fax status light (indicating received or unsent documents in the machine’s memory) and the Menu button.

Next to them is a set of four main buttons: Copy, Fax, Scan and Photo. They are labeled off the button with an icon on the button. When you activate one of them, a blue LED lights up on the button itself.

To the right of that is the large LCD with three soft buttons below it. We had to remind ourselves constantly that it wasn’t a touch screen.

A keypad with 16 keys functions as a telephone keypad and a multifunction navigator. Depending on the operation, the keys light up showing you what they do.

A Redial/Pause button, a Coded Dial button and a Hook button are right of the keypad.

Large Black and Color buttons are next. Those initiate the various operations.

Finally a Stop button and an Alarm lamp fill out the control panel.

INSTALLATION

The box itself is bulky but easily moved by a single person. No extra space is needed on the sides, although a few inches on the front for the paper delivery and the back for the rear feed tray are helpful.

If you want to use the fax, make sure to locate the device within reach of a wall outlet for your telephone line. Of course, you aren’t obliged to use the 9.5-foot white telephone cord included with the unit if you need a longer cable.

There’s no scanner lock to worry about locking before moving the scanner or unlocking to scan.

While it’s a tight fit with the cover raised, it was easy to snap the ink cartridges into place. Some users may have trouble seeing which cartridge to put where though. This tight clearance was really the only under-designed part of the device.

To align the print head, you load card paper in the rear paper feed when prompted. Canon supplies two sheets of the special paper. Alternately, you can manually align the print head with plain paper.

The built-in WiFi setup was easy to use, quickly found our router and made it easy to enter our password. In seconds, the device was connected to our network.

Software installation went smoothly as well. If you have more than one computer you’d like to print from, the install CD makes it easy to just install the driver on those other computers, if you prefer.

COPYING

We had mixed results printing images on the MX892. That’s unusual. Through several generations of the MP series, we have hardly ever run into an issue.

Document Copying. We usually test straight copying with a toned original. In this case, we had a book cover that was off-white.

Because it was a book, we had to lift the heavy MX892 cover (which includes the Auto Document Feeder and LCD panel) up about an inch on its hinges.

The color copy was very clean, dropping out the off-white (one might say yellowed) background nicely. The type and image were both very sharp as well.

Photo Copying. There’s no Reprint option on the menu for copying photos. Instead, you use the Copy function and Preview the image or Scan it. You do align it to the edge of the platen, rather than float it.

The first issue we had was that the Standard Copy print was not borderless. The manual explains you have to use the Advanced Copy option from the Main Menu to set the MX892 for borderless printing.

Even at High Quality, the copy of a photo of an infant against a red pillow was a bit too red in the flesh tones.

We tried a monochrome image and set it to bleed. The crop was pretty severe (you can adjust that) but not unusually so. The image itself was reproduced with more contrast, as if it had been enhanced. So it wasn’t an exact copy.

While it’s hard to get very excited about the photo copying capability of the MX892, it isn’t all that much different from the MG series of multifunction devices. But it’s easier to make a copy on the MG series, thanks to more options in the menu system.

PRINTING

Card Reader. While the card reader supports a wide range of cards, only SD, CompactFlash and Memory Stick cards do not require an adapter. MiniSD, microSD, xD Picture Cards, RS-MMC and MMCmobile cards and Memory Stick Micro cards do require an adapter.

We popped an SD card into the card reader, which beeped and lit its blue status light before displaying the first image on the LCD. We used the Right arrow key to scroll through the images on the card, pressing the Color button to print them on 4×6 paper loaded in the rear tray. Pretty easy.

There’s no image editing provided but it’s just as well. The LCD doesn’t display the image colors as well as your camera. Color was not accurately represented on the LCD but the images were recognizable.

While there’s no extensive image editing, you can, however, trim an image or display a slide show in the LCD from the Photo menu.

Importing from a Card Reader. The card reader can also function as a memory card drive. In appeared in it in our Shared devices list where clicking on it revealed the card contents.

We didn’t do anything special to enable this feature, although there is a Setup option in the Menu on the device to set the Device User Settings to enable the Read/Write attribute for a USB connected computer or any network connected computer. Alternately you can disable the writability.

Bluetooth Printing. We sent a photo (the headstone shown in our montage of color prints below) from our Motorola Razr to the MX892 via Bluetooth. We had plugged in our D-Link Bluetooth dongle earlier so the Razr was able to find the printer without a problem.

And the MX892 was smart enough to print the image on photo paper, too. No problem.

AirPrint. To test AirPrint, we opened an image in Snapseed on the iPad 2 and clicked the Share icon. Print was enabled. We pointed it to the MX892, which it knew was available, and tapped Print. The only other option was the number of copies.

A few seconds later, we had a 4×6 print. No problem.

We also tried a square-format image from Photoshop Touch. To our surprise, it printed borderless, cropping off much of the image.

AirPrint is pretty simple. You point it to one of the printers it finds on your network and set the number of copies. That’s it.

That’s hardly enough for printing photos. Some printers can detect the paper using codes printed on the back of the sheet but Canon isn’t one of them. Epson isn’t either, but Epson has developed its own iOS printing application called iPrint that covers a few more bases.

Still AirPrint will send your photo to the MX892. You won’t have much control over what happens to it, but it will make a print.

Easy-PhotoPrint. More interesting than AirPrint, however, is Canon’s own iOS and Android printing utility. Recycling the name Easy-PhotoPrint, iEPP (as it’s also known) gives you much of what you use in your desktop printer dialog as well as WiFi scanning to your device.

It works very well with the MX892 as our review points out.

Computer Print. We printed an image of a train set from Photoshop CS5, taking care to set up the driver for a borderless 4×6 print. Everything seemed fine on the printer, but the print came out quite small and printed in portrait rather than landscape orientation despite our instructions otherwise.

So we tried it from Canon’s Easy-PhotoPrint EX, stepping through the Menu items to Select Images, Select Paper, Layout/Print and finally Print. This time we got our print, although it was pretty saturated.

The next time we printed from Photoshop, we didn’t have the orientation issue but we were printing different images.

So, after installing an update to Canon printer drivers, we tried the original image again, a JPEG we had opened in Camera Raw. No problem. The print came out full size in the right orientation.

Duplex Printing. We printed a multi-page text document with a layout in the driver of two pages per sheet. And we set duplex printing on, so we had four pages on each sheet (two on the front of the sheet and two on the back).

The MX892 handled it without a problem. The first duplex job we printed seemed a bit slow, perhaps to accommodate drying time, even though coverage was quite light. But subsequent printouts of light text printed both sides with little or no delay.

Black and White Photos. We printed a 20-step grayscale on the MX892. An RGB image, we first printed it in color and then with the grayscale option checked in the driver, letting the printer manage color. Both images showed a very strong magenta cast.

We printed an RGB monotone image which we’d been printing on two 13×19 printers and saw the same magenta cast. So we had Photoshop manage the color and picked a glossy ICC profile for the printer. That too had the magenta tint.

We tried glossy sheets from both Canon and HP, with the appropriate ICC profiles (to be as precise as possible). The Canon paper actually exhibited a stronger magenta cast than the HP paper.

We did notice that after a few hours, the magenta cast subsided somewhat. It was still evident but not nearly as objectionable.

Templates. HP pioneered the concept of stashing templates of commonly used forms (like calendars, sheet music, graph paper, ruled paper). It was a great idea (sold ink for them, convenient for you) and has percolated through the industry.

But we particularly like Canon’s implementation. Tapping into its wireless capability, the MX892 can access forms on Canon’s site so you aren’t limited to what’s burned into the printer’s firmware.

We got a warning when accessing the various types of forms (there are a lot of them) that it could take a while to download them, but we never waited more than a few seconds.

SCANNING

Flatbed scanning is one of the simpler tasks any multifunction device has to do. The MX892 makes it a little more fun with its Automatic Document Feeder for multipage documents and its ability to scan wirelessly over your network.

ADF Feeding. We had no problems using the Automatic Document Feeder. The guides were easy to set for our letter-size pages, a beep confirms the load and we had no misfeeds.

Pages are loaded face-up but the top page is taken first, so you don’t have to reverse collate the pages for scanning. That was nice.

Our first black-only, one-page scan produced a blank PDF for some reason. Yes, we had it face up. We tried it again and it worked fine.

But our multipage color scan of a translation draft created a four-page PDF with accurate color of our hand-made edits. Unfortunately, the scan was skewed, which can make optical character recognition difficult. The original was printed on the MX892 perfectly aligned, so the skew had to have been introduced by the ADF itself.

The manual mentions a Skew Correction function that compensates for angles up to 10 degrees but that apparently applies to loading two or more photos on the glass.

Scan to Thumbdrive/Flash Card. If you want to use a thumbdrive, you’ll have to pull your Bluetooth adapter out of the USB port in front. Small price to pay.

We scanned from the ADF to a thumbdrive with no problem.

Ganging. Loading two or more original photos on the platen that are scanned to individual files is a big time saver. The MX892 can scan up to 12 documents (four when compressed for transfer) and correct up to 10 degrees of skew.

We couldn’t find a way to scan multiple documents to a thumbdrive from the device’s menu system itself, however. Instead, we used MP Navigator EX, Canon’s software.

Using the Auto setting, Navigator easily scanned the two 4×6 prints on the scanner bed and wirelessly sent them to a dated folder on the computer. They were corrected for skew and cropped perfectly with good color. Navigator actually uses the ScanGear driver to do the dirty work.

Someone once asked us about scanning multiple coins, so we gave that a try, putting four on the scanner bed. But Navigator read that as one image with all four coins on it.

OCR. We dropped a letter onto the scanner bed and tried to scan it with optical character recognition from Navigator. The letter was set in 10 point Times but it gave Navigator a few problems. Of 427 words some 7 were not recognized. That may not seem bad (1.6 percent) but it’s a pretty high error rate for clean copy.

ScanGear. Our normal workflow is to launch Photoshop and Import images from the scanner using its native driver or VueScan. Canon installs two native drivers for the MX892, one for a USB connection and the other for a network (or wireless) connection. We chose the later to scan a printed image.

We scanned it using the Basic, Advanced and Auto options. None of them provided a very well de-screened image of the printed piece. The Restore Color option did a nice job, though. And the scans were quick, even over the network.

VueScan. We like ScanGear as a scanning application, but we felt the software wasn’t getting everything that it might from the image. So we tried VueScan. With most settings at Auto except for de-screening a 150-line screen and restoring fading colors enabled, we got our best scan.

When we tried to scan wirelessly at 48-bit color depth and 2400 dpi, we hung things up. It was just too much data.

MX/MG COMPARISON

Not all multifunction devices are alike. As we pointed out above, the MX892 lacks the CD printing and negative scanning capabilities of the MG8220, the top of the line MG photo multifunction series. The MX, on the other hand, has an auto document feeder and fax capability, both of which the MG lacks.

But there are other key differences.

The MG has more nozzles (6,144 vs. 4,608), although the same number of black ones (512). Picoliter sizes and speed are identical, as is resolution.

The MG scanner is a CCD rather than the CIS on the MX. Maximum optical resolution on the MG series is 4800 x 4800 dpi (4800 x 9600 for film) where it’s 2400 x 4800 dpi on the MX.

Inks are the same but the MG adds a gray (not black) dye ink for black and white images.

MAINTENANCE

The Menu system provides options for printing a nozzle check pattern, cleaning the print head, cleaning it deeply, aligning it and aligning it with plain paper manually (if you don’t have the heavy card stock Canon uses to automatically align it).

You can access those options from the LCD menu or from the Canon IJ Printer Utility.

To clean the outside of the machine, Canon recommends a soft dry cloth. We use a microfiber cloth to avoid scratching the highly polished piano-black surfaces.

To clean the platen glass, document cover (the white background on the inside of the cover) and glass for the Auto Document Feeder (just to the left of the platen), use a similar soft cloth.

The Auto Document Feeder itself can be cleaned by opening both the tray on top and the feeder cover to remove paper dust from the roller assembly.

A menu option under Maintenance provides for Roller Cleaning, which can be done with or without paper for either the rear feed or the cassette.

Another menu option provides for Bottom Plate Cleaning, which uses a sheet of folded letter-size paper from the rear tray to remove dirt from the inside of the machine.

Use a cotton swab to clean the fingers inside the machine, accessible when you open the top to change ink cartridges.

Finally the cassette has a pad that can accumulate paper powder or dirt, which can eject more than one sheet of paper. A moistened cotton swab will clean it.

CONCLUSION

If you need a device that can send and receive faxes or have to scan multipage documents, you need an office multifunction device like the MX892. Being able to print photos is a plus.

And the MX892 can indeed print photos. Nearly as well as the MG photo devices, with the same inks minus gray for black and whites.

But as a photo printer, the MX892 lacks the versatility you need to get the best prints from a variety of images, not to mention a variety of papers. Sure the inks are the same but the firmware doesn’t give you quite as many options as the MG printers. The MX892 is a little like a camera with only Auto mode. Great for snapshots, not quite enough for your best images.

Scanning (even wirelessly) was generally a pleasant experience with excellent results. And the firmware does do what it promises, we were pleased to see. But we had trouble doing high resolution scans over our network using VueScan. So again, you can copy 4×6 prints but using the MX892 as a reflection scanner may not be the way to go.

AirPrint worked without a hitch from an iPad 2. We printed photos from a couple of apps. But the least little wrinkle showed us the limitations of relying on AirPrint. A square-formatted image, for example, printed as a 2:3 aspect ratio borderless print. Because that’s how AirPrint prints photos.

As an office device, the MX892’s ability to scan and print photos is a plus. But that capability is pretty rudimentary. So if you don’t need the fax or ADF, you’ll be happier with Canon’s MG series of photographic multifunction devices which add CD printing and negative scanning to your options.

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Epson Photo Stylus R3000 Printer

13×19 B&W, COLOR PRINTING

Epson Stylus Photo R3000
Sets the Standard

By MIKE PASINI
Editor
The Imaging Resource Digital Photography Newsletter

Review Date: June 2012

As soon as our Canon Pro-1 review was published, we heard from Epson. You really should take a look at our R3000, they said.

Indeed, the R3000, which beat the Pro-1 to market by several months, has a lot going for it that the Pro-1 does not. Ethernet, for one. And a small pigment droplet size, too.

Like the Pro-1, it’s a 13-inch printer but it handles roll paper, too. Closed up, it’s quite a bit more compact.

And like the Pro-1, it can print color or black and white images, swapping matte and photo black ink cartridges.

List price is $849.99 but Epson itself sells it for just $649.99, a significant bargain compared to the $999.99 Pro-1.

FEATURES

Epson lists the highlights of its R3000 as:

Pigment ink technology. Epson UltraChrome K3 with Vivid Magenta Ink Technology (delivering intense blues and violets and improved skin tones) for either color or black-and-white prints

Individual high-capacity ink cartridges. Nine large 25.9ml individual ink cartridges

Advanced media handling. Consistent, reliable performance with front-in, front-out paper path; Cut sheets up to 13 inches wide, 13-inch roll paper; supports photographic and fine art paper, canvas, art boards (up to 1.3mm thick) and CD/DVDs

Unparalleled connectivity. Hi-Speed USB 2.0, wireless 802.11n and 100 Mbit Ethernet support

Auto-switching black inks. Enjoy the highest black density and superior contrast on glossy, matte or fine art papers from either Matte or Photo Black ink; driver indicates which to use based on paper type; switching is done at the printer’s control panel

Leading-edge image-quality architecture. Smooth color transitions and outstanding highlight and shadow detail with AccuPhoto HD2 imaging technology

Precision 9-color, 8-channel print head technology. MicroPiezo AMC, one-inch wide print head with ink-repelling coating for accurate dot placement and reduced maintenance

Professional control. Advanced Black-and-White Photo Mode to create neutral or toned black-and-white prints from color or monochrome images; ICC profile support is available for many third-party papers

While that’s Epson’s list, we can certainly confirm it matched our experience of the R3000’s highlights, with particular appreciation for the paper feeding approach, ink set and connectivity.

SPECIFICATIONS

Print Specifications

• Printing Technology: Advanced Micro Piezo AMC print head with ink-repelling coating technology, 8-channel, drop-on-demand, inkjet print head
• Nozzle Configuration: 180 nozzles x 8
• Minimum Ink Droplet Size: 2 picoliters. Variable Droplet Technology can produce up to 3 different droplet sizes per print line
• Maximum Print Resolution: 5760 x 1440 dpi
• Maximum Printable Area: Maximum paper width: 13 inches; Maximum cut-sheet size: 13×19; Minimum cut-sheet size: 3.5×5; Maximum printable area: 13×44
• Photo Print Speed: 8×10 in approx. 1 min 33 sec; 13×19 in approx. 2 min 30 sec
• Warranty: One-year limited warranty in the U.S. and Canada with additional extended service plans, including exchange/repairs plans and replacement plans available.

Paper Handling Specifications

• Maximum Paper Size: Main top-loading feeder holds up to 13×19-inch sheet and up to 120 sheets plain; 30 sheets photo; Front media path holds up to 13×19, single sheet manual feeder designed for fine art paper and media up to 1.3mm thick; CD/DVD (using included tray)
• Borderless Sizes: 3.5×5, 4×6, 5×7, 8×10, A4 (8.3×11.7), letter (8.5×11), 11×14, 12×12, B (11×17), A3 (11.7×16.5) and Super B (13×19) sizes

Ink Specifications

• Ink Type: Pigment-based Epson UltraChrome K3 with Vivid Magenta ink technology
• Ink Palette: 9-color Photo or Matte Black, Cyan, Vivid Magenta, Yellow, Light Cyan, Vivid Light Magenta, Light Black, Light Light Black
• Ink Cartridge Configuration: Auto-Switching Black Ink Technology. Standard Black ink conversion times are Matte to Photo Black in approx. 3 min 30 sec and Photo to Matte Black in approx. 2 min sec. Ink used during conversion is Matte to Photo Black approx. three milliliters and Photo to Matte Black approx. one milliliter. An economy mode unique to the R3000 uses one milliliter instead of three milliliters to flush Matte.

General

• Connectivity: Hi-Speed USB 2.0, 100Base-T Ethernet, Wi-Fi Certified (802.11n only)
• Operating Systems: Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit), Windows Vista (32-bit, 64-bit), Windows XP, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition Mac O X 10.5.x to 10.7.x
• Printer Language: Epson ESC/P2R2 raster photographic drivers standard
• Temperature: Operating at 50 to 95 degrees F; Storage at -4 to 104 degrees F
• Humidity: Operating at 20 to 80 pct. (no condensation); Storage at 5 to 85 pct. (no condensation)
• Sound Level: Approx. 38 dB according to ISO 7779
• Rated Voltage: AC 110 to 120V
• Rated Frequency: 50 to 60 Hz
• Rated Current: 0.6 A/110 to 120 V
• Power Consumption: Printing requires approx. 21 W while Sleep Mode uses less than 3.5 W; Energy Star compliant (Tier 2)
• Safety Standards: UL1950, CSA 22.2 950 FDA, EMI: FCC Part 15 subpart B class B, CSA C108.8 class B, AS/NZS 3548 class B
• Dimensions: When printing, it’s 24.2 x 32 x 16.7 (WxDxH) and when stored, it’s 24.2 x 14.5 x 9 (WxDxH)
• Weight: 35 lbs.

IN THE BOX

The retail box includes:

• Epson Stylus Photo R3000 Photo Printer
• Power cable
• Ink Cartridges: Photo Black UltraChrome K3 ink cartridge (T157120), Cyan UltraChrome K3 ink cartridge (T157220), Vivid Magenta UltraChrome K3 ink cartridge (T157320), Yellow UltraChrome K3 ink cartridge (T157420), Light Cyan UltraChrome K3 ink cartridge (T157520), Vivid Light Magenta UltraChrome K3 ink cartridge (T157620), Light Black UltraChrome K3i ink cartridge (T157720), Matte Black UltraChrome K3 ink cartridge (T157820), Light Light Black UltraChrome K3 ink cartridge (T157920)
• Roll paper holders
• Roll paper holder accessory
• CD print tray and software
• Accessory box
• USB and Ethernet cables not included
• Printer documentation
• CD-ROM with printer drivers and software

The vigilant reader will notice there’s no gloss optimizer in the ink set. More about that below.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Epson lists Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit), Windows Vista (32-bit, 64-bit), Windows XP, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition and Mac OS X 10.5.x to 10.6.x as the supported operating systems.

But our tests were done on several versions of Mac OS X 10.7.

We had none of the trouble installing the software that we had with the R2000, we’re happy to say.

But we did have a problem installing the drivers on a second machine. The solution to that was simply to reset the printer system. That, unfortunately, removes all your printers. But we hadn’t cleaned house in a while. And we only mention it here in case your housekeeping suffers similar enthusiasm. It really has nothing to do with the R3000 itself.

CONSUMABLES

The high-capacity (25.9ml) 157 cartridges list for $31.49 each. Amazon sells them for $29.95 or the whole set for $265.95. If you use the Imaging Resource Amazon affiliate program, you’ll help support reviews like this.

Photo Black ink is optimized for printing on glossy sheets (including glossy, luster, satin and semigloss finishes). Matte Black is designed for matte finishes and fine art media. Your usage of these two inks will depend on what paper you use.

Paper costs will vary depending on the sheet you select, of course. The R3000 can handle a variety of media, including printable CDs.

For the review, Epson sent us a representative sample of papers. Those included:

• Epson Pro Velvet Fine Art Paper
• Epson Ultra Premium Lustre
• Epson Signature Worthy Sample Pack with Hot Press Bright, Hot Press Natural, Exhibition Fiber, Cold Press Bright, Cold Press Natural, Velvet Fine Art, Ultra Premium Lustre
• Printable CDs (but not waterproof)

But as part of our comparison with the Canon Pro-1 we also printed on a number of third-party art papers including:

• Moab Entrada Natural
• Moab Slickrock Metallica Pearl 260
• Ilford Galerie Smooth Pearl
• Ilford Galerie Smooth Gloss
• Kodak Ultra Studio Gloss
• Museo Silver Rag

We used the R3000 ICC profiles for those papers supplied by the manufacturers on their respective Web sites. And our results were uniformly excellent. So if you happen to read somewhere (as we did) that you can only use Epson paper, consider the source deluded.

HARDWARE TOUR

Compact as it is, the R3000 has a lot of secret compartments.

The paper support on top is the most obvious of them. You simply rotate it on its hinges before pulling out its two extensions. It only needs two because the well into the printer is quite deep. Note also the rubber bumpers on the inside lid to grip the sheet.

The front output tray is the next obvious. The cover drops down so you can pull our the extensions. Note the orange bracket on the inside on the side of the control panel and remove it. But don’t discard it. Epson calls it a transportation lock. You’ll want to reinstall it if you move the printer.

In that same compartment is the gray manual feed tray for thick paper (up to 1.3mm, in fact) and the CD tray. You press in the indent with the three bumps to drop it into position. The drop-down tray allows for the full release of the feed rollers so you can easily slip a thick sheet of fine art paper into the printer.

There are, in fact, two sets of rollers for borderless printing: the main drive rollers and the secondary set of star rollers on top required for borderless images, which leave no marks on the paper.

We really liked the fine art feeding, finding it the best of any Epson printer we’ve used and preferring it to Canon’s various approaches as well. What we particularly liked about it was that you could get your hands on both ends of a 13×19 and snug it up to the side guide, confident it was parallel to the printer. Most just let you line up the front edge and hope it’s parallel.

The proof of this approach’s superiority came when we had only a quarter inch of an image printed on a nice piece of fine art paper before the job aborted. We’d canceled printing for some reason that now escapes us. Rather than waste the sheet, we reloaded it and reprinted. There was no misregistration of the image.

To actually load paper in that tray, you have to open the rear paper support. That’s on the back of the printer. It opens just a bit, dropping down into the printer slightly, so you can pull out the two extensions

The rear support is also used for roll paper, which exits the printer on the output tray in front. But with roll paper, you leave the extensions in and hook the roll paper holders (with paper already attached to them) where the orange labels indicate. In addition to paper, you can also load canvas on the roll holders.

The back of the printer is where you’ll find the power connection (to the left) and the USB and Ethernet connection (to the right of center). In front, there’s a PictBridge USB port as well.

Although it isn’t immediately obvious, the whole top of the printer swings up to reveal the ink compartment in the front left. A gray latch on the cover releases when you push it toward the back of the printer.

The front top right panel hosts the R3000 controls. The Power button is at the left with an Ink status indicator and Delete button next to it on the right. They are just left of the LCD, which itself borders the four-way navigator with an OK button in the center. A WiFi status indicator and the Back button are to the right of that. All of the buttons are quite large with deep indents. That’s a good thing.

INSTALLATION

We found the end of our work table a good location for the R3000. There was plenty of room behind it and even more in front. It doesn’t seem to need more than a few inches in the back but it does eat up space in front to deliver the 19-inch sheets.

We followed the instructions on the handy installation poster.

Removing all the blue tape in all the compartments can be quite a challenge. We missed a couple on the back securing the rear support.

Don’t forget about the transportation lock, either. And do save it in case you have to move your printer.

Next we connected the power cable and turned the printer on.

Time to load the cartridges. We opened the top lid and released the ink compartment cover. The bays are clearly labeled.

Epson recommends shaking the cartridges before installing them. Then there’s a small yellow tape to pull off before you insert the cartridge into the bay.

A slot on the cartridge guarantees you won’t put it in the wrong bay. We tried. No go. But you’ll have to remember to actually snap the cartridge down to fully seat it. The small release seems seated prematurely and there’s no red LED to confirm you’ve seated the cartridge. So push down.

When you close the cartridge cover and then the top cover of the printer, the ink system is primed. This gives you a chance to open the rear paper feed and drop some letter-size sheets in. Move the outside paper guide in, too. And don’t forget to open the output tray and extend the extensions.

A progress bar on the LCD will let you know how things are going. It takes a while. Check your email.

We wanted to connect the R3000 to our router, making a WiFi connection rather than an Ethernet or USB connection. But if we were not testing the printer, we would prefer that Ethernet connection for its speed.

Epson recommends using a USB cable to create the WiFi connection. They don’t supply one and, it turns out, it really isn’t necessary. You can do it from the control panel. So that’s how we did it.

It really isn’t hard. It would have been harder to dig up a USB cable, really. You just have to know your router’s password. The R3000 will automatically find your router. And it can even log in magically with a couple of options we never use. All we had to do was pick our router, put in the password and the connection was made.

We printed the network report just to see if the printer could actually print. It didn’t do a head alignment as part of the setup, which we would have found strange except the head on the R3000 is far from the ink cartridges, so installing a cartridge has no effect on alignment. And, in fact, the R3000 printed our black and white network status page just fine.

So we continued with the software installation on Mac OS 10.7.

That went very smoothly and didn’t take more than a couple of minutes. We installed the drivers and utilities, which is the default, but added Print CD and the User’s Gide.

Before finishing the install, we printed a test sheet, which came out fine. We were ready for action.

THE DRIVER

We didn’t have as much trouble setting up the R3000 for a print job as we did the R2000, a reflection on our own confusion. Experience helps, apparently.

As we usually do, we worked with the R3000 from Mac OS X rather than Windows. While the issues are similar, the process is a bit different.

Unlike many other printers, the R3000 has a variety of feeding options plus a large selection of compatible paper sizes and surfaces. You have to get all of those ducks in a row every time you print to get 1) a sheet to be printed and 2) the results you expect.

Adding to the fun is that there are multiple listings for Paper Size and both Paper Size and Source are expressed in a one-line description in the driver. And just to stir the pot, the option to print borderless (and whether to automatically enlarge to do it) are also in there.

We did stumble now and then on the paper size names. There are quite a few in the Epson driver and it’s pure guess work selecting one. Fortunately the preview gave us a hint when we were way off base, showing odd margins or poor layout.

Saving a configuration didn’t particularly help us keep all of these options aligned, either.

The Basic Guide makes the process for Mac OS X clear:

• Select the R2000 as the Printer
• Pick the appropriate Paper Size (with a Borderless option if you want)
• Set the Orientation (landscape or portrait)
• Use Print Settings to set the Media Type to the sheet you are using (which depends on the Paper Size setting)
• Continue with Print Settings to set other options

You have more work to do if you let the printer manage the color (which also lets you tap into some Epson technologies), but we prefer to manage color in our image editing software. That way, we can select the appropriate ICC profile for the paper we’re using.

That was itself a challenge using Photoshop CS6, which insisted we were trying to print without a profile when we selected some third-party profiles. The workaround we used was to pick an Epson-supplied profile for a similar finish. Photoshop CS6 didn’t complain about that and our results, if not exactly matched to the sheet, were reliable.

THE CONTROL PANEL

Compared to the Pro-1’s two button front panel, the R3000 has an airliner’s dashboard with a color LCD, four-way navigator, Delete and Back buttons.

It might seem a bit retro to have an actual control panel on a big, network printer but you do actually have to visit the printer now and then when you have to load fine art paper or switch blacks.

The advantage of the LCD is that it not only provides a menu system but it also provides a nicely-illustrated help system. So when it’s time to front load a heavy sheet, you don’t have to look up the procedure in the manual. Just step through it on the LCD.

That was particularly helpful when we wanted to print a CD. All we had to do was click the Right arrow button until that option was displayed and follow the instructions. Which, as these things go, were pretty simple. Drop the CD into the black plastic carrier, slide it onto the gray tray, align it to the notch and tell the printer it’s ready.

TECHNOLOGY

Ultrachrome K3 Inks. The K3 inkset is a palette of eight active inks, three of which are black. There is no gloss optimizer in the K3 inkset because the inks themselves include a resin.

In addition, the darkest black ink swaps out depending on the paper with Photo Black used for glossy sheets and Matte Black for uncoated stock. Epson says its microcrystal encapsulated Photo Black can be used on any surface but the non-resin, self-dispersing Matte Black delivers a darker black on matte and fine art papers by not sinking into the sheet quite so much.

While the driver will advise you which black is preferred, you have to make the switch at the printer using the control panel.

There’s been quite a lot of online grumbling about the amount of ink wasted when switching between Photo Black and Matte Black. Going from Matte to Photo takes 3 milliliters and going from Photo to Matte takes 1 milliliter. Why?

Epson explained that Photo Black, with resins incorporated into it, works on any paper but Matte Black, with no resin and chemistry designed to avoid sinking into uncoated sheets (and will consequently sit on glossy paper without drying, which is why Epson flushes three milliliters of it when you switch back to Photo Black), only works well on uncoated papers. So you don’t have to clear Photo Black from the ink line as much as you do have to clear Matte Black.

However, Epson pointed out, among the Setup options on the printer itself, there is a Black Ink Change setting that lets you select between this Standard flushing and an Economy flushing that only uses one milliliter to flush Matte Black instead of three milliliters. We found it interesting that the option wasn’t two milliliters but one milliliter, suggesting three milliliters does a more than thorough job.

For black and white printing, you have three tones in the ink set: a very light black (Light Light Black), a Light Black and Photo or Matte Black. The advantage to using tritone monochrome printing over quadtone color printing in monochrome is the elimination of a color cast not only at the time of printing but also as the print ages.

In addition, Epson claims the Light Light black significantly reduces gloss differences, especially combined with the high-gloss microcrystal encapsulation technology of the K3 ink set and its unique screening algorithms. Finer pigments and precise ink laydown minimize gloss variation, in short.

You’ll still have an issue where you don’t lay down ink, however, as in blown-out or specular highlights. The print driver option to enable Highlight Point Shift will print very lightly in the highlight area to avoid this in black and white prints. This is the one area in which a gloss optimizer helps.

For color prints, you can use the Levels command in most image editing software to shift the output level down from pure white at 255 to something short of that.

Epson has also revised the magenta component of the inkset, referring to it as Vivid Magenta and Vivid Light Magenta. Using these magentas instead of, say, the orange ink in the R2000, expands the range of blues and purples while warming skin tones, Epson told us.

With yellow, two densities of cyan and two of magenta delivering a wide color gamut, the K3 inkset relies on the three densities of black to deliver a stable gray balance much like gray undercolor removal in offset printing in which less color ink is used in preference for black. The technique avoids laying 100 percent of yellow, cyan and magenta down under black areas (which produces a color much like mud), relying instead on black to cover.

Gloss level is improved with a special resin in the K3 inkset that improves the smoothness of the printed surface.

Pigment Agitation. With the ink stored in an immobile tank, how does the R3000 agitate the pigment so it doesn’t all settle at the bottom of the tank? You can actually hear it agitate the ink using a pressurization system borrowed from the Epson 3800. It sounds a bit like a vacuum cleaner every now and then as the pigments are stirred up in the tank using fluid pressure.

Print Head. The R3000 uses the same print head as the R2000. That’s the MicroPiezo AMC, one-inch wide print head with ink-repelling coating for more accurate dot placement and reduced maintenance.

AccuPhoto HG. Epson’s AccuPhoto HG image technology was created with the Rochester Institute of Technology’s Munsell Color Science Laboratory. The HG stands for High Gloss.

Using an advanced mathematical architecture and screening technology, it optimizes the use of each ink color to maximize color gamut, providing smoother color transitions and ensuring consistent color under different lighting, actually calculating the metameric index.

Epson claims AccuPhoto HG can produce “truly photographic prints” even with high-speed and in lower resolution print modes.

It isn’t an option in the print driver, however, unless you let the printer manage color. We never do that, preferring to use an ICC profile in Photoshop for the ink and paper and manipulating color there.

PRINTING

There’s no proof like pudding, so we quickly put the R3000 to work. We were particularly interested in comparing its output to the Canon Pro-1 prints we’d been producing.

First Prints. To get familiar with the printer, we ran off half a dozen quick prints. Three 8×10 Velvets from Lightroom 4 beta and three 13×19 Lustres from Photoshop CS5, one of which we sent 16-bit data to the printer. We’d printed only one before (on the R2000). A good mix.

Then we tried 4-inch roll paper. No sale. Unlike the R2000, the R3000 won’t let you hang a short roll on the back. You have to have a full-width roll.

Epson told us that narrower rolls aren’t supported because the support tray is in the way. It preferred to have a front-loading fine art mechanism than support 4-inch roll paper.

So we moved on to black and white on art paper, loading the paper through the front art paper slot. The LCD will confirm that art paper can be loaded. Just slide it in. It will pop out the back (which you opened) so you can carefully align it to the front scribe mark and side guide. Then press OK so the printer can actually load the paper. When it has, be sure to push in the front loading tray and pull out the output tray.

We printed on a matte fine art paper. Or wanted to. The driver complained that the black ink cartridge wasn’t correct. In fact, we had been printing on lustre, which uses the Photo Black cartridge. For a matte paper, we needed Matte Black. The driver dialog did indicate that was the ink to use.

But the driver complained, “The black ink cartridge differs from the one installed in the printer. Change the black ink cartridge in the printer.” We were a little confused, but the manual came to the rescue explaining we have to walk over to the printer and use the Menu system to actually switch black inks.

That takes a few minutes to flush the supply lines.

We had a job queued so as soon as the ink switch had been completed, the job started printing.

Dueling Pianos. We fired off the same image file to both the R3000 and the Pro-1, both using the same papers (using the paper manufacturer’s ICC profiles for that sheet on that particular printer).

It was interesting. So interesting, we asked for a vote. So this isn’t just our opinion but a consensus.

Everybody noticed the R3000 uncoated black and white prints had more contrast and more detail. That smaller droplet size apparently matters. And though both printers feature a matte black, Epson’s was clearly more dense. So the R3000 delivered better tonality and detail on monochrome matte prints.

It was, frankly, a significant difference. Guests didn’t blink an eye before picking the Epson prints over the Canon.

We also printed a set of portraits on Ilford Galerie Smooth Perl using Ilford’s ICC profiles for both printers. The file was printed first to one printer then the other, with only the driver settings changed. So they were the identical image on the same paper.

The results were very hard to tell apart. Virtually identical. We did notice very slight gloss variation on the Canon prints, but only when we angled the image to look for it. And the Epson prints did produce more saturated color, which was only noticeable on things like T-shirt lettering and vivid package printing. Skin tones were spectacular on both.

One of the virtues of the Pro-1 is it hardly ever produces a lousy print. Right out of the box, the results are impressive. We have to say the R3000 matched that experience for us — but we have to add that it has quite a few more options and it’s easy to get lost in the driver.

Glossies. We had two images taken at City Lights Bookstore that seemed to go well together. Both were of windows, but one showed the interior, the daylight illuminating books on a table by the window, and other showed the view over lower rooftops out its window.

We used Ilford Galerie Smooth Gloss on these with Ilford’s ICC profiles. But we printed the set both in color and in black and white.

Epson claims the image is stable out of the printer, but our room lighting isn’t as bright in the evening as it is in the day. So we held off evaluating the images until we had good sunlight. We had excellent detail in the shadows and highlights of both versions of the prints and a glowing color that matched the weather that day.

They were, in short, just perfect.

The Bridge. Newsletter subscribers have been treated to our Just for Fun series describing an evolving black and white project.

We started with a 12-panel 13×19 printed on Moab Entrada Natural. At first we thought the black and white print was a bit greenish. Epson suggested it might be a profile issue. This is another of those driver settings that you can get lost in. The workaround is, in general, to try Velvet Fine Art for cold, bluish papers rather than Radiant White (which is what Moab itself suggests) and use Ultrasmooth Fine Art in Advanced Black and White Photo mode for natural white papers with no brighteners.

The problem is commonly seen when printing the U.S. flag’s blue field. If it looks purple, you’ll want to pick a different profile.

The most recent episode recounted our poster prints of the Golden Gate Bridge on its 75th anniversary.

We did two versions of the original image, a square black and white taken with an Olympus E-PL1. The simpler version is a straight monochrome image. The other version is a split-toned image using four tones.

The image itself was taken just a few days before the anniversary but looks for all the world as if it were taken 75 years ago. Credit the black and white palette and the square aspect ratio. And the setting, which with the golden Marin headlands in the background and low tide in the foreground did not betray the era.

But even the split-tone image, which ranged from black to red to blue to yellow and colored the bridge’s dark tones in red and the water in blue, had a colorized antique effect.

We really couldn’t pick between them. Nor could anyone else.

Printed on Museo Silver Rag, they both stopped visitors to the bunker in their tracks.

CD Printing. Epson recommends burning the CD or DVD before printing it, which makes sense to us.

Loading the CD is as simple as loading fine art media. You drop the gray tray, put a CD in the black CD insert, line it up to the mark and watch the printer load it. The LCD guides you through the process so you don’t have to remember.

We had a CD design ready to go in Epson’s Print CD, so we let it fly.

Oddly enough the driver wanted Matte Black rather than Photo Black, so we had to switch blacks before we could print. But after we did that, the R3000 printed the CD without a complaint — and very quickly.

In our Pro-1 review, we expanded on CD printing, mentioning alternative sofware and supplies (like waterproof media).

iPrint. Epson has its own solution for iPad owners who want to print photos to an Epson WiFi printer or all-in-one. It’s called iPrint.

We installed it on an iPad 2 and gave it a whirl. It can access your photos from your Camera Roll or Photo Stream, of course, but it can also grab them online from Evernote, Google Docs, Dropbox or Box.

You actually print from iPrint itself rather than from a print dialog box in your favorite applications. We grabbed a shot from our Photo Stream.

What we really liked about it were the extensive print options, much like the print dialog you’re used to seeing from a desktop application.

You can select a printer if you have more than one, Page Size, Media Type, Layout, Print Quality, Copies and Advanced Settings (Paper Source, Monochrome or Color, Print Date, Brightness, Contrast, Saturation).

No need to install your printer, either. The app looked around and found the R3000 before we knew it.

And our test print came out perfectly the first time we tried it. Very nicely done.

CONCLUSION

The R3000 handled everything we threw at it. And we threw everything at it.

But “handled” doesn’t quite cover it. Whether it was the help system accessed from the LCD or the front-loading thick media paper path or the generous ink capacity, the R3000 exhibited a grace and competence we appreciated more and more.

That’s because we printed on it more and more. We had the Pro-1 right next to it but we kept sending our images to the R3000. Color prints were nearly identical, as we pointed out, but there was no comparison between the monochrome images. The R3000 blew the doors off the Pro-1 for black and white printing.

It was also a little more civilized in normal use. We didn’t have nearly the wait time we have on the Pro-1 when the printer has been idle a few days as it primes the pump.

We haven’t seen a better 13×19 fine arts media printer that does both color and black and white. The R3000 sets the bar. Very high.

Digital Camera Home >
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HP Envy 110

BEAUTY & BRAINS

HP Envy 110 —
What’s in a Name?

By MIKE PASINI
Editor
The Imaging Resource Digital Photography Newsletter

Review Date: January 2012

Envy? That’s the name HP has given to this handsome “e-All-in-One” device (“e” for being Web-enabled) as well as a line of laptops. But substitute the synonym Resentment and you’ll be as confused as we are about the name.

Perhaps the company would like you to think that if you bring this baby home, all your friends will envy you.

There are indeed quite a few things we liked about the $249.99 Envy 110 but there are enough misses that we’d hold out for the Envy 410. And while we used the Envy exclusively as our all-in-one device for a while, we discovered one fatal flaw.

The fatal flaw? It’s really pretty simple and it isn’t, after all, its name. It’s the paper tray. As we explain below.

FEATURES

HP justly touts the “cutting-edge design” of the Envy. It’s an attractive box. But don’t let that fool you. At 15×17, it requires the same (at least) footprint as other multifunction devices. It’s just a good deal shorter at only four inches, about half the height of a more conventional device. And just to put a cherry on top, the input paper tray stays tucked into the bottom of the unit so it really is that squat.

That gives it a component profile that would look right at home in your stereo rack. Except you’d have to have about a 10-inch gap above it to use the scanner.

The piano black finish of the glass top cover (we used a microfiber cloth to clean it) is complemented by a bronzed metal finish accenting various edges and tabs. We did find that an attractive touch and a nice departure from the usual silver.

The Envy also distinguishes itself from other devices with its automation. You don’t have to worry about extending an output tray. That isn’t very unusual, but it is unusual that you don’t have to worry about closing it back up. The Envy knows when to extend it and when to pull it back in.

Same goes for the touch screen panel, which racks out to greet you when there’s something to do and swings back in when you retrieve your printout or power off the printer. The Envy seemed, now and then, a bit confused about when to close the control panel but it always knew when to open it.

Like other multifunction devices, the Envy is a WiFi printer you can easily share. That lets it also take advantage of HP’s ePrint service which emails documents to the printer. And it’s AirPrint compatible, so you can easily print from an iOS device. We printed photos from an iPad with no problem.

Of course, it also functions as a stand-alone device for scanning or printing. You can scan to or print from the small card reader or USB connection, too. The Envy can even print from the Web using apps to access services provided by companies like ESPN or HP’s own Snapfish.

HP claims the Envy is whisper quiet. And mostly it is. We found the scanner particularly noisy during startup. Otherwise it was about as quiet a printer as any other, making a bit more noise during draft printing than high quality printing.

HP also calls the Energy Star-qualified Envy “the planet’s first PVC-free printer” not counting the USB cable. That means its plastic parts contain less than 1,000 parts per million of chlorine. It does come in a cloth rather than a plastic bag inside the retail box. And the printer cartridges are 70 percent recycled plastic. The company has for some time been particularly environmentally conscious and that’s certainly worth applauding.

Missing from this device is a transparency adapter (so you won’t be able to scan negatives or slides) and CD printing, which is now available on Epson and Canon devices.

SPECIFICATIONS

General

Functions: Print, copy, scan reflective material, access Web

Memory: 128-MB built in. Not expandable.

Display: 3.45-inch color graphics display with color touchscreen

Card Reader: Memory Stick Duo, Secure Digital/MulitmediaCard

Dimensions: 16.8 x 13.2 x 4.0 inches (W x D x H) or 15.53 inches open (H)

Weight: 17.14 lbs. with a package weight of 20.23 lbs.

Power Consumption: 29 watts maximum from 100 to 240 volts AC

Energy Star Qualified: Yes

Warranty: One-year technical phone support; one-year limited hardware warranty and access to 24/7 support services through http://www.hp.com/support

Printing

Speed: Black at up to 6 pages per minute or 27 ppm in draft mode. Color up to 4 ppm or 22 ppm in draft mode. A 4×6 photo can be printed as fast as 26 seconds.

Monthly Duty Cycle: Up to 1,000 pages with a 250 to 500 page recommended monthly print volume.

Print Technology: HP thermal inkjet

Resolution: Up to 1,200 dpi in Best mode. UP to 4,800 x 1,200 optimized dpi from 1,200 dpi input data when printing from a computer on photo paper in maximum dpi mode.

Print Languages: HP PCL 3 GUI

Paper Handling

Input Tray: 80-sheet or 10-envelope capacity

Output Tray: 25-sheet capacity

Duplex: Standard

Borderless Printing: Up to 8.5 x 11 inches

Paper Sizes: Standard sizes include letter, executive, cards, 4×6 photo paper. Custom sizes supported include 3×5 to 8.5×11.69 inches.

Media Types: Paper (plain, inkjet, photo), envelopes, transparencies, labels, cards, HP premium media, iron-on transfers, borderless media

Media Weight: 20 lb. basis weight recommended

Scanner

Type: Flatbed

Resolution: Up to 1,200 dpi

Bit depth: 24-bit

Scan Size: Up to 8×5 x 11.69 inches

Copier

Speed: Up to 27 copies per minute in black. Up to 22 cpm in color.

Resolution: Up to 600 dpi from 300 dpi input in Normal mode for both black and color

Reduce/Enlarge: 40 percent reduction to 500 percent enlargement

Maximum Number of Copies: Up to 50 copies

Connectivity

Options: HP ePrint, AirPrint, USB 2.0, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n (although the Envy preferred our Wireless G router connection over our Wireless N)

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

General system requirements are a CD-ROM/DVD drive or Internet connection and a USB port.

Windows Windows 7, Vista, XP (SP2) or higher (32-bit only) are supported with the following additional requirements:

• Windows 7: 1-GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor, 1-GB (32-bit) or 2-GB (64-bit) RAM, 650-MB hard disk space, Internet Explorer
• Vista: 800 MHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor, 512-MB RAM, 750-MB hard disk space, Internet Explorer
• XP: any Intel Pentium II, Celeron or compatible processor, 233 MHz or higher, 128-MB RAM, 300-MB available hard disk space, Internet Explorer 6 or higher

Mac OS X 10.5 or 10.6 are officially supported but we were able to print and scan from 10.7. Additional Mac requirements include 256-MB RAM; 300-MB available hard disk space

IN THE BOX

The retail box contains:

• HP ENVY 100 e-all-in-one device
• HP 60 Black Ink Cartridge (~200 pages)
• HP 60 Tri-color Ink Cartridge (~165 pages)
• Software CD
• Reference Guide
• power cord
• accessory bag

No USB cable is provided but the printer doesn’t require one even for setup if you use it wirelessly.

CONSUMABLES

HP is famous for supplying “starter” cartridges with a special ink formulation to prime the pump and a lower than normal capacity. But that’s not the case any more. The Envy has full capacity tanks for both black and color.

We managed to get through half the capacity of the supplied cartridges printing about 50 pages of black and white text and about 20 4×6 color photos.

So we ran out to Office Depot to buy another set of cartridges. Your best bet is to buy online (we’ve seen 60XL 2-packs as low as $18.29) but we found two options at the store: the regular capacity cartridges and high capacity cartridges for substantially more.

The standard black cartridge alone is $14.99 while the tri-color cartridge is $19.99. You can buy a combo pack with both of them for $31.99, which is what we paid at Office Depot. For comparison, a 94/95 combo pack for the older HP PSC 1610 all-in-one is $47.99.

The high capacity 60XL black cartridge is $35.99 and the tri-color $40.99 at Best Buy.

And HP bundles 50 sheets of 4×6 photo paper with a tricolor cartridge for $21.99.

We also picked up a package of 100 sheets of 4×6 glossy HP Premium Plus photo paper, its highest grade, for $24.99. But an in-store promotion turned that into 200 sheets at the same price. Premium Plus is heavyweight with an instant-dry finish that resists water, smearing, fingerprints and humidity. It’s available in high or soft gloss finishes.

HP paper is all acid-free and coded on the reverse side so the printer knows what it’s dealing with. That means you won’t find ICC profiles for HP paper when you install the driver so you’ll want to print letting the printer manage color, rather than your application.

HP makes several grades of coded paper. In addition to Premium Plus, there’s also Advanced (not as heavy as Premium Plus) and Everyday papers that are less expensive.

HARDWARE TOUR

The unit is a rather simple box. From the front you see the LCD panel that inclines to a comfortable viewing angle at the center. To its right is a small door for the card reader and a USB flash drive port.

The sides are unremarkable.

The back has ports for the power cable at the right corner and a USB cable connection at the left corner.

On top a glass cover with a bronzed metal lip lifts to reveal the scanning bed. Its hinges, however, are fixed, so the lid can’t accommodate thick materials like a book. An opening in front of the bed allows you to lift it to get to the ink cartridges. The lid itself stays open at 90 degrees. But it’s so heavy, we didn’t trust it to stay there all by itself.

The control panel is touch sensitive with several discrete parts. The Power button in the lower left corner does not completely shut off the printer (you have to pull the power cord for that). The main screen is surrounded by four icons: Home (top left) to return to the main screen, Help (top right) to access more information about the current operation, Back (bottom left) and Cancel (bottom right).

The main screen has a row of five icons on top: Web Services, Wireless Menu, Apps Manager, Ink Status and Setup. Below that, with Web Services enabled, a Get More button sits to the left of the first four Apps (which scroll). And below that row you’ll find the family multifunction task buttons for Photo, Copy, Scan and eFax. eFax is a third-party service that allows you to send and receive faxes using the Internet.

The LCD layout sounds busy but it’s well organized and context sensitive, so you know just what to do.

The card reader functions as a peripheral to the printer exclusively. We could not use it to copy images from a card to our computer, for example. That’s something you can do with other multifunction devices.

INSTALLATION

The retail box opens not from the end but the wide side. The printer itself is in a reusable cloth bag.

A big install poster is included but only the first flap is needed.

After removing the tape and packing materials that secure the print head, you connect the power cord and turn on the printer. From there, you just follow the prompts on the LCD.

The LCD has a number of touch buttons that illuminate only when they are active, so it’s very easy to follow.

Cartridge installation was a snap, especially with the generous working space the unit provided when open. And head alignment, after putting some paper in the input tray that slides out from under the printer, was quick without requiring a scan. The control panel closed after alignment, though.

At that point, the unit is ready for stand-alone service.

To use it on the network or from a computer, we still had to install the software. But we had to stop a moment just to admire what a gorgeous device it is.

SOFTWARE

The install CD does not support Lion (there’s a printout that mentions this in the black box). But you are directed to the Web.

That’s a little confusing, though. Should you use Software Update or HP’s site? Add Printer does not show the wireless printer, so we went to HP.

The Envy 110 is supported on Lion, we discovered, but it was a goose chase to find the download link. Good luck. Go to the product page, click Support, try Customer Care and so on.

Version 12.14.0 Original Software Drivers is a 128.67-MB download for the driver, utility and scan software.

It’s a quick install but then you have to go get the User Manual PDF.

We only did the full install on one machine in case we had any issues. But the way we test an all-in-one device here is to make it our default printer and do everything on it.

So it wasn’t long before we had to install Envy drivers on a second computer. This time, though, the printer was discovered as a Bonjour device. We gave the print command and Lion complained that we didn’t have the driver. But it offered to find it for us at Apple’s site.

We agreed and in a few minutes the print dialog box resumed with a preview of our printout. That was a lot less trouble.

There’s a little more to this story for Lion users but we’ll save it for the scanning section.

NETWORK CONNECTION

To use the Envy wirelessly, you do have to set up a WiFi connection on the printer.

The Envy looked for nearby wireless routers and presented a list for us to choose one. An on-screen keyboard let us enter our password and the Envy made the connection to our router.

We had the option of printing a wireless test report but we skipped it.

LOADING PAPER

Paper loading is pretty simple on the Envy. The paper tray slides out from under the control panel. There isn’t much of an issue aligning it to slide it back in because it sits on the table surface.

That scrapes the bottom of the tray against the table, which concerned us a bit, but it isn’t something you see (nor were there any scratches on the bottom of the tray after a month). We would have liked a few ball bearings so the tray rolled out smoothly rather than slide out roughly, though. If not to protect the tray then to protect the table.

The tray itself is as wide as the control panel. And when the control panel is cranked out to its viewing angle, it can be hard to get a finger on the bronzed front lip of the tray to pull it out.

It’s quite an interesting design all by itself. The front edge is open with two serrated fingers reaching up to hold the paper in. A small grip board is behind them with two tiny white rollers.

At the other end of the tray are two lines to mark the back edge of A4 or Letter sized sheets. In the middle of the tray is an outline to mark 4×6 photo paper placement. There are also two side guides which move in unison to center smaller sheets in the tray. But they are positioned from the end. You don’t, that is, push them from the middle of the guide, as you might expect, but from the end closest to the back end of the tray. Which is a bit unnatural. We never did learn, always trying to move the guides from the center.

The paper tray can, consequently, only accommodate one paper size at a time. And that’s the fatal flaw.

If you’re working in another room, you won’t know what paper is in the printer. And as a network printer, someone is bound to be working in another room. And if there are a few of you, someone is bound to want plain letter paper while someone else wants 4×6 photo paper. It’s just the nature of a network printer.

The Envy is smart enough to know what paper it has and will complain if you try to print a letter on 4×6 photo paper. But that’s not going to cut it for a network printer (unless you buy two). It really should support both photo paper and plain paper at the same time.

Or you might end up envying those Canon, Epson and Kodak printers that have figured that out.

After using the printer for a few weeks we had trouble, one day, sliding the tray back in after swapping papers. Turns out a couple of sheets of 4×6 photo paper had remained in the printer, one of which we hadn’t used in a long time. Worth peeking in there once in a while, apparently.

If you lift up the hood, you’ll find another place to look for paper jams toward the hinge. As the animated illustration at the left shows, popping off that cover reveals the U-turn in the paper path. It also shows why you can’t use thicker paper (like card stock) in the Envy. It just can’t make that turn.

COPYING

Our real-life daily use of the Envy found us using it in a variety of ways. The simplest task was making copies without the computer.

Document Copying. Copying a document is one of the most common unattended uses of a multifunction device. Inkjets make very nice copies (no scumming from toners, no paper warping from the heat) and with a built-in scanner they can perform some useful tricks, too.

We copied a newspaper article. The copy was very nicely done, showing the barest tone for the brownish newsprint and even improving the color halftones. In addition, menu options allow you to set the brightness of the image, so we could have completely dropped out the background tone if necessary. We could also have chosen to print the copy in just black.

Photo Copying. High on the list of standalone uses is making copies of old photos. Someone visits, you go through your old albums just for fun, they want a copy of a picture of themselves when they looked good and … well, you just pop it on the scanner bed, put some photo paper in and make a copy.

The Envy does make it that easy to copy old photos. From the Photo option, just select Reprint Photo. The LCD shows you how to orient your print on the scanner glass. Tap the screen to see a preview and access the Edit functions, which include rotate, crop, turn Photo Fix on, adjust brightness or choose a color effect. Color effects include turning a color image into a black and white and various toned options like sepia.

The quality of our test photo was very good if a bit darker and larger. It was our usual difficult image with a bright red background and a yellow pillow and a child’s face in the middle. The skin tones were good, the detail like eyelashes perfect.

We also tried a black and white image because we’d had a little trouble printing one from the card reader. In this particular case the print was mounted on board that acted as a border, so we also cropped the previewed image. Cropping on such a small display is not easy, but we managed to get rid of the border.

The image quality itself was good. Some shadow detail was lost but the highlight detail was there. The image was a bit softer than the original with a slight reddish color cast and less contrast.

PRINTING

All-in-one devices are often just called printers because the scanning (and copying functions) are not used quite nearly as often as the printing functions. Printing is at the heart of an all-in-one device. And the Envy lets you do it in a variety of ways.

Card Reader. The card reader stumped us for a while. We never know which way to face an SD card so it fits in the slot. Cameras, printers, card readers, doesn’t matter, there’s no clue. So we just drop the card in and see if it goes straight down or flops to the side.

On the Envy, it didn’t drop down until we really gave it a push (something we didn’t want to do until we knew how to orient the card). Subsequent card insertions sometimes got stuck halfway down for some reason. We may not have been perfectly perpendicular. Still, it shouldn’t be that hard.

The answer, incidentally, is that the label of the SD card should face backwards. Not Exactly Intuitive.

The black and white problem we mentioned above was a striated pattern in the flat highlight areas of the image. Stripes. The image, one of the Canon PowerShot 310 HS shots of the Bay Bridge with the fog swirling in, was a monochrome RGB image.

We actually printed a couple of these. They all had the same defect. Printed as quadtones, they show a narrow, lighter band parallel to the short side of the sheet. In the direction the print head moves, in short. It was only noticeable in lighter areas of the print and only in monochrome images.

We printed, for example, a new Fiat 500 badge on a white car in the rain, nearly monochrome except for the red background. No sign of the stripes at all.

When we printed the Bay Bridge image from Photoshop, the stripes were gone. So we suspect it was merely a clogged nozzle.

Duplex Printing. We’re glad to see duplex printing becoming a standard on all-in-one printers. And very glad when it doesn’t require a bulky accessory appended to the back of the printer, like the Kodak ESPs.

In fact, it’s remarkable that the Envy can do duplex printing in such a small box. But it does. And very nicely. We experienced no jams or misalignments printing on both sides of plain paper.

The LCD explains what’s going on during duplex printing, too. We wandered over to see why a quick draft printout was pausing every so often. “Ink drying,” the LCD explained as the printer paused while the printed side of sheet dried for a second to prevent smearing. Nice touch.

AirPrint. There are a couple of ways to print from your iOS device these days. One for Mac users is the free AirPrint Activator, an OS X application that lets iOS devices print to any network printer that’s also shared from one of the connected Macs. It listens for local network printer advertisements, making them available to iOS devices.

A somewhat more elegant solution (in that it doesn’t require any configuration) is an AirPrint-compatible printer. There aren’t many yet. Canon’s latest multifunctions do AirPrint and so does the Envy.

As we explained in our Snapseed review, it’s a snap to print from the iPad to the Envy. The Print Options box that pops up offers a Printer button to select the printer you want to send the photo to and a button to adjust the number of copies. There’s also the Print button to execute the command. Or you can tap anywhere else on the screen to dismiss the box.

That’s all there is to it. No paper size, no quality, no color management decisions. Just Where and How Many.

Because our Envy was connected to our network wirelessly, we simply entered the router password on the Envy’s front panel for the router it found and we were connected.

The iPad found it and we were able to select it in Snapseed’s Print Options box.

A few seconds later we had a print as Snapseed sent the image to the printer and it printed a 4×6 photo.

Bluetooth. It may seem superfluous but we like to pop our D-Link DBT-120 USB Bluetooth receiver into the USB port of printers we test to see if we can send an image from our phone to the printer.

We did get power to the USB dongle but for this to work the printer has to provide PictBridge compatibility. And the Envy does not.

That means that you not only can’t Bluetooth images to it but you can’t cable your camera to it for printing.

ePrint. The attraction of ePrint eludes us, working in isolation as we do. We imagine it’s a lot more useful if you’re conducting business with someone and need to provide some sort of image for evidence or a sale. You might want to email the image — but not to their computer. To the their Web-connected ePrint-capable HP printer. That way they get a print.

You don’t have much control over what kind of paper is in the printer, of course, so it’s hard to make any quality guarantees.

We cover this a bit more below in Web Services.

From the Computer. Of course, you can print from your computer as well. We printed images directly from Photoshop letting the printer manage color since it knew all about its own paper. We also printed multipage documents and #10 envelopes from InDesign and Pages.

Plain text printing was fine, no problems. We printed photos on HP’s top of the line Premium Plus sheet as well as some older tabbed 4×6 HP Premium paper. And again, the results were fine.

They were actually better than we thought. At first, we accidentally printed on the wrong side of the photo paper, making for dull, flat prints. When we actually printed on the right side of the paper, we got good results, with strong blacks, good saturation and accurate color.

SCANNING

Any copy you make, of course, requires the scanner, so in a sense it’s a scan. We’ve covered that above, so in this section we want to focus on other options.

We do have to say at the outset that the Envy convinced us with just 24-bit color depth it isn’t capable of high-end image scanning. It’s one of the few all-in-ones that disappoints in that respect, the others offering 48-bit color depth. In its defense, however, 24-bit is adequate for reflective scanning and that’s all the Envy does.

Scan to Reader or Computer. Not every multifunction device with a USB port actually lets you scan images to it. The Envy does. Easily.

You can scan to a networked computer as easily as to a thumbdrive or SD card just by selecting it as the destination.

Scans were quick but we found two problems. There was no way to set the resolution of the scan, just the destination and the kind of scan. The kind of scan for one of our tests was a Photo to File. We wanted to scan a 4×6 print. But the Envy treated our Photo to File like a Document to File, picking a low 200 dpi resolution and a large letter-size scan area.

Scan from Photoshop. No TWAIN driver is installed with the Envy software. So we couldn’t access the scanner from Photoshop.

We tried to use VueScan’s TWAIN driver and VueScan found the Envy but the Envy didn’t respond to the Preview or Scan commands.

This may be a Lion issue, though.

We found the problem explained at HP’s ePrintCenter, a very impressive home page for your Envy. HP Director software is not compatible with OS X 10.6 or 10.7. But “the scanning interface is now built into Mac OS X 10.6 and 10.7, and is supported by the Apple Preview and Image Capture applications. You can also scan from the Print & Fax window in Mac OS X 10.6, or from the Print & Scan window in OS X 10.7.”

We used Image Capture to gang scan some prints. We did have a healthy choice of resolutions starting at 75 and going up to 1200 dpi. And we could even adjust image quality manually. But it was nothing like the control you have with a TWAIN driver.

HP Scan. There is also HP Scan, an application that did let us access the Envy from a computer. Again, the options were far too limited. There is nothing like HP Scan Pro unfortunately.

WEB SERVICES

Web services are unique to HP printers. Let’s take a look at what they can do for you.

Print Apps. HP pioneered the concept of a Web-enabled printer with apps that print things like tickets, recipes, coloring book pages, coupons, maps, news and more.

At first this capability was only available on its flagship all-in-one, but it’s since percolated through the line to other models. And the Envy is one of them.

That row of icons on the LCD holds the icons for each app. The collection has grown quite a bit since we last checked.

And some of them (five at the moment) include Scheduled Delivery, so you can have fresh content printed on a regular basis automatically.

We remain confused by just where in the computing cosmos Print Apps fit in. It would seem tablets handle some things better (like getting the news) and a computer, one of which is usually near any printer, is no slouch either if you want to print something like tickets. Some things like coloring book pages and graph paper make sense to us.

For photographers, it’s worth noting that you can access your Snapfish account to print images. And you can upload images from a card to your Snapfish account, too.

ePrint. HP assigns a screwy email address to every printer it makes that’s ePrint capable. It never publicizes that address and doesn’t respond to any email to that address either.

That’s some security, but if you pass out your printer’s email address so people can print things for you, you will expose the printer to all the spam you get in your In box. HP does provide spam filtering.

The service also reformats email to print, including any attachments.

Our first attempt generated an error email from HP’s ePrint service. “There were more than 10 file attachments, or the total size of attachments exceeded the limit of 5MB,” it guessed. We had attached a large image file.

Our second attempt went very well. It was nearly as fast as just giving the print command, actually.

We’re not sure why we’d want to do this, though. We’d always want an electronic copy of any document emailed to the printer. So why not just email us the document and we’ll print it if we want to?

The idea that it turns a printer into something like a fax machine only works for the recipient who requires a fax for the return of signed forms, say. Or the company selling you paper and ink. Not for you.

eFax. eFax is a non-HP service that allows you to send 20 pages and receive 20 pages a month. After registering with the service, faxes you receive are printed on the printer and faxes you send are scanned and then sent to the eFax server which then phones them on.

Again you’ll want to keep plain paper in the tray if you enable this service because you aren’t going to be very happy with faxes printed on 4×6 photo paper.

MAINTENANCE

HP doesn’t list any specific maintenance functions in its electronic manual for the Envy. The Printer Utility, however, does have some problem-solving routines. Among them:

• Clean cartridges. Two levels of ink flushing to clean the print head, apparently. The cartridges themselves really don’t need cleaning.
• Clean back of page ink smearing. If you notice the back of your printouts are smeared with ink, there’s some ink deposited along the paper path. With letter-size plain paper in the tray, this cleaning process takes a few minutes to complete, ejecting a blank sheet at the end.
• Clean paper feed. As we confessed above, we managed to leave a few sheets of photo paper in the printer when we switched papers. If you get Out of Paper errors with paper in the tray or other feed issues, HP suggests cleaning the paper feed. You take all the paper out of the tray to run this process, which takes a few minutes to complete.

With a glass top, physical maintenance isn’t as difficult as it is with those shiny plastic surfaces on other printers.

Restart. We did run into one maintenance issue. We’d sent a job to the printer with goofy driver settings and the printer just hung. Even when we canceled the job, the LCD reported the printer was cancelling the job, but it wasn’t really. It was just plain old hung with the output tray sticking out.

We canceled everything but the printer was unresponsive. So we pulled the plug for an old-fashioned cold restart. Before plugging it back in, though, we manually swiveled the output tray back and closed the control panel. That got us back into business.

CONCLUSION

The Envy is an attractive all-in-one device — with some brains, too. But we really felt handicapped when we relied on it to do our printing and scanning. It doesn’t scan negatives or print CDs and the paper tray only holds one kind of paper at a time, which really killed us.

We give it good marks for its Web apps and ePrint capabilities — if you have a use for them. We give it a standing ovation for its AirPrint support. Connecting to our router was also very easy.

The color bit depth is adequate for reflective material but that won’t make anyone envious of the Envy’s scans.

Print quality was generally just fine apart from a transient issue with striated black and white prints. Our color prints were perfectly fine once we started printing on the right side of the paper.

Normal office printing and scanning tasks were handled easily, though. And that really seems what the Envy was designed for.

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Canon Pro-1 Printer

FIRST PRINT PERFECT

Canon Pixma Pro-1 Launches
A New Era in Photo Printing

By MIKE PASINI
Editor
The Imaging Resource Digital Photography Newsletter

Review Date: October 2011
Last Revised: 6 December 2011

It’s no secret that Canon has been playing catch-up to Epson when it comes to exhibition-quality photo printing. But the new Pro-1 isn’t panting for breath. Canon has designed it for commercial, professional work intended not just for exhibition but for years of appreciation — in one form or another — after.

While Canon considers the Pro-1 the perfect partner for the high-end images of commercial photographers, you don’t have to run a photo studio to appreciate the Pro-1. We think it may find a home with any photographer who appreciates image quality, accuracy and consistency.

Canon has outfitted it with a full complement of black inks making it the first 13×19 printer the company has designed for black and white printing. And it brings CD printing to U.S. customers for the first time in a 13×19 printer.

The company has also developed a new set of Lucia inks with increased black density for color imaging. With a 4 picoliter droplet size, Canon revised just how the Pro-1 lays down ink from its new 12,288 nozzle print head, too. So strictly from an image quality perspective, the Pro-1 makes some interesting arguments.

But it doesn’t stop there. The new inks are packaged in what the company calls tanks rather than cartridges. They load in the front (both paper feeds are now in the back). The tanks feed the print head through a tube system that is stabilized by a mist fan. Ethernet and Hi-Speed USB are the connections. So the Pro-1 makes some good productivity arguments too.

We set one up in the bunker here and had just a few days to put it through its paces before Canon U.S. announced it. We’ll be updating this report as we use it more in the days ahead, but there’s no sense keeping you in suspense.

It delivered great images right out of the box.

FEATURES | Back to Contents

The quick list of the Pro-1’s main features include:

A 12-ink system with wide color gamut and increased black density
Print head with 12,288 nozzles for faster printing
4800×2400 dpi from 12,000 ppi maximum input
Chroma Optimizer for uniform glossiness and crisp, sharp blacks
Optimum Image Generating system analyses the image’s color to calculate the optimum ink combination and droplet volume
Black and white printing with five monochrome inks
New Lucia pigment inks in 36 milliliter tanks
Print a gallery-quality 13×19 photo in about 2 minutes 55 seconds
High capacity ink tanks
Wide range of media support including CD/DVDs, 14″ wide and thick media
Canon Color Management Tool Pro for creating ICC profiles of any paper
Easy-PhotoPrint Pro plug-in for efficient printing workflow
Optional CarePack Pro service plan to extend warranty up to three years with 24/7 toll-free support with the EOS Professional support group, 200 Canon authorized service facilities, two-day delivery service for instant exchange replacement units.

Let’s look at a few of these in more detail.

Speed. The Pro-1 improves on the Pro9500 Mark II’s print time of 7:55 significantly, cutting that to just 2:55 for a 13×19-inch print. Its ink tanks provide 2.5 times the capacity of the Pro9500 Mark II, as well. Front panels enable easy access to them via a single button.

Repeatability. Canon has enhanced repeatability with features borrowed from wide format printers. A mist fan, for example, provides air circulation and a tubular ink supply system is separate from the print head, which itself provides real-time droplet volume control to stabilize color and ink density. Network sharing is provided via an Ethernet connection.

Color Management. You can download the Color Management Tool Pro software, which supports X-Rite tools, including the Color Munki Photo and Color Munki Design. It wasn’t yet available when we were testing, however. You can create custom ICC profiles with these tools but Canon has worked with a number of mills including Moab, Ilford and Hahnemuhle to provide over 400 ICC profiles for their papers at launch.

Color Modes. The Pro-1 features three color modes: Photo Color for fresh blues and greens to match memory colors, Linear Tone to reproduce colors with a linear tone curve and ICC Profiles for special papers.

PIONEER PRINTER | Back to Contents

This feature set sounds more like a round map for a new printer line-up than a flagship in the current Pro line.

In fact, Katsuichi Shimizu, managing director, member of board and chief executive of Canon’s inkjet products operations worldwide, told Dave Etchells told Dave at the PhotoPlus show (http://www.imaging-resource.com/imaging-resource-interview-katsuichi-shimizu-and-michael-duffett-canon/) that the Pro-1 line will likely expand both with less expensive models suited for enthusiasts and larger models for the high-end pro market.

The less expensive models won’t likely included the “off-axis” tank ink system and would rely on few colors. The higher-end models would print on larger sheets.

SPECIFICATIONS | Back to Contents

The Pro-1 specifications include:

• Printer Type: professional inkjet printer
• Maximum Resolution: 4800×2400 dpi
• Droplet Size: 4 picoliters (color)
• Nozzles: 12,288 nozzles (1,024 x 12)
• Print Speed: 2 min 5 secs for a 13×19 print
• Inks: 12 Lucia PGI-29 pigment inks in individual tanks containing Photo Black, Matte Black, Dark Grey, Grey, Light Grey, Cyan, Photo Cyan, Magenta, Photo Magenta, Yellow, Red, Chroma Optimizer
• Paper Sizes: 4×6, 5×7, 8×10, Letter, Legal, 11×17, 13×19 although you can feed 14-inch wide paper through it
• Tray Capacity: Two rear trays, one for thick (300 gsm) media, one for up to 150 sheets of plain paper
• Connectivity: Hi-Speed USB 2.0, Ethernet (100BASE-TX/10BASE-T), PictBridge
• Operating Environment: 41 to 95 degrees, 10 to 90 percent humidity
• Noise Level: Approx. 35.5 db(A) in Best quality mode
• Power Consumption: 24 watts when printing, 1.6 watts standby, 0.4 watts when off
• Dimensions: 27.4 x 18.2 x 9.5 (WDH)
• Weight: 60.9 lbs. (71 lbs. with packaging)
• Warranty: Toll-free technical phone support plus one year limited warranty with InstantExchnage Program, extendable with the optional CarePack Pro service plan to two or three years
• Software Included: Easy-PhotoPrint EX/PRO, Easy-WebPrint EX, Solution Menu, drivers, manual; Color Management Tool Pro (downloadable)

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS | Back to Contents

System requirements include:

• 1.5 GB hard disk space for the bundled software installation
• CD-ROM drive

Windows requirements add:

• Windows 7: 1-GHz or faster 32-bit or 64-bit processor with 1-GB RAM for 32-bit systems and 2 GB for 64-bit systems
• Windows Vista/SP1/SP2: 1-GHz processor with 512-MB RAM
• Windows XP/SP2/SP3: 300-MHz processor with 128-MB RAM
• Internet Explorer 6+

Macintosh requirements add:

• Snow Leopard: Intel processor with 1-GB RAM
• Leopard: 867-MHz processor (PowerPC G5/G4 or Intel) with 512-MB RAM
• Tiger: PowerPC G5/G4/G3 or Intel with 256-MB RAM
• Safari 3+

That begs the question about Lion compatibility. So we installed on Lion.

IN THE BOX | Back to Contents

The retail box includes:

• PIXMA Pro-1 inkjet photo printer
• Print head
• 12 ink tanks: Photo Black, Matte Black, Dark Grey, Grey, Light Grey, Cyan, Photo Cyan, Magenta, Photo Magenta, Yellow, Red, Chroma Optimizer
• CD tray
• Power cord (no brick required)
• Documentation kit

No cable is provided. You can connect the printer via USB or Ethernet.

CONSUMABLES | Back to Contents

Tentative pricing for the 36 milliliter ink tanks is $35.99 each. The Chroma Optimizer tank is $29.99. Canon plans to offer multipacks for additional savings.

So a complete set of inks is $425.88. In our experience with other pigment printers, however, you don’t use all the inks equally with colors like red lasting a long time while gloss optimizers are the first to run out. The Pro-1 bucks that trend with surprisingly even ink usage, however.

Because the Pro-1 can print varied images on a variety of surfaces a page cost is not feasible to calculate.

HARDWARE TOUR | Back to Contents

There isn’t much to see on the Pro-1 hardware tour.

On the rear left is the power cord connection and on the rear right are the two wired connections: USB and Ethernet.

At the top right front are the Power button and the Resume button with small LEDs at their noon positions. On the very top of the printer above them is the ink compartment button that opens the castle drawers so you can install ink. And just to the left of the buttons is the PictBridge USB port.

The front of the printer drops down into the output tray, revealing the cover to the CD printing slot above it. The output tray itself extends out in three sections, a bit awkwardly (you have to pull straight out or they jam). A Misfeed button is on the right side of the output tray drawer.

On the back, an input tray folds out in two sections to support 13×19 media. The gray paper guides center the sheet and are simply slid into position. The fingers on the guides merely snug up to the inserted paper and do not release the guides. They aren’t locked to begin with.

On top, the familiar Canon input tray with the four-leaf foldout holder doubles as a rear cover. And the front cover opens to provide access to the print head.

PREP | Back to Contents

When the shrouded box containing the Pro-1 arrived here at the bunker, the FedEx guy had to take a break. It’s 71 lbs. in the box (about the limit delivery guys handle). We put the box on a dolly to get it into the studio.

There are handle cutouts on the sides of the box, but you’d be wise to enlist a helper to move it around. It’s significantly larger than the Pro9500 Mark II or any other 13×19-inch printer we’ve had in here.

But as with every Canon printer we’ve unboxed — from the least expensive all-in-one to the Pro-1 — it was very well packaged. Ink tanks are in the corners of the Styrofoam, as is the power cord. And the Styrofoam separates into four sections so you can just lift the top two off to get at the printer without removing the bottom two.

Along the front and back edges of the printer are the cardboard holders for the CD tray and the documentation. The print head is in there too. Remove everything before you lift out the printer by the two handles of its protective bag.

To locate the printer, consider that it requires 10 inches clearance behind it for the input trays and 14 inches in front for the output tray. Canon warns against setting it up on the rug, too.

The installation booklet predicts it will take 40 minutes to set up the hardware and an additional 20 minutes to install the software.

It took us a bit longer because we were documenting the process, but that seems like a reasonable estimate for the hardware. Essentially, you are simply shaking some tanks and pushing them into their bays then dropping the print head in and locking it into position.

While that doesn’t take long, it does take the printer 20 minutes to prepare itself after you install the print head. So give yourself some time.

HARDWARE INSTALLATION | Back to Contents

Removing all the orange tape is harder than it seems. It’s hidden all over the place. Open every door to find it. We left a few on without realizing it until we installed the ink tanks.

Power. After finding a good place for the printer, we removed the tape and opened the top cover to remove the print head cover. Then we closed the top cover. Apparently this signals the Pro-1 that we’re installing because you usually run with the print head cover on.

Next we connected the power cord. There is a small slot at the waist of the figure eight connector that indicates you are fully seated. We routinely attach a new power cord a couple of times to make sure we’ve got it in, so we appreciated the visual confirmation.

Next we powered the printer on by pressing the Power button. It takes a few seconds for the Power button to work after you’ve connected power, but we didn’t notice any particular delay before it started flashing. It flashes for about two minutes before it remains lit. Wait for it to stop flashing.

In its excellent installation manual, Canon warns that you should never just unplug the Pro-1 (or any printer) without powering it down first. Typically, this moves the print head to a service station so it won’t dry out. There may be other service routines done at that time as well. But it’s always good advice.

Ink. To install the ink tanks, you have to open the large doors on either side of the front of the printer. You do that by pressing the ink door button on the top of the printer. It should be lit blue as a hint but it doesn’t need to be.

Both the left and right ink tank covers will drop down. There are slots for each tank with a red LED above to indicate status and a push button to eject the cartidge below that.

The tanks are much larger than the typical ink jet cartridge. Even so, Canon warns that this first set of tanks has to prime the printing system by filling the tubes from the tanks to the print head, so you won’t get as many prints from them as you will from subsequent sets. We found you lose about a third of the capacity filling the tubes.

You do have to shake the ink tanks five or six times holding them horizontally. Also be careful not to touch the electronics at one end.

We had trouble removing the tanks from their packaging. There’s a notch to make it easy but we could never get the side to rip open completely. In fact, we gave up, resorting to cutting off the top with a pair of scissors.

To set the ink tank, you slide it into the appropriate slot, matching the label on the tank to the label of the slot. Then you give it a little push from the center of the label until the red LED lights up. Simple.

Then you close the ink tank doors. The Ink Tank Cover Open button should no longer be lit.

Print Head. With the Tank Cover Button off, you can open the Top Cover. The Print Head Holder will move to the open slot for you.

When it stops, you can open the two gray latches that will hold the print head in place. Toward the rear you’ll see a small blue button to push in. That unlocks the Joint Lever it’s attached to so you can pull it all the way forward. With that out of the way, you can open the Print Head Lock Lever until it stops against the back of the assembly.

The print head itself is encased in foil which does rip open easily. A small white tray wrapped in yellow tape holds the print head safely. Remove the tape and lift the print head out by its blue handle.

It’s important not to bang the head against anything, nor to touch the electrical contacts or the heads themselves. Just restrict yourself to the blue handle and you’ll be fine.

Lower the print head straight down into the opening in the holder. There is nothing to push into place.

Instead, lower the Print Head Lock Lever back into place, locking it in front. And then swing the Joint Lever over it, locking it into place in the back. That will completely seat the print head.

Now you can put the Head Cover back on and close the Top Cover. And wait those 20 minutes for the printer to prep itself.

That’s a good time to do the software installation. Meanwhile, hold off on the actual USB or Ethernet connection.

SOFTWARE INSTALLATION | Back to Contents

We decided to use an Ethernet connection, connecting the Pro-1 to our ancient Ethernet switch so the printer could be used by any computer on the network.

We also decided to install the software on Mac OS X Lion to find out if it is indeed compatible. Just prior to the Pro-1 announcement, Apple had released a Canon driver update for Mac OS X.

The install started with a warning that Lion wasn’t supported and suggesting we pop over to the Canon site for any updates. But this was before the Pro-1 had been announced, so we gambled and continued the install.

Drivers are often compatible while the software applications lag behind. So we thought it was not much of a gamble, even though one of those applications is how you print CD/DVDs on the Pro-1.

You are asked if you want to do the Easy Install or a Custom installation. We selected Easy. Then you are asked whether you are connecting via USB or Ethernet.

There were a couple of odd questions before the Easy Install started. One was asking permission to install an alias to the manual on the desktop and the other to install Easy-PhotoPrint in the dock. But the answers were “I agree/I do not agree,” suggesting some sort of legal implication. A simple Yes or No would have been more appropriate.

While the driver was installing, we popped an Ethernet cable into the Pro-1.

When 85 percent of the installation was done, the installer wanted permission to download Easy-WebPrint EX from the Web.

After installing Easy-WebPrint EX, the installer continued with Printer Detection (which is why we connected it to our router). It did indeed find the Pro-1 on our network but it scared us when it said it would look for a wired connection. In fact, the connection to the printer is wired to the switch but we were on a wireless connection to the router that is wired to the switch. But it didn’t matter.

There are two buttons on the detection screen. Follow the instructions and you won’t confuse them. You only need to click Next if the printer is found, not Set Up.

Registering the printer makes it available to your operating system, not you to Canon. A bit confusing. And on Lion, we weren’t able to register. No driver. So we were obliged to install the software on Snow Leopard after all.

But after a firmware update on our early 2011 MacBook Pro (which required a restart), we opened the System Preferences for Print & Scan to see if a driver had become available.

To our surprise the printer was installed with its own driver. We printed a test page and then launched Photoshop to print a Yosemite image — and had no problem.

The only glitch is that we can’t get supplies information.

So while the Canon installer warns against installing on Lion, you can in fact use the Pro-1 from Lion.

Print Head Alignment. That takes you to print head alignment. Paper loads into the top multi-sheet feeder from the center, not the side. When you move one side guide, the other moves as well.

There’s also a small cover on the front side of the feed area that we flipped up to make it easier to access the guides. We closed it before printing.

You load two of the supplied calibration sheets. They take a few minutes each to print.

We took a screen shot of the ink levels after that. They were uniformly down 68 percent. That’s before printing a single image other than the calibration sheets. It all went into the tubes.

Easy-WebPrint EX. This plug-in lets you print any selection of a Web page on your Canon printer. But the version on the CD does not support the current versions of Safari or Explorer. Keeping your browser up-to-date is a security measure you should not avoid and when plug-ins like Easy-WebPrint are not kept current, they aren’t on your side. Skip the installation.

Easy PhotoPrint EX. The rationale for including this application with the Pro-1 must have been to provide CD printing. The program runs so slowly on an i7 processor, it’s laughable and the image setup options are so minimal they seem to assume you have no idea what you’re doing. It’s not an application for professionals. On the other hand, the PRO version is a plug-in for image editing applications.

PERFORMANCE | Back to Contents

The Chief Inspector of Large Prints around here dropped in for a visit the other day and pronounced the first handful of 13×19 prints we’d done on the Pro-1 better than anything she’d seen us do before. “It’s just another level of quality,” she said.

So they make a good impression. Even the first ones.

Those first prints were Raw files from a Nikon dSLR and an Olympus Micro Four Thirds camera converted using Adobe Camera Raw (and heavily manipulated, sharpened and even converted to grayscale) to 8-bit images with Photoshop doing the color management using Canon-supplied ICC profiles. That’s what we do when we want the most out of the image.

There is some price to pay for that, though. By relying on Photoshop to manage color, you forego some of the advances the printer manufacturer sneaks into the picture. So we did eventually try printing from Easy-PhotoPrint, too.

Our first images were all printed with the High quality setting in the printer driver, perhaps accounting for the longer-than-advertised print times we experienced. The printer was never waiting for data.

We then spent some time with black and white imaging as well, converting color images in Photoshop and again letting Photoshop manage the printing.

First Print. We let the printer sit with the power on for an hour and half before making our first print. There was some startup time involved after sending the 13×19 Yosemite print to the printer before printing began but it was just a few seconds.

We were surprised how quiet and stable the Pro-1 was as it printed. It didn’t shake the table (as some 13×19 printers have) or make more than a whisper of noise. You could easily be heard on the phone over the printer (we were). There is a constant hum as it prints but otherwise you just hear the print head swooshing back and forth. Occasionally the fans come on.

The driver options seemed a bit simple for such a high-end printer (especially after the Epson R2000), although there were options for applying the clear coat. And the ICC profiles were a bit confusing too. There were two for the Canon semi-gloss sheet we were printing. Apparently the 1/2 profile is higher quality than the 3 profile. Canon could stand to document this with the paper and on the Web.

The first print came out quite well, taking about 16 minutes on the High quality setting. Our network connection was to run the data from our computer to a router via a wired connection and from the router to our Ethernet switch. But the switch is 10BASE-T unlike our faster router. Still, the printer was never waiting for data. We wondered about the buffer size on the printer but after thinking about it a bit, we suspect it had to do with the High quality setting, which may slow things down.

The supply levels didn’t show any difference after the first print.

That first print was a full color image from Yosemite. Blue sky, clear creek, waterfall, granite cliffs, trees. We made our usual adjustments to the Raw image, sharpened it and sent it off to the printer as a 24-bit image.

The borderless 13×19 print held no surprises. Our blue was sky blue, our cliffs were sharp and rocky, the trees stood out, the creek seemed cold. We felt like we could walk right into the image.

We got the loupe out to look over the dot pattern. For a four picoliter dot size, it was remarkably difficult to detect. No doubt the Photo Cyan and Photo Magenta help with the color gamut but the new screening technology knows how to place a dot.

Black & White. In our enthusiasm for printing a grayscale image, we forgot to load the Pro-1 with paper. The yellow LED at the top of the Resume button flashed at us until we did. One press and it went right back to work.

We did enable Grayscale printing in the print dialog for our grayscale images, which were converted from color using Photoshop’s Black & White conversion sliders as detailed in our June 3 Newsletter story on Lee Varis.

Our initial impression is that the Pro-1 grayscale prints are very rich prints. We didn’t feel like we were bumping into the printer’s limits with any of them. And we thought we’d really like to try a few more things before coming to any conclusion. That’s a far cry, though, from worrying about the color shift on a quadtone or the limited range of a single color black ink. So we’re already ahead of the game.

The Pro-1 uses five monochrome gray inks: Photo Black, Matte Black, Dark Grey, Grey and Light Grey. That makes for rich detail in the shadows and smooth tonal gradations in the midtones. And there’s no cartridge switching necessary when changing from matte to glossy papers.

Our view of Yosemite Valley on an overcast day needed that sort of subtlety to express its drama. And it got it. Half Dome was clear in the distance, easily recognizable. We didn’t have to hunt for it.

Again the dot pattern was minimal, only detectable in the highlights. Grain was never so subtle.

Shutdown. At the end of the first day, we closed up the printer trays and pressed the Power button to shut it down. It went through a shutdown routine that took about a minute, maybe less, before the LED on the Power button turned off. That seemed pretty quick to us. You could leave it on until you were just about the leave the studio.

Startup. The second day with the Pro-1, we powered it on to print a CD. The white LED on the Power button flashed while the printer prepared itself. Less than a minute later (perhaps half a minute) it was ready to go. Very nice. It really didn’t give us a chance to get impatient — either shutting down or starting up.

CD Printing. Previously, thanks to an exclusive license, only Epson provided CD printing capability in the U.S., although Canon printers in other parts of the world included CD printing capability. HP doesn’t think its customers want to print on CDs but Canon has added the capability to a number of its U.S. printers this year, including its all-in-ones.

Unfortunately it isn’t as simple as including the CD tray. Canon’s software wasn’t nearly as refined as Epson’s. There are a number of layouts to select from, yes. And you can import any of your images into the layout and change the type. But the options are pretty limited, enough to aggravate anyone who’s done any graphic design.

Michael Steinbach of Bach Photography in Wisconsin recommended Discus [MW], a CD label printing application by Magic Mouse. Use the Canon Pixma series layout in Discus for the Pro-1.

Still, we were able to print a CD design for our Yosemite photos this year using Easy-PhotoPrint EX.

Actually printing the CD was a bit confusing as well. Don’t touch the printer until you’ve gone through Easy-PhotoPrint’s routine. All the way through Print. Then switch to your printer driver display for the all-clear to load the CD tray. You’ll notice that the Resume button is flashing orange when the printer is ready for that.

The tray itself is loaded with the narrow end forward. If you’re using a normal size disc, you remove the insert for small discs. Then drop in your printable disc (with a white coating).

To load the tray into the printer (with the orange Resume button LED flashing), open the output tray drawer and find the finger pull just under the “Canon” on the front of the printer to open the CD slot. Then slide the tray into the narrow opening until the two white arrows on the tray align with the two white arrows on the slot.

Printing was quick after that and the results were gorgeous. But they aren’t waterproof. A rinse under tap water erased the image.

But Edward de Jong of Magic Mouse recommended two waterproof CD/DVD products: the JVC Taiyo Yuden Watershield and the Imation Aquaguard discs.

CREATING COLOR PROFILES | Back to Contents

The Pro-1 was designed to handle a wide variety of papers from typical photo papers to fine arts media. That’s one of the strengths of pigment printing, which does not rely on a swellable surface to encapsulate the ink.

It’s also one of the ways professionals distinguish themselves. By printing on papers they select, learning how to get the best results from them and sticking to them.

But to produce the best results, you have to either find or create ICC profiles for each ink and paper combination.

To do this, we relied on a ColorMunki Photo, which we used with both X-Rite’s excellent software and Canon’s Color Management Tool Pro, which can be downloaded at no charge from the Canon Pro-1 page.

We’ve detailed the process using the X-Rite software in our earlier review, so we won’t repeat that here except to point out that the Pro-1 driver doesn’t make it easy to disable color correction (Linear Tone color mode was as close as we got). Instead of rehashing the X-Rite process, we’ll walk through the process using Canon’s software.

The Main Menu presents two options: Create ICC Profile and Calibrate Printer. We’d already calibrated the printer when we set it up. What we want to do with a new paper is create an ICC profile.

There are also a couple of options for the measuring instrument, including the i1 Pro and the ColorMunki. So we selected ColorMunki. And we indicated we were profiling the Pro-1 in the Printer popup menu.

The printer driver was set up with color options obviously disabled. That’s a good reason to prefer the Canon software.

The software then prints three sheets.

Then you go back to the Main Menu (or nearly). One click takes you to a screen that looks like the Main Menu with a new option: Measure Chart and Create ICC Profile.

The software then wants to calibrate the ColorMunki. It won’t see the device if you connect it through a hub, so make sure you have a direct connection.

Once calibrated, you can start reading the charts. It’s a little confusing, but the third chart is printed first and the first last, so you actually start reading the last chart printed first.

A misread generates a double beep, otherwise a single beep indicates success. It goes pretty quickly. We only had trouble reading one row.

Then you just name and save the ICC profile.

It’s not as straight-forward a process as the X-Rite software and it therefore takes longer, but it isn’t onerous, either. And having the color correction definitively turned off is a big help.

FINE ARTS PAPERS | Back to Contents

By fine arts papers, we mean nothing more than those thicker sheets of 13×19 photo paper like Canon’s Museum Etching, Photo Rag, Premium Matte and Photo Paper Plus Semi-Gloss. Toss in that Kodak Premium Photo Paper Matte, too.

But toss in your favorite sheets as well, no matter who makes them (including Epson). One of the design goals of the Pro-1 was to make a printer that would perform well with any profiled paper.

That’s why Canon provides profiling software at no charge for the Pro-1. You will have to provide your own hardware device to read the color patches, but it’s reasonable to assume a pro (and any serious amateur) would already have one for monitor profiling.

Loading. On the Pro9000 and Pro9500 printers, you load thick media one sheet at a time through the front of the printer. It’s a process that took some explaining, requiring the output tray be lifted up and reset at a flatter angle and the paper path cleared before manually aligning the edge of the sheet to some marks.

For the Pro-1, Canon has redesigned thick media handling. You now load it from the rear Manual Feed Tray, which handles anything from an 8×10 to a 14×17 as long as it is 4 mil or 0.1 mm thick.

The rear Manual Feed Tray is as simple as the rear Feed Tray but it only accepts single sheets. You just open the tray (making sure the other tray is closed) and pull out the extension to support larger sheets. Then just drop in your paper, adjusting the side guides to fit.

You do have to slide the paper down into the slot a bit to seat it. That can take a bit of effort with a stiff paper like Museum Etching. But don’t just drop the sheet into the slot. It has to make the bend to get to the stop.

That’s a big improvement, though, over the older method.

THE PRINTS | Back to Contents

Canon shipped its semi-gloss paper to us for testing. That shows off the improved gamut, the better brightness of the pigments, the gloss optimizer. By laying down as smooth a pigment surface as possible, light isn’t scattered when reflected. Not a small trick with four picoliter droplets.

We also tried a paper from left field, that Kodak matte, which we calibrated. Results were consistent and reliable, matching our monitor display faithfully (although, of course, not identically).

And we tried Canon’s Fine Arts papers, too. Both in color and black and white.

We found it surprisingly difficult to get a bad print. Even our first print was more than acceptable. We weren’t at all surprised by what came out of the printer, either.

For the first few days, we printed current work we hadn’t printed before. Then we switched to some old favorites whose 13x19s had been printed on the Canon i9900, Pro9000, Pro9000 Mark II, Pro9500 Mark II and the Epson R2000.

The first thing we noticed was how well the older printers had done. There was nothing wrong with those prints. And in some cases, though the Pro-1 did very well, we preferred them. That was mainly an issue with the particular media we had printed on.

The biggest difference we noticed was in our black and white prints. As the illustration shows, the Pro-1 was able to produce a neutral print where the Pro9500 Mark II produced a monochromatic print with a slight color cast.

Sharpness and detail from identical files was harder to evaluate. In some cases the images were simply printed on different kinds of paper, making it impossible to draw conclusions.

But we aren’t done with our comparison prints yet. We’ll update the review when we’ve done the analysis.

MAINTENANCE | Back to Contents

The Pro-1 doesn’t appear to require any special maintenance. The manual doesn’t recommend anything, at least.

The normal caveats apply to cleaning the exterior and anything you can see in the interior (although it isn’t very accessible). Turn off the power, don’t use volatile chemicals and stick to a microfiber or cotton swab.

The driver’s utility function provides several routines using letter-size paper:

• Cleaning the print head, with two more intensive routines if the lighter doesn’t work
• Plate cleaning
• Roller cleaning

In addition you can check the print head nozzles by printing a nozzle check pattern. If there’s a problem, you run the cleaning routine above.

You can also align the print head using two sheets of MP-101 paper as you did for calibration. There’s a manual print head alignment option, too, in which you select the best patterns instead of letter the printer choose.

And finally you can check the current ink levels.

But there doesn’t appear to be any routine maintenance required.

PRICE & AVAILABILITY | Back to Contents

The Pro-1 will be available this month for $999.99.

Canon told us printers destined for the U.S. market are already on the boats, some even in port here already. The company has just brought online a new printer plant in northern Thailand on high ground, so production can continue there and in Vietnam. The company expects no short-term availability problems.

CONCLUSION | Back to Contents

While it’s just too soon to draw any conclusions about the Pro-1 here, we can say it was a breeze to set up and the first prints out of the box (even using Photoshop to manage color) were good enough to frame. So it’s no surprise Canon is providing a Pro-1 as the monthly first prize for our Photo of the Day Contest.

It started up quickly in the morning and shut down promptly at night, running reliably and quietly all day. We had no problem feeding paper or CDs, no paper jams, no crashes, no issues at all.

It was easy to make gorgeous prints.

But we’ve only just begun to see what it can do. And that’s probably the highest praise we can give a printer.