First of all I want to dispel some myths and answer some questions about the printer. It has two (2) paper feed sections, one that is sort of on top, you can put about ¼ of a ream of paper in there and one that folds open from the back of the printer that is single sheet feeding for products that are thicker and don’t bend well. Next it works fine with Windows 10 and the software runs just fine. It takes it a while to warm up, that is typical of all top end printers, don’t shut it off ever and you will be in good shape and it will save you some ink. Also for those that are unsuspecting this printer is massive, you should expect that with so many ink tanks and 13” wide feeding, but it is huge if you have never seen it in person.
Ok, now down to the nitty gritty. Setup time from box opened to my first print was about 45 min including installing software and so forth. The profiles for canon papers are not that bad depending on the paper, I tried Luster and Platinum Pro from there line. Luster was not that great, Platinum Pro was better. I also tried some Red River papers last night, I like them better than canon paper and there profiles are better. It feeds my 250gsm Aurora Art paper from the back feed with no problems. Print quality its self was better than my local Walgreens print center so long as you set it to fine, about on par if you set it to normal. Colors where great, purples and blues popped nicely when I was printing some MLP stuff for my daughter, reds and organ look nice too. Black and white is much better than a standard inkjet, but yes the Pro-10 and Pro-1 make better black and white prints (had a friend make me a couple from his studio to compare). Print time was not bad for a high end, on fine setting I hit print and go make a cup of tea, by the time I’m back the page is done. Considering I have some friends with printers that take 5 min a page, I’m pleased with the speed.
The good and bad of what is in the box. Well the power cord is a good length and the documentation is not bad. The USB cord they give you is a joke, it is short, very short, only slightly longer than the printer is wide. I have not tried the tray for printing on a CD. The packaging was good and secure.
Ok let’s talk value. When I ordered I was arguing between a good price point and the all-out performance of a Pro-1. I don’t print that much, some photos for my cube at my day job, some of my semi-pro photos that I sell on line and a little here and there for family. As such I did not feel that I could justify the price of a Pro-1 and figured I would try the Pro-100 and see if it met my needs. My needs are more than met. For the price point the Pro-100 cannot be beat. I am more than pleased with the purchase and with the rebate it is even better.
Word on the rebate. You need to send a full copy of the receipt (showing order number and that you paid), yes Amazon is an authorized retailer, it is a good idea to pre-register the rebate and send the whole set of bar code and SN on the outside of the box and it runs fairly smooth. DO NOT send the upc on the inner flap, DO NOT peel the label off the cardboard, send the cut out cardboard.
Hope that was helpful.
Wonderful printer, but it was difficult getting set up. Love the photo quality, and doesn't seem to use too much ink. Have printed at least 30 8.5x11" photos, and 10 13x19" photos, with about half of my ink levels left.
The Pixma Pro-100 is a good printer. It's large and weighty, but it prints up to 19" x 13". You should expect a printer with this capability to be large. You may ask, "do I want to print 19x13?" At this price, why not?! The price is good. Further, having the option to print that large is nice, better than having to run off to a copy center when you do want it.
The 8 ink cartridges are great to have. I print black and white and having the extra gray is a nice feature. The Pixma Pro 100 is designed for those with the need or desire to print not only in color, but in true black and white.
I'm running this on both Sierra OS and Windows 10 and have no issues. My set up time, from box to fully operating, was 40 minutes. That's not unreasonable as you are unpacking, removing security tape, checking for damage, reading the manual and activating. The software installed without issue. I always suggest looking for firmware and software updates. This is because software updates may be released after the device is packaged.
I'm using Canon Luster Pro and Canon Paper Plus Semi-Gloss 13"x19". Both have done well. There are two paper feeds, one on top, and one in the back. The 13x19s I printed took a few minutes, but I was busy preparing the next job, it's no issue.
The power cord is a great length, but the USB cable is rather short. I think that's because Canon assumes you'll go wireless. I prefer cabling as it ensures no disruptions in the printing. I have a 6' cable I use.
Quality of prints, I'm extremely pleased! Take a look at the photos I included. The black and white photos are from digital images. I found the consistency of ink flow and distribution of colors was good.
This is a great printer with flexibility and I recommend it.
I LOVE this printer. I use it to print my artwork and family photos for my home. The quality of the prints is wonderful. I've experimented with both the Canon Luster paper and the Canon Photo Plus Glossy II paper. The combination of the art prints on the Luster paper has been really great. Now this printer is incredibly heavy and when you receive it warns that you need two people to carry it. I wasn't able to carry it, but my husband can manage it by himself. Before purchasing this printer I researched into other options and it seemed to be the best option I could find for professional quality large format prints for a really reasonable price. In my opinion, the only negative (apart from the weight) is that the ink is expensive at about $100-120 full set of ink.
I usually wait a couple of months before reviewing an electronic item. But I couldn’t wait on this one. I am a casual printer user (if there is such a thing). I finally discovered “print to PDF” so document printing has almost become a thing of the past, though I still need to print documents from time to time. I print photos very rarely (and I’m sure that is because I’ve never had a printer that did a decent job printing photos). Without further ado:
This printer is HUGE so be ready. It is also heavy. To me, this is *not* a negative. It is an absolute work of art. Beautifully designed and obviously meticulously manufactured to be a high quality, long lasting product. Every door and latch fits like a glove and opens and closes so “perfectly” it’s hard to describe without experiencing it for yourself. Set-up on my Windows 10 system went smoothly without any confusing errors or anything. (I used a USB connection). Unpacking and installing the print head and ink went without a hitch (for the most part… I did have two colors of ink that leaked when I removed the orange cap. I am assuming this was because we have had sub-zero temps and the inks probably froze and thawed during transport). The instructions seemed pretty cut and dry and simple to follow.
In all it took about an hour to do the unboxing, installing, setup etc. And then… it happened… I printed my first ever “real” photo on a “real” photo printer. I was (and am) literally in awe. It is the most beautiful home printed photo I have ever seen. I am in love with my Canon PIXMA. I can’t believe I got this thing for 150$ (after a 200$ rebate). Did I mention it also prints documents? Hehe. It does. And it does so perfectly (if not a little more slowly than the 70$ “all-in-ones” I’ve been using since they hit the market). I will *never* go back to an all-in-one cheapie again.
Now that I know the difference, I would *gladly* pay full price for a printer of this caliber. It is worth every penny. I’m not sure how much ink this will go through, but I was happy to find that individual inks are around 17$ a piece (compared to the 40$ a piece I had to pay for genuine inks for my all-in-one).
My only complaint so far is that the software that comes with the printer (My Image Garden) and some other “bloatware” as it might be called looks out of date and is very limiting regarding customization (for instance, it won’t let you specify which folder it looks for photos in so you have to literally go through your entire file system in their software).
Hopefully this printer will last many years. If it does I will consider it an investment that has paid for itself in terms of enjoyment and quality. If you are looking for what professional critics have termed an “entry level” dedicated photo printer than look no further. I can’t say enough positive about this PIXMA so far. Go for it!!
Thanks for reading my review. :-) I have attached a photo of the first picture I printed with the PIXMA. Keep in mind the photo you will see does no justice to what it really looks like in person.
Feature Product
- 8 Dye based inks for amazing gradients and color, 3 of which are dedicated grayscale inks for beautiful black & white prints
- The Optimum Image Generating System reproduces colors as you intend them by logically selecting the optimum ink combination and placement. Output Tray Capacity- Auto Sheet Feeder- 150 Sheets of Plain Paper.20 sheets Photo Paper (4x6); 10 sheets (Letter/8x10); 1 sheet (A3+). Manual Feeder- 1 sheet of Photo Paper (all sizes)
- Compatible with Individual CLI-42 Ink Tanks (Black, Gray, Light Gray, Cyan, Photo Cyan, Magenta, Photo Magenta, Yellow). Save Even More On Value Packs. Only Replace The Inks That Run Out
- 4800 x 2400 dpi with FINE technology for incredible detail.Print your Vision up to 13" x 19": Print professional quality photos on various media up to 13" x 19"
- weight : 43.2 in bullet point.Number of Nozzles: 6,144
Description
Professional Wireless Photo Printer with 8 dye based color inks for colorful and vivid prints
I'm a very long time Epson customer. As in roughly 25 years as a design business. However, after going through 3 $800 Epsons in 3 years, enough was enough as I decided to give Canon a go. I mean seriously, an $800 printer that can't make it literally 3 weeks past the warranty expiration... and customer service's best effort is to offer me 15% off a new one if I buy direct from them? Adios Epson. Rant over, on to talking about Canon.
I'm very happy with this printer and their customer service. Had a glitch during the initial setup, where you have to restart the printer to recognize it's a new printer, with new head and new inks. Error message basically says "printer is damaged beyond repair... return to sender." That's a little distressing when you need it to work for business that day. Tech support immediately sorted it out and waited with me on the phone while we downloaded and installed a full collection of new drivers/software. Not really required since that wasn't the issue. Just good customer service.
Print quality is excellent and color matching was excellent from the first print out of Photoshop. (Photoshop manages colors, used the profile for the Canon paper I was using. Printed my Color test page with full CMYK bars and gradations. I'm comfortable using it for proofing before sending to press.) Also the color fidelity is good coming out of InDesign, which was a pleasant surprise. I was having to export as PDFs then print from Photoshop to get the Epson to have reasonable color. Also it did a good job printing out of Preview on Mac as well as printing images from Google Docs on Chrome. That last one I was really surprised by. I've gotten really used to having to take everything into Photoshop with Epson. Being able to just print from whatever app I'm in is Very bizarre.
Bottom Line: Adios Epson - I'm a Canon customer now.
I got this printer after printing photos on an Epson R1800 for years and the Epson was at the point where it needed to be sent back to Epson for major head cleaning or replacement or get a new printer. I was never really happy with the way the Epson consumed ink like crazy. Plus, it was hit or miss whether there was going to be banding or streaking on the print. Lots of paper and ink wasted.
I pored over the reviews of various options for fine photo printing and came across this Canon Pixma Pro-100 for less than $300, and since the price of the Epson when I bought it new was right at $500 and I had had it for about 10 years, this looked like a good deal. And, it was and is.
I've run about 8 or so test prints of photos of landscapes with lots of colors, few colors, light colors, dark colors, solid colors and so on, and the output colors on glossy paper (haven't tried matte paper yet, since I'm not a fan) are spot on with what's on the screen (iMac 27" 5K display). I've tried it with Red River 96 lb. glossy to Epson papers I still had, to some HP paper that someone gave me, and the print quality and color rendition is consistent from one to the other. I'm going to be ordering some Red River Polar Gloss Metallic and see how it does in large format. I printed a black and white print and it showed absolutely no color cast. I think I'm going to enjoy doing more black and white photography now.
I've been keeping my eye on the ink levels of the setup inks and they're going down, but not as rapidly as I remember the Epson R1800 going through them. It seemed as though every time I turned on that printer it was hungry for one or more colors.
The only problem was setting it up. I tried using the CD software that came with it, and I would get to the same point in the install and it would stall on my iMac running OS 10.14 (Mojave). I think Mojave may have been too new for the software; so I went to Canon online and downloaded the individual pieces that the CD was trying to install and got everything I needed, including the latest driver.
If you're thinking of purchasing this, make sure you have the space for it, because it's huge and weighs about 50 lbs. But, it's fairly quiet and has a quiet mode that I haven't tried yet.
In sum, if you want professional quality photo prints that are faithful to the colors on the screen, up to 13 X 19, then I recommend this printer with no reservations.
I bought this printer in 2013 (5 years ago). Back then I had gone through about 3 HP and Epson printers that each only lasted a few months before breaking. I was just starting my handmade business back then and decided to throw money at my problem by buying this printer.
I honestly assumed it would only last a year (I've never had a printer last longer). Guess what? It's been five years and I am still loving this printer. I've only had about two issues that I was able to troubleshoot myself. TWO small technical issues in FIVE years! I now also own a Canon Laser Printer and a super cheap and old Canon Inkjet for printing invoices and documents. All three of my Canon printers have worked wonderfully and have seriously helped my business. I don't know what I would do without them! I now recommend Canon Printers to everyone.
A couple things to note:
- The wireless printing featuring can sometimes be a tad tricky for me to set up when I've moved to new offices. (That may be a problem with my router though)
- If you are letting your printer sit for longer than a few weeks, run a printhead cleaning every week or so to keep them from getting clogged or your ink drying out.
- The ink is pricey. However, you are getting something pretty close to professional printing so it's worth it.
- Since the ink it pricey, If you want to print documents etc, I would recommend buying an older model non-professional Canon printer. (I recommend the Canon MG2520)
- I'm pretty certain the ink that came with it was a full package of inks, not a "sample pack" like some printers come with.
- The inks light up when they have ink left and flash when ink is running low or depleted which is such a nice feature
- My aunt, who is a professional photographer, had some problems with her blacks coming out too light so be sure to calibrate your printer if you're using Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator.
This is a PHENOMENAL and reliable art printer. I am not at all resentful of the amount of space it takes up in my studio. I'm SO happy to be able to print my own gallery-ready work these days. It streamlines everything, and the results are just stunning. I couldn't recommend this more to artists who are tired of placing print orders for hundreds of dollars. The ink and upkeep here, in my experience, really make that a thing of the past.
The work I've printed with this has sold well in galleries, and impresses everyone who gets close.
I needed a printer that would print on 100 lb cover cardstock. This works perfectly. I also use it to print photos and it does a great job. I've had it for almost 2 years. Still works great.
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