CANON IMAGEPROGRAF PRO-300
CANON IMAGEPROGRAF PRO-300
The award-winning imagePROGRAF PRO-300 represents Canon’s next generation of pro-level A3+ photo printers with enhancements to image quality, economy and overall convenience. Tester Trevern Dawes concludes, “All things considered, the PRO-300 is an attractive and versatile proposition”.
Just when we thought the inkjet photo printer could evolve no further, Canon’s next-gen A3+ model is smaller, lighter, more convenient to use, better featured and capable of enhanced quality.
Canon’s imagePROGRAF PRO
300 is the replacement printer for the A3+ format PIXMA PRO-10S. At first encounter, it looks a lot like a scaled-down version of the A2 format imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 model, so it's no great surprise to discover that the ‘PIXMA’ title has been dropped and the pro-level ‘imagePROGRAF’ branding adopted instead.
Existing owners of the PIXMA PRO 10S will note significant changes that'll surely appeal when it’s time to upgrade. The imagePROGRAF PRO-300 retains the same low-profile shape as the PRO-10S, but is both smaller (at 639x379x200 mm) and lighter (14.4kg). There's a revised
Lucia Pro ink set – including a denser matte black (better even than the PRO1000’s) – more accurate paper transport, a built-in nozzle recovery system, ink agitation and a handy colour LCD touchscreen. Even better, the restrictive printing margins no longer exist.
Out Of The Box
The contents of the box are listed as the printer, ink set, print head, CD/DVD tray, power cord and a start-up guide. Everything is very well secured, to the point of taking several minutes to remove all the protective tape.
There is no hard-copy user manual provided, however it can be downloaded for reference when required, or printed out and bound. As a 650-page document, it can hardly be regarded as ‘light reading’, but it covers every aspect in detail. The setup procedure – including installation of print head – is simple enough and there are several videos on the Internet to demonstrate the procedure and provide extra guidance.
Before getting starting, it is important to read the setup instructions carefully and/or watch the YouTube videos. After the protective tape has been removed, connect the power cord and switch the printer on. Open the paper outlet and the top cover. Raise the print head lock, insert the print head into the holder and close the lever. The orange cap on each cartridge is removed and, without touching the chip, each cartridge is clicked into its correct position. After closing the top lid, ‘OK’ is pressed, the top slot cover opened to allow a plain A4 sheet to be positioned in the top feeder. Finally, the lid is closed and ‘OK’ pressed again. Thereafter, the on-screen instructions are followed for the connection method. If wireless operation is selected, it will cancel out a wired connection. The two cannot be run together.
The printer driver software may be installed from the Canon website or, if
there's no Internet connectivity, from the CD-ROM. Connection to the Canon PRINT Inkjet/SELPHY app can be made to a smartphone if required. Altogether, it takes about an hour to get set up.
A host of cloud-based printing options are available, including PIXMA Cloud Link, Canon Print Service, Google Cloud and Air-Print.
Canon’s Professional Print & Layout software is a free software that can be used as an independent program for print-making, or can also be a plugin for Photoshop or Lightroom. It is a relatively easy program to follow and allows complete control. In Photoshop, an image is opened first and then File > Automate to access the plug-in.
Prosumer Use
Canon describes the PRO-300 as being a ‘prosumer’ model, meaning it appeals to both professionals and advanced amateurs, but with an emphasis on lower volume ‘casual’ printing, covering every aspect from CD/DVD printing, right up to producing large panoramic prints.
If there's a requirement for higher volume printing, the PRO-300 can accommodate, but the relatively high ink cost per millilitre might mean the likes of the A2-format PRO-1000, where the ink costs are far more favourable, would be the better choice. Of course, this would involve an extra initial outlay and a much larger and heavier printer.
Talking of inks, the PRO-300’s ink set is a revision of the PRO-10S, but it's unlikely anyone will notice the difference. The cartridges have 14.4ml capacity each and include matte black, gloss (photo) black, grey, cyan, photo cyan, magenta, photo magenta, yellow, red and a chrome optimiser. Canon claims a more efficient ink usage system has been introduced.
The ink cartridges clip into the top of the print head and ride along as the print head travels side-to-side. This method restricts the weight of ink that can be carried, hence 14.4ml per cartridge is about the limit. Larger capacity cartridges could also limit the printing speed. Matte black and photo black, as per all previous models, have separate channels and each is activated according to the paper type selected. The chrome optimiser only comes into play with gloss/semi-gloss and lustre surface papers.
There are two paper feed slots.
The top feeder can handle stacked cut paper, while the rear feeder is for heavyweight sheets and poster board on a single sheet at a time basis. The pull-out front slot accommodates printable CD/DVDs.
The PRO-300 has a paper skew prevention feature. Accurate paper transport is further enhanced by two guides. To test this feature, a page from a DIY photo book with cut marks 5mm all round was printed on an Ilford dualsided lustre paper. The margins were perfect and the adopted Canon Lustre Pro paper profile was spot on.
Printing
Printing tests were carried out via Photoshop with ‘Colour Handling’ set to ‘Printer Manages Colours’. Adobe RGB (1998) was selected as the input profile, and the appropriate printer profile for each paper was used. Ink clogging with Canon printers is rarely a problem and now the PRO-300 virtually eliminates the possibility. The ink agitation system, swap-over nozzles and head cleaning cycles are all designed to ensure trouble-free printing.
The printer runs very quietly. In fact, from a few metres distance its barely audible. If, per chance, an even quieter operation is required then, via the LCD, the pathway is Various Settings > Printer Settings > Quiet Setting > On.
Curiously enough, in the final stage
“The printer runs very quietly. In fact, from a few metres distance it is barely audible.”
with large sheets, print head activity slows downs, as if to ensure the smoothest of landings. So there's not only a visual means of knowing a print is about to finish, but also an audible indication.
At no time did a head strike occur, paper transport was efficient and accurate and, if anything was overlooked – like not opening the receiving tray – the printer quickly came up with a warning message.
Some custom-sized fine-art papers may require a manual rear feed and a notice suggesting the selection of a standard size paper. To overcome this, it is necessary go back to ‘Page Setup’ and, under ‘Printer Options’, check ‘Cancel the safety margin regulations for this paper’. If a reasonable margin is set, there should be no problems.
Speeds
The PRO-300 is not going to win prizes as a speed demon, especially in the highest quality print mode. However, for casual use with a top-quality output being the priority, longer print times are