CANON IMAGEPROGRAF PRO-300

£699/$899 Canon takes A3+ photo printing to a new level, with its latest IMAGEPROGRAF printer

Although it’s a pigment-based printer, the PRO-300 delivers superb output on glossy as well as matte and fine art media. Like the older PIXMA PRO-10S and larger, A2 format IMAGEPROGRAF PRO-1000, it features a Chroma Optimizer cartridge. This smooths out the finish when printing on glossy photo paper, so that there’s no difference in the reflectivity of different colours and tones.

The ink range is comprehensive, with ten separate cartridges. They are all from Canon’s latest LUCIA PRO line-up, giving the potential for a wide gamut (colour space) with rich, vivid colour rendition, as well as high-fidelity black & white. The 14ml cartridge capacity should prove sufficient for around 30 to 60 A3+ prints (depending on colour) although quantities naturally vary.

Media handling is very good with a rear-mounted upright paper feeder and a horizontal manual feeder, more ideal for fine art and thicker media. The latter also enables oversized printing for panoramic and banner output, up to almost a metre. A 3-inch colour LCD screen is another handling bonus, although it’s not a touchscreen. Unlike Canon’s previous pigment-based printers and as with the PRO-200, the PRO-300 enables borderless output on matte and fine art media, instead of just on glossy, semi-gloss and lustre photo papers.

Performance

Image quality is spectacular, for colour and mono photographic prints. A particular highlight is that the printer delivers incredibly sumptuous and richly detailed blacks, which add a real depth to print quality. It’s pretty speedy for a pigment-based printer as well, even in its highest quality mode.