Introduction
Hands down, the best value in home photography printer is the Canon Pixma Pro-100. This is a printer that is frequently given away by Canon with purchase of cameras and other accessories. There's frequently a rebate for 60 - 70% off MSRP, a true bargain! And because Canon pushes these printers out for virtually nothing, careful or patient shopping on Craigslist or Facebook marketplace can yield a new-in-the-box printer for sometimes as low as $40. Honestly, at that price, it is your single best investment in photography because if you are not seeing your work in the physical world, you are missing the tangible aspects of photography.
However, if you are like most people that thinking pushing the printer icon in your software is sufficient to yield high quality results, you will be disappointed at first. Printing photographs is a whole lot more nuanced than pushing print on a simple office document. But do not despair, excellent results are well within your reach!
This guide is broken down into a beginner, avid and advanced user of photo printing. The beginner section installs the software and walks through printing on Canon paper using the Print Studio Pro plugin from Lightroom. The avid printer post will discuss ICC profiles and using non-Canon papers. The advanced section moves into the world of custom ICC profiles and ink refilling. The latter is an excellent option if you are heavy printer and want to visualize your work outside the electrons known as Facebook or Instagram.
Given the scope of this blog post, the content will evolve over time. Feel free to check back or leave a comment on areas you want added or clarified in the guide.
Table of Contents
Beginner Guide
Avid Printer Guide
Advanced User Guide
Beginner Guide
Welcome to the exciting world of home photography printing. Step 1 includes the usual--unboxing and assembly. I'm just going to say it--breathe. Yes, the printer is alarmingly large. Honestly, it's a beast. Fortunately, you only need the printer close to the computer during the initial set up. Then, because it is wifi enabled, you can set the printer up in a closet, the garage, the mother-in-laws bedroom, etc.
For setup, follow the Canon directions carefully. Setting up the wifi on a Mac computer can be a little tricky. I do not have a PC, but I understand that process is a little more straight out of the box. A largely undocumented step is to use the Print Studio Pro plugin for all printing (Photoshop or Lightroom) at first. Step 1b is to rid yourself of any notion that you are going to just push "print" and go. This guide will encourage you to take it slow. Paper and ink can be a little expensive at first, so taking it slow will help keep it financially constrained.
For users just getting started and are not comfortable with configuring the WiFi through the Canon software, simply start by using the USB cable. You'll need the USB cable connecting the printer to the computer during setup, so just leave it as is so we can print our first set of photos.
Installation of Drivers and Supporting Software
First, throw away ALL of the CDs that came with the printer. Chances are your computer doesn't even have a CDROM drive. Moreover, the drivers and programs on the disk are old and outdated. Start fresh by downloading the latest drivers here: https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/support/details/professional-large-format-printers/professional-inkjet-printers/pro-100
Install and use the Print Studio Pro plugin
For beginners, I recommend only printing from this Plugin. It makes much of the process of printing a photograph very clear and reproducible. It's still not foolproof as you do have to carefully consider each of the options, but the options are presented in a logical order that mirrors the process of printing. The plugin also has easy access to "tweaks" you need to make to improve the quality of the printed photo (note: the more advanced tutorials will guide you to get the image right for printing in the edit/virtual copy and not to do post hoc adjustments).
This plugin is not obviously located or advertised as a "must use" by the software. You need to fetch it off the internet. You will also likely need to install an updated version every time a new Lr or Ps version is released. So, you may want to bookmark this location as you'll go back to get the plugin on occasion.
On the driver link above, there is a tab labeled "Software". The Print Studio Pro plugin should be available on this page. The software page strives to autodetect your computers operating system and version. You may need to adjust the selections, but generally, you should be presented the correction version automatically.
You will want to have all programs (e.g., Ps, Lr) closed when installing this plug in.
Canon has a few guides for using the plugin in various tools. There are also some excellent YouTube videos available. I would recommend reading and watching a few of these before you attempt to print your first photo.
WiFi Network Drivers (Mac)
For those using a Mac, the IJ Network Tool is used to set up the computer to print to the printer via WiFi. See the installation book that came with the printer for details on configuring this tool. It is straightforward, but it is only needed if you are going to print over WiFi.
Tips I wish someone had told me when I started home printing:
You must match the paper type (brand of paper, sheen of paper, paper size) with the specifications in the Print Studio Pro plugin. Incorrect specification will result in poor print quality without fail.
Not all paper is created the same. Subtle differences in paper texture and color will result in printed images that will vary in look *widely* between papers. Do not let this confuse you. For a beginner, make the decision to *only* print on genuine Canon photo paper. Do not be tempted to buy cheap Avery or Staples branded photo paper as a beginner. Shop around for deals on real Canon photo paper. It’s cheap.
Sometimes Canon has a “papergate” special where you can stock up on hundreds of sheets of papers with every ink cartridge purchased. Be on the look out for these deals.
Your monitor emits light and photographs that look lovely on the computer may be dark and muddy on paper, particularly matte paper. Monitor calibration for both color and brightness is important in photo printing. Starting out, knowing how to read a histogram to ensure the image is properly exposed is good enough for a beginner. The advanced guides below get into more details on what is known as a "color managed workflow". In general, if you see the histogram shifted towards the left, the picture will come out “muddy” on paper, even luster types of paper.
Almost any photo will look good on a glossy or luster paper. Matte paper will be low in contrast and will work for some photos and not others. Experimentation is a the key. Do not be discouraged that images print unexpectedly using papers that might be included in a "sampler" pack.
Print SMALL at first. Canon practically gives the printers away to sell you more ink. Once you make this connection, you will know why Canon gives you a pack of 13x19 photo paper with the printer. Don't be afraid to cut this paper down to size. Don't be afraid to print a 4x6 images on the top half of a 13x19 piece of paper. Make sure you are comfortable with the processing and look of the pictures before you go large.
Printing your first photo!
Housekeeping Items: At this point, your printer should be sitting some place close to the computer. All of the hidden packing tape should be removed. The printer head and inks should be installed. The printer should be powered on and your computer should see a printer labeled something to the effect "Canon PIXMA Pro-100" in the printer settings window. You should be able to click on the printer icon and view properties of the printer. One of the properties you should check is the ink supply levels. You'll want to keep an eye on these levels as you print so you know which inks you more frequently use and need to replace. It's also a good strategy to open up the printer supplies before printing to verify sufficient ink and connectivity to the printer before printing.
This guide is going to focus on printing from Lr, which is about the only software I use anymore. Go ahead and navigate to your favorite image and select it.
One of the first steps in printing is you need to think of the physical medium you are printing too. Most cameras capture images in a 4:3 format. Many people that are used to prints from the pre-digital era think of photos as 3x5x, 5x7s, 8x10s. Note how none of these match the 4:3 format. So as a general recommendation, I suggest you create a virtual copy of your image in Lr so that you can perform a constrained crop to match the aspect ratio you want (often, it is the frame you want to use for the printed photograph). You can try to preserve as much of the image as you would like, but you want to think of the final ratio and crop deliberately on the virtual copy. You may end up with multiple virtual copies--one for a say a 5x7, one for a 8x10, etc. The virtual copy makes repeated print possible — you never want to let the software crop on the fly or have you manually adjusting every time you print an image.
Once you have the image sized for your paper (or your intended print size), you load the printer with paper. The manual paper feed is off the back of the printer. Normally, you will use the feeder that is on the top of the printer. You will need to match the paper - feeder location in the plugin. Take note of the exact name of the paper -- you will also need that in the Print Studio Pro plugin. In general, you do not want to print a "full bleed" image (ink all the way to the side of the paper). You will want a white border around the photo to make mounting the image possible. It also gives you a place to sign your name and helps conserve inks (white space = no ink). So, while the ratio generally needs to match the photo paper size, you print the photo slightly smaller than the paper size--something that is easily performed using the plugin.
Now, launch the plug in by goin to the File - Plugin Extras menu. From there, select the Canon Print Studio Pro option.
This will launch the plugin with the image preloaded (as an aside: ensure you only have a single image selected in lightroom before launching the plugin). In the right panel, specify the paper size, paper type and the printer if needed. As mentioned above, you will want to print with a border, so select that option. You should be presented with sliders that adjust the relative size of the image on the paper. You are presented the white space that will remain. The image can be centered on the paper (the usual setting) or if you are printing a small image on a large piece of paper, you can move the image around the page using the sliders or direct text entry of the location.
Before you push the print button, make sure your first image you print is not a 13x19! Yes, I know it is tempting, but don't do it. Save your inks. Print a small 4x6 (again, make sure you are not using some random junk paper; genuine Canon paper as a beginner!). If you do not have small paper, cut the 13x19 that came with the printer or simply scale the image down small and move it out of the center of the paper. This way, you can run the same sheet of photo paper through the printer a few times.
Let 'er rip! Now push the "print" button on the plug in. On a Mac, you are presented with the MacOS print dialogue. You should just push the print option with no changes. [note: I don't know what a Windows computer presents here, but it is probably about the same...no changes, just print or continue to move past the dialogue without changes].
Review your print
First, the printer will print with quality like you have never seen. The image you look at, however, may look off. Generally, it will appear darker than you anticipated, particularly if you are viewing the photo in a dark editing room. You need to take the photo out into some good natural or bring interior lights before making a final judgement on the print. The color spectrum of your house lights will affect the results too. For example, warm interior lights will make the image look warm. Hard, "daylight" spectrum will create a different feeling to the image. There are advanced printing techniques that can account for this, but just remember what happens when buy a gallon of paint for a room. You will find something that looks great in the store to only be confused why the paint looks wrong on the wall. If you carried that can back to the store, you would find that the paint does indeed match the chip perfectly. It's like some evil magic is at work. It's not. It is simply light reflecting off the surface; the light changes the look and feel of everything from a gallon of Behr to a 4x6 glossy print.
If you do find your printed image is wrong (and as you start, it will be). Run a double check of all of the setting in Print Studio Pro (the plugin remains open once you print...great for double checking). If all matches the paper correctly, then move on to other sources of trouble. If the printed image appears too dark in good light, verify your histogram and monitor brightness. I favor adjusting the exposure in the virtual image as that makes printing reproducible. You can update the brightness in the plugin, but that requires you to remember the settings. If the colors look off, review your image on other computers/devices. This may involve sending it to a friend with a calibrated monitor. Many times computer monitors are set to the wrong color temperature and that causes the print to look different than expected.
If you found your image looked ready to be shared with the world, try to print a few other images small. Select some that are black and white or show a wide color range. I would recommend not printing low key images at home unless you feel that you want to buy a lot of black ink cartridges. The low key images are also hard to print as they frequently come out too dark. I would save those for send away services.
Avid Printer Guide
At this point in the guide, you should be reliably printing using standard Canon papers. You have a work flow that doesn’t lead to wasted paper or ink. You can tell by looking at the histogram how well the picture will look on paper. Now, you are ready to go more creative things with the printer.
The first step in venturing out is to look at other paper sources. There’s great options from places like Canson, Hahnemühle, and other smaller suppliers. My favorite source is Red River Paper. I have found the quality of the paper from Red River to outstanding. The price is affordable, even for their fine art papers. Red River is generous with “ICC Profiles” for all of their papers across many printers, including the Pro 100.
What is an ICC profile you ask? Think of the ICC profile as something like high altitude baking directions. It’s important to get the ingredients just right so that the meal comes together correctly. That’s what the ICC profile does. Each type of paper will have a slightly different surface, slightly different color, and slightly different properties for how the paper absorbs ink. The combination of these things means something as simple as “red” will vary from paper from paper. To bring more uniformity to “red” across various papers, subtle differences in the ink mixtures are required. The ICC profiles store all of this and bring the paper to life.
Install ICC Profiles. For the installation of ICC profiles, I refer readers to the excellent documentation on Red River Paper’s support site. The general process is select your printer type, select your paper type, download the ICC profiles, and install it. Red River has detailed instructions along with a video guide. It’s not hard. You only do it once, too.
Using ICC profiles in the Print Studio Pro plug in is straight forward, sort of. Each box of paper will give you instructions on how to select the correct paper type for the specialty paper. This is needed since the Canon branded paper names are the only papers showing up in the print driver. For example, you won’t see one of my favorites general purposes paper - Red River UltraPro Statin. Assuming the ICC profiles are installed, you deselect the “auto” option from the printer profile dropdown and instead select the correct ICC profile for the paper you are printing.
While this doesn’t seem all that “avid”, you are now venturing out into a new area. You are now having to be responsible for coordinating paper types and ICC profiles for the paper of your choosing. This means more chances to go wrong. The plan to start small is a good one.
Use this as an opportunity to get creative with papers. Experiment. You can print on a variety of media types. Each will behave differently—glossy to matte, white to natural (warm white). Using vendor provided ICC profiles generally gives good results. Things change when you start exploring different inks, which brings us to the Advanced guide.
Advanced User Guide
Coming Soon