[UncleVanya]

I bought the Canon Pixma Pro 100 a few months back on a deal posted here. Fantastic results so far. However I wanted to share my goof in case anyone else runs into this.

The printer came with 5 sheets of the Canon Luster Pro paper. I could not find any marks on the package that indicated front vs back so I put it in shiny side to the print heads. Um... No. Lol.

I have two ruined sheets. The back is covered in ink. Even after two days of rubbing off ink and letting these dry the are still not clean enough to reuse them to print on the correct side! Oh well the samples I did print correctly are stunning.

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Last edited by UncleVanya; 12-29-2015 at 11:07 AM.

[BrianR]

Lesson learned!

Are the ink covered backs abstract art worthy?

I'll be interested in hearing how you get on with your printer over time. A home printer is on my future buy list. Enjoy it

[UncleVanya]

Lesson learned!

Are the ink covered backs abstract art worthy?

I'll be interested in hearing how you get on with your printer over time. A home printer is on my future buy list. Enjoy it

They might have been at first but after I wiped them they turned a nearly uniform gray. Repeated wiping has continued to make them lighter gray with some hints of other colors.

This is not a printer that you want to buy for anything other than printing photos. You will need a large space and a sturdy table to set it on. I bought an older style printer cart made for the old form feed printwheel style printers that came from a government surplus reseller. The print ink is expensive ($100+) and while there are alternatives it's unclear to me if I will go that route or just use the ink from Canon. The entire setup was a steal on the deal ($49 net including 50 sheets of nice 13x19 paper). So far I have not printed anything larger than 8.5x11 (with margins). The Canon Luster paper is stunning with the Canon ink.

[dansamy]

They might have been at first but after I wiped them they turned a nearly uniform gray. Repeated wiping has continued to make them lighter gray with some hints of other colors.

This is not a printer that you want to buy for anything other than printing photos. You will need a large space and a sturdy table to set it on. I bought an older style printer cart made for the old form feed printwheel style printers that came from a government surplus reseller. The print ink is expensive ($100+) and while there are alternatives it's unclear to me if I will go that route or just use the ink from Canon. The entire setup was a steal on the deal ($49 net including 50 sheets of nice 13x19 paper). So far I have not printed anything larger than 8.5x11 (with margins). The Canon Luster paper is stunning with the Canon ink.

That's a very good deal! And yes, for photo printing that matters, you'll want to stick with genuine products.

[UncleVanya]

That's a very good deal! And yes, for photo printing that matters, you'll want to stick with genuine products.

In this case there is a third party that makes photo specific inks for Epson and Canon pro style printers. They have quite a good reputation. One of the options with this print driver is to use custom color profiles which most say is not needed with this ink but can fine tune it even more. The ink is pennies on the dollar but not cheap per say.

Precision Colors C5B

I am very tempted after reading reviews. They are not your average run of the mill ink company.

[T Evergreen]

I don't recall whether Canon provided instructions for the sample paper with the Pro-100, but fortunately everything went smoothly when I printed the initial sheets of Luster paper. For the Luster paper and for other glossy-type papers, you print on the shiner surface and it is placed shiny side up in the print tray. Some of the papers have the Canon logo on the back side. With Matte paper, it's the whiter side for printing.

Just as a reminder, Canon periodically runs some really great sales on printer paper. A week ago, I received 50 sheets of 13x19" Luster for
$13.25 including sales tax and 2-day Fedex shipping. This paper was on backorder and was part of a 75% off deal, plus I had a half-price coupon. I also have coming tomorrow 100 8.5x11" sheets of Pro Platinum paper for the same price. The Pro Platinum paper was a buy one, get four more free and this deal may still be in effect. As you can see, it really pays to keep an eye on the Canon web site. Just google/bing "canon photo paper" to find the Canon site. You get the half-price coupon from Canon when you register the Pro-100.

---------- Post added 12-29-15 at 12:56 PM ----------

I purchased the Precision Colors refill inks but haven't used them yet. The site had detailed instructions and videos on the refilling process, including how to reset the chips on the individual ink cartridges. I bought the squeeze bottle package with chip resetter. The only cavet regarding refilling the cartridges is that you can't mix the PC yellow ink with the Canon yellow. With the other colors you can. With the yellow, you need to use a replacement cartridge that is thoroughly flushed of the Canon ink. Otherwise, the print head might get clogged. With PC inks and Canon paper purchased on sale, it's really inexpensive to photo print with the Pro-100.

[UncleVanya]

I don't recall whether Canon provided instructions for the sample paper with the Pro-100, but fortunately everything went smoothly when I printed the initial sheets of Luster paper. For the Luster paper and for other glossy-type papers, you print on the shiner surface and it is placed shiny side up in the print tray. Some of the papers have the Canon logo on the back side. With Matte paper, it's the whiter side for printing.

Now I'm totally lost. I realize I mistakenly said load it printing side down - that's wrong. It's printing side up. But I'm confused because I was pretty sure the Luster was shinier on the non-printed side. I'll have to revisit this later.

Canon has a lot to learn about labeling. The label on the print trays is very confusing to me it appeared to say print side down - because they failed to put lines indicating printing on the icon. So I assumed the colored in part which was clearly down was the print side (photo after all) but that's not the case.

---------- Post added 12-29-15 at 01:06 PM ----------

I purchased the Precision Colors refill inks but haven't used them yet. The site had detailed instructions and videos on the refilling process, including how to reset the chips on the individual ink cartridges. I bought the squeeze bottle package with chip resetter. The only cavet regarding refilling the cartridges is that you can't mix the PC yellow ink with the Canon yellow. With the other colors you can. With the yellow, you need to use a replacement cartridge that is thoroughly flushed of the Canon ink. Otherwise, the print head might get clogged. With PC inks and Canon paper purchased on sale, it's really inexpensive to photo print with the Pro-100.

Just in case you haven't seen the videos - there is a another series of videos from Precision that shows what happens when you print until the cartridge reads empty. The sponge fills with foam and fails to refill correctly. You will need to refill when the low ink warning comes up - do not wait - unless you plan to flush the cartridges which can be done to refresh the sponge.

[T Evergreen]

Now I'm totally lost. I realize I mistakenly said load it printing side down - that's wrong. It's printing side up. But I'm confused because I was pretty sure the Luster was shinier on the non-printed side. I'll have to revisit this later.

With the coated papers like Luster, if in doubt, you can moisten your finger and press it on the paper. If it sticks, that's the side you print on. Just do this on the corner of a sheet so you don't interfere with the printing (assuming you're printing with a border).

---------- Post added 12-29-15 at 03:36 PM ----------

That 75% off plus free shipping for some Canon photo paper is back on now!

[BrianR]

This is not a printer that you want to buy for anything other than printing photos.

Yep, I do have a B&W laser printer for documents, it's a photo printer I'm after. I had one of the cheaper epson ones about 14 years ago that was great in output but was a frustrating hassle to deal with. I gather printers in the 'affordable to me' segment have improved greatly.

You will need a large space and a sturdy table to set it on. I bought an older style printer cart made for the old form feed printwheel style printers that came from a government surplus reseller. The print ink is expensive ($100+) and while there are alternatives it's unclear to me if I will go that route or just use the ink from Canon. The entire setup was a steal on the deal ($49 net including 50 sheets of nice 13x19 paper). So far I have not printed anything larger than 8.5x11 (with margins). The Canon Luster paper is stunning with the Canon ink.

You Americans and your crazy printer deals! At that price it would be no question to jump in the home printing game. Saving up for supplies might be another matter, but you have to start somewhere and I'm taking notes on the frugal options mentioned in this thread

[UncleVanya]

The printer stand I got cost me $10 plus a $15 delivery charge from a 50km distant location.

[Digitalis]

I could not find any marks on the package that indicated front vs back

Here is a trick that should prevent you from making such a blooper again: lick your finger and place it on a corner of the paper, the side that absorbs the moisture fastest is the printing side.

[UncleVanya]

I use Precision's inks in a Canon Pro 100. I followed their instructions (print & videos) and everything works just fine. No one I know can tell the difference between images using their inks and Canon's. I'm not advocating a switch to Precision, but I've had no problems and I'm very pleased.

Cheers... M

Which paper do you use? There was some concern about archival results that I read.

[Digitalis]

I understand that dye printed images on top quality paper (like Red River) can be enjoyed as long as pigment print images

Incorrect, Dye molecules being much smaller and lighter than pigment molecules are more vulnerable to damage by ozone, ultraviolet and environmental degradation. Papers do play a role in print longevity, however they are ultimately limited by the robustness of the inks used.

[Digitalis]

The durability/longevity issue for dye prints on high quality paper is not a big deal for throwaways like note cards... right?

Perhaps for your purposes it is not. But for archival gallery prints, longevity of the investment in art is critical. C-type dye prints will only last around 30 years, Inkjet dye prints perhaps 20 years longer than that, Pigment prints upwards of 90 years, silver gelatin prints 140 years, Selenium toning pushes to that upwards of 200 years. Carbon/Platinum prints 1000+ years.

[UncleVanya]

Lesson learned!

Are the ink covered backs abstract art worthy?

I'll be interested in hearing how you get on with your printer over time. A home printer is on my future buy list. Enjoy it

Update: still have the same copy of the same printer. It is still quite good. Some feed issues with small paper sizes 4x6 in dxo pro a few versions ago, used Canon utility to bypass dxo when printing those and it worked.

Long term report is very positive.