Canon PIXMA PRO-100 Pro Reviews

A hefty printer that delivers immaculate poster-sized prints with superb colour accuracy. The best pound-for-pound printer we've tested

The Canon Pixma Pro-100 is an excellent bargain for serious photo printing. Unlike some competing wide-carriage photo printers, this model supports 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Apple's AirPrint. Also, the gray and light-gray ink cartridges will help to bring out some of the shadow detail in your color prints and provide smoother gradations in your black-and-white ones. The fact that this is a dye-based printer as opposed to a pigment-based printer has its advantages and disadvantages. In its favor are the rich, saturated colors associated with dye over pigment. Going against it are the less-optimistic longevity predictions and the tendency for the photos to be slightly less sharp compared with some pigment-based models. On the latter (sharpness) issue, in case that sounds like a major concern: Dye-based printers have traditionally performed better when paired with resin-coated papers, and that severely restricted the number of photo papers that you could use with them. That doesn’t appear to be an issue with the Pixma Pro-100, though, as we were able to find a wide selection of compatible papers from Canon and many of the leading third-party paper companies, including Ilford, Hahnemühle, Moab, and Red River. So getting the right stock to make this printer print the right stuff shouldn't be a problem. All you have to do, as ever, is pay for it.

In general, stepping up from a home/consumer photo printer to one that is capable of doing justice to true photography is a large and expensive leap. The paradox is, while the Pro-100 is considerably more expensive than a consumer model, it’s actually affordable for a wide-format prosumer printer capable of turning out professional quality output. The Pro-100 may be Canon’s least expensive prosumer wide-format photo printer, but you certainly can’t tell that from the excellent quality of the prints it produces. If you’re looking for an affordable entry-level pro-level photo printer, the Pro-100 fits the bill. Doy you have a flexible budget? Check out the Pixma Pro-10 and Pixma Pro-1.

Cheaper to buy and run than other A3+ inkjets, with great print quality to boot

The Canon Pixma PRO-100 may be at the low end of near-dedicated photo printers geared to photo enthusiasts, but it still produces photos worthy of hanging in a gallery.

Overall, the Canon PIXMA Pro-100 is a versatile printer that is more than capable of meeting the needs of the casual amateur or the avid professional. The greatest strength of this printer is the print quality. When printing on the highest quality settings, the print quality is truly remarkable. The colors are brilliant, the pictures have good depth, and the images are crisp and clean. The print speed is not remarkable, but superior print quality more than makes up for the average print speed. For the average user that is more concerned with print quality as opposed to volume, this should not be an issue. The Pro-100 has a straightforward, simple design which makes the operation of the printer a breeze. While the printer is heavy and bulky, the larger design does allow for prints as large as 13x9. The addition of the Wi-Fi adds to the versatility of the printer, allowing you to print from multiple computers and devices. The PictBridge functionality can also streamline the printing process. While Canon tried to consolidate all your organizing and editing needs into their My Image Garden program, it was not successful. Pictures printed through their program leave much to be desired, but printing with the new Print Studio Pro plugin for the Pixma Pro-100 makes up for any shortcomings that are found along the way. As long as you are printing on glossy photo paper and best quality you won't be disappointed.

Although Canon's Pixma Pro-1 still offers the ultimate in A3+ (13 x 19 inches) print quality, we've been impressed at how close the Canon Pixma Pro-100 comes to matching the performance of its considerably pricier sibling. Despite being around 30% lighter than the Canon Pixma Pro-1, build quality is superb. And though the Canon Pixma Pro-100 is no featherweight, we'd sooner trade portability for robustness. But the Canon Pixma Pro-100's real trump card is its price, costing around a third less than the Canon Pixma Pro-1. Considering the print quality of the two is so close, it's difficult to justify spending the extra unless you need slightly faster print times or often use matt paper.