Canon Pixma Pro-100 Printer: In-Depth Review and User Opinions

The Canon Pixma Pro-100 is a professional photo printer aimed at serious amateur and pro photographers. As an 8-ink printer with 4800x2400 dpi resolution, the Pixma Pro-100 produces gallery-quality photo prints and sharp text documents.

This wireless inkjet printer has several standout features that make it appealing for photo enthusiasts and professionals. It uses an 8-cartridge ink system with ChromaLife 100+ pigment inks for long-lasting, vibrant color prints. An anti-clogging print head helps maintain print quality over time. It supports printing on fine art papers up to 13" x 19" in size. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi, USB and Ethernet.

Overall, the Pixma Pro-100 brings exceptional print quality, speedy performance, and robust connectivity options in a sleek, compact design. It's an excellent choice for photographers who want to print their work with professional results right from their desktop.

Print Quality

The Canon Pixma Pro-100 excels when it comes to print quality. It uses an 8-color ink system with Canon's FINE print head technology to produce stunning photo prints with up to 4800 x 2400 dpi resolution.

The 8 dye-based inks provide an incredibly wide color gamut, allowing the Pro-100 to produce prints with excellent color accuracy. The printer includes a dedicated Photo Black ink for deep blacks in photos as well as Matte Black for printing on matte papers. The additional gray, red and blue inks further expand the available color space for remarkably vivid and accurate photo printing.

The combination of the FINE print head with Canon's ChromaLife 100+ system provides excellent control over ink placement and dot pattern, minimizing graininess while maximizing clarity. The results are gallery-quality photographic prints with fine details, smooth gradients and lifelike tonality across the tonal range from highlights to shadows.

Overall, the exceptional print quality from the 8-color inks and advanced print head make the Canon Pixma Pro-100 a top choice for photographers seeking a professional-level photo printer.

Print Speed

The Canon Pixma Pro-100 excels when it comes to print speed for both black and white and color printing. It can print up to 24 pages per minute for black and white documents and up to 15 pages per minute for color prints.

The first page out time is also very fast at just 20 seconds for black and white and 50 seconds for color. This makes the Pro-100 a great option when you need to quickly print out documents or photos with minimal waiting.

Whether you are printing long documents or just a few pages, the Pro-100 delivers excellent speed and efficiency. The quick first print times mean you don't have to wait long for that initial page to start printing. And the respectable page per minute ratings reduce total print times considerably, especially for larger print jobs.

Connectivity

The Canon Pixma Pro-100 offers excellent wired and wireless connectivity options. It has built-in Ethernet and WiFi capabilities, allowing you to connect the printer directly to your network with an Ethernet cable or wirelessly connect multiple computers via WiFi.

Connecting via Ethernet provides a fast and stable wired connection, which is ideal for heavy printing loads. The WiFi connectivity is also very reliable, with the printer being compatible with 802.11b/g/n wireless networks. You can easily set up the wireless connection using WPS or by manually entering your WiFi password into the printer interface.

In addition to the wired and wireless connectivity, the Pixma Pro-100 also supports wireless printing from mobile devices using Apple AirPrint or Canon Print app. This allows you to print directly from your iPhone, iPad, or Android device without needing to connect to a network. You can print photos, scans, documents and more wirelessly from your mobile device.

The range of connectivity options makes it very flexible to have the printer placed anywhere in your home or office. Multiple people can take advantage of the network and wireless printing capabilities to print from whichever computer or device they prefer.

Paper Handling

The Canon Pixma Pro-100 has excellent paper handling capabilities. It has two paper trays - a rear tray for specialty photo papers and sheets up to 13"x19", and a front tray for regular paper types up to 8.5"x11".

The rear tray has a 150 sheet capacity, while the front tray holds up to 250 sheets. Both trays can handle paper weights between 17 lb bond to 28 lb bond. The printer supports a wide variety of Canon photo papers like Semi-gloss, Premium Matte, Fine Art, and more. Plain paper types like office paper, envelopes, and photo paper are also supported.

The Pro-100 comes with auto duplex printing for creating double-sided prints and brochures easily. You can print documents and photos on both sides of the paper without having to manually flip sheets over. This saves time, paper, and costs when printing double-sided flyers, reports, newsletters etc. Overall, the generous tray capacities and auto duplexing make paper handling very convenient with the Pixma Pro-100.

Ink System

The Canon Pixma Pro-100 uses 8 individual ink cartridges - Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, Red, Blue, Matte Black, and Gray. This allows for less wasted ink compared to printers that use combined cartridges.

The standard capacity CLI-42 ink cartridges yield around 700 pages for color and 1500 pages for black. High yield PGI-42/CLI-42XL cartridges are also available, yielding 1600 pages for color and 2500 pages for black. This results in a very low cost per print, at around 2.2 cents for a color page and 1.1 cents for a black page.

The printer comes with full capacity introductory ink cartridges. However, replacement cartridges can be expensive, at around $13-15 per color cartridge and $27-30 for the twin packs of black/gray or matte black/photo black. Using the high yield cartridges helps lower the cost per print significantly.

Overall, the 8 individual ink tanks, stellar print yields, and optional high capacity cartridges allow for efficient ink use with a very competitive cost per print. This makes the Pro-100 well suited for frequent high volume printing.

Photo Printing

The Canon Pixma Pro-100 really shines when it comes to photo printing. It produces gallery-quality prints with rich, vivid colors and sharp detail. The 8-color ink system provides excellent color accuracy and a wide color gamut. Both color and black & white photos look fantastic.

Thanks to the printer's 4800 x 2400 dpi resolution, fine details are rendered beautifully. Portrait shots show smooth gradations in skin tones without unwanted banding or artifacts. Landscape photos maintain clarity from foreground to background. The results rival what you would get from a professional photo lab.

The printer also excels at borderless printing. Photos can be printed edge-to-edge on a variety of paper sizes up to 13" x 19". There are no white borders around the edges of the print. Photos look more fluid and integrated when printed borderless. This is ideal for landscape shots or any image where you want a print that extends fully to the edges of the page.

Overall, the Pixma Pro-100 produces gallery-quality photo prints with excellent detail, vibrant colors, and smooth tonal transitions, especially for black & white and borderless prints. For photographers who want professional results at home, the photo printing capabilities are hard to beat.

Document Printing

If you're looking for an office printer, the Canon Pixma Pro-100 excels at document printing. It produces sharp, professional-quality text that's suitable for business use.

The printer uses a 4800 x 2400 dpi FINE print head and ChromaLife 100+ ink system to lay down crisp black text. Fonts look clean and legible, even at small sizes. Fine details and serifs show no signs of breakup or pixelation.

Documents printed with the Pro-100 have excellent contrast. Blacks are deep and rich, while avoiding a washed-out look on plain paper. The pigment-based ChromaLife 100+ inks provide good water and smear resistance once dry, which is useful for business applications.

The Pro-100 can handle a range of paper types and weights, from plain copy paper up to thicker grade photo paper. No matter what you print on, text comes out looking clean and professional. The Epson print drivers offer some helpful options for optimizing document output, such as black and white only mode.

Overall, the Canon Pixma Pro-100 delivers exceptional quality for text-heavy documents like reports, letters, invoices, presentations and more. It's a great choice for home offices or small businesses that need professional, affordable document printing.

Design and Build

The Canon Pixma Pro-100 has a sleek, modern design with an all-black finish. It has rounded edges and a low profile, measuring 14.2 x 27.2 x 6.5 inches and weighing 43.9 pounds. Despite its large ink tanks, the Pro-100 maintains a relatively small footprint for an A3+ photo printer.

The build quality feels sturdy thanks to the metal exterior and strong plastic casing. The printer does not feel flimsy or cheap when moving it around.

Noise levels are low for this class of printer. During normal operation and printing, sound is comparable to a standard office inkjet printer. The Pro-100 operates at around 50 dB when printing documents and photos. The loudest noise comes from the initial ink priming when setting up, but even that is quieter than most competing A3+ photo printers.

Overall, the design is focused on providing robust construction for frequent professional use while maintaining easy operation. The modern black styling allows it to blend into a home office or studio environment.

Pros and Cons

The Canon Pixma Pro-100 is a photo inkjet printer aimed at professional photographers and enthusiasts. Here is a summary of the main pros and cons:

Pros

• Excellent print quality and color accuracy suitable for professional photography
• Wide range of connectivity options including WiFi, Ethernet, USB and wireless Pictbridge
• Fast print speeds especially for black and white text documents
• Supports printing on fine art papers and canvas up to 13" x 19"
• Comes with 8 dye-based ink cartridges for vivid color and black printing
• Built-in Chroma Optimizer coats prints for increased gamut and longevity
• Dedicated monochrome mode for enhanced black and white photo printing
• AirPrint and Google Cloud Print compatibility for easy wireless printing

Cons

• High cost of ink cartridges and ink usage compared to lasers
• Lack of auto-duplexing for two-sided printing
• No document feeder for scanning and copying multiple pages
• Printer driver can be tricky to install and configure
• Large footprint may not suit space constrained environments
• No display panel on the printer itself

The Canon Pixma Pro-100 offers exceptional print quality for photos and graphics, making it a good choice for photography professionals and hobbyists. But the ink costs are quite high so it's less suitable for high volume office printing. It excels at printing high quality photographic output but lacks office-centric features like scanning, copying and fax.