In summary
The imagePROGRAF PRO-1100 is a very capable A2+ printer that should meet the needs of high-volume users.
Currently, there is no other desktop printer that can match its output quality on a wide range of papers, from high-glossy to matte.
Full review
Announced on 30 September 2024, the imagePROGRAF PRO-1100 is the latest flagship A2 model in Canon’s the desktop inkjet professional printer range. The new printer looks like the almost 10-year-old imagePROGRAF PRO-1000, which it replaces, right down to the ‘red line’ branding on the front panel. It also uses the same PF-10 print head as the P-1000, as well as the same maintenance cartridge and has the same number of ink tanks in the same colours. However, the ink set in new printer has been updated, with all inks except the matte black ink having been re-formulated (the matte black ink formula is the same as was introduced in the PRO-300) to deliver quantifiable performance improvements. As before, the PRO-1100 is supplied with full-sized 80 mL ink tanks, rather than the reduced-volume, ‘starter’ tanks provided with some printers.
Angled view of the new imagePROGRAF PRO-1100 printer. (Source: Canon.)
The footprint of the new printer is only two millimetres wider than the previous model so it will fit just as easily onto a standard-sized desk. It’s also 400 grams heavier. Power consumption during printing is the same as for the PRO-1000 but less power is used in standby and sleep modes – which is a good thing since this printer must have power switched on at all times (ink lines get cleared each time power it lost, which wastes a considerable amount of ink).
It’s a bit noisier in operation, than the PRO-1000, at 42.5 to 43 dB(A), compared with 41.0 dB(A). This is largely due the vacuum paper feeding system, shared by both printers, which keeps paper flat as it’s fed through the printer, and virtually eliminates paper feeding problems.
Who’s it For?
Traditionally, Canon’s imagePROGRAF large format printers have been designed for high-volume usage in business environments. That’s also the case with the PRO-1100, which is best suited to high-volume situations like independent photographers and photo studios that make their own prints, camera shops that target customers wanting large prints, photography schools and some tourist facilities.
The imagePROGRAF PRO-1100 printer in a studio environment. (Source: Canon.)
Serious photo enthusiasts who do a lot of printing and want to make larger than A3+prints might also find it worth investing in this printer. The upgraded Lucia Pro II inks certainly reproduce a wider colour range than the previous inks with smoother tonal gradations and noticeably deeper blacks and blues. This will enable users to bring out more details in landscapes, seascapes and challenging shadow areas.
The addition of wax to the ink formulations improves scratch resistance, particularly for prints printed on glossy (e.g. Canon’s Pro Platinum, which delivers outstanding results with this printer) as well as semi-gloss (lustre or pearl) paper. Prints are more robust and easier to handle when they are framed, carried to different locations, packaged and posted.
The new inks also have higher light stability, with a claimed fade resistance of up to 200 years. According to Canon, these features will give users of this printer more confidence that the prints will be faithful to the original image.
Precautions
Photographers thinking of investing in the PRO-1100 should take into account of the following precautions:
1. This printer should be kept permanently connected to mains power because if power is switched off – or the mains power blacks out – restarting it can use a LOT of ink. Roughly 40ml of ink (half an ink tank’s worth) is wasted when the printer is switched off and then on again because the ink in the ink lines feeding the printer head is flushed out to the maintenance tank.
2. Up to 20% of the ink will be consumed during routine head-cleaning cycles during normal use. This figure can rise to approximately 30% when the printer is used infrequently so it will save you money to keep this printer in regular use so as to minimise head cleaning cycles.
3. Much more ink wastage will take place if you need to move the printer from one location to another because if there’s a chance that the printer may be tilted the manual states; ALL the ink in the printer and ‘a certain amount of ink in the ink tanks need to be ejected into the maintenance cartridge’. The process takes approximately six minutes and up to three maintenance cartridges may be required to accommodate this ink. Because it’s all mixed up in the maintenance cartridge it won’t be recoverable.
Assuming you’ve used up most of the ink in the cartridges before you have to go through this procedure, at the best estimate, you will have wasted at least half a litre of ink. Add to that the cost of the maintenance cartridge (which will need to be discarded or recycled when they fill up), and with the price of each cartridge at AU$90, you’ll have wasted more than $1000 on ink alone and about $40 for each maintenance cartridge.
However, while we had the printer to review we left it unused – BUT connected to the mains power – for just over a week during the Christmas-New Year period. When we used it after this stretch of ‘idleness’ it took about three and a half minutes to deliver the first print, during which time it spent just over half a minute ‘agitating’ the inks (to get the pigment particles moving), followed by a sequence of clicks and whirrs while the image data was dealt with and normal printing resumed.
No ink appeared to have been wasted during the ‘idle’ period as the ink status monitor showed the level in the maintenance tank did not change from before the break to after it, as shown in the screen grabs of the ink status monitor below.
Screen grabs of the ink status monitor before (left) and after (right) a week without use, with the maintenance tank levels outlined in red.
The message here is clear: the printer should remain connected to mains power. Since it only consumes 1.2 Watts of power in this mode, it won’t seriously increase your power bills. Users of the printer who have rooftop solar and a home battery would be covered during most power outages; those without backup should consider purchasing an uninterruptible power supply, which can provide back-up power for up to 8 hours.
What’s in the Box?
The imagePROGRAF PRO-1100 comes in a cardboard box that is 966 mm long, 556 mm deep and 418 mm in height. The printer itself has a footprint of 723 x 435 x 285 mm and weighs 32.4 kg. Included in the box you’ll find 12 individual ink tanks (the full 80 ml capacity in their normal packages), the MC-20 user-replaceable print head, a power cord and a printed 12-page starter guide. Driver software for Windows and MacOS can be downloaded from Canon’s website.
The imagePROGRAF PRO-1100 printer as unpacked from the box.
Whereas the PRO-100 was packed in Styrofoam, its successor comes in recyclable cardboard packaging. This makes it easier to lift out the printer and set it up on a desk before taking off the strips of orange tape and plastic mouldings that keep everything in place while the printer is in transit.
The supplied ink tanks, print head and cable, shown with the scales we used to weigh each cartridge before it was installed and after the printer initialised.
Setting Up
Allow at about half to three-quarters of an hour to make the printer ready for printing, following the instructions in the starter guide, which are almost identical to those provided for the PRO-1000. Check our review of that printer.
The print head holder is protected by an orange plastic insert, which must be removed during set up.
Front view of the printer showing the ink tank slots before the tanks were loaded.
Loading the ink tanks. (Source: Canon.)
The print head holder opened ready for installation of the print head.
The print head installed.
We found it took roughly 45 minutes to unpack the printer, strip off all the tape, remove the print head insert and load the ink tanks and printer head. Clear instructions are provided for each step on the printer’s LCD screen, at the end of which you’re prompted to initiate a head alignment, which requires you to load a couple of sheets of plain paper.
Ready for head alignment.
Initialising message on the LCD screen.
Once this is done, the printer requires approximately 25 minutes to initalise, during which it emits almost continuous low-volume noise. Use this time to download and install the printer driver, which is similar to (although on the Maintenance page simpler than) the driver Canon supplies with its PIXMA printers and covered in our review of the PIXMA iP8760.
Screen grabs of the printer driver are shown below
The Page Setup page is shown with the Print Options dialog box open and the checked margin cancelling box circled in red. You may need to check this box when printing on some media where the default margin settings are quite wide.
The Update Media Information icon (circled in red on the screen grab above) opens a dialog box (shown below) that lets you synchronise the media information in the driver and printer – should you feel a need to do so. (We only see a need for this if you’re printing directly from the printer rather than through an image editor.)
The printer was very quiet while running. We also encountered no paper feeding problems when using either of the two feed chutes.
Media Recommendations
For our review, Canon provided a small range of printing papers, including the ultra-high-quality Pro Platinum glossy paper, Pro Lustre and Photo Paper Plus Semi-gloss. We also made some prints on non-Canon-branded matte papers, both double-sided (for photo books) and ‘fine art’ media. Our colleague also made a number of impressive prints on canvas.
We found the ‘canned’ profiles for the Canon papers worked extremely well, producing both accurate colours and a wide range of tones. The same was true for third-party papers where profiles were available to download and apply – although some leading paper manufacturer/suppliers have yet to offer up-to-date profiles. Where no profiles were available we used guesswork – and set the profile to the nearest Canon equivalent. Thankfully, that strategy was also successful for the few different third-party papers we tried.
Overall, we found the end results were outstanding on virtually all the media we tried – but particularly the Pro Platinum paper. Although we detected traces of gloss differential on most of the glossy prints we made, we had to look hard to find them and they were absent from the prints on semi-gloss and lustre papers. Fortunately, when these prints were framed behind glass, they weren’t visible at all.
Monochrome printing was equally successful on a range of several papers covering glossy, semi-gloss and matte. We obtained particularly good results on Harman Inkjet Matt FB Mp Warmtone inkjet paper, an acid-free, Baryta coated fibre paper with a subtle warm tone that makes it a good choice for printing portraits and architectural shots.
Printing Times
Printing times depend upon a number of factors including the output size, quality setting, relative density of inks that will be used (high-key images use less ink and take less time to print than low-key images) and whether the image is the first to be printed in a sequence or in the middle. The first print in a sequence will usually involve a longer ‘spooling’ time (normally between 30 seconds and a minute but sometimes longer) while the printer organises the various settings.
Over the course of our tests we logged the following average times for prints made with small (10 mm or less) margins and borderless prints:
A4 prints at standard quality – 2 minutes 10 seconds at standard quality; 3 minutes 24 seconds at highest quality; HQ borderless prints averaged 4 minutes 30 seconds.
A3 prints at standard quality – 4 minutes 25 seconds at standard quality; 5 minutes 30 seconds at highest quality; HQ borderless prints averaged approximately 6 minutes.
A3+ prints at standard quality – 4 minutes 30 seconds at standard quality; 6 minutes 48 seconds at highest quality; HQ borderless prints averaged 7 minutes 15 seconds.
Note that these are averages calculated over batches of between 10 and 20 prints.
Costs
We collaborated with another reviewer, who received the printer ahead of us, in order to work out the running costs for the supplied printer. At the start of our tests we weighed the 80mL tanks and found each weighed 86 grams. Empty tanks weighed 32 grams.
Next we weighed the ink tanks after the printer had been set up to find out how much ink gets used before you can even start printing. The Photo Magenta tank weighed 74 grams; the Red, Cyan, Photo Grey, Matte Black, Blue, Yellow and Chrome Optimiser tanks each weighed 76 grams, while the Photo Black, Grey, Magenta and Photo Cyan weighed 78 grams.
On average, 44 mL of ink was used for the set-up, mainly for filling the ink lines. The screen grab above shows the ink level status at the start of printing.
The ISO/IEC 29103 standard image used to test photo printers and for measuring ink yields.
According to the Canon Europe website, the page yield for A2 colour photo prints produced in accordance with the ISO/IEC 29103 standard, based upon continuous running is the same as for the previous model with the following estimated figures:
Matte Black (MBK): 1315 photos
Photo Black (PBK): 206 photos
Grey (GY): 133 photos
Photo Grey (PGY): 348 photos
Photo Cyan (PC): 555 photos
Cyan (C): 700 photos
Photo Magenta (PM): 404 photos
Magenta (M): 905 photos
Yellow (Y): 320 photos
Red (R): 760 photos
Blue (B): 805 photos
Chroma Optimiser (CO): 90 photos
By combining our results with our colleague, we’ve managed to calculate typical ink costs for printing at the most commonly-used output sizes, in each case with the standard 10 mm wide margins:
A4 – $1.09
A3 – $2.40
A2- $4.74
On average, almost 18.4 mL of ink is consumed per square metre of paper coverage, assuming a relatively even distribution of colours and tones, including deep black. The average ink cost per square metre at current RRP of AU$90 per tank is $20.66.
This compares favourably with the ink costs for the Epson SureColor SC-P906 where we calculated the costs at:
A4 with 10 mm margins = approx. $1.50
A3 with 15 mm margins = approx. $2.45
A2 with 15 mm margins = approx. $4.93
At the time the average street price for Epson’s 50 ml ink cartridges was AU$54 each and the P906 only uses 10 inks, compared with 12 x 80 ml tanks for the PRO-1100. Since then, Epson has increased the RRP to AU$64.95 per cartridge, although the average street price is closer to $58.
Costs for other media will vary with each paper type and should be easy to calculate on the basis of the cost of each sheet. Like its predecessor, the PRO-1100 can’t use roll paper, which limits its overall capabilities. However, it still allows users to print with Custom sizes up to 330 x 990.6 mm, which provides some scope for panorama printing if you’re prepared to cut roll paper to a size between those limits. We found feeding long sheets of paper into the printer via the rear chute easier than with the previous model – although you had to make sure the leading edge of the paper was cut straight at 90-degrees to the sides of the sheet.
It was also vital to ensure this edge was pushed into the chute until some resistance was encountered. If this wasn’t done, the rollers in the drive system would not be able to pick up the paper and feed it through the printer.
Conclusion
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SPECS
Printer type: Thermal inkjet with L-COA PRO Image Processing Engine
Print head: PF-10
Number of nozzles: 18,432 nozzles (1,536 nozzles x 12 colours)
Minimum droplet size: 4 picolitres per colour
Resolution: Up to 2400 x 1200 dpi
Paper sizes: A2, A3+, A3, A4, A5, B4, B5, B3,M B2 Letter, Legal, Ledger, 5×7-inch to 14 x 17-inch; (maximum printable width -127 mm maximum printable length – 3276.7 mm)
Max. paper thickness: 64 to 300 gsm (0.1-0.3 mm) via top tray; up to 400 gsm (0.7 mm) via manual feed.
Ink system: LUCIA PRO II pigment ink (PFI-4100)
Ink cartridges: 11 colours: Photo Black/Matte Black/Cyan/Magenta/Yellow/Photo Cyan/Photo Magenta/Grey/Photo Grey/Red/Blue plus Chroma Optimiser
Ink tank capacity: 80 mL each
Maintenance Cartridge: MC-20
Interfaces: Hi-Speed USB B, Wired LAN (IEEE802.3ab [1000BASE-T]/IEEE802.3u[100BASE-TX]/IEEE802.3[10BASE-T]), Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11 b/g /n), Wi-Fi Pictbridge (camera direct)
Printing solutions: Canon PRINT(iOS/Android), Canon Print Service(Android), Apple AirPrint, Mopria®, Cloud Link
Operation Panel Display: 320 x 240 TFT LCD, Key x 9, LED x 2 (22 languages selectable)
On-board memory: 1GB
Power supply: AC 100–240V (50 – 60 Hz)
Power consumption: Approx. 38 W when printing (1.2W Standby, 0.1W Off)
Acoustic noise: 42.5 to 43 dB(A)
Dimensions (wxhxd): Approx. 723 x 285 x 435 mm
Weight: 32.4 kg (including print head and inks)
Distributor: Canon Australia
Rating
RRP: AU$2049
- Build: 9.0
- Features: 8.8
- Print quality: 9.3
- Print speed: 8.5
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