The Canon PRO-1100 Print Guide
If you bought the Canon PRO-1100 on my recommendation, this is the guide I wish came in the box. It is a remarkable printer capable of gallery-quality work, but most of the friction people run into has nothing to do with the printer itself. It comes from the handful of things no one explains clearly, like how the printer wants you to feed different papers, how to add the papers you actually want to use, and how to get color you can trust from the screen to the print. This page walks through all of it in the order you will actually need it, with the videos where I show each step on screen.
1. Media types and feed paths
Start here, because this is the part that trips up almost everyone. The PRO-1100 has two ways to feed paper, and which one a given sheet uses comes down to its finish, not its weight or how much it costs.
- Shiny finishes (satin, baryta, platine, luster, gloss, and resin-coated papers) go through the Sheet Feeder at the top.
- Matte finishes (the cotton rag fine art papers) go through the Manual Feed at the back, on a straight paper path.
Here is the part worth remembering: select the correct media type first, and the printer will only offer you the right feed path for that paper. If the feed option you expect is greyed out, that is the printer telling you the media type is wrong for that paper’s finish. It is not a fault, it is the printer protecting you from a jam or a head strike.
Canson Fine Art Discovery Pack
| Paper | Weight | Finish | Feed path |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rag Photographique | 310 gsm | Smooth matte cotton | Manual Feed |
| Edition Etching Rag | 310 gsm | Lightly textured matte | Manual Feed |
| PrintMaKing Rag | 310 gsm | Matte cotton, soft grain | Manual Feed |
| Velin Museum Rag | 315 gsm | Smooth matte cotton | Manual Feed |
| Aquarelle Rag | 310 gsm | Textured matte, warm white | Manual Feed |
| Baryta Photographique II Matt | 310 gsm | Matte (despite the “baryta” name) | Manual Feed |
| Platine Fibre Rag | 310 gsm | Satin sheen (baryta-like) | Sheet Feeder |
Watch Platine. It is a cotton rag, but its satin sheen sends it through the sheet feeder, not the manual feed. If manual feed is greyed out when Platine is selected, that is correct.
Canson Photo Discovery Pack
| Paper | Weight | Finish | Feed path |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rag Photographique | 310 gsm | Smooth matte cotton | Manual Feed |
| Baryta Photographique II Matt | 310 gsm | Matte | Manual Feed |
| Platine Fibre Rag | 310 gsm | Satin sheen | Sheet Feeder |
| Baryta Photographique II | 310 gsm | Satin baryta | Sheet Feeder |
| Baryta Prestige II | 340 gsm | Gloss baryta | Sheet Feeder |
| PhotoSatin Premium RC | 270 gsm | Satin RC | Sheet Feeder |
| Photo HighGloss Premium RC | 315 gsm | High gloss RC | Sheet Feeder |
2. Adding the papers you actually want to use
Out of the box, the printer only knows about Canon’s own papers. To print on anything else, like the Canson papers I recommend, you install a small media file the manufacturer provides, called an AM1X file, using Canon’s free Media Configuration Tool. Once it is installed, that paper shows up in the print driver by name, with its media type and recommended settings already dialed in. That installed media type is also what sets the correct feed path from the section above. Here is the whole process, start to finish:
3. ICC profiles and soft proofing
It helps to understand the difference between the two things you just touched. A media type tells the printer how to lay down ink on a given surface. An ICC profile tells your software how to translate the colors in your image for that exact paper and printer combination. You need both, and they do different jobs. Here is how to find and use the profiles on a Mac, including how to soft proof so you can see roughly what the print will look like before you commit paper and ink:
Soft proof before you print. It shows how your colors will shift moving from the screen to a specific paper, so you catch problems before wasting a sheet. In Lightroom’s Develop module, press S. The rendering intent, Perceptual or Relative, is just two ways of squeezing your image’s colors into the smaller range the paper can hold. Don’t overthink the theory. Soft proof both and use whichever keeps your out of gamut colors looking right.
- The feed option is greyed out. The media type is wrong for that paper’s finish. Go back to the rule in section one and reselect.
- The print comes out dark or muddy. This is almost always a color-management mismatch, where both the software and the printer are trying to manage color at the same time. Let one of them do it, never both.
- You see banding or thin missing lines. Run a nozzle check, then a cleaning cycle, and check again before you blame the file or the paper.
- The color does not match your screen. Confirm you are using the correct ICC profile for that exact paper, and make sure your monitor is reasonably calibrated. A print can only be as honest as the screen you judged it against.
5. Choosing your paper
Paper is the most personal choice you will make, so forget the marketing words on the box and start with one thing: DMAX, which is simply how much black a paper can hold.
High DMAX papers (baryta, gloss, luster) hold more black, so you get more contrast and a more aggressive, punchy print. Low DMAX papers, the matte cotton rags, hold less, which gives a softer, quieter feel. It is not better or worse, just more or less. Matte papers are low DMAX by definition.
So choose the DMAX that serves the image. A bold, graphic photograph wants the snap of a high DMAX baryta. A quiet, tonal one often breathes better on a low DMAX matte.