It’s been a couple of years since Canon introduced the PRO-1000. The 17-inch professional printer was well received by photographers and reviewers alike, with perhaps the only big complaint being its lack of support for prints longer than 23 inches and roll paper. While true roll paper support won’t be coming (it would require additional hardware), earlier this week Canon finally released an updated driver which allows the PRO-1000 to print up to 25.5 inches long.
Those extra two-and-half inches may not sound like much, but they make for a significant improvement for some users. 17×25 inches is a fairly common size for fine art printer papers from brands like Hahnemüle and Moab. Until now, the PRO-1000 was unable to take full advantage of those papers. Even the standard 1×24-inch size (which conforms to the two-to-three aspect ratio of most cameras) was previously out of reach, as mentioned by Imaging Resource.
The new driver can be downloaded from Canon’s support site. Note that in addition to the driver, printer firmware version 1.1 (released July 8 and available from the same link) is also required to enable longer prints. Downloads are available for the latest versions of both MacOS and Windows.
While this update may serve a small subset of users, it’s still good to see a two-year-old printer continue to receive new features and support.
The Canon PRO-1000 retails for $1,300. It has been recognized for its rich prints in both color and black-and-white thanks to a new ink system that uses 11 cartridges (plus a Chroma Optimizer). One of its key features is that is uses separate nozzles for matte and photo black inks, eliminating the need for the costly and time-consuming process of switching from one to the other when different types of media are used. For more information, head to the Canon website.
