i9100 Color Bubble Jet
Photo Printer

Fast, Professional, Wide Format Photo Printing

The Canon i9100 is the 2003 flagship of Canon's line of photo printers, the wide format i9100 Photo Printer replaces the S9000. The i9100 will appeal to professional level digital photographers wanting the highest quality photo printing with exceptionally fast print speeds.

The i9100 incorporates the ultra high-density multi-nozzle print head featuring 3,072 nozzles (the largest number of nozzles in its class) to achieve print speeds of approximately 37 seconds for a borderless 4" x 6" photo print, approximately one minute for 8" x 10" prints and approximately five minutes for 13" x 19" prints. New on the i9100 will be edge-to-edge borderless printing support for both 5" x 7" and 13" x 19" in addition to the 4" x 6" and 8.5" x 11" currently available.

Quality from the i9100 is achieved by using the advanced Microfine Droplet Technology with 4800 x 1200 dpi, twice as much as the S9000, and six-color photo printing using Canon's Individual Ink Tank system and Vivid Photo. Lightfast for approximately 25 years, photos printed from this printer rival professional photo developing.

The i9100 uses USB and is compatible with Windows XP/2000/98/ME, and Mac OS 8.6-9.X and OS X v 10.2.1 to 10.2.4. It comes with Canon's one-year limited warranty with InstantExchange. In addition to Easy-PhotoPrint (Windows and Mac) and Easy-WebPrint (Windows only), Canon includes PhotoRecord software (Windows) allowing end-users to easily crop digital photos, create albums and print photos; PhotoStitch (Windows and Mac) allowing users to quickly format panoramic shots taken with digital cameras and ZoomBrowser (Windows) and ImageBrowser (Mac) providing easy digital download, viewing and photo album capabilities. Shipping in July 2003, the i9100 has a MSRP of $499.99.

Canon i9100 Features:

• Prints 4" x 6" borderless photos in about 40 seconds

• 3,072 nozzles for exceptional speed and quality

• MicroFine Droplet Technology with 4800 x 1200 dpi resolution

• Borderless printing in 4 x 6", 5 x 7", letter size, 11 x 17" and 13 x 19" sizes

• 6 individually replaceable ink tanks lowers the "per print" cost

• Exif 2.2 compatible with included Canon Easy Photo Print program

The i9100 uses USB and is compatible with Windows 98/ME/2000 and XP, and Mac OS 8.6-9.X and OS X v 10.1 or later (Mac OS X borderless printing requires v 10.2 or later.). This is no parallel port connection, only USB.

Mechanics & Performance

The i9100 is a stylish looking, beige and silver colored printer that will turn your computer workspace into a daylight darkroom. Setup is straight forward and can be accomplished by following the steps outlined on the included big page of directions. You first install the removable print head assembly and then unwrap and install the six ink tanks, install the software and then connect the USB cable and turn on the printer. Windows finishes loading the drivers and within a minute or two you're up and printing.

I was so impressed by the Canon S9000 photo printer last year that I bought one for myself. Compared to other photo printers the Canon printers are thoroughbred race horses, they output high resolution photo prints incredibly fast. And Canon's ThinkTank ink system with individually replaceable ink tanks means that you don't toss out a cartridge just because one color runs out. The user can also replace the print head assembly if needed without requiring a trip to a service center.

In actual use the i9100 is so quiet that you almost don't notice that it's working. I printed a borderless 8.5 x 11 inch photo using the glossy photo paper and "High Quality" print settings in the driver. The finished print was ejected only one minute and fifty seconds later. It was the equal to the best print that I've ever made on any Epson or HP photo printer and completed in less than half the time.

If you're tired of being overwhelmed or confused by printer driver choices then you'll like the way the Canon software is written. It is detailed starting on page three of this review. Epson printer drivers have so many different output resolution choices (360dpi, 720dpi, 1440dpi, 2880dpi, 5760dpi) and High Speed and Microweave options that it is really confusing to the user. The Canon driver only needs to be told your media type and size and you're good to go.

You can click on the Custom buttons if you want to manually change the Fast-to-Fine (speed vs quality) setting or enable or disable the Image Optimizer, Photo Optimizer PRO and Photo Noise Reduction enhancements. Depending on the paper type and image type these "enhancements" don't always produce the most optimum results. They are designed to smooth the pixel "jaggies" out of low-res images or to create prints with a lot of "punch" (color, contrast, sharpness) to them.