A note from Matt, owner of Precision Colors.
While moving our website to its new home, I came across a page I had never seen before. It is a review of the Canon PIXMA PRO-100 written in May 2013 by Mike, who founded Precision Colors and built the inks and ICC profiles this business is known for.
I am sharing it here almost exactly as he wrote it. I fixed typos and a few rough sentences, and nothing else. The opinions, the comparisons and the conclusion are all his. A lot has changed since 2013, so I have added a few notes at the end.
If you own a PRO-100 or PRO-100S today, you can find our PRO-100 inks, kits and accessories here.
Canon PRO-100
By Mike, May 2013
For many years I owned the Canon Pro9000 and it served me well. At the time it provided excellent prints, and it was possibly the best dye printer ever made for holding detail in the shadow areas.
When the MP980 appeared, the engineers from Canon mentioned that it used gray inks, so I purchased one to see what the story was. Despite marketing claims that the gray inks were for monochrome or B&W printing, engineering, whom I trust more, had indicated otherwise. I imagine it is simple to explain to the general public that gray inks are used for B&W. However, since I also owned and used Epson K3 (three Ks, or grays and blacks, hence the K and the 3), I knew better.
So I purchased the 980 and started using it. The quality of output was indeed interesting. I could not put my finger on it, but the prints were superior to similar machines like the iP4600 that did not use the gray inks. There was a purity of tone as it descended into the shadow areas. This was never really mentioned in the reviews I read about the 980. However, having made hundreds of profiles, with a pile of used paper more than three feet high to show for it, I had developed an eye. There was something to this gray ink business.
I reported this on a forum, and sure enough the skeptics rolled in, with no experience to really comment, only thinking that color is for color and gray is for B&W. Exactly what the Canon marketers knew would happen.
Three blacks and grays
So when there was news of the Pro-100 sporting three Ks, I knew there was possibly something to this printer.
Before I got my hands on my sample and started using it, the reviews were somewhat mixed. Again the reviewers were staying with the marketing line, which is not surprising. However, none had investigated the color shadow detail. The K3 printers from Epson spoiled me in this respect, and though the Pro9000 was good, it was not up to the Epson's ability. The Pro-100 can do it, and I think it is superior.
Canon mentions the OIG system, and from my observations this is really a tight matching system for paper and ink, where Canon has optimized their inks to match their papers. Advanced users know this aspect of ICC profiles, but Canon looks to have really tightly optimized it.
How it compares
To make a long story short, I now find that this printer is everything one would want from what the Epson could provide. Canon even brought the idea of Epson's Advanced B&W driver into their own version.
While a comparison with the Epson 1400 and 1430 was valid for the Pro9000, the Pro-100 is a distinctly superior printer to the Epson dye ink offering. The Pro-100 allows a user to tone a B&W image in a similar way to what Epson K3 allows.
Additionally, none of the reviews caught on to the fact that Canon's drivers have been brought up to date and now allow direct use of custom ICC profiles. So if one wanted to use the Pro-100 in a photo booth with an excellent app like the one Breeze Systems provides, it is entirely possible.
For many, many people, this printer will provide a real alternative to the Epson K3 system. It is much less expensive to own, with vibrant colors that still leave the pigments behind, and excellent shadow detail. The Pro9000's B&W was always touchy with the ink and paper balance. The Pro-100 looks to be better at this.
What about archival quality?
OK, the one thing it doesn't have is archival quality. Well, yes and no. That largely becomes a non-issue if the correct papers are chosen. Using swellable papers like HP Premium Plus or the Ilford Galerie Classic line puts this pretty close to the pigments. If 50+ years is not enough, well, then move on to pigment inks. Portraits on Ilford Galerie Classic Pearl are out of this world.
I must mention that while I found the Pro9000 had difficulties with HP Premium Plus, because ink pooling would occur in darker browns and greens, none of this occurs with the Pro-100. Why? Because the Pro9000 uses a lot of Photo Magenta and Photo Cyan and mixes these down to make a lot of the mid to dark tones. The excess ink causes drying issues. The Pro-100 uses the gray inks and a lot less ink to generate the darker tones. This translates into more linear ink behavior and better compatibility with many papers. (Less ink usage, and less business for me.)
The verdict
For the hobbyist entering photo contests and the like, in my opinion there exists no finer printer today, especially considering that one could get one with rebates as of May 2013.
My take is that it is the best dye ink printer ever produced to date. Period.
A few notes from 2026
- This is a 2013 review. The rebates Mike mentions are long gone, and Canon has since released the PRO-200 as the PRO-100's successor. We support both: see our PRO-100 page and our PRO-200 page.
- Custom ICC profiles are still the point. Mike's observation that the PRO-100 takes custom profiles directly is why we publish free profiles for our inks. You can download them from the PRO-100 ICC profiles page.
- Paper choice still matters for longevity. Some of the papers Mike names may no longer be sold or may have changed since 2013, so check what is available today. Our ICC library lists the papers we have profiled.
- The other printers he mentions. We still carry inks for the Pro9000, the Epson Stylus Photo 1400 and the Artisan 1430.
New to refilling a PRO-100? Our PRO-100 Starter Kits have everything you need, and our CLI-42 compatible ink sets are there when you run low.