Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-300  Printer Review

The Canon PRO-300's build quality is outstanding. It features a solid-feeling plastic body with a sturdy output tray that remains stable even when fully extended. Although the printer must be on to change the ink cartridges, it provides easy access to them under the front panel. You can also easily access paper jams through the same panel. Additionally, the rollers in the rear paper trays are easily accessible, should you need to manually clean them. It doesn't have a dedicated paper tray; it only has a top feeder tray and a manual feeder tray in the rear.

Although the printer is a bit large when in use, as you need to extend the top rear feeder out, it's relatively compact when you tuck the feeder back in, making it much easier to store.

The Canon PRO-300 has a very good display. Although it isn't touch-sensitive, you can easily navigate the settings menu using the button controls on the right-hand side.

The Canon PRO-300's black page yield is low, but its color page yield is pretty good. However, there are some big differences in yields across colors. For example, the yellow ink produced around 20 pages, while Cyan produced 81, meaning you'll likely have to replace the yellow cartridge sooner than others, especially if you print images that use that color more frequently. Unfortunately, there are no XL cartridges available to improve the yield. If you're looking for a photo printer with higher page yields, consider the Epson EcoTank Photo ET-8550.

The Canon has specialized cartridges for printing on photo paper that aren't used during print jobs on non-photo paper. There's also a specialized cartridge called the "Chroma Optimizer," which Canon claims coats and seals photos for improved longevity and shine.

As this is an inkjet printer, there's a risk of the printheads clogging if you don't use the printer for an extended period. If you experience clogging or other print quality issues, there are built-in maintenance functions available to help resolve them, including printhead cleaning, printhead alignment, roller cleaning, and bottom plate cleaning. Canon advertises an automatic "Nozzle Recovery System" that will activate when a clog is detected, allowing you to continue printing.

You can see the user manual here.

This is an inkjet printer, which means it can clog if left unused for an extended period. Inkjet printers use liquid ink that flows through extremely fine printhead nozzles. During extended periods of inactivity, this ink can evaporate, thicken, or dry out, potentially blocking the ink flow. Environmental factors such as dry air, dust, temperature fluctuations, or direct sunlight can accelerate clog formation. Clogs may cause missing lines, faded colors, or complete print failures. To reduce the risk, we recommend printing periodically and storing the printer in a cool, stable environment. If clogs occur, most inkjet printers include built-in maintenance routines to help clear the printheads, which are detailed in the Expected Maintenance test box of this review.

If you don't want to deal with unclogging, laser printers use a different system with dry toner and a drum instead of ink and printheads, which avoids this issue.

This printer features replaceable printheads, but its cartridges have a low volume. The available flush volume can fix many everyday clogging issues, but you may need more than one cartridge for the most severe blockages. When flushing is insufficient, users can at least replace the printhead as a last resort.

• User documentation
• Set-up CD-ROM
• Power cord
• Canon Photo Paper Pro Luster (5 sheets)
• CD label printing tray
• PFI-300 ink cartridges:
• 1x matte black
• 1x photo black
• 1x gray
• 1x cyan
• 1x photo cyan
• 1x magenta
• 1x photo magenta
• 1x yellow
• 1x red
• 1x chroma optimizer

The Canon PRO-300's overall cost per print is decent. Although black-only printing is cheap, color printing is very expensive due to the high cost of color cartridges. That said, you can purchase individual color cartridges instead of buying them all at once, allowing you to replace them as they run out, which may be more cost-effective. At the time of writing, this printer isn't available for an automatic ink subscription. Consider the Canon PIXMA PRO-200S if you're looking for a similar printer with a lower cost per print.

The Canon PRO-300 prints very slowly, whether you're printing documents or photos. It also takes a long time to initialize and render a single page. It can't print double-sided sheets automatically, so you'll have to flip the pages yourself when prompted.

The Canon PRO-300 prints black and white documents exceptionally well. It reproduces text and small details clearly, with no artifact or banding. It only has trouble converting the color yellow to grayscale, although that's normal for most printers.

The print quality for color documents is outstanding. Text looks clear, and finer elements come through properly, albeit a bit faint. The most notable quality is the print's cleanliness, with no artifacts or banding visible.

The Canon PRO-300 doesn't have a scanner.

The Canon PRO-300 has an outstanding color gamut. It can reproduce a wide range of colors and handles color transitions well, with no banding and minimal grain. It struggles a little with the very bright, saturated greens, blues, and purples, but it's still better than most general-purpose office and home printers. If you want a professional photo printer that prints photos with a wider color gamut on glossy paper, consider the Canon PIXMA PRO-200.

The Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-300 boasts excellent color accuracy. Most color inaccuracies are very minor and hard to notice, making this printer suitable for professional image printing.

The Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-300 reproduces small details exceptionally well. Finer elements appear clear, and while the use of halftones (dot effect) is visible when zoomed in, it's significantly better and less distracting than what you would get from most all-purpose inkjet printers.

The Canon PRINT Inkjet/SELPHY app is excellent. You can use it to print, copy, scan, and order ink right from your mobile device. You can also make minor edits to photos or disk labels using the Canon Easy-Photo Print Editor app.

The Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-300 is compatible with the most commonly used operating systems. You need to download and install drivers on Windows and macOS, but not on Chrome OS. You can find the drivers here.