Using Canon printers on an Amiga

You can get a very complete collection of drivers for Canon printers from Canon Europe. (You'll have to choose the name of a printer on the above page, but the latest CanonDisk archive will always be on the list you end up with. CanonDisk can also be found on Aminet, but new versions usually seem to arrive on the canon.de site several days before they reach Aminet. Actually, right now (April 1997), this is not true, as you can get Canondisk398c from Aminet. (I won't put in a link - use your preferred aminet site. It's in text/print, of course). Other Canon sites I've looked at seem to have no amiga drivers, or very old versions of CanonDisk.

In the archive you'll find lots of drivers, and a demo version of CanonStudio. CanonStudio is a Canon-only version of the Studio II Professional package. You can register CanonStudio, or buy Studio, from HiSoft in the UK. (I'll add other reg sites eventually). Studio upgrades appear on Aminet, as do Canonstudio updates. The current version of CanonStudio is 2.21.

There is another 24-bit printing application called Turboprint. I don't know anything about it other than the fact that it exists, though I believe it also supports the latest Canon printers. If you already have this, you probably have no need to be reading this page! :-)

CanonStudio allows you to print 24-bit pictures at much higher quality than the workbench drivers will give you. e.g. printing straight to the printer from DrawStudio will leave fairly visible steps in gradients. Printing in 24-bit mode to a file and getting CanonStudio to print that for you will produce a much better result.

CanonStudio doesn't use the workbench drivers (unless you explicitly tell it to) - it talks straight to the printer. So you don't have to change lots of workbench printer settings before using it.

The docs that come with the drivers, and the manual that comes with the registered version of CanonStudio, are pretty complete, but I'll add some FAQs to this page sooner or later. (I was a bit confused about the interaction between all the settings programs, for instance.)

Which Canon printer to get?

I assume you at least MIGHT want to print in colour from time to time.

Current models include:

BJC-240: Max resolution 720x360. Has "photo ink" option. Black OR colour.
BJC-4200: Max resolution 720x260. Has "photo ink" option. Black and colour together.
BJC-4550: As BJC-4200 but can also print on A3 paper.
BJC-620: Max resolution 720x720. Black and colour together. No "photo ink" option.

I think the 240 (and 210) feature of not being able to print black and colour on the same page is a bit of a pain. If you are using the colour ink tank and and the machine needs black, it spits a mixture of all three colours out and hopes that will do. This is much more expensive than using black ink, of course.

The "photo ink" kit uses varying intensities of each colour of ink, as well as dithering. As things stand at the moment, you probably have to choose between the photo ink option of the 4200 and the higher resolution of the 620.

I would guess that Canon is eventually going to release a high res photo ink printer, and that it will have to release something which can compete with Epson's new 1440 dpi printers.

Please note that I have no financial interest in Canon, the Amiga, or the drivers and CanonStudio/Studio software written by Wolf Faust. I just thought there ought to be a web page about them, and Wolf gave his permission for me to create one. This page was created on the 9th of March 1997 and last updated on the 21th of August 1998.

ghira@mistral.co.uk