Rangefinder Magazine
December 2006

First Exposure by Ron Eggers
Canon imagePROGRAF iPF5000: Wide Format Printing Becomes a Realistic Option for Professional Photographers

THIS IS THE FIRST half of a two-part review of the Canon imagePROGRAF iPF5000 Wide Format Printer. It covers basic specs, hardware setup, software installation, system configuration and initial operations. The second part, which will run in an upcoming issue, is a user report that details output optimization and productivity issues.

The iPF5000 is a 12-color inkjet printer with the new LUCIA pigment-ink system, a 1200-dpi nozzle pitch and a maximum output resolution of 1200x2400 dpi. With its red, blue, green, gray, photo gray, cyan, photo cyan, magenta, photo magenta, yellow, regular black and matte black inks, it’s specifically designed to generate highquality photorealistic color output. It’s also ideal for producing fine-art black-andwhite prints. With both gray and photo gray, the quality of monochromatic output is significantly enhanced.

It’s gotten to the point that high-end wide format printers have dropped in price sufficiently that many professional photographers and graphic designers are able to afford them. But potential users might be hesitant to move up to the next level of print size and output quality. One of the reasons for going into such great detail with this unit is to give photographers and graphic artists who haven’t had the opportunity to install and work with a wide format printer a sense of what’s involved.

Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to look at and play with various wide format printers. However, those systems were set up, tested and ready to go, either at the corporate offices of their manufacturers or at working labs and service bureaus. This is the first time that I’ve done a wide format review where a huge box on a pallet was delivered to my front door. The printer is considerably larger than its maximum output width of 17 inches might indicate. Its dimensions are 39.3 x 28.9 x 12.5 inches.

Digital Photo Print Pro, which ships with the Canon imagePROGRAF iPF5000, is the quickest and easiest way to create wide format output.

Even though it’s a large and heavy printer, two people can move it. You might even be tempted to move it on your own—don’t. It weighs about 100 pounds without attachments, and if not moved properly, it could become damaged. The central section is particularly vulnerable to damage. Holding indentations at each side of the printer let you carry it safely.

Besides the printer itself, the package contained various other components, including an oversized paper tray, the output tray and a roll-feed mechanism. Setup was actually easier than I had anticipated. There’s a quick-start guide that walks you through the entire process. Documentation for a complex piece of equipment is generally a little tough to plow through, but the information presented in the startup instructions is relatively thorough and easy to comprehend.

After removing all the tape, I installed the two PF-01 print heads. They’re identical, so it doesn’t matter which one goes in which position. Each of the two highdensity heads has a total of 30,720 nozzles, which lay down very precise 4-picoliter ink droplets for extremely sharp detail. The printer also includes non-firing nozzle detection and compensation to ensure optimum output. If any of the nozzles clog and don’t fire, the print heads automatically adjust output to compensate.

Installing the inks is straightforward, similar to how it’s done with consumer printers. The main difference is that these ink cartridges are high-capacity. Each of the 12 ink cartridges contains 132 mL. But there’s one major difference between loading consumer and professional models: With a wide format pro model, be sure to gently shake each ink cartridge before installing it into its correct position. This prevents settling and potential clogging. An indicator lights up at each color position as each ink cartridge is installed.

Multiple images can be placed into the work area. It's also possible to utilize templates and add special effects, such as frames, before sending the composition to the iPF5000.

Those lights blink as ink levels get too low. There’s another set of corresponding lights on the control panel that also tracks ink levels. After the inks are installed and the cover is closed, the printer goes through a 10-minute fill cycle. The monochrome LCD panel on the printer indicates the status of the process.

Installing the over-sized paper tray and output tray completes the set up. I had a little problem getting the paper tray to lock into position, but eventually it did go in correctly. If it doesn’t go in, don’t force it. It’s only plastic. The output tray fits above the paper tray. The only thing that’s left to do is load some paper for the test prints. Once the paper is loaded, the unit generates six test prints to ensure head alignment and proper printing. That takes another 10 minutes or so. Altogether, the entire hardware setup took less than two hours, even when handling each step slowly and methodically.

Next came the software installation. If at all possible, install the software on a dedicated, color-managed system. The iPF5000 ships with both Windows and Mac drivers. On the Windows side, Windows 98, XP and Server 2003 are supported. For Macs, there’s support for OS 9 and OS X 10.2 or later. Connectivity options include USB and 10/100 BASE TX/T networking.

FireWire IEEE-1394 is available with the optional EB-05 board, but there’s no FireWire driver support for Windows 98. Software was installed on a Windows XP system, with USB as the selected connection option. Starting with the printer driver, software installation went flawlessly. Don’t connect the printer until the installation process indicates it should be hooked up. Attaching it prior to that might cause installation problems. Once the printer driver is loaded, go ahead and install the utilities that ship with the unit.

Individual images are captured into the holding area, and then dragged-and-dropped onto the workspace. Images are automatically resized to fit paper sizes.

There’s the GARO Status Monitor and To request more information see pages 152 and 153 Device Setup Utility, the Media Configuration Tool, and the ImagePROGRAF HDI Driver and Print Plug-in. The Status Monitor makes it possible to track the printer’s status on the attached computer. Each project can be checked in real time. The Device Setup Utility configures the communication settings between the computer and printer. The Media Configuration Tool registers paper types that the printer can use and generates the Media Guide.

The HDI Driver is used for CAD printing. It generally wouldn’t be applicable for photographers. But the Print Plug-in would be; it makes it possible to reproduce Adobe RGB colorspace images. The installed utilities include a gangprint option that makes it possible to print multiple images on roll-paper output, and a copy function for generating oversized copy prints. Another software package that ships with the 5000 is PosterArtist, a program for quickly and easily designing professional-looking posters.

There’s a separate CD with the complete User Manual. It can be accessed and searched without installing it on the hard drive. In most cases though, the printer would be paired with a dedicated system, so it's a simple matter to copy the CD onto the hard drive for quick access. Software installation took less than an hour.

The final step in the setup process is installing the optional RU-01 roll-paper module. That took more time than anticipated. With the printer powered off, it was a matter of removing the tray unit at the rear. Two small shafts on the roll-paper unit plug into the printer body, which are then fastened with two thumbscrews. The 100-foot long roll paper is loaded so it comes off the top of the roll. Here’s where I ran into problems. I tried five or six times to feed the paper into the reception slot, but the unit didn’t recognize it.

Poster Artist is another application that expands the production capabilities of the new wide format printer. It makes it possible to produce posters and other oversized prints that go well beyond the maximum 17-inch width of the iPF5000.

Eventually, the printer LCD came up with the correct message that the roll paper was loaded. By that point, I had been playing with it for more than an hour. Altogether, I had spent about four or five hours over a two-day period setting up and installing the unit. While it took a little longer than would have been the case with a consumer printer, that was probably due more to being cautious than to encountering greater difficulty in the setup process. All in all, the entire process wasn’t much more difficult than setting up a desktop unit.

On start-up, the printer goes through a self-cleaning routine that takes five minutes or so. Self-cleaning can also be initiated from the front panel. There are two types of self-cleaning routines; the first one uses up considerably less ink than the second, so only use the second infrequently. Tests were run with paper both in the tray and on the roll feeder.

To print, four functional program groups come up on the start menu (as well as an uninstall option), with half a dozen or so output and printer management functions. Getting optimum results from the 5000 can be frustrating. There were repeated error messages on the unit’s LCD. One was “Can’t Detect Paper—Remove Paper” even though there was paper in the tray. It took three or four tries before the 5000 recognized the paper. Another was a software error message “Paper Jam—Rear,” even though the paper path was clear. That could have been due to an intermittently faulty sensor.

There are different ways to generate output. Working in these print modules isn’t any more complex than working in a mid-level graphics program. Digital Photo Print Pro, for example, brings up a driver interface, which makes it possible to configure the print job. Options include printing photos or a template projects (such as a calendars), adding frames to photos, and adjusting output size and orientation. It’s also possible to do things like capture images. Multiple images (selected from a thumbnail palette), text and graphics can be dragged-and-dropped onto the image area to create the final output that’s going to be generated.

A very nice selection of customizable poster templates is available in Poster Artist, covering subjects ranging from travel and entertainment to business and education. Text and other graphic elements can be added to personalize layouts. Created compositions can then be generated as a series of tiles that are assembled into very large display prints.

Poster Artist is another way of getting output onto paper. It walks you through the entire production process, from creating the design to printing it out. It’s bundled with a large selection of templates, including Banners, Business topics, Education, Food & Beverage, Retail Events and Travel. These are not the cartoonish designs of calendars and greeting cards found in some consumer print packages. Most are very sophisticated designs intended for professional use.

As with Print Pro, Poster Artist makes it possible to select the media size and type. Posters can be customized with a variety of graphic elements. The final step is sending the completed poster to the printer. The 5000 is the type of printer that you want to use for large projects such as posters and banners. It’s possible to print posters up to 17x22 inches without having to do any tiling.

The time it takes to generate output is dependent on a number of factors, including the size of the file being output, the size of the print that’s being created, and the resolution that the image is being printed at. Larger prints tend to show image imperfections more, so it’s important that the file being printed is optimized as much as possible before creating any output.

The image quality that the 5000 can generate is excellent, but it can take time and a certain amount of experimentation before coming up with usable results. That’s another consideration for larger format output. Errors can be costly, and inkjet consumables are expensive. Large format prints suck up large amounts of inks, and even a small imperfection can ruin an over-sized print. Along the same lines, generating test prints and running cleaning routines can take up considerable amounts of ink. Such expenses might not be a major issue for a lab, service bureau or photographer who can recoup output costs from clients, but they might be a consideration for photographers who don’t have the option of passing those costs on directly.

Further Information: Canon imagePROGRAF Canon USA (800) 828-4040 www.usa.canon.com

Costs can be kept in line, though. Test prints on smaller-sized paper help. But don’t print a smaller version of an image, since it will not provide an accurate representation of the final print. Rather, print a section of it on the same type of paper and the same magnification size, cropped to the test print size. That will show whether things like color, contrast and saturation are as they should be. Try to select a portion of the image with a wide tonal range. Since such section prints do not show imperfections in other parts of the image, it’s important to inspect the entire image on-screen at a high magnification before generating any output.

Another way is by monitoring printing carefully. Watch the output as it’s coming out of the 5000. If a large print doesn’t look right, for whatever reason, from the beginning, just cancel the job and eject it. Start over fresh instead of waiting to see what the entire print looks like, as might be done with smaller prints. Doing that repeatedly can result in significant savings.

As mentioned, the CD contains documentation, but the printed documentation accompanying the unit is limited. For example, in the index, there were no subject listings for either “Error messages” or “Paper Jams,” two very important topics for any printer, even though both were touched on in the manual.

The Canon imagePROGRAF iPF5000 Wide Format Printer is a sophisticated piece of equipment. While it doesn’t take all that much more time and effort to set it up and make it operational than a standard desktop printer, it takes considerably more time and some expertise getting it to generate the quality of output that it is capable of.

Ron Eggers is a senior editor at NewsWatch Feature Service. His e-mail is newswatch@earthlink.net.