So far I have limited my prints to maximum size of A2 (42x59,4cm or 16.53x23.39”, with a printable area of 41.32x58.60cm or 16.27x23.07”). Only in some rare instances I felt limited by that, since I was not able to produce true 40x60cm prints, a common size for framing, and only relatively small prints of the few panoramic images in my portfolio. 

Originally, the PRO-1000 would have supported only slightly larger sizes, as the imperial 17x25”. However, such larger precut papers are not easily available here in Europe, with only very few manufacturers offering a size they call A2+ (usually 43,2x61cm). In late 2019 Canon then introduced firmware upgrade 3.010 for the PRO-1000, which nearly doubled the previous maximum length of 647.7mm to 1,200mm, practically enabling the PRO-1000 to produce much larger panoramic prints.

In this post I am taking a closer look at that feature. My main driver was a concrete art reproduction print I wanted to do, with a size of 30x83cm, but I also had the future ability to produce prints with 40x60cm in my mind, and also occasionally larger panoramic prints.

This article is structured into the following sections:

• Paper Sourcing: where to get larger paper sizes.
  
• Paper Preparation: how to prepare the paper and printer.
  
• Print Workflow: a short look at the workflow and software settings needed to produce larger prints with the PRO-1000.
• Final Thoughts
  

Paper Sourcing

Ideally, I would like to be able to produce larger prints on the Hahnemühle paper I currently use, specifically the Photo Rag 308 for the upcoming art reproduction project and Photo Rag Pearl for most of my photography. Check out my reviews of Hahnemühle’s glossy and matte textured fine art collection for more background on the papers I use.

To get suitable paper from Hahnemühle, you have to look at their 17”x12m rolls, which have the ideal width for the PRO-1000. Going with rolls has the advantage of being able to cut the paper to the exact width needed for each print, without wasting paper.

As alternative, for some of their papers, like the Photo Rag 308, Hahnemühle also offers precut sheets in the size of 88,9x118,8cm, which could be cut in half to fit the PRO-1000. However, these sheets come in a box of 25 at a price of nearly 1,000 Euro. While the price is justified given the amount of paper you get, after cutting the sheets in half you’d end up with 50 sheets, which would only make this economical if you plan to produce a lot of panoramic prints. Also, compared to the roll, if you do not need the full width, the remainder would be wasted.

So I went ahead and ordered a roll of the Photo Rag 308, for my first tests and the upcoming art reproduction. If everything goes well, I’ll also add a roll of Photo Rag Pearl to my paper stock.

Paper Preparation

For my first prints, I directly went for the art reproduction I mentioned before, with a print size of 30x83cm. When cutting the paper I wanted to leave a generous margin, especially since handling the curly paper might take a bit of a toll on the edges, so I decided to cut a 100cm sheet from the paper roll. It is important to have a clean, perpendicular cut, to avoid any issues with with feeding the paper into the printer. I used my Dahle 448 roll cutter for the job, which worked perfectly.

Feeding the paper into the printer was not to difficult either. You have to flatten the leading edge a bit to be able to get it into the printer, a point where that aforementioned margin comes in handy. Otherwise it is no problem to leave the paper a bit curled, as you can see in the last photo below.

Print Workflow

The print workflow was pretty straight-forward. I used the advanced workflow described in on of my previous posts, scaling the image to print size using Photoshop and then applying NIK Output Sharpener. For printing I used Canon’s Professional Print and Layout, first creating a custom paper size, then only needing to set paper type, the custom paper size and a simple, single image, centered layout. After that it was only a matter of hitting the print button and letting the printer do its job.

Below a few screenshots of each of the steps in the workflow:

Final Thoughts

I somehow expected the whole process to be more cumbersome, anticipated more problems waiting to be solved, or tricks to be learned to be able to smoothly produce panoramic prints. And in the end I was surprised how uncomplicated and straight-forward it went.  I hope this post will encourage you to try doing your own panoramic prints, the results are stunning and as you can see easy to achieve. As always, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact me.