Photo quality on iX7000 and MX7600 printers

[Nozzle]

Hello fellow printing geeks

I'm considering buying a used Canon iX7000 printer for printing advertising material on glossy and satin photo papers and wanted to ask you, present and past owners of these printers, if they produce decent enough photo output on these surfaces? Do they have an option to disable color management in the driver so I could profile the colors? Also, what's the difference between PGI-7 and PGI-9 black carts?

Thank you for any input

 

[The Hat]

I have a iX7000 in mothballs at the moment and have no need for it right now, but when I did, it printed decent bog standard photos, but it was far better sticking with documents and brochures, it excel with them.

It has limited colour controls because it’s not a photo printer, much like its cousin the iX4000 dye model, but it can still use profiles and turn off colour management , and it can print a lot fast then the 9500 can.

The printer has the usual basic CMYK cartridges for colour reproduction and a larger PGl-7 matte black cartridge for text printing, it also has additional PGl-9 clear optimiser cartridge that can be used when printing from the paper cassette only..

 

[Nozzle]

Thank you @The Hat
Are you saying PGI-9 black cart contains encapsulated black for photo papers and PGI-7 black is non encapsulated 'matte' black for matte surfaces? Does it use PGI-7 black for matte papers?
Also, I could never understand how this printer applies its clear optimiser - I've looked through manuals and internet and could never find any info on this.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

it is my understanding that the IX7000 puts a pre-coating onto normal paper, paper from the bottom bin, with the paper selection normal paper, it does not apply this coating to photo paper so it is not a Chroma/Gloss optimizer as working in the newer Pro pigment printers. This technique is supposed to result in better, more colorful prints on normal paper which typically come over normally pretty dull.

Explanation in German here :
http://www.druckerchannel.de/artikel.php?ID=2722&seite=4&t=die_tintenpatronen

 

[Nozzle]

@Ink stained Fingers
Yes, I know that PGI-9 Clear coat is not gloss optimizer some printers use. I use this clear coat to coat some traditional fine art papers (Saunders Waterford and so on..) to make them compatible with pigment inks. It's just I have no clue how this printer applies it onto paper, since it's not linked to the head in any way. I think there's a roll of some kind that applies it.
Thanks for the link with comparison.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

the clear ink is applied via rollers as I read it from this publication

https://www.canon.pt/Images/PIXMA iX7000_Technologies Explained_tcm121-668614.pdf

 

[The Hat]

Thank you @The Hat
Are you saying PGI-9 black cart contains encapsulated black for photo papers and PGI-7 black is non encapsulated 'matte' black for matte surfaces? Does it use PGI-7 black for matte papers?
Also, I could never understand how this printer applies its clear optimiser - I've looked through manuals and internet and could never find any info on this.

There is a little tray with a small roller at the bottom of the printer that gets feed by this clear optimiser and it works very well, but be warned only use OEM optimiser in this location for two good reasons, one is that it works faultlessly and two is cheaper than anything you can get from a 3rd party source, and using any other optimiser will also cause the paper to jam.

There are two different black cartridges in this printer Mk and BK, and like other Canon pigment printers it can and will use both types of ink when printing photos.

Please don’t use the OEM optimiser in any cartridge or print head, because it will render that print head useless..

 

[palombian]

Well, everything has been explained in detail.

These printers are sturdy, but most of them are heavily used, and/or already passed in second (weak) hands.
I spent 3 hours and a 100 km drive this week for a MX7600 advertised in very good condition.
Nozzle check showed cyan and magenta missing half of the bar.
A service test print confirmed an electric failure, the printer had over 40.000 pages and used 57 PBK carts .

Hope you find a young specimen.

 

[PeterBJ]

A download of a service manual and parts catalog in one file for the Canon MX7600 is found here.

 

[palombian]

the clear ink is applied via rollers as I read it from this publication

https://www.canon.pt/Images/PIXMA iX7000_Technologies Explained_tcm121-668614.pdf

A bit exagerated, plain paper still curls when printed at 100%, but for color office documents, text mixed with graphs etc the quality is very near a laser.
The Clear liquid enhances the colors and reduces the smear.
I am very pleased with the output, and if you refill, at an unbeatable price.

Before I had the PRO9500, I printed all my photos with the MX7600.
But, as already said, you can't reach the same gamut with 4 colors, certainly not with pigment ink.

I had an IX7000 for some time too, but it was so ridiculously huge and I had no need for high volume two sided A3.
Refused to sell it as a photo printer.