Hi everybody,
welcome back to the blog and I truly hope y’all staying safe and healthy during these difficult times.
It’s been a while since I updated the blog, mostly due to the fact that I had to adopt to this new situation caused by Corona. Like most of you, I had to deal with self-isolation and quite a significant number of cancellations, not only travel bookings but also assignments and projects in general.
Nevertheless, with every bad thing comes something good. The whole sitting at home type of situation really made me think about photography from a different perspective and so I started to not only dig through the archives of photos I made during the last years, but also to deepen my knowledge and love for the fine art printing process even further. Furthermore, I was able to connect with you, the community, through one or another webinar I did. Something I really enjoyed to do, so definitely keep an eye on future webinars as I’ll make sure to do this more frequently from now on.
Anyways, let’s get back to today’s topic:
My good friends over at Canon Germany, who support me for many years already and always believed in my vision as a photographer, were kind enough to send me one of their brand new Canon imagePROGRAF TA-20 large format printers for extensive testing. During the last days, I was able to set the device up and gain some first impressions of the versatility and overall user experience and I truly can’t wait to share all the information with you. I’ll probably post a whole series about this machine, as there is a lot to tell. This first post should give a you a first impression though, so let’s get right into it.
Good news: This blog post is also available in German here.
First impressions of the Canon imagePROGRAF TA-20
I have to admit, I’ve been pretty excited to finally get my hands on this printer. While the TA-20 is not exactly a dedicated fine art photo printer, like i. e. my Canon imagePROGRAF Pro-1000, it is advertised as being very flexible within a wide range of media types and printing scenarios. This would make it the perfect choice, not only for first time large format printing users, but also a variety of smaller business, which require to print large things like sketches, posters, flyers and so on.
Before getting into more detail about the features, let’s have a first look on how the TA-20 got delivered and my overall first impressions.
The Canon imagePROGRAF TA-20 before the setup
The TA-20 is fully accessible from the front
As you can see on the images above, the TA-20 ist not a small printer by any means. That being said though, for a large format printer, which supports paper rolls up to 24 inches, it is one of the smallest options available on today’s market. The printer itself weighs only 37kg and comes with an overall size of 98,2 x 74,8 x 43,8 cm. This makes it the perfect option for anybody who need the most flexibility, but is operating a business in a limited space, like i.e. a small office room or creative studio.
The overall build quality is flawless, which is to be expected from Canon and everything seems to be thought through very well. In fact, I really loved the minimalistic and clean design of the device right away. This actually is true for all Canon printers and the reason number one, why I always preferred them over the competition.
The Canon TA LUCIA TD ink cartridges feature weather-resistant printing
The printer itself runs with 5 high-quality LUCIA TD ink cartridges, which allow you to produce weather-resistant prints. The TA-20 supports borderless printing, with a max resolution of 2400×1200dpi and also comes with Canon's advanced Air Feeding System, which keeps the paper flat during printing - helping to make consistent prints every time. I know this feature already from my Pro-1000 and indeed, I never had any feeding issues at all.
Furthermore, due to its compact and innovative design, the TA-20 is fully accessible from the front of the device, which comes in really handy when dealing with different print medias throughout the day or when replacing one of the cartridges. While we’re at it, the imagePROGRAF TA-20 supports Nonstop Printing, a feature which lets you swap empty cartridges while the printer continues to print, allowing you to use virtually all of the available ink in the tank before having to replace it. This feature is very welcome, as a lot of printers out there don’t fully utilise the complete ink available in those cartridges, which is not only a pure waste of resources but results in higher cost of operation over the time.
The TA-20 also provides Economy Print Mode, allowing for up to 40% less ink to be used during printing than standard modes - helping to lower your operation costs even further. It can be operated in a complete WIFI scenario as well and of course comes equipped with several security features, designed to help prevent leaks of confidential information.
Finally, it is not only one of the most silent printers out there, it’s also one of the fastest in its segment, allowing for printing of around 104 24x36 posters per hour.
And now the best thing: This whole professional setup is priced very attractively at around 650,00 Euros, which is leaving the competition’s offers way behind.
Like always, Canon’s packaging on this printer is very straight-forward and the whole setup process is well-conceived and as easy as it gets. Once you got the TA-20 out of its cardboard and put it at its designated place, you’ll recognise a bunch of red adhesive stripes all over the device. These are to secure the printer during shipping and all you need to do is removing one after the other, followed by plugging in the power cable and you’ll be ready to start with the setup process itself.
Setting up the Canon imagePROGRAF TA-20
Like I said, once you put the printer to its final place, removed the red coloured stripes and plugged in the cable, you’ll be ready to switch it on and start with the setup process. Good news right away: The whole setup process is done with a couple of clicks and after a few minutes you’ll be ready to print on your preferred media in a very attractive and impressively large format.
The TA-20’s setup manual is very straight-forward
Included with the delivery, you’ll also find a printed setup manual, like shown above. It describes each of the installation steps very understandable. In fact, you wouldn’t even need this, as the TA-20 will take care of you via its display already, as you can see in the following images below. That being said though, it’s alway good to see that Canon takes the extra steps to provide the user with a printed version as well, so that one can get a first impression of the steps before even turning on the device itself.
Once switched on, the printer’s display will let you run through a couple of installation advices, such as inserting the 5 ink cartridges and installing the actual print head of the device, which in fact is a surprisingly small piece as you can see in the second image below. A couple click sounds later, your hardware is ready to go. Furthermore, I really loved how the TA-20’s touch screen takes you through each single step, featuring detailed color images and text description of what to do exactly.
The touch panel is well implemented
Swapping the LUCIA TD ink cartridges, even possible during printing
Following the setup steps on the touch panel
Installing the Canon PF-06 print head
Once you’re done with installing the cartridges and print head, the printer will start some internal preparing steps to get the ink ready as well as the head aligned correctly. This usually takes only a couple of moments and once done, you’ll be welcomed by the printer’s home screen on the touch display.
The TA-20’s final adjustments after installing
The TA-20 home screen is a breeze to work with
This is really all it takes to set up the whole hardware itself, which takes you no more than 10 minutes. The only thing left is downloading and installing the printer drivers from the Canon website.
Canon’s setup website for printers
Canon offers a QR-Code and the actual link within the printed manual to reach the setup website right away. As you can see in the images above, this website is a nice single point of access when it comes to getting familiar with your new printer, gaining more knowledge about it as well as downloading any of the required drivers or software packages. In some of the future blog posts, we’re going to have a closer look on the Canon software as well and you’ll be surprised what’s possible here.
Once this is completed, you can hit the Load Paper button on the touch panel, follow the steps to either mount a roll or single sheet of paper and start printing. More on mounting different media types and start with your first prints will be covered in the next episode, so make sure to stay tuned for that. In the meantime, make sure to check out the provided links below for further information on the Canon imagePROGRAF TA-20 and Canon’s printers in general. There’s also further information about digital printing available on the blog right here, so feel free to give them a read as well.
Oh and feel free to drop me a mail or direct message on Instagram at any time, as I’m always happy to help you guys and have a good chat with like-minded people in general.
Alright everybody, that’s it for now. Thanks for following along and your constant support!
Talk soon,
Chris