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Setup & Software Summary |
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• The Canon 9500 Pro Mark II has good drivers for both Windows and Mac
• Comes with a copy of Adobe Photoshop Elements for both Windows and Mac
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Product Tour |
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Printing Speed |
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Setup & Manuals (7.5)
Although the Pro 9500 Mark II is a fairly complex printer, the setup process is pretty striaghtforward and is well described in the included getting started manual. We were able to go from cracking the box open to making our first print in about 35 minutes. The setup process involves unboxing the printer, taking off the myriad bits of sticky tape that hold the bits in place during shipping, installing the print head, then installing the 10 ink cartridges and waiting for a few minutes while the printer initializes and checks the device out. Once that's all done you can install the drivers and software and run a test print that checks the print head alignment.
Like all Canon printers, there are two manuals for the Pro 9500 Mark II: the printed quick start manual that comes in the box and the full manual that is on the CD. Both of these are well put together and cover most of the things that you will need to know, with the quick start guide covering the setup process in detail. The full manual is divided into two sections, one for basic operations and one for advanced operations. Both manuals can be downloaded here.
| Canon Pro 9500 Mark II Manual Excerpts |
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Drivers (7.0)
Canon continues their excellent tradition of including drivers and software for both Mac and PC users on the same CD that is included with the printer. The drivers are the programs that sit between the image editing program and the printer itself, and control the printing process. On both platforms they were straightforward and easy to use, and we had no major problems performing common tasks such as printing, changing the type of print or setting the media to use.
Windows users get 5 different screens on their version of the printer driver: Quick Setup. Main, Page Setup, Effects and Maintenance.
| Windows Driver Options |
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Quick Setup
Provides access to most of the commonly used features of the driver, such as groups of commonly used settings and the paper size and type. For most print jobs, this will be the only screen that is needed. |
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Main
Controls options such as paper size, type, print quality, and the paper source are on this page. Many of the options that are on the Quick Setup page are also here. |
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Page Setup
Provides access to more in-depth controls, such as the print magins and the scaling of images on the page. |
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Effects
A number of effects can be applied to prints (such as monochrome and vivid), as well as a number of optimizer features that try and improve the print quality by enhancing color or reducing noise. |
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Maintenance
The controls for cleaning the print heads and machanisms are here, as well as test prints that cna help with realigning the print heads or cleaning the print nozzles.
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Mac users are presented with 4 different screens for controlling the printer, with screens for Quality and Media, Color Options, Borderless Printing and Margin. The maintenance features of the printer are accessed through a separate program that isn't part of the driver.
| Mac Driver Options |
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Quality & Media
Provides options for setting the paper type, print quality and paper source. You can switch between the different paper inputs trays from here. |
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Color Options
Allows for tweaking of individual color levels, as well as brightness, intensity and contrast. The preview on the left illustrates the effect of changes, and can be switched between a color wheel, portrait, landscape and graphics sample. |
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Borderless
Controls the amount of overprinting used on borderless prints. The options on this page are only available if a borderless print is selected on the main page. |
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Margin
Controls the print margins if more precise control is needed. |
Software (7.5)
The software selection that comes with the Pro 9500 Mark II is reasonable: as well as the drivers and utility software described above, you get a copy of Adobe Photoshop Elements, a decent (if a little basic in some respects) image editing and organizing program. However, most people who are willing to spend $849 on a printer will most likely already have a more powerful image editing application such as the full version of Photoshop installed, so it may not be that useful for most buyers. Also included is Canon's own Easy-PhotoPrint EX software (which is another basic image editing and cataloging application) and Easy-PhotoPrint EX Pro, which offers similar functions and runs as a Photoshop plug-in.
| Software |
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Photoshop Elements 6.0
The version of Photoshop Elements included with the Pro 9500 Mark II is a little behind the curve (version 7 is now available), but it's a very decent image origanizing and editing program that has most of the tools that most users are going to need for everyday taksks.
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Easy PhotoPrint EX
Canon's own photo editing software is basic, but adequate for simple tasks such as printing multiple copies of a file and automatically creating layout prints, where one print contains multiple photos. |
Other Software (0.0)
The Pro 9500 Mark II does not come with any other software, such as network scanning or printing packages, etc.
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