Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-310

Photo printerIndividual cartridges

Announced in February 2025 to replace the PRO-300, and from the outside almost indistinguishable from it — the change is in the tanks. LUCIA PRO II puts wax in the pigment, so a finished print survives being handled, sleeved and posted, which is the failure that costs a sale rather than a sheet of paper; Canon rates the set for light-fastness up to 200 years. The Chroma Optimiser is reformulated as well. It is the clear ink laid over the print to even out gloss differential, the faint patchy sheen that gives away an inkjet photo held at an angle, and on glossy paper the difference it makes is visible. Photo black, matte black and a dedicated grey handle fine-art stock and monochrome. Panoramas now run to 1.8 metres. It is print-only, it is heavy, it is slow — over four minutes for a bordered A3+ — and it publishes no ISO page yields, so there is no cost per page here. Budget for the ink lost to maintenance if it sits unused between projects.

Approx. price: ~$849

Best for

A photographer or printmaker working on matte fine-art paper who wants archival pigment output at 13 × 19.

marks an estimate. Computed from the consumable's ISO page yield and its list price. An estimate. Purchase price plus ink or toner over the pages shown, assuming four mono pages for every colour page. Price is an approximate snapshot from our last catalogue update.

Specifications

Manufacturer-published figures. Cost lines are computed from the consumable figures above and are estimates.

Approx. price: ~$849
Technology: Thermal inkjet
Ink system: Individual cartridges
Inks: 10
Third-party ink lock: No
Ink subscription: None offered
Functions: Print
Two-sided printing: None
Document feeder: None
Paper capacity: 100 sheets
Max paper size: 13×19
Borderless photo: Yes
Resolution: 4800 × 2400 dpi
Connectivity: Wi-Fi · Ethernet
Mobile printing: AirPrint · Mopria
Display: 3.0" colour LCD
Dimensions: 25.2 × 14.9 × 7.9 in
Weight: 31.8 lb
Released: 2025

Features

Ten-cartridge LUCIA PRO II pigment ink set, 14.4 ml PFI-5100 tanks
Reformulated Chroma Optimiser that evens out gloss differential
Wax in the ink for scratch resistance once a print is handled
Photo black, matte black and grey for fine-art and monochrome work
13 × 19 borderless, with panoramas to 1.8 metres
Flat path for thick fine-art media
Wired Ethernet, Wi-Fi with WPA3, and a 3.0-inch colour LCD

No ink lock Wider than letter Borderless photo Ethernet

In its favour

The Chroma Optimiser removes the patchy sheen that gives away inkjet prints on gloss
Pigment ink and a matte black make fine-art paper look right
LUCIA PRO II resists scratching, which matters once prints are sleeved and shipped
Ten inks including a dedicated grey for neutral monochrome
Takes thick media through a dedicated flat path
Panoramas up to 1.8 metres long

Against it

Print only — no scanning, no copying
Canon publishes no ISO page yields, so there is no cost per page
Ten 14.4 ml cartridges to stock, and maintenance cycles consume ink if it sits idle
Slow: a bordered 13 × 19 takes over four minutes
Heavy and over two feet wide
The most expensive machine in this catalogue

What owners say

Distilled from owner discussions and long-term published reviews

The pigment half of Canon's home photo fork, and the machine people buying a first serious photo printer tend to settle on once they have priced the PRO-1100 and measured their desk. Ten LUCIA PRO II inks, a matte black that makes cotton rag behave, and a clear Chroma Optimiser laid over the print to even out the sheen — that last is the feature owners describe as obvious the moment two prints are held together.

The complaints are consistent, and almost none of them are about print quality. It is slow, it is big, the 14.4 ml tanks are small enough that buyers do the arithmetic on cost per print first, and it loses ink to maintenance if it sits between projects. Owners printing scanned film also report having to work at the shadows: dense blacks block up and lose subtlety until soft-proofing and the right paper profile are in place.

What owners like

The Chroma Optimiser evens out gloss differential, and owners holding two prints together say the difference is obvious
Pigment ink and a proper matte black make fine-art paper look the way it is supposed to
Owners who want archival output without the PRO-1100's footprint or price consistently land here
Ten inks including a dedicated grey give monochrome work a tonal range dye printers cannot reach
Takes thick media through a dedicated flat path, which owners printing on cotton rag rely on

Common complaints

Slow. Owners who tried to use one for any kind of volume describe it as painstaking, and it is not the machine for that
It occupies a lot of desk, and owners in small flats mention the footprint before anything else
The 14.4 ml tanks are small for the price, and buyers work the per-print ink cost out before committing
Maintenance cycles consume ink when it sits idle, and owners who print seasonally feel it
Dense shadows need profiling work — owners printing film scans report blacks blocking up until soft-proofing is sorted

Questions that keep coming up

PRO-310 or PRO-1100?

Size, money and ink volume. The PRO-1100 is a 17-inch machine with 80 ml tanks, so it costs much less per print and takes far more room. Owners choosing the PRO-310 mostly say the same two things: it fits the space they have, and it is a cheaper place to make beginner mistakes. If 13 × 19 is enough print, the smaller machine is the sane starting point.

What does the Chroma Optimiser do?

It is a clear ink laid over the print to even out how light reflects off inked and uninked areas. Without it a glossy print viewed at an angle shows patchy sheen where the ink is heavy — the thing that gives away an inkjet photo. The PRO-310's version is reformulated from the PRO-300's to suppress bronzing further.

How much ink does it lose to maintenance?

Enough that owners printing in occasional bursts complain about it. Ten nozzle sets have to be kept clear and the printer runs cycles to do that whether or not you have printed, and the tanks are only 14.4 ml. Nobody publishes a figure; the consistent advice is to print something small regularly rather than leave it dormant for months.

Can it handle production volume?

No, and owners who have tried say so bluntly. A bordered A3+ takes over four minutes and the paper handling is built around single sheets of expensive stock. It is a printmaking machine — for anything that resembles a print run, the answer in this catalogue is a different class of printer.

Computed from the consumable's ISO page yield and its list price. An estimate. Owner notes are a summary of what people who own the machine report, not a test result — there is no lab behind this site.