6100+Front+Slot+Loading

=How easy is it to load thick sheets from the front slot compared to other printers?=

Comments by Wayne Fox on LL forum:

I agree paper loading is improved, but personally I think the front load slot is very weakly done, as is accessing it through the driver. My basis for comparison is 24" and larger printers ... ipf 6100 vs Epson 78xx series printers. (the same criticism doesn't apply if comparing desktop models, ipf5100 vs Epson 3800/48xx) On the Epson all paper bascially has a straight through path, and loading a sheet of bond paper isn't any different than using poster board, so thick media is a non issue.

On the Canon you must use the front load slot (my current favorite paper is Museum Etching) With the Canon this more difficult than it should be, both in accessing it through the driver, as well as loading a sheet. I spent some time with the Canon rep at Pictureline today because I couldn't even figure out how to do it right ... basically you have to set the printer to the POP paper setting, load the paper, then set the driver to use whatever the true paper type is. I haven't tried that yet ... so far all I could get to work was using POP in both the driver and printer, but then I lose all control of ink densities etc. and can't optimzie my profile. I won't be able to try this other way till Monday, but I assume it will work. Not documented very well.

Loading a piece of paper is very strange ... pull up these 4 tabs, lift the printer top, insert the paper on top of the tabs, making sure to flip the little insert backwards so the aligment guide is available. It was a little fight to keep that little insert from flipping back. Stick your hand in to get the paper under the little rollers, shove it all the way back and line it up with the lines, shut the lid and hit OK. In 4 tries I"m only 50/50 in not getting a skewing error ... maybe I'll get better.

Maybe an improvement, but far from easy. This is definitely not a good printer for anyone that does a lot of manual feed thick stock.


 * Update:** A few days later Wayne posted these additional comments:

I mentioned a few days ago about challenges using the front loading manual feed for thicker material on the ipf6100. **I finally did figure it out and now I'll admit it isn't that bad**, so my only criticism of the Canon ipf6100 is again in documentation (it shouldn't have been that hard to figure out).