Canon PIXMA CD Printing

pixma

Canon’s first consumer printer capable of printing directly on CDs was released in 2003. Unfortunately for anyone in the US, this feature wasn’t included. Canon just put a plate over the CD tray slot. A community has sprung up to assist people in activating this feature. You need to remove the cover first. Then you can install the CD tray which you either purchased or constructed following their plans. The final step is to set a registry key so that the CD printing menu appears.

[via Digg]

19 thoughts on “Canon PIXMA CD Printing

  1. what the heck do they do things like this? it’s 3c of plastic and a flipping a bit in the software to enable such a thing. why would you want to hobble your own machines? explain this concept to me someone….

  2. From what I heard, the reason the feature is disabled in North American models is because Epson owns a patent on CD printing.

    It’s a 4 step process:
    – Remove plastic cover (easy)
    – Flip bit in registry (moderate)
    – Enter service programming mode on the printer and enable CD printing (moderate)
    – Obtain a CD tray (difficult if you don’t know where to look)

  3. Panasonic owns the patent on the concept of CD printing, which HP will be purchasing soon to monopolize Ink Jet and Burn CD face printing. Epson currently pays to use the feature on every unit constructed with the capability, but Canon refuses to do the same. They feel it unnecessary to pay anyone for their own idea produced in Japan the same month panasonic patented it.

  4. I went to that site but found the following a little better:

    http://pixma.webpal.info/

    I followed the instructions on this site and within 5 minutes I was able to print on CDs using my Macintosh…

    I find it funny that canon kept the CDR SENSOR in the printer that were not allowed to support that function…

    Nice find!!! Helped me out bunches!

  5. It’s sad when one is googling for new info and one finds a link to your own site. It should be noted that all of the info I got was though

    1. http://www.stevesforums.com
    2. http://www.druckerchannel.de/
    3. Dremmel

    Basicly, like the other people on steve’s forums, I was frustrated with the Epson being the only solution for CD printing, and IMHO it was a flacky piece of filth. While Canon isn’t perfect, it prints, and continues to print without all that mucking about with windex and papertowels.

    Knightcrawler’s site is more up to date than than mine. I keep it around as tend to include measurements and verbose info.

    Near as I’m aware the ip1500 and ip1600 are a no chance in hell, no way no how. The lowest numbered pixma that’ll print on CDs is the ip3000. The ip4200 is probally the lowest priced pixma that’ll print onto CDs.

  6. I am thrilled about getting the CD/DVD capability straight from a Canon printer. I am about the purchase a IP4200.

    What I would like to know is, once the cover is removed from the Canon printer. Can it be re-installed in case there needs to be warantee work?

    How well is the printer cover connected? It is not glues on I assume?

    Thanks,

    Jon

  7. One more quick item about the horrible royalty laws.

    As creative and innovative Canon is, I wonder why they cannot come up with something a little different and pattent that. Also, I would like to find out who has the patent and I think it would be great if the user community notifies them of a boycott on their products, as well as putting some pressure on Canon.
    Obviously if it is Panasonic, that have to be asking an obnoxious amount for the royalties.
    How come the royalties do not have to paid in Europe and Asia ?

    Thanks,

    Jon

    If there is interest, I would get a petition going and at least inform people where they should write.

    Jon

  8. I have a brandnew pixma 4300 with a tray from a pixma ip 4000.the 4300 needs an f tray, i have a b tray.so far, the only difference is that my tray has 3 reflectors on the upside, the f tray only 2.does anyone know how to change my tray to a working one>>>????

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