MBK ink doubts on the Canon PRO-300

[francescogola]

Hello guys,
I finally decided to replace my old and beloved Canon Pixma PRO-1 with the brand new Canon PRO-300.
One of the reasons why I upgraded was the PRO-1 restrictions on margins because I couldn't print borderless (or let's say, with custom borders) using matte black.
I must confess that I really like the PRO-300 as everything seems to be much easier, starting from AM1X profiles to connectivity.

However, after a couple of prints on cotton paper (Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Ultra Smooth), I start to have doubts about the usage of MBK ink as the level never goes down unlike the photographic black
I try to summarize my questions here hoping that somebody already found an answer:

1) If I use a proper AM1X (proper means downloaded from paper manufacturer website) for cotton matte paper, should I expect that MBK ink is "activated" right?
2) Is there a way to "inspect" AM1X profile in order to check if everything is set properly?
3) Is there a specific way to print borderless (with MBK ink)? I ask this because even if I prepare an image correctly in terms of size (so let's just say that the image is smaller than the paper), if on Canon Professional Print & Layout (I suppose the new Print Studio Pro plugin) I check the "Borderless printing" box I get a magnification effect on the image. It's like PP&L is trying to fit the paper with the image instead of just letting me use the native image size (actually the magnification goes even wider than the paper). If I don't check the "Borderless printing" box, the image has a defined size whatever is the real image size. For the test, on PP&L I selected as "Apper Size" just A4, so not the A4 Margin 25 option.

Thank you!

[Simon J.A. Simpson]

The use of the matt black ink is determined by the paper type you select, not by the profile which is agnostic of the printer driver settings.

Canon originally introduced a minimum limit on margin sizes for ‘art’ and matt papers because when art/matt paper becomes wet with ink it can start to curl causing head strikes, particularly if a lot of ink is near the edges of the paper.

i am not sure about the magnification effect you are talking about.  There may be a setting somewhere which tries to fit the image to the paper size ?  You need to turn this off.

I hope this helps.

[francescogola]

Hello Simon and thanks for your reply!
Actually AM1X it's more like a paper type preset, so it's like selecting Art/matte papers plus some other selections that usually you should do manually.


Regarding my list, here my update up today:

1) Yes it's confirmed AM1X define also the black ink
2) It's possible to inspect the profile using Canon Media Configuration Tool and then after selecting the profile you want to inspect you go to Edit Media Information -> Simple Paper Reference
3) Still stuck here

Best