Simplify your life with the PIXMA Print Plan

Life can be hectic. Whether you're a student, part of a busy family or running a small business, there's always lots to do and keeping tabs on everything can feel like a strain. That's certainly true when it comes to printing. With so many of us now studying or working from home, keeping an eye on ink cartridge levels, gauging when you're going to need replacements and buying new cartridges in-store or online can take time, effort and planning to ensure you're not left short of ink just when you need it.

Signing up to a Canon ink subscription service such as the PIXMA Print Plan can help take that worry away. If you've got a compatible Canon PIXMA printer, then it's the ideal solution – simple, easy to tweak at any time, and you'll never run out of ink, even if you print a lot of photos and picture-heavy documents. You'll only pay for what you need, saving you time and money.

Here, Canon Europe Product Marketing Lead Suhaib Hussain explains how it all works. "The PIXMA Print Plan is all about ease of use," says Suhaib. "It tackles the whole issue of ink, so you don't need to worry about when you're going to need cartridges, which cartridges you actually need, where you're going to get them from and how much they'll cost. Everything is automatic – you'll simply get replacement cartridges delivered to your door, however often you need them."

"You can't always plan when you're going to need ink," continues Suhaib. "This subscription service will ensure you don't run out when you've got something important to print, whether it's a mortgage application or the children's homework. It takes all of the hassle out of buying ink."

A key factor of the PIXMA Print Plan is that the various subscription options aren't dependent on how much ink you use. Instead, they're based on how many pages you expect to print on a monthly basis. This avoids any concerns about the cost of ink so, if you want to print a lot of photos or images that require large quantities of ink per page, it's not an issue. That means kids can be as creative as they want with their homework projects and crafts – you don't have to worry about printing draft copies in black and white, or at a lower quality, as it's the number of pages you print that you're paying for, not the amount of ink used.

"It changes the mindset about printing," explains Suhaib. "You can just print whatever you want without thinking about how much ink you're using."

So how does it work? With a compatible PIXMA printer connected to the internet via Wi-Fi, the smart service remotely keeps a check on ink levels while you're printing. When cartridges start to run low, replacements are automatically sent out to you, with no delivery charge, arriving before you run out of ink. There's no limit on the number of cartridges – you'll just receive them whenever you need them, without lifting a finger.

Nobody likes spending more than they need to – and if you're a budding home chef printing out a handful of new recipes a month, you're likely to need a lighter subscription plan than someone running a small business from home, printing multiple documents a day. Whichever end of the scale you are at, a PIXMA Print Plan can save you up to 50% on ink costs compared with conventional cartridge use¹, while giving you the peace of mind that you're using genuine Canon inks to maximise print quality and the reliability of your printer.

There are four different PIXMA Print Plans to choose from, each catering to varying levels of home printing. The Light Home Printing plan covers 30 pages per month, whereas Moderate Home Printing includes 60 pages per month. For those who print more often, the Frequent Home Printing plan covers 100 pages per month, while the Home Office Printing plan features 200 pages a month.

As well as being busy, life can also change at a moment's notice – whether it's getting a new job, starting a university course or preparing for a DIY wedding. There are a number of ways Canon printing subscriptions can be adapted to changing requirements, so you continue to get the best service and value for money, even as your printing needs change.  

"It's a very flexible arrangement," explains Suhaib. "Any unused pages from one month are automatically rolled over to the next month. And if you feel the need for more or fewer pages per month, you can change your plan whenever you like. It's quick and easy to sign up for a subscription online and once you're set up, you can manage and change your plan through your Canon online account. If you increase your plan, it takes effect immediately and if you decrease it, the change comes into effect at the end of the current monthly billing period. You can also cancel your plan altogether at any time."

Full details of your account are available online, so you can keep track of how many pages you've printed in any given month, and how many you've got remaining in your subscription plan. And there are no big fees to worry about if you go over your limit. Instead, any additional pages are charged individually at a nominal fee per page, with no hidden surprises.

"Everything's very transparent," says Suhaib. "You'll get notifications and emails to keep you up to date with all the aspects of the plan and to acknowledge any changes you make, as well as letting you know when your new cartridges are on their way."

The PIXMA Print Plan is initially available to anyone who owns one of four PIXMA printers – the Canon PIXMA TS7450i Series, the PIXMA TS5350i Series, the PIXMA TS3550i Series and the PIXMA TR4750i Series. They're affordable too, so there's no big up-front cost, and each is designed to meet the needs of varying home printing requirements.

The PIXMA TS7450i Series is perfect for the home office. It's a 3-in-1 multi-function printer that features scanning and copying, via an intuitive interface based around a 3.7cm OLED display screen. It also includes a 35-page auto document feeder for multi-page scanning and copying, while its auto duplex facility can save money on paper with double-sided printing. The PIXMA TS5350i Series offers the same fast print speeds of 13 ipm (impressions per minute) for mono and 6.8 ipm for colour, and runs on the same cartridges, but in a sleeker design that omits an auto document feeder – so it's ideal for tucking away in a smaller space. Both printers can deliver full-sized A4 borderless photo prints.

The PIXMA TS3550i Series is easy to set up and perfect for those who want a printer that is simple to use, yet still comes with smart features – such as printing from your smartphone. It has a built-in scanner and a 3.8cm LCD screen for easy adjustment of print settings and for scanning and standalone copying. Borderless photo prints are available in sizes of up to 13x18cm, including 10x15cm and 13x13cm. Document print speeds are 7.7 ipm for mono and 4 ipm for colour. The PIXMA TR4750i Series features the same ink cartridges as the PIXMA TS3550i Series but has faster 8.8/4.4 ipm print speeds, adds a 20-page auto document feeder, standalone fax facility and full A4 borderless photo printing.

All of these PIXMA printers come complete with setup cartridges, so you won't have to wait around – you can start printing right away. You can then sign up to a subscription plan if and when you want to. The options are always open, putting you in full control and ensuring that you're not tied into anything that isn't working for you.

"If and when you sign up to one of the subscription plans, you'll be sent a set of cartridges right away," explains Suhaib. "They have a different chipset to regular cartridges you'd buy off the shelf, linking them to your subscription plan and automatically monitoring your ink levels. The cartridges that you're sent can therefore only be used with the printer you've set up on your subscription plan. However, if you cancel your subscription at any time, you can simply go back to using regular cartridges."

With its flexible subscriptions and page-based approach, the PIXMA Print Plan ultimately rewrites the rule book on printing. It means you can go ahead and print those funny family photos or more sleek-looking meeting handouts without worrying about the expense of replacement cartridges, or whether you're likely to run out at an inconvenient time.

This subscription-based service makes it just as affordable to print full-sized photos and pictures as it does to print a few lines of text on a page, while guaranteeing that you'll receive replacement cartridges ahead of time, when you need them – giving you the freedom to print whatever you want, whenever you want.


Written by Matthew Richards