Printer for crafters | Canon Pixma G3400 October 20, 2021 – Posted in: Craft Tips

Recently I had a one-on-one training with some ladies from Ghana, they are bakers and wanted to learn how to make cake toppers as custom cake topper/decor service it’s not really common in Ghana. As I showed them the print out from my printer, they seemed unimpressed with the print quality and later explained that what they are used to was more vibrant, sharp and glossy. I explained that it was an ink jet printer so this is the best we could get, boy was I wrong!

I’ve been crafting for about 4 years now, I had bought a Canon PIXMA G3400 shortly before I started crafting. I liked the low ink consumption and wireless feature. There were times I wasn’t impressed with the print quality and I also wanted to be able to print on A3 paper, so I started saving up to buy a better printer – a laser. The research began, the costs I’ve been seeing are crazy! Like 4 times more than I thought it will cost. Then I started looking at ink jet printers, perhaps a better print technology but still within budget. But somehow it didn’t make sense to but another inkjet printer, what if I end up with same print quality as the Canon PIXMA G3400… I began another research – how to print better quality from my printer and I found this very helpful link. Some of my printer colour settings had been on auto all these years, all I had to do was increase the contrast and intensity for better quality prints.

Top image was before increasing the contrast and intensity. The bottom image was after.

So! My search for a new printer is on pause :). I’d just fiddle with the setting of what I have to get what I want. See how I adjusted the settings:

From the search bar, type in ‘Printers’ and select ‘Printer & Scanners’. Select the ‘Canon G3400 series printer’

Select ‘Manage’

Select ‘Printer Properties’ – Main – Colour Intensity, select ‘Manual’ and click ‘Set’

Increase ‘Colour Intensity & Contrast’

This was all I did to get better prints from my Canon PIXMA G3400 printer. I hope this is helpful to new crafter who are considering the Canon Pixma G3400 series and to those who ask me about the printer I use with my Cricut machine. I’m social, check out and follow my work on Instagram.