The Canon MG3170 is a worthy choice for homes or small offices that need to print, scan, or copy only a few documents and photos. The reason why the multifunction model is not recommended for high volume printing needs is because it only has one sheet feeder and uses a cartridge-based rather than tank-based print engine, among others.

Its support for ChromaLife 100 Photo System and Auto Photo Fix II, coupled with its ability to print borderless photos are indications that it is more of a photo printer than anything else, but it doesn’t come with any function to print directly from a camera.

Features and Highlights

Two Ink Cartridges

The Canon MG3170 uses a pigment-based black ink and three dye-based color inks (cyan, magenta, yellow). The latter three are combined in one single cartridge, and hence it is called a tri-color cartridge.

At first it might look more promising than the traditional cartridge that only contains one color of ink, especially because it is cheaper than the prices of three traditional cartridges. It has, however, a weakness that may make a budget-minded person to consider buying another printer because it could lead to unused ink being wasted.

Both the tri-color cartridge and individual black ink cartridge are available in standard and XL versions. For document printing, the standard one has a page yield of approximately 180 sheets of paper, and the XL version has a page yield of approximately of 400 sheets of paper.

For 4R photo printing, the standard-capacity individual ink cartridge is worth 1420 sheets and the standard-capacity unified ink cartridge is worth 67 sheets. As for the XL version, the individual and tri-color cartridges are worth 2940 sheets and 135 sheets, respectively. Keep in mind that these page yields are estimated numbers. The actual page yields depend on a number of factors.

Two-Sided Printing

The unit doesn’t have a two-way paper feeding system like some other printers in the same PIXMA lineup, but it does have a way to let users print double-sided pages without flipping paper manually. This might be an indispensable feature for users who need to print such pages a lot. Unfortunately, the duplexing capability supports printing only. Copying and scanning double-sided pages can only be done manually.

Wireless Scanning and Printing

With its support for Wi-Fi network, the MG3170 is a well-connected multifunction device. It allows users to choose the way they want to use the printer as they see fit. While a wireless connection is certainly more convenient, sometimes a wired one might be necessary in certain situations.

Canon MG3170 Driver Free Download

Whether you connect the MG3170 via a USB cable or Wi-Fi network to a Windows computer, there won’t be any interaction between the two if the printer’s driver, which is well under 30 MB in size, has not been installed yet on the computer.

The driver is one of the most crucial parts of the printer that allow the printer to be used from a computer. You can click the link below to download Canon MG3170 Driver for Windows: