Paper woes and Canon

I've now heard from two separate Canon techs in two different states where my canon techs are saying that Canon is telling them that they're supposed to tell their customers that any paper that says HP Indigo Certified isn't supposed to be used in Canon printers.

Is anyone else hearing that?

Our shops have been using Titan Brand paper for years and now we're getting told that isn't compatible with Canon printers.
Suddenly switching to a more expensive paper brand isn't really realistic for us.

Techs who blame paper are bad techs. There's nothing wrong with Titan, it doesn't even have an i-tone coating on it, it just says "indigo certified". Funny enough their website even says "Canon tested". Ignore your techs, they probably just need a scapegoat because they can't solve an issue.

Oh, and just in case, Kelly Spicer's Pacesetter might be comparably priced. We swapped to that last year.

namelessentity said:

Techs who blame paper are bad techs. There's nothing wrong with Titan, it doesn't even have an i-tone coating on it, it just says "indigo certified". Funny enough their website even says "Canon tested". Ignore your techs, they probably just need a scapegoat because they can't solve an issue.

Oh, and just in case, Kelly Spicer's Pacesetter might be comparably priced. We swapped to that last year.

Click to expand...

The techs aren't actually the problem in this case. It's Canon support is telling the techs that if the paper says "HP Indigo Certified" on it Canon won't help them solve problems.

Pacesetter is okay, I just think it's more opaque (more see-thru) than the Titan and Accent brand paper. I would have loved to stick with Accent but Titan and Pacesetter pricing is more aggressive and it's enough of a difference that it was worth switching to us. Lynx brand is also okay but if I had to rate them it would go:

1. Accent (quality but price started out good but then creeped up) - better brightness too.
2. Titan (quality and price) - nice win
3. Pacesetter (quality slightly lower but good pricing)
4. Lynx (quality slightly lower and price lower) - this gets into "you get what you pay for mode"

I was told this same thing by my Xerox dealer several years ago. I sent them information that “HP Indigo Certified” does not mean that the paper is specifically coated to run on HP Indigo, it means that the paper has been tested and evaluated to meet the standards of the Indigo. Some paper is coated specifically for the Indigo but the majority is not.

Years ago when covid made finding paper hard, I used a HP indigo certified 120# Silk Cover by McCoy and it worked. A few months ago I was having trouble locating the regular 120 silk McCoy so I went with the HP indigo again and got bad results. It was a heavy toner coverage, and toner scraped off as it went through the press. I put the machine on the highest setting and it still didn't fix the issue. IDK what you are trying to run, but if you have a v900 with an updated prisma, you can choose your paper to exit out of the sensing unit so there's less of a chance of toner scraping off. I found that laminating those sheets was difficult too, laminate would peel right off unless running it super slow and super hot. I think the problem is that the fuser doesn't get hot enough compared to a ricoh. When I got my first Canon, I printed a job on text weight that was going to be printed on someone's office copier and they complained about the toner reactivating in their printer and smearing. I have two ricoh 5400s I use for jobs like that, but if I use the canon I have to jack the fuser settings all the way up

For what it's worth, I reached out to my own tech and he said he hasn't heard anything about it. He also checked their knowledgebase and there's nothing about Titan paper anywhere.

tngcas said:

I've now heard from two separate Canon techs in two different states where my canon techs are saying that Canon is telling them that they're supposed to tell their customers that any paper that says HP Indigo Certified isn't supposed to be used in Canon printers.

Is anyone else hearing that?

Our shops have been using Titan Brand paper for years and now we're getting told that isn't compatible with Canon printers.
Suddenly switching to a more expensive paper brand isn't really realistic for us.

Click to expand...

Ask them to show you the tech bulletin that says to use HP cert stocks. My money's on there isn't one.

I'm switching as much as possible from Titan to Sappi Digital for my Xerox Versant 4100. Solid colors look better with no adjustment and the Sappi paper doesn't scratch as easily. Price is almost the same.

tngcas said:

I've now heard from two separate Canon techs in two different states where my canon techs are saying that Canon is telling them that they're supposed to tell their customers that any paper that says HP Indigo Certified isn't supposed to be used in Canon printers.

Is anyone else hearing that?

Our shops have been using Titan Brand paper for years and now we're getting told that isn't compatible with Canon printers.
Suddenly switching to a more expensive paper brand isn't really realistic for us.

Click to expand...

Some service manager is causing headaches here for printers for sure. Simple solution. Keep purchasing Titan but buy a few reams of whatever those techs find acceptable. Then when an issue pops up throw in a ream of the canon approved stock. If the problem still happens place a service call and leave the “approved” stock in. The techs show up and can’t blame the paper.

We were with Xerox for 10+ years and never once our techs blamed the paper. Never even asked about it except if it was maybe the wrong grain direction. But I feel like we had exceptional techs.

In this case, it's not our techs blaming the paper. The techs are informing us that Canon is telling them that shops running Titan paper are causing additional wear and tear on the machines and that parts will wear out faster due to HP Indigo Coating on the paper. Here are a few quotes from the slide deck Canon gave to the techs at their September 2025 summit.

• "HP lndigo uses a Sapphire coating which rubs off in our engine."
• "These substances can quickly contaminate durability parts like the lTB, Rollers, Drums and even in some cases Coronas and Filters"
• "Signs of contamination are: Premature Parts Life . Build up on ITB and Rollers . White Powdery Material seen in Cleaning Brushes."

The slide deck shows pictures specifically of Titan Brand's HP Indigo Certified blue label.

I'm having my paper supplier run this up the chain to see if we can get clarification from Hansol to be able to clarify what coating they are or aren't putting on the paper just so I can take it back to Canon. My paper supplier is saying that Titan doesn't use a special coating but just has their paper go through a certification process that shows it's compatible with HP Indigo Printers.

The concern from the techs is getting support from Canon when things go wrong. The techs are supposed to be able to lean on Canon (and the community brain trust) for support when there are issues with the printer that they can't solve. Canon may not give them the support they need if Canon can blame the paper type that shops are using.

SoggyWinter said:

I'm switching as much as possible from Titan to Sappi Digital for my Xerox Versant 4100. Solid colors look better with no adjustment and the Sappi paper doesn't scratch as easily. Price is almost the same.

Click to expand...

I'll have to look into Sappi digtial.