Canon’s first AI printing feature for PIXMA owners in the US is free, but only on printers that run genuine Canon ink. The company launched its Connected Value Platform on October 1, 2026, with one tool so far, Web Print Optimizer, which strips ads, sidebars and comment sections from news and recipe pages before they print. The ink condition sits in a footnote of the announcement, next to a line saying Canon reserves the right to charge for the service later. If you refill your cartridges or buy compatibles, Canon does not promise you the feature, and nothing else about how your printer works changes.
Which printers get Web Print Optimizer
Ten PIXMA models are on the US list: the TS3720, TS3722, TS4320, TS6520, TR7120, TR7125, TS7720, TS7722, TR7820 and TS8820. Owners of a PIXMA TR7120 or a TS8820 get the tool as an add-on, switched on in the Canon PRINT app on a phone or downloaded into Canon Print Assistant on a Windows PC.
Both apps need their new versions, Canon PRINT 4.0 and Print Assistant 2.0. You also need a My Canon Account, a printer connected to the internet, and the app and printer on the same network. The announcement lists Print Assistant for Windows only, so on a Mac the phone app is the way in.
On a recipe page, Canon says the tool keeps the ingredients, the measurements and the key step photos, and it reflows the page for paper. Canon’s own footnote asks you to check each print for anything the AI left out.
Two conditions in the small print
The announcement says users “must use Genuine Canon consumables to ensure feature availability and performance.” Canon has not explained how the app decides a cartridge is genuine, or whether a Canon cartridge you refilled yourself still counts. If you run compatibles, assume the add-on may refuse to start.
The page is analyzed on Canon’s cloud platform before it reaches the printer, and the cartridge only puts the cleaned page on paper, as it would any other job. Nothing in Canon’s description of the tool needs a particular ink, so the condition reads as a commercial rule.
The tool is “currently available free of charge,” and the same footnote adds that “Canon reserves the right to charge for these and additional services in the future.” Canon Europe announced the same platform on the same day. Its release also requires genuine Canon ink cartridges and says the tool is free, with no line about charging later.
Europe’s list has none of these printers
The European release covers eight different models, all with an i at the end of the name: the PIXMA TS7750i, TS7650i, TS7550i, TS6550i, TS4151i, TS4150i, TS3751i and TS3750i. Not one of them appears on the US list, and none of the ten US models appears on the European one.
The next tool also arrives on a different schedule. Content-Based Naming, which reads a scan and gives the file a descriptive name, is due in late November 2026 in both regions. Canon Europe says that date covers the PC version and that the mobile version follows in 2027. The US release gives one date and does not split it by app.
A clean page without Canon’s add-on
You can already print a web page without the clutter on any printer, with any ink. Safari’s Reader and Firefox’s Reader View strip a page down to its text and images, and printing from that view prints the stripped version. Many recipe sites also put a print button on the recipe card that leaves out the ads and the life story above it. These run on your computer with no account, no internet link for the printer and no cartridge check.
Canon’s tool goes further on paper layout, by its own description, and it works from the phone app. That is the reason to try it if your printer is on the list and already runs Canon cartridges.
If you run compatibles, switching back to Canon cartridges for this feature buys Canon’s layout for pages that a reader view already prints without the ads.
When the scan tool arrives
Content-Based Naming is the first test of whether the ink rule carries over. It works on scans, so it never touches a cartridge at all. Canon’s US release names the tool and its late November date but not its requirements. When it ships, the requirements page Canon links from its release will show whether genuine ink is a condition there too, and whether the word “currently” in front of “free of charge” has changed.
