How To Connect Canon Printer To Wi-Fi + [3 Best Canon Printers]

7 min readApr 5, 2021

Most Canon printers have two ways to connect to other devices; through a Wi-Fi network (LAN) or a USB cable. Both methods have steps followed to their setup. But connecting your Canon printer to a Wi-Fi network gives more flexibility in printing options.

Whether the printer is for personal use or your company, using the Wi-Fi print option has more advantages over wired printing. First, wireless printing eliminates clutters of printing cables in your working space. Besides, you or your workers can print from all compatible Wi-Fi-enabled devices from anywhere within the wireless router range.

The following are the steps to follow to connect a Canon printer to Wi-Fi successfully.

What You Need Ready

To be able to print wirelessly and on the go, you need to have:

Your Wi-Fi-enabled Canon printer connected to a power source
A Wi-Fi-enabled laptop, smartphone, or personal computer
A wireless router
In case your printer has no built-in Wi-Fi adapter, a wireless print server works fine.

Three Best All-In-One Canon Printers

Canon has the best printers for graphics and text printing in the market. Their all-in-one printers have a combined printing, scanning, and copying functions to sort out all your printer needs.

Canon all-in-one printers offer you quality printing, superb scans, and among the lowest cost-per-page prints. Below is the review of the three best all-in-one canon printers for your home or office use.

Canon Pixma TR8520

Canon Pixma TR8520 is the best all-in-one printer for family use. It’s an inkjet model with well-detailed and colorful photo prints. And, the photo print quality remains top-notch even while done on glossy photo paper.

This printer has a decent yet sturdy design. Its ink cartridges and paper jams are easy to access. The large touch-operated display is easy to read and makes operating this printer a no-brainer. On top of that, the printer handles multipage documents printing quickly, thanks to the inbuilt automatic document feeder.

The connectivity options to this printer are outstanding. Apart from the usual wired and wireless connections (Wi-Fi and Bluetooth), you can directly print from smartphones using Canon’s mobile companion app.

The printer uses a very affordable five-cartridge system. You get a good number of prints before you refill.

The downsides of this printer make it only awesome for family use. The printer lacks double-sided scanning ability. Further, the black ink cartridge gets depleted fast, and the printing speed is not so impressive.

Nonetheless, the printer suffices family printing needs well and is available on Amazon.

Canon Pixma TR8550

Canon Pixma TR8550 covers all your small business printing needs while compact enough to fit in a filing cabinet. Featuring a 100-sheet paper tray and weighing a meager eight kilograms, the Canon Pixma TR8550 is the best all-in-one canon printer for your small office.

This printer has a decent design, with all the flaps and trays foldable. The generously large touchscreen gives this printer an innovative and sophisticated look while allowing you easy operation. The added fax feature makes this printer a badass four-in-one machine. It uses a five-cartridge ink system.

The wireless connectivity of this printer is very stable. It has a wired connection, and an SD card input slot — the direct smartphone connectivity via the Canon Print app complements this printer’s Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities. The printer further features duplex printing and cloud services connectivity.

The major setbacks of this printer are the costly ink cartridges and lack of a USB port. Nevertheless, the printer offers excellent value for its price.

Canon imageCLASS MF743Cdw

Your search for the best all-in-one office canon printer ends here. The Canon imageCLASS MF743Cdw printer offers a high page yield with sustained impressive quality. The cost-per-print is amazingly low, getting lower with black prints. For your slideshow presentations, the accurate color printing of this printer suffices well.

This laser model printer has a robust and well-built design. You can easily access the toner cartridges and paper jams. Those thick items requiring scanning won’t give you any headaches with the adjustable hinged flatbed scanner. Besides, the double-sided scanner coupled with an automatic document feeder makes dealing with multi-paged documents easy.

You can easily connect this scanner to other devices wirelessly or through the provided USB cable. The sizeable colored touchscreen allows for easy setups and operation of this printer.

Major cons to this printer include costly ink cartridges and a slow acceleration of printing speed. All in all, this printer is the best for your office needs. Check its price on Amazon.

Connecting The Printer To Your Wi-Fi Network

There are two steps to connect your Canon printer to Wi-Fi. To start, you need to join the printer to your Wi-Fi network. And then add the printer to devices within your Wi-Fi network.

Connecting A Canon Printer To Wi-Fi Network

You can create a connection between your router and a Canon printer through the standard or WPS (WI-FI Protected Setup) setup method. The method you use depends on if your wireless router has the WPS push button.

Using WPS Setup Method

With the router and the printer nearby, follow the below steps:

Turn on the printer and the router.
Press-hold the Wi-Fi button on the printer for several seconds until the power light flashes.
With the Wi-Fi and power lights flashing, give the printer two minutes to start searching for open Wi-Fi networks available.
After two minutes, press the WPS button on the router
The Wi-Fi and power lights on the Canon printer continue flicking until the connection establishes. The two lights become still once the link becomes successful.
Connecting Via The Standard Method

If your wireless router doesn’t have the WPS button, fret not because the standard method has got you covered. Steps:

Power on both the Canon printer and the wireless router
On the printer, press the Settings button. Use the arrow button to navigate to Device Settings and press OK
Continue using the Arrow button to get to the LAN Settings, then to the Wireless LAN Setup, and press OK
Give the printer several minutes to search for available Wi-Fi networks. To be sure the search process is ongoing, check if the Wi-Fi and power lights are blinking
Depending on the public networks within the area, the printer may take longer to search. However, you can cut short the search by pressing the Cancel button. The printer takes you to the Standard Setup of the Wireless LAN Setup. Press OK to access the list of available Wi-Fi networks.
Use the Arrow button to find your Wi-Fi network, and press OK
The printer prompts for your Wi-Fi network password. Enter the password and press OK. The Wi-Fi and power lights become still to show a successful connection.

To confirm the success of the connection:

Load A4-sized plain papers onto the paper tray of the printer
Press-hold the Cancel button, and the orange alarm light starts flashing. Hold the button until the lamp flashes 15 times. The printer will print the network information page.
Confirm that the Wi-Fi network’s name matches that of your network from the print-out and that the connection status is Active.
Add The Printer To Devices Within The Wi-Fi Network

Try printing a test document from a device connected to the same Wi-Fi network, such as a computer. I know you couldn’t find the name of the Canon printer you just added to the network in your device’s list of available printers. Quite scary, right?

The printer lacks in the list because you have not added it. How do you do it? Using the following steps to add your Canon printer to:

A Windows Computer

Press the Windows logo and R key simultaneously to open the Run dialogue box
Type or copy and paste “control /name Microsoft.DevicesandPrinters”(without the quotation marks) and click OK
The above command takes you to Devices and Printers settings. Click Add a printer to get a list of all printers connected to the Wi-Fi network.
Select the printer you just connected and follow prompts to add it to the computer
Print a document to test the connection.

A Mac Computer

Ensure your mac computer is running the latest software so that it can be able to download the required printer software from the Apple store
Access the Apple menu, then to System Preferences, and finally to Printers & Scanners.
Click the Add printer button and select the printer from the list
Use prompts to add selected printer
Print a test copy.
Your Phone: Android And iOS

To print using an Android or iOS smartphone and tablet, connect the device with the Wi-Fi router where you linked the printer. To do this, follow the prompts in the device’s Wi-Fi settings.

Further, go to respective app stores to download Canon Print App or other third-party printing apps. Then install the apps by following the cues. To print, open the app you installed and follow the steps provided.

Troubleshooting for connection fails.

What next if your Canon printer is not working correctly after connecting it to a wireless router? For example, your printer may show error notifications or won’t print at all. Do the following:

Update the printer drivers, either manually or using a third-party software
Restart your device after the installation of the drivers.
Your printer should work fine.

Conclusion

A Wi-Fi-connected printer offers better printing freedom than a wired connection. You can be able to print from any Wi-Fi-enabled device within the range of your router.

With the many printer options available in the market, getting one that perfectly fits you may be intriguing. Canon solves this problem by offering you a selection of all-in-one printers that solves all your printing needs.

The Canon printers feature an easy-to-navigate touchscreen display. The above steps outline how to connect yours to Wi-Fi. Once you have connected successfully; welcome to wireless printing freedom.