The Canon Pixma Pro-1 features a design inspired by the company's EOS digital SLR cameras. The 12-ink system significantly expands the printer's colour gamut over previous Pixma Pro models. There are two black inks (Photo and Matte), three grays (Dark Grey, Grey and Light Grey), six colours (Cyan, Photo Cyan, Magenta, Photo Magenta, Yellow and Red) and a Chroma Optmizer, which Canon says "increases black density and makes glossiness uniform".

The five monochrome inks are designed to produce professional-quality black and white prints with detail in shadow and highlight areas, as well as smooth tonal gradation and suppressed graininess.

The Pixma Pro-1 supports an input resolution of 1,200dpi (double that of previous generations of Pixma Pros). Canon says that this reflects the increasing number of pixels available on professional cameras and allows the Pixma Pro-1 to produce smoother prints with high resolutions of up to 4,800x2,400dpi. The new Optimum Image Generating (OIG) system analyses the photo colour and calculates the optimum ink combination and volume of ink droplets, which are then accurately placed on the paper by Canon's FINE print head with 12,288 nozzles.

Canon says that the OIG system enhances colour reproduction, natural tonal gradations and uniform glossiness in each print mode and media type. Smooth tonal gradations in colour and monochrome prints are achieved through 16-bits per channel printing capability.

The Pixma Pro-1's ink tanks have been made larger that those in older Pixma models to ensures longer running periods can be maintained between ink changes. Front-opening panels enable easy access to the tanks either side of the main printer body, and for efficiency the rear tray takes up to 20 sheets of photo paper, while the manual feed slot accepts photo paper up to 356mm (14-inch) wide and heavier fine art papers.