Canon PIXMA MG3520 Driver

Canon PIXMA MG3520 Driver is the software package that lets your computer communicate with the all-in-one wireless inkjet printer Canon released in 2013. The package handles three separate hardware functions through one driver bundle. The print driver translates documents into the specific commands the printer’s hardware understands. The ScanGear scanner driver lets applications request scans from the integrated flatbed scanner and receive the resulting images.

The IJ Network Tool handles wireless network configuration so the printer can join your home Wi-Fi rather than depending on a USB cable. Without the driver installed, the operating system has no way to reach any of these functions, with the practical result being a connected printer that doesn’t actually print, scan, or respond to network requests.

The bundled software extends well beyond basic printing functionality. Canon’s IJ Network Scanner Selector EX configures which computer receives scans from the printer’s hardware buttons, useful for households with multiple computers connected to the same printer. My Image Garden organizes photos, prints them with various creative templates, and handles album projects beyond simple photo printing.

Quick Menu provides one-click access to Canon software through a dock-style launcher. PIXMA Cloud Link integrates cloud storage services and online photo printing without going through your computer at all. The printer itself has been out of active production for years (Canon discontinued the MG3520 around 2016 with newer PIXMA models replacing it), but Canon continues to release updated drivers that maintain compatibility with current operating system versions, with the latest driver releases supporting Windows 10 and Windows 11 alongside older Windows versions for users still maintaining legacy systems.

What the driver package actually includes

The full driver package isn’t just one file. Canon distributes the MG3520 software as a master setup utility that installs multiple components based on what you select during installation. The IJ Printer Driver is the core component that handles printing operations, with this being the only required component for basic print functionality. ScanGear provides TWAIN and WIA scanner driver support, which lets various applications request scans through standardized interfaces rather than requiring application-specific scanner support. The IJ Network Tool handles wireless setup including WPS configuration, manual SSID entry, and network status monitoring.

The Canon Quick Menu installs as a desktop application launcher specific to Canon software. Users sometimes find it useful for quick access to scanning, photo printing, and various Canon utilities. Users who don’t want it taking up screen space can decline it during installation or remove it later without affecting the actual printing functionality. My Image Garden similarly is optional for users who want photo organization features beyond the print driver itself.

The IJ Network Scanner Selector EX handles the case where the printer’s physical scan button needs to know which computer to send the scanned image to. With multiple computers on the network and the printer configured to allow scanning from any of them, this utility lets each user configure their computer to receive scans when they press the scan button on the printer hardware. Without it, the scan button doesn’t have a destination to send images to, which makes the hardware buttons less useful than they could be.

For users wanting to install only the bare minimum for printing, the custom installation option lets you skip everything except the print driver. The basic installation handles all components automatically, which works for users wanting comprehensive functionality but produces software footprint that’s larger than strictly necessary.

Print driver capabilities and quality settings

The print driver exposes various settings through the standard print dialog and printer properties interface. Print quality options range from Draft (fast, low ink, lower resolution) through Standard (balanced for most documents) to High (slower, more ink, full quality for photos and detailed graphics). Paper type selection includes Plain Paper, Photo Paper Plus Glossy, Photo Paper Pro Platinum, Matte Photo Paper, and various other categories that affect how ink delivery gets timed for each paper’s specific absorption characteristics.

The maximum print resolution is 4800 x 1200 dpi for color printing and 600 x 600 dpi for black and white text. The high color resolution matters most for photo printing on actual photo paper, where the additional detail produces visibly better results compared to lower-resolution settings. For typical text documents on plain paper, the higher resolutions produce minimal visible improvement at substantially higher ink consumption, with Standard mode being appropriate for most everyday printing.

Auto duplex (two-sided printing) is supported for paper types that handle two-sided printing reliably. The printer automatically flips paper internally between the first and second sides without requiring manual paper handling, which saves both time and paper for documents that don’t need to be one-sided. Plain paper handles duplex well, while photo papers and various specialty papers either don’t support duplex or produce poor results when used in duplex mode.

The borderless printing capability extends ink coverage to the edges of various paper sizes for photo printing without white margins around the image. The feature requires specific paper sizes that the printer recognizes for borderless mode, with non-supported sizes falling back to bordered printing automatically. For users wanting professional-looking photo prints without trimming margins manually, this feature handles the use case directly.

ScanGear and the scanning workflow

The ScanGear scanner driver provides three main interfaces. Basic Mode presents simplified controls suitable for casual scanning where you don’t need detailed image adjustment. Advanced Mode exposes full control over resolution, color mode, brightness, contrast, and various other parameters that matter for specific scanning scenarios. Auto Scan Mode handles the common case of scanning a document on the platen with reasonable defaults, producing usable scans without configuration.

The supported scan resolutions go up to 1200 dpi optical, which produces detailed scans suitable for most household scanning needs. Higher resolution settings (2400, 4800, 9600 dpi) are interpolated rather than optical, which means they produce larger files but don’t actually capture more detail than the underlying optical resolution provides. For users specifically wanting maximum detail, the optical 1200 dpi setting represents the actual capability ceiling regardless of what higher numbers the software allows.

The scan output formats include JPEG for photos with reasonable file size, PNG for images requiring lossless compression, BMP for users who specifically need uncompressed bitmaps, and PDF for multi-page document scans. The PDF output handles the common scenario of scanning multi-page documents into single PDF files rather than producing separate files per page. For users needing more sophisticated PDF features, dedicated tools like Foxit PDF Reader handle PDF editing and management beyond what the bundled software provides.

The OCR (optical character recognition) capability uses the bundled My Image Garden software to extract text from scanned documents. The OCR quality is adequate for clean printed text but struggles with handwriting, unusual fonts, and degraded source documents. For users specifically needing high-quality OCR, dedicated OCR applications produce substantially better results than the bundled functionality.

Wireless setup and the network printing capability

The wireless capability is one of the printer’s main selling points compared to USB-only alternatives. The 802.11n radio supports standard home Wi-Fi networks, with WPS push-button configuration handling the connection process when your router supports WPS. For routers without WPS or for users who prefer manual configuration, the IJ Network Tool guides you through SSID selection and password entry through the printer’s configuration interface.

The wireless range matches what typical home Wi-Fi covers. Place the printer anywhere your laptop or phone can reliably connect to your network, and the printer reaches the same network. Users with large homes or printer locations far from the router sometimes encounter weaker signal strength that produces slower print transfers or occasional disconnections, with the practical solution being moving the printer to a location with better signal or improving the network coverage in the printer’s area.

Once on the network, any computer or mobile device on the same network can print to the printer without USB cables. The driver handles network discovery automatically through Bonjour and similar protocols, with the printer appearing in the print device list across all your devices on the network. For households with multiple computers, this network access eliminates the need for printer sharing through specific computers or USB switching between devices.

The static IP versus DHCP configuration affects how reliably the printer maintains its network identity. DHCP (the default) lets the router assign whatever IP address is currently available, which sometimes changes across power cycles and produces situations where computers can’t find the printer until the network discovery completes again. Static IP assignment through the printer’s configuration menu produces more reliable network identity at the cost of requiring you to configure your router and printer to use compatible IP ranges.

Mobile printing through Canon PRINT and AirPrint

The mobile printing support handles printing from phones and tablets without requiring computer involvement. Canon PRINT (the official Canon mobile app for Android and iOS) provides full printing functionality including print preview, paper size selection, quality adjustments, and various other options that match what the desktop driver exposes. Take photos on your phone, send them to the printer through the app, and the printer produces prints without any computer being involved in the workflow.

AirPrint support handles iOS devices natively without requiring the Canon PRINT app. Apple’s built-in printing system recognizes the printer through Bonjour discovery and lets users print from any iOS application that supports printing through standard mechanisms. For iPhone and iPad users, this AirPrint support eliminates the need for additional app installation while still providing reliable printing.

Mopria and various other mobile printing standards extend similar capabilities to Android devices. Modern Android versions include native print support through these standards, which means printing from phones works through the operating system’s built-in mechanisms rather than requiring Canon PRINT specifically. Users can choose between Canon’s app for additional features and the operating system’s built-in print support for basic functionality.

For cloud printing scenarios, PIXMA Cloud Link lets the printer access cloud storage services and online photo printing services directly without requiring computer or phone involvement. Configure the connection through the printer’s display, and various cloud services become accessible directly from the printer hardware. The functionality covers photos stored in cloud services, documents in cloud office suites, and various other content that the printer can fetch and print without local device involvement.

Cartridges and the ink management system

The MG3520 uses two ink cartridges, the PG-240 black cartridge and the CL-241 color cartridge (which contains cyan, magenta, and yellow inks in one combined cartridge rather than separate cartridges per color). Both cartridges come in standard and XL versions, with XL versions providing approximately twice the page yield at higher upfront cost. The economics typically favor XL versions for users who print regularly enough to consume the higher capacity within reasonable timeframes.

The combined color cartridge design has trade-offs compared to separate per-color cartridges that some other printers use. The combined design produces simpler cartridge management since you only have two cartridges to track. The cost downside is that running out of any single color (typically cyan or magenta in mixed-content printing) requires replacing the entire color cartridge even if substantial yellow ink remains. For users printing primarily one color category (say, lots of green or red content), this combined design produces faster apparent ink consumption than separate-cartridge printers would.

The print driver’s ink level monitor displays current cartridge fill levels, with estimates based on print job tracking rather than actual measurement. The estimates are approximations that can vary from actual fill levels, with the displayed levels being directional guidance rather than precise measurements. For users wanting precise tracking, watching actual print quality often provides better assessment of when cartridges genuinely need replacement.

The cartridge alignment utility runs after each cartridge replacement to calibrate print head positioning. Misaligned cartridges produce visible quality issues including blurry text, color fringing, and overall poor print quality, with the alignment process correcting these issues automatically. The print head cleaning utility addresses the common problem of clogged nozzles producing streaky prints, particularly after periods of printer inactivity where ink can dry in the print head.

Driver versions and operating system compatibility

Canon has released multiple driver versions for the MG3520 across the printer’s lifespan, with newer versions improving compatibility with newer operating system releases. The current driver versions support Windows 10, Windows 11, and earlier Windows versions back through Windows 7. The compatibility coverage means users on essentially any current system can install working drivers, though specific feature availability sometimes varies between operating system versions.

The original driver CD that came with the printer doesn’t always work on current operating systems because the original release predates current security models and signed driver requirements. For users without the original CD or installing the printer on systems newer than what the original CD supported, current driver versions handle the compatibility scenarios that the original release didn’t anticipate.

For users wanting automatic driver maintenance across all their hardware rather than just this specific printer, dedicated tools like DriverHub and Driver Booster handle driver detection and updates broadly. These general utilities don’t replace the printer-specific Canon software but complement it for users with broader driver maintenance needs across different hardware categories.

Common issues and troubleshooting

Print jobs getting stuck in the queue without printing is the most common issue users encounter. The cause typically combines operating system print spooler issues with the specific job having unusual characteristics. Restarting the print spooler service through the operating system’s services management resolves most of these issues without requiring driver reinstallation. For persistent queue issues, removing the printer from the operating system and reinstalling through the driver setup typically clears whatever stuck state was preventing normal operation.

Wireless connection issues sometimes manifest as the printer appearing to be connected but not actually receiving print jobs. The diagnosis usually involves verifying that the printer and your computer are on the same network segment (some routers create isolated guest networks that prevent device-to-device communication), checking that no firewalls are blocking printer-related traffic, and confirming that the printer’s IP address matches what the driver expects. Power cycling both the router and the printer often resolves transient network issues that diagnosis can’t identify directly.

Streaky prints with horizontal lines through the output indicate clogged print head nozzles. The driver’s cleaning utility addresses this by pumping ink through the nozzles to clear blockages, with multiple cleaning cycles sometimes being necessary for printers that haven’t been used recently. Allowing the printer to print regularly prevents the ink from drying in the nozzles, which produces the clogs leading to streaking. For persistent clogging that cleaning doesn’t resolve, cartridge replacement sometimes addresses issues that cleaning alone can’t fix.

Scanning issues sometimes come from the IJ Network Scanner Selector EX not being configured correctly to receive scans from the printer hardware. Verify the configuration matches your specific computer name and check that the network connection is working before assuming the scanner driver itself has issues. For users primarily wanting USB-connected scanning rather than network scanning, connecting the printer through USB temporarily often diagnoses whether issues are network-related or driver-related.

Considerations and limitations

The printer hardware is genuinely old by current standards, having shipped in 2013-2014 and exited active production around 2016. Print speeds, photo quality, and various other characteristics reflect that era’s inkjet design rather than current capabilities. For users with serious printing needs (frequent high-volume printing, professional photo work demanding current quality, fast duplex printing, or large-format handling), the printer’s limitations affect what’s practical regardless of how good the driver is.

The ink economics across the printer’s lifetime have favored Canon rather than users. The cartridge prices relative to page yield make ongoing printing genuinely expensive for users printing regularly, with cumulative cartridge costs across years substantially exceeding the original printer purchase price. Third-party compatible cartridges exist at lower prices but produce inconsistent results across different brands, with quality varying from “essentially identical to Canon” to “noticeably worse with potential printer damage from poor formulation.”

The driver interface design reflects priorities from when the printer originally launched. Compared to current printer driver interfaces, the experience feels less polished, with various small interface conventions that newer software has moved past. The functional capability remains adequate, but users coming from current printer software find the experience notably dated. Canon’s newer PIXMA models ship with substantially refined driver interfaces that don’t share these legacy design choices.

For users on the most current operating system versions, specific driver compatibility with newer security features (signed driver requirements, hardware compatibility checks, various other modern protections) should be verified before assuming installation will work without intervention. Canon has updated drivers for current system compatibility, but specific edge cases sometimes produce installation friction that older systems didn’t have.

The printer’s wireless implementation uses 802.11n which works fine for printing but doesn’t support the higher-speed standards that current routers and devices use. For users on modern Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 6E networks, the printer connects at lower speeds than the rest of your network, which doesn’t usually matter for printing-specific bandwidth but represents a generational gap in networking technology.

Conclusion

For users with a Canon PIXMA MG3520 printer that needs to actually function for printing, scanning, and copying, Canon PIXMA MG3520 Driver delivers the software infrastructure that makes the hardware usable. The combination of core printer language translation, ScanGear scanner support, wireless network configuration, mobile printing through AirPrint and Mopria, and various supporting utilities covers what daily printer use actually requires across the printer’s full feature set. Canon’s ongoing driver support keeps the package functional on current operating system versions despite the printer hardware itself being out of active production for years.