What is BJNP?

‘BJNP’ refers to a printer protocol used by printers made by Canon wherein the accompanying installation software and drivers must be installed first before any printer can be used.  This specific printer protocol is said to be proprietary which simply means that each printer software has a particular license that is copyrighted or owned by the manufacturer.  In the case of the BJNP protocol, Canon is the owner of the printer installation software and driver files.

Canon printers that run on the BJNP protocol will not be able to function if the appropriate software or installation files are not found on the computer that wants to generate a printout.  Even if the printer is literally attached to the main computer for printing purposes, any document printing would not push through because of the BJNP protocol.  Instead, an error message will pop up indicating that the computer is either not able to find a compatible printer or not able to search any printer driver and installation files.  For this concern, each computer that requires document printing will need to be installed with the correct printer software and drivers.

The BJNP protocol is part of the older Canon Pixma printer models.  Newer versions, though, are now capable of network support and setup.  With new the technology introduced in Canon printers, multiple users may now be able to print documents using a network printer without having to install computer software at each of the individual computers linked to a particular network.  These so-called network-ready printers are very welcome by retail and corporate users because of the convenience it offers.  People have always complained about the printing limitations under the BJNP protocol.  For some, it is just a big hassle to have to install several software and drivers on different computers just to print simple documents.  For newer printers that can be configured for network and multiple-user access, printing is made easier and more convenient.