The quick settings tab on the Canon Pixma MX922 lives in the copy menu, not the home screen: press the Copy button on the operation panel, then press the left or right menu button until the Quick Settings tab appears at the top of the display. From there, the function buttons map to page size, media type, and image-quality adjustments without a full menu dive.
That one sentence answers the question, but the more interesting problem is why the tab is easy to lose and how the machine's firmware decides what to show you. The MX922 shipped in 2013 as a print, scan, copy, and fax all-in-one with an automatic document feeder, a 3-inch color LCD, and a five-ink cartridge system. Its panel predates the touchscreen era, so "tabs" are really software states drawn on a fixed LCD and driven by hard buttons. Understanding that architecture explains nearly every confusing moment owners report.
How the MX922 panel organizes its menus
The operation panel is a matrix of physical keys plus a color LCD that renders different menu trees depending on which function you selected. The home screen offers Copy, Fax, Scan, and Setup. Each function carries its own menu structure, and Canon splits each structure into tabs that you cycle through with the left and right menu buttons located beside the OK button. The Quick Settings tab is the first page of the copy function's tab set, which is why the Copy key is the gateway.
Each tab groups related settings so you do not scroll through a single flat list. The Quick Settings page surfaces the four variables most people change most often: page size, media type, image quality, and intensity. The remaining tabs hold layout options such as two-sided copying, frame erase, and page formatting. Canon's on-screen guide for the MX920 series describes this tabbed layout as a way to keep frequent adjustments within two button presses.
The LCD shows tab labels across the top edge. When the Quick Settings tab is active, you see an icon row under those labels, and the physical function buttons below the screen act as soft keys that select each row. This is the counterintuitive part: the buttons are not labeled Quick Settings. The display labels them, and the labels change when you switch tabs. Owners who hunt for a dedicated Quick Settings button find nothing because the control is contextual, drawn by firmware rather than molded into plastic.
Plainly: the tab exists only while the copy menu is open, and the buttons that operate it are the same buttons that do other jobs elsewhere.
What the Quick Settings tab actually controls, and why
Each control on the tab maps to a print-engine parameter, and the engineering logic explains the layout. Page size tells the firmware how to register the scan bar's travel and how to align the print head's pass pattern. Media type adjusts platen gap and ink laydown because photo paper and plain paper absorb ink differently. Image quality changes the number of print passes and the dot pattern density. Intensity shifts the ink volume per dot.
The five-ink system matters here. The MX922 uses pigment black for documents plus dye-based cyan, magenta, yellow, and black for photos, and the Quick Settings choices influence which black the driver engages. Selecting a photo media type on the tab steers the job toward the dye black and finer dot patterns. Leaving it on plain paper steers toward pigment black for sharper text edges. A 2013-era Canon design decision, but the mechanism still governs output quality on any unit in service today.
Canon's published specifications list print resolution up to 9600 by 2400 dots per inch for color and a minimum droplet size of 1 picoliter. Those numbers only materialize when the quality setting requests them. The Quick Settings tab is where you authorize that request. Setting quality to High on plain paper does not unlock photo-grade output because the media type still caps the ink laydown. The two settings interact rather than stack independently.
Quantified context: what the settings change
The tab's four controls alter measurable output characteristics, and the ranges are modest but real. Print speed for a letter-size color document on the MX922 is rated around 10 images per minute in standard mode and roughly half that in high-quality mode, per Canon's specification sheet. Switching quality on the tab is the single fastest way to trade time for detail. A one-page photo at high quality can take several minutes because the print head makes additional passes.
Media type changes drying behavior. Plain paper settings deposit less ink per pass, which keeps pages from curling but limits color saturation. Photo paper settings allow heavier laydown, and the printer slows the carriage to give the ink time to absorb. Intensity adjustments move ink volume in steps; the default midpoint suits most documents, and pushing intensity upward on plain paper is a common cause of bleed-through on thin stock.
Page size governs scan registration within the copy function. If the tab says Letter but the original is A4, the firmware crops or rescales, and the output shows asymmetric margins. The tab's page-size value is independent of the cassette's paper size setting in the Setup menu. That separation trips up owners who load 4 by 6 photo paper but leave the tab on Letter.
Edge cases that hide or change the tab
Several states remove the Quick Settings tab or alter what it displays. The most common is a job in progress or a pending error. When the printer reports a paper jam, an ink cartridge fault, or a cover-open condition, the firmware replaces the normal menu with an error screen and the tab row disappears. Clearing the error restores it.
The second case is the quiet-mode and device settings layer. Some settings pushed from the printer driver on a connected computer, such as a forced media type, can gray out matching rows on the tab. The tab still appears, but a row may show a lock or refuse to change. Resetting the copy settings from the panel restores local control.
The third case involves the fax function. The MX922 has a separate fax menu with its own tab set, and owners who press the FAX button by mistake see tabs that look similar but lack the copy-specific rows. The Quick Settings tab as commonly described belongs to the copy function. The scan function has its own first tab with different labels.
A professional caveat worth stating: the MX922 is discontinued, and Canon's support pages for the MX920 series remain online but no longer receive updates. Firmware behavior described in the original manual is stable, but refurbished units may arrive with prior owner settings that suppress rows. A settings reset is the fastest way to return the panel to documented behavior.
Common misconceptions about the tab
The most persistent misconception is that the Quick Settings tab is a home-screen shortcut. It is not. The home screen shows function icons only, and the tab set appears after you enter a function. Owners who expect a gear icon or a dedicated tab button search the home screen and conclude the feature is missing.
A second misconception treats the tab as a duplicate of the printer driver. The driver on a computer exposes far more settings than the panel tab, including custom paper sizes and color profiles. The panel tab is a subset designed for walk-up copying. Changes made on the tab do not persist to driver-based print jobs, and driver settings can override tab values for jobs sent from a computer.
A third misconception assumes the tab's media type setting changes the printer's physical behavior for all jobs. It applies to the current copy job and, depending on firmware, may persist as the copy default until changed or reset. It does not alter the cassette's registered paper size. Owners who load photo paper and forget the cassette setting get feed errors even with the tab configured correctly.
A fourth misconception holds that higher intensity always means better output. On plain paper, higher intensity increases show-through and slows drying. The tab's intensity control is a correction tool for faded originals, not a quality dial.
Practical actions: finding and using the tab in under a minute
The steps below reflect the documented MX920 series panel flow. They assume the printer is powered on, free of errors, and loaded with paper.
Press the Copy button on the operation panel. The copy menu opens with the Quick Settings tab active by default. Confirm the tab label at the top of the LCD reads Quick Settings. If a different tab name appears, press the left menu button until it does. Use the function buttons under the screen to select page size, then media type, then image quality, then intensity. Press OK after each change. Load the original on the platen glass for single sheets or in the automatic document feeder for multipage copies. Match the tab's page size to the original. Press the Color or Black button to start copying. The settings apply to that job and remain as the copy default until changed.
If the tab does not appear, work through these checks in order. Clear any error message on the display. Press the Stop/Reset button once to cancel a pending job. Open and close the cover to cycle the panel state. If rows appear locked, run a settings reset from the Setup menu. On a refurbished unit, confirm the panel is not in a restricted mode set by a previous owner.
Threshold guidance: if two minutes of button cycling does not surface the tab, the issue is almost always an uncleared error state or a firmware state left by a previous job, not a hardware fault. The tab is software-drawn, so a functioning LCD that shows other menus will show this one once the copy function is active and error-free.
Comparison: panel tab versus driver versus defaults
| Control point | Where it lives | Scope | Persistence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quick Settings tab | Copy menu on the panel | Walk-up copy jobs | Copy default until reset |
| Printer driver | Computer print dialog | Jobs sent from that computer | Per-job or saved preset |
| Setup menu defaults | Panel Setup function | Device-wide behavior | Stored in firmware |
| Cassette paper setting | Setup menu | Feed and registration | Stored until changed |
| Scanner settings | Scan menu on the panel | Scan-to-media jobs | Scan default until reset |
The table makes the division of labor clear. The Quick Settings tab handles fast copy adjustments. The driver handles precision print jobs. The Setup menu holds the plumbing that both depend on.
Timeline: what happens from button press to printed page
| Stage | Time (typical) | What the firmware does |
|---|---|---|
| Copy button press | Under 1 second | Loads copy menu, draws Quick Settings tab |
| Tab navigation | 5 to 20 seconds | Registers page size, media type, quality, intensity |
| Scan pass | 5 to 15 seconds per page | Captures original at selected resolution |
| Data processing | 1 to 5 seconds | Applies quality and intensity to image data |
| Print passes | 30 seconds to several minutes | Lays ink according to media type and quality |
| Dry and eject | 2 to 10 seconds | Advances page, completes job |
The timeline shows where the tab's settings bite. Media type and quality dominate the print-pass stage, which is why those two rows change job duration most. Page size and intensity barely affect timing but strongly affect output accuracy.
Limitations and what the tab cannot do
The Quick Settings tab is a copy-function control surface, and its reach ends there. It cannot change the printer's network configuration, manage ink cartridge levels, or alter fax settings. It cannot create custom paper sizes; those require the driver or the Setup menu. It cannot override a hardware fault, and it will not appear while the printer reports an error.
On a discontinued model, parts availability and firmware support are finite. Canon's support documentation covers the MX920 series, but no new firmware is expected. Owners relying on the tab should treat it as a stable, documented behavior rather than a feature that will gain capabilities. The panel's color LCD is the most common failure point on aging units, and a dim or flickering display makes tab navigation difficult even when the firmware is working correctly.
The deepest limitation is conceptual. The tab does not exist as a physical thing you can point to. It is a rendered menu state, and the buttons that operate it are shared with other functions. Once that model is understood, the search for a Quick Settings button ends, and the path through the Copy key becomes obvious. The printer rewards that mental shift with faster walk-up copying and fewer spoiled photo prints.
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