Canon's UFR, UFR-LT & UFR-II are proprietary to Canon and are not likely to be dropped. UFR is seemingly faster due to the way processing is handled by the driver. It processes the print job at the PC rather than at the printer. So just how much faster depends on the PC. It IS NOT compatible to the PCL or PS common drivers or any application that requires PCL (such as DOS-shell apps, IBM backbone servers, etc.). It seems there has been enough demand for Canon to provide PCL on their devices as standard as newer model are now including PCL as standard (along with PS and UFR). UFR was SPECIFICALLY designed for Microsoft Office applications to improve printing time for those apps. UFR does not do as well in CAD printing as it doesn't handle fine lines and detail as well as PCL or PS. Whenever installing a print driver for a Canon product that has print as a standard, were UFR (some legacy models required a print kit to be installed - it was an option and as such, it can't be assumed it has UFR), and you would be safe using the appropriate UFR driver. I encourage the use of the full installer package which includes a set-up program. I do not recommend utilizing the Windows printer installer Wizard since it will not automatically set-up the driver with any options that have been installed. You have to do that manually. However, utilizing Canon's installer WILL set-up the driver appropriately (including selecting the correct model and configuration). The Canon installer package will even search for the printer on a network, making it even easier since you won't have to manually configure a network printer port in Windows. There is no installer package for Mac, however. Mac users have to do all the work of installing the driver, then the printer and network port and configuration (which has to be done via the CUPS).
1I've been looking for a good driver for a big Canon ImageWriter 3225. Canon's Generic PCL 6 would not let me use the 11x17 paper in the bottom tray. Based on this superuser question, I tried the UFR II driver from the same download page. It is way better. It knows the exact printer model and its paper sources. It has more features too. You can to two-step printing: you can print to a preview area instead of the printer and see how it will come out, then send it off to print. You can also do some editing, like combining pages. – Kaz – 2014-07-10T17:14:41.483
You're right that it's a Canon printer. :-) It says UFR II, and has an official driver, so I guess I'll give it a try. Thinks for confirming it was what I suspected. – Richard J Foster – 2012-01-25T18:52:29.483