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First, as I discovered, you will need to install the driver RPMs (RPM Package Managers). To download and install the RPMs for my Canon printer, I went to [download.canon.jp]. The following files are the Canon Japan driver for the Canon iP4000 printer:

bjfilter-common-2.50-2.i386.rpm
bjfilter-pixusip4100-lprng-2.50-2.i386.rpm
bjfilter-pixusip4100-2.50-2.i386.rpm

If you have a Canon iP4000, download these. For a Canon iP3000, download the pixusip3100 RPMs for the last two; the first one is common to all supported PIXMA printers. Then login as root. To install the rpms:

rpm --install bjfilter-common-2.50-2.i386.rpm
rpm --install bjfilter-pixusip4100-lprng-2.50-2.i386.rpm
rpm --install bjfilter-pixusip4100-2.50-2.i386.rpm

You needn't bother with the documentation files unless you read Japanese!

Patching a PPD

To get full functionality, I discovered, you must patch the PPD (Postscript Printer Definition) file to add support for quality levels and different levels of resolution. Even without adding this patch, you can still install the driver via CUPS, and you'll get extended paper-type choices and better quality photo images than what you'll get from the BJC-7004 built into your Linux distro.

There are different kinds of patches for Linux. Some patches install themselves automatically, either as rpm or deb files, or do so by automated installation via yum or apt-get. But for this patch, you'll be entering by hand, copying-and-pasting text into a configuration file. (If you don't want to edit a file by hand, skip ahead to the Installing the driver in CUPS section below, and go on from there.) My advice: Enter the patch a line at a time, being careful to extend the highlighted part to cover only the text you're patching in. I've found that invisible characters can get added to the article-editing process or in blog postings of patches. In general, the program reading the configuration files won't like them. Then enter this:

cd /usr/share/cups/model/
cp canonpixusip3100.ppd canonpixusip3100.ppd1