running mint 17.1 on Acer 9300 laptop and have on our network a canon MG5450. The printer has been recognised and installed; however, when asked to print it says "processing-please wait momentarily". That's as far as it gets, no printing, no print queue, nothing. Any ideas anyone?

You don't say what printer driver you're using. You can give this one a try if it's not what you have already.
jdk

Hi jdkaye,
downloaded the canon drivers for printing and scanning. But what to do next? tried using some commands (that some one gave me) on a terminal, but that is not working;

peter@peter-Aspire-9300 ~ $ cd Downloads
peter@peter-Aspire-9300 ~/Downloads $ tar --zxvf cnijfilter-mg5400series-3.80-1-deb.tar.gz
tar: unrecognised option '--zxvf'
Try 'tar --help' or 'tar --usage' for more information.
peter@peter-Aspire-9300 ~/Downloads $

suggestions appreciated.

Cheers

Peter

Only one hyphen before the options (in fact you can leave out the hyphen altogether):
Once you've untarred that file you'll probably need to run the following to install the package:
jdk

I hadn't noticed my typo, tried again and something appears to have happened, but still no printing! See below;

peter@peter-Aspire-9300 ~ $ cd Downloads
peter@peter-Aspire-9300 ~/Downloads $ tar -zxvf cnijfilter-mg5400series-3.80-1-deb.tar.gz
cnijfilter-mg5400series-3.80-1-deb/
cnijfilter-mg5400series-3.80-1-deb/packages/
cnijfilter-mg5400series-3.80-1-deb/packages/cnijfilter-mg5400series_3.80-1_amd64.deb
cnijfilter-mg5400series-3.80-1-deb/packages/cnijfilter-mg5400series_3.80-1_i386.deb
cnijfilter-mg5400series-3.80-1-deb/packages/cnijfilter-common_3.80-1_i386.deb
cnijfilter-mg5400series-3.80-1-deb/packages/cnijfilter-common_3.80-1_amd64.deb
cnijfilter-mg5400series-3.80-1-deb/resources/
cnijfilter-mg5400series-3.80-1-deb/resources/printer_zh_utf8.lc
cnijfilter-mg5400series-3.80-1-deb/resources/printer_ja_utf8.lc
cnijfilter-mg5400series-3.80-1-deb/resources/printer_fr_utf8.lc
cnijfilter-mg5400series-3.80-1-deb/install.sh
peter@peter-Aspire-9300 ~/Downloads $ cd cnijfilter-mg5400series-3.80-1-deb
peter@peter-Aspire-9300 ~/Downloads/cnijfilter-mg5400series-3.80-1-deb $ ./install.sh
[sudo] password for peter:
==================================================

Canon Inkjet Printer Driver
Version 3.80
Copyright CANON INC. 2001-2012
All Rights Reserved.

==================================================
Command executed = sudo dpkg -iG ./packages/cnijfilter-common_3.80-1_i386.deb
Selecting previously unselected package cnijfilter-common.
(Reading database ... 160669 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../cnijfilter-common_3.80-1_i386.deb ...
Unpacking cnijfilter-common (3.80-1) ...
Setting up cnijfilter-common (3.80-1) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.19-0ubuntu6.4) ...
Command executed = sudo dpkg -iG ./packages/cnijfilter-mg5400series_3.80-1_i386.deb
Selecting previously unselected package cnijfilter-mg5400series.
(Reading database ... 160687 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../cnijfilter-mg5400series_3.80-1_i386.deb ...
Unpacking cnijfilter-mg5400series (3.80-1) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of cnijfilter-mg5400series:
cnijfilter-mg5400series depends on libtiff4; however:
Package libtiff4 is not installed.

dpkg: error processing package cnijfilter-mg5400series (--install):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
cnijfilter-mg5400series
Command executed = sudo dpkg -P cnijfilter-mg5400series
(Reading database ... 160877 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing cnijfilter-mg5400series (3.80-1) ...
Purging configuration files for cnijfilter-mg5400series (3.80-1) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.19-0ubuntu6.4) ...
Command executed = sudo dpkg -P cnijfilter-common
(Reading database ... 160686 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing cnijfilter-common (3.80-1) ...
Purging configuration files for cnijfilter-common (3.80-1) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.19-0ubuntu6.4) ...
peter@peter-Aspire-9300 ~/Downloads/cnijfilter-mg5400series-3.80-1-deb $

the question is, has it installed? If it has, why no print?

Pay attention to the error(s) reported. You need libtiff4
The following may be of help

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=172255

Yes, I actually read what was on the terminal and got and installed libtiff4. It now works! Thanks guys

As a service to others please mark this thread as [SOLVED]. You can use the Thread Tools menu located above your first post in this thread (see the attachment).
jdk

Attached Thumbnails

 

Not quite solved.Yes, I can print from my laptop. I have put in the scanning software "scangearmp", and I know it is in because the software manager tells me so, but have not yet found a scanning capability. Presumably, there should be some sort of Canon scanning control panel? Simple scan is also installed and that does not recognise the printer as a scanner.

For Canon scanners using the proprietary drivers, you need to use the ScanGear MP utility. Launch it via a terminal
with
or with Gimp via File>Create>ScanGear MP

It is also possible to create a menu launcher as described here:
http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/1580

I thought I had launched scangearmp via a terminal, but never mind the Gimp option is fine. Can now be marked solved! Thanks for all help.