Canon is leading off the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) show in Las Vegas this week with a slew of announcements, including three new printers: a photo printer, a mobile printer with Bluetooth support, and a banner printer.
Photos With i9900
The i9900 photo printer features Canon's ChromaPlus eight-color ink system, which adds new red and green ink cartridges to the traditional cyan, magenta, yellow, black, photo cyan, and photo magenta cartridges. It can print photos up to 13 by 19 inches, with a maximum resolution of 4800 by 2400 dots per inch, and it offers both USB 2.0 and FireWire interfaces. You can expect to see the i9900 in May priced at $499.99.
Canon notes the i9900's speed, saying it can produce a 4-by-6-inch print in approximately 38 seconds, ranging up to 180 seconds for a 13-by-19-inch borderless photo. When printing other documents, the printer offers speeds up to 16 pages per minute in black and 12 ppm in color.
The i9900 can also print photos directly from PictBridge-compatible digital cameras and camcorders. The bundled software package includes Easy PhotoPrint 2.1, which features a wide variety of printing options; Easy PhotoPrint Plus for reducing red-eye and other common issues; Easy WebPrint for automatic formatting and printing of Web pages; ImageBrowser for photo organizing and management; and PhotoStitch, which creates composite panoramas out of separate photos.
The Portable i80
If you're looking for a printer now and need something that you can take with you, the new i80 mobile printer is scheduled to ship in mid-February for $249.99. It can handle edge-to-edge borderless printing in 4-by-6-inch, 5-by-7-inch, and 8.5-by-11-inch sizes, with resolutions up to 4800 by 1200 dpi.
The i80's new printhead features 1088 nozzles and can attain speeds up to 14 ppm in black and 10 ppm in color, according to the vendor. A $79.99 user-installable BU-10 Bluetooth module allows wireless printing, although initial reports from Canon suggest that this device is Windows XP-compatible only, despite Apple's recent release of an updated Bluetooth driver that supports printing on HCRP-compliant devices.
A separate $89.99 PU-100U Automobile Power Unit plugs into your car's cigarette lighter so that you can literally print while on the road. Other optional extras include a lithium ion battery, plus a holder for charging while connected to the printer, for $99.99; extra lithium ion batteries for $89.99; and a cradle kit that features a lithium ion battery, the holder, and a charging cradle for $139.99.
The included software bundle features Easy PhotoPrint, Easy WebPrint, ImageBrowser, and PhotoStitch.
Banners From ImagePrograf
Canon's final new printer announcement at PMA was the ImagePrograf W6200, a pro-level printer that prints images up to 24 inches wide and 60 feet long. This high-end printer is scheduled to ship in February for $3495.
Canon says the printer can produce an A1-size print (24 by 36 inches) in less than 5 minutes at 600 by 1200 dpi, in 1.5 minutes at 300 by 1200 dpi (draft mode), and in 7 minutes at 1200 by 1200 dpi. Its printhead features 1280 nozzles per color, or 7680 total, with six ink cartridges.
The ImagePrograf W6200 also offers a new paper path design that feeds roll media from the back and cut sheets from the front, with a pull-out media exit guide that supports rigid papers. It can accept heavy coated paper, photo semigloss paper, photo glossy paper, and even flame-resistant cloth. It ships with a USB 2.0 interface, but an optional FireWire board is available.
The Canon Graphic Raster Image Processor (RIP) bundle included with the ImagePrograf features hot folder printing workflow, print server capability, ICC-based color management, color curve editing, and press simulation.
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