The i9900 photo printer is the first in its class to offer eight individual ink tanks. Canon's exclusive ChromaPLUS 8-color ink system adds individual red and green ink tanks to the cyan, magenta, yellow, black, photo cyan and photo magenta inks that are commonly found on six-color printers. The red ink tank allows for an approximately 60% increase in the orange/red gamut over six-color printing and provides for previously unobtainable orange hues and well as richer reds. The green ink adds about 30% increase in green gamut as compared to six-color printing and creates more accurate and deeper greens in grass and foliage. Canon says the resulting finished print more closely matches the color characteristics of positive photographic film.



Canon's dye inks produce higher levels of glossiness, more vivid colors, reduced graininess and better contrast photo quality when compared with traditional flat and lack luster pigment-based inks used in conventional printers.



In addition to the two new colors, Canon has further increased the printer's photo quality by doubling the maximum color resolution to 4800 x 2400 dpi(a) from the earlier generation i9100 photo printer. The i9900 photo printer features the world's longest and highest nozzle-density print head in a consumer product and has 6,144 nozzles, capable of ejecting a 122 million droplets per second. The print head uses Canon's exclusive advanced MicroFine Droplet Technology, which ejects consistent prescribed-volume ink droplets for smooth gradations, accurate skin tones and rich, vibrant colors. To match the look of minilab prints, the i9900 photo printer supports edge-to-edge borderless printing in 4x6, 5x7, 8.5x11 and 13x19 inch sizes.



Canon's printer also boasts better photo printing speeds than the competition. According to the Canon, users can print a 4 x 6-inch borderless photo in about 38 seconds, a 5 x 7-inch borderless photo in approximately 47 seconds, an 8.5 x 11-inch borderless photo in about 84 seconds and a full 13 x 19-inch borderless photograph in under three minutes. For printing text, websites and other documents, the i9900 model features print speeds of up to 16 pages per minute (ppm) in black and up to 12 ppm in color printing.



24-inch wide-format pigment inkjet printer



Canon is also showcasing the industry's fastest 24-inch pigment ink printer: imagePROGRAF W6200 uses Canon's singular bi-directional head, offers MicroFine Droplet Technology and pigment ink solution to produce photo-quality archival prints and proofs up to 24 inches wide. The printer can deliver A1-sized prints in less than five minutes in standard (600 x 1200 dpi) mode and featurs PS-level 3 compatible raster image processor (RIP) software. It features draft (300 x 1200 dpi), standard (600 x 1200 dpi), and high (1200 x 1200 dpi) modes via a user-replaceable print head. It supports Mac OS 8/9/X and most popular network protocols (including TCP/IP, AppleTalk and IPX/SPX) and ships with a 10/100 BASE-T/TX Ethernet network interface and a USB 2.0 high-speed interface. An optional Firewire/IEEE1394 board is available. It will ship in mid-February for $3,500.