CANON STRENGTHENS ITS LINE OF LARGE FORMAT PRINTERS FOR PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY AND GRAPHIC ARTS

New imagePROGRAF iPF6200, 12-Color, 24-Inch Large Format Printer Offers A New Level Of Versatility and Value for Printing Professionals

PhotoPlus 2008, New York, October 23, 2008 – Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leading provider of office imaging systems, inkjet technology and digital photography equipment, today unveiled the new imagePROGRAF iPF6200, a 24-inch wide large format printer using 12 colors of LUCIA pigment ink, designed for photographic and graphic arts professionals.

The iPF6200 is the latest addition to Canon's successful line of imagePROGRAF printers. The iPF6200 utilizes Canon's groundbreaking LUCIA color pigment ink, offering an extremely large color gamut and optimized for printing digital photographic imagery. Based on the award-winning iPF6100 platform, the iPF6200 includes a professional-grade software RIP, and an internal hard drive to create a streamlined workflow that is required by photographic professionals, making the iPF6200 an unbeatable value in its class.

The included RIP software is EFI's Colorproof eXpress, specifically designed for graphic arts professionals. Running on both Macintosh and Windows (including Vista) platforms, this RIP software controls ink in all 11-channels, yielding prints that utilize the widest color gamut possible out of the printer. The core of the RIP software is a genuine Adobe® PostScript® engine, and it accepts a wide range of file formats such as PS, PDF, TIFF, JPEG, and PSD directly. Colorproof eXpress provides an array of functionality that enhances the performance of the printer including hot folder workflow, remote job processing and one-click spot color handling, just to name a few. The installation process for the RIP is extremely simple thanks to the easy-to-use wizard, allowing the printer to be up and running within minutes. The program's intuitive interface allows the end user to be printing jobs correctly and accurately within a matter of minutes, while still ensuring the highest quality output that satisfy the most demanding and critical customers.

"Building upon the foundation set by our award-winning iPF6100, the new imagePROGRAF iPF6200 will offer photographic and graphic arts printing professionals an affordable printing solution without compromising quality or speed," said Jim Rosetta, vice president and general manager, Imaging Systems Group, Canon U.S.A. "In today's on-demand world, quick and consistent turn around times on printing jobs is essential, and the iPF6200 provides printing environments with the essential tools to stay ahead of the competition."

Ideally suited for commercial printing environments, the printer's internal 80GB hard drive allows the reprinting of jobs directly from the hard drive, effectively reducing the time needed to reprint from a workstation. The content of the hard drive can be accessed remotely via a built-in Web server using a browser for quick and easy job retrieval.

The iPF6200 utilizes the same world renowned 12-color printing engine as the iPF6100, offering up to 24-inch roll paper and the ability to print on cut sheet paper. A myriad of professional paper types are supported including popular photo luster, premium matte, as well as fine art photo rag. For example, a 23.6 inch x 33.1 inch size photographic image can be printed in just over 6 minutes* at a "High" image quality setting (2400 x 1200 dots-per-inch) on a photo luster paper. The printer is capable of borderless printing on roll paper, producing prints that are frame-ready, significantly reducing the workload on the production staff.

As photographers most commonly utilize Adobe® Photoshop® as a key component of their photographic workflow, the iPF6200 comes standard with the Print Plug-in for Adobe® Photoshop®. This Print Plug-in allows for a more simplified, color-managed printing workflow of digital images directly from Photoshop. Another new Canon innovation included with the iPF6200 is the Print Plug-in for Microsoft® Office, which provides the ability to add a large-format printing menu to the Microsoft® Office toolbar. This wizard-based extension simplifies large-format printing from Microsoft® Word, Excel and PowerPoint to the iPF6200.**

In addition to the host of new software applications that make large-format printing easier, the iPF6200 comes with PosterArtist 2008 Lite, an easy-to-use poster creation program that comes with a large variety of professionally designed poster templates and hundreds of clipart and stock images. With a few simple clicks, existing templates or new posters can be created right out of the box. For more advanced features, there is an option to purchase the full version of PosterArtist 2008, which includes more robust functionality including an automated design feature, image correction, variable data printing and more. To learn more about PosterArtist 2008 please visit : www.usa.canon.com/posterartist.

The imagePROGRAF iPF6200 printer is available immediately through authorized Canon U.S.A. dealers with a manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) of $3,495, including EFI Colorproof eXpress, a stand and a basket. With the introduction of the iPF6200, the new MSRP for the imagePROGRAF iPF6100 is $2,795.

Source: Canon U.S.A.