Hi,
Do you know the printer you want and just need to see the printers and the prices?... then click here
but ... if you would like a little information to help you decide which printer would best suit your needs then please read on.
Set out below is our guide to Canon large format printers.
First up, you need to decide if you need a Technical printer or whether you need a Graphics printer.
Canon Technical Printers These are designed for customers who do a lot of computer aided drafting (CAD) or customers who prepare a lot of commercial designs. They are great for printing full colour plans, maps, designs, layouts, proofs and signs.
They are perfect for architects, draftsmen, designers etc.
The thing to be aware of is that the ink that is used is a dye based ink and so you should not use these printers to print things that people expect to last for a long time e.g. reproductions of fine art work. Also, these printers use a more limited range of ink colours so the gamut (range of colours) will be a less than graphics printers.
Canon Graphics Printers These are ideal for photographers or art reproduction studios who are looking to produce the finest quality images. The Canon range uses pigment inks called Lucia which are extremely light fast.
Having said that, these Graphics printers can also be used for everything that the Technical printers do. So why wouldn't you just buy a Graphics printer? Well the answer is money, everything comes at a cost. These printers cost more to buy and the Lucia inks will also cost more.
But, if you need a technical printer and have an interest in photography you might decide to buy the graphics printer to cover both situations.
Size Lets begin by saying that a large format printer (LFP) is any printer that lets you print a document that is at least 17 inches (431mm) wide.
Most LFP's are 17", 24", 36", 44" or 60".
In metric that would be 431mm, 610mm, 914mm, 1118mm or 1524mm.
The chart below includes the relevant A size for each printer.
What you need will depend on what you are intending to use the printer for. If you are going to do a lot of signs then a 44" or 60 " will be almost essential. If you intend to print on canvas, again, the larger 44" or 60" will be necessary because a lot of the canvas is wrapped around the back of the frame so the printed image needs to be quite large. If you are an architect or draftsman printing AO sized plans then you will need at least 36". If you are looking to print photographs or reproduce artwork on paper then maybe a 24" or 17" will be big enough. A 24" wide photo plus mat board and frame is a fairly large piece.
Remember, the large printers can print smaller sizes as well. It's not fixed. So a 44" can print a 17" document or plan.
Type and Size - Putting them together
You're wondering what is the difference between the 8 ink and 12 ink? The 8 ink actually has 12 cartridges but some of the colours are doubled. The 8 ink printers are a bit less expensive but because there are less colours, the quality of the final product would be very slightly less however this would generally be hardly noticeable unless you are doing extremely high quality output.
So now you know the size and type which is appropriate for you. If you are comparing with other brands, remember to check if they are using dye or pigment inks so you can compare apples with apples.
Why choose Canon over some other brand?
The Canon brand Canon is one of the leading technology companies in the world. They pour an enormous amount of money into research and development in a wide variety of different technologies. In many respects the Canon printers have a technological edge over the competition.
Nozzles
The 6 ink cartridge printers have one 1" print head with a total of 15,360 nozzles. The 12 ink cartridge printers have two print heads so the total number of nozzles is an incredible 30,720 !!! Competitor models have much fewer nozzles.
More nozzles allow faster printing.
The design of the Canon nozzle has less layers so it is less likely to clog.
Each nozzle delivers a precise 4 picolitre droplet. The competitor models deliver a variable droplet sometimes as high as 18 picolitre.
Small droplets mean better accuracy.
The Canon print head covers 1.06 inches. The competitor models are smaller so require more passes to cover the same area.
So with Canon you have more nozzles on a large print head delivering small droplets which all leads to greater accuracy and speed.
This high quality printing system outputs extremely high quality images up to 2400 x 1200 dpi.
Plus, the Canon printers have an inbuilt non-firing nozzle detection system. In-built sensors detect if a droplet fails to eject from the print head. The printer will run a cleaning cycle to attempt to fix the problem and if this fails, the printer uses other nozzles to compensate.
Print Controller The controller is a L-COA controller. This is a single chip which processes concurrently (it doesn't have to transfer information from one chip to another) so there are no pauses in printing and a RIP is virtually unnecessary (you can print up to 15m without a RIP)
Roll Media Detection and Management
The printer prints a bar code on the end of the media roll with media type and remaining length so operators are never caught off-guard when they get to the end of the roll.
Borderless Printing
Borderless printing is available at certain fixed widths (reduces trimming time)
Features Specific to the Technical Printers
The technical printers use four dye inks, namely cyan, magenta, yellow and black, plus two cartridges of a pigment based matt black. The reactive ink system is highly water resistant and gives extremely sharp results.
The blacks are always on-line so you don't have to switch like you have to with some competitor models.
Having the two Matt black channels makes for faster printing.
Canon testing shows that they are very economical to run compared with the competition, both in terms of ink use and power use.
The Canon printers will print your old HP files ( HPGL-2 and HP RTL Support).
They are a fast, high quality, low noise and well priced option.
Features Specific to the Graphics Printers
Lucia Ink
The 12 ink models use red, green, blue, cyan, photo cyan, magenta, photo magenta, yellow, black, grey, photo grey, matt black. This leads to an extremely wide colour gamut. Having more inks means less blending is necessary and as a result less ink is used.
The 8 ink models use
Matte Black, Photo Black, Cyan, Photo Cyan, Magenta, Photo Magenta, Yellow and Grey. There are two cartridges of Cyan, Photo Cyan, Photo Magenta and Grey so the total number of cartridges is 12.
Black and matt black are installed at all times so there is no need for the operator to switch between them.
With the combination of black, grey, photo grey and matt black the 12 ink printers can produce exceptional black and white photo-quality output.
These printers have a sub ink tank system so 20% of the cartridge ink is held in the machine. This enables on the fly ink replacement and also means that the ink won't run out half way through a job. In some other printers, if the ink runs out half way through, the job is ejected and wasted as a result.
The ink's polymer coating reduces bronzing (the unwanted sheen that occurs when viewing output from different angles).
The ink is formulated to provide a stronger bond to the media so the ink is less likely to peel which helps reduce scratches.
The high quality pigments offer excellent resistance to fading due to light, gas or humidity.
Calibration
The Canon graphics printers include a built-in calibration feature. It uses a multi-sensor that scans a test pattern, makes calculations for colour density, light and media and then applies any necessary adjustments to return the printer to the original factory settings.
Bundled Software
The Canon graphics printers come with a lot of very useful software. - Poster Artist 2007 Easy to use templates to help you quickly create amazing posters.
- Canon Printer Driver 2007 Simplifies output. Includes Free Layout feature. Basically you put your jobs in a queue and it arranges them like a jigsaw puzzle so they fit efficiently on the page size that you want to use. Minimizes wasted blank spaces.
- Print Plug-in for Adobe Photoshop Allows 16-bit image processing to dramatically improve graduations and image quality.
- Print Plug-in for Digital Photo Professional Facilitates better printing from EOS digital cameras.
- Digital Photo Front Access Displays file images and provides an easy link to other software applications.
- Kyuanos A sophisticated colour matching engine developed by Canon. It compensates for the different ways different devices interpret colour. It also enables an adjustment so that images will have the correct look under a different light condition.
Useful Links
Links relating to Canon printers
Links relating to various wide format printing subjects
- Norman Koren web site - Great info on colour management for wide format printing. I'm working my way through the enormous amount of information on his site.
- Picture Window Pro - Norman Koren highly recommends this affordable (USD89.95) alternative to Photoshop
- Brisbane Camera Group - A vibrant community of photo buffs.
Need to know more??
Call me on Ph 0413 628 747
Cheers
Trevor |
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