Canon Press Release - 08/09/03

Canon Bubble Jet i865 - the business photo printer everyone will want to take home

Canon, leader in photographic and imaging technology, is pleased to announce the launch of the PictBridge compliant Bubble Jet i865 printer.  Building on the popularity amongst business users of its predecessor, the Bubble Jet i850, the Bubble Jet i865 has an additional black ink for higher contrast and astonishing quality photo printing. This will appeal to exacting users looking for unrivalled professional quality printing of borderless photographs. Like all Bubble Jet printers in Canon’s latest range, the i865 is PictBridge compliant, enabling printing via direct connection to any PictBridge compatible camera or camcorder via a USB cable, without the need for a PC. With print speeds of 23ppm mono and 16ppm colour, the i865 is easily the fastest ink jet printer on the market, making it a clear choice for business users.  These record print speeds are achieved through Canon’s advanced MicroFine Droplet Technology print head, which has nozzle density up to seven times that of rival brands.  The result is a print head capable of delivering up to 28 million droplets per second more ink on the page in less time for super fast prints.  With a 2 picolitre (pl) droplet size ejected from Micro-Nozzles, the record speed is matched only by the quality.

“The introduction of additional black ink for photo printing to the world’s fastest Bubble Jet printer will be welcomed by increasingly savvy and demanding users of photo printing,” says Malcolm Hills, Head of Canon Consumer Imaging in the UK and Ireland.  “At the same time, retaining the standard black ink is critical for our business customers who demand crisp, clean, fast document printing”.

Quality and technology
Integrated circuited manufacturing techniques have been employed to produce a print head capable of delivering a print quality that in many cases exceeds the results of more costly six ink systems of competitors.  Micro-Nozzles in the i865 print head have an ejection aperture measuring just 10 microns in diameter, 40% smaller than the nearest competitor.  This narrow opening, in tandem with Canon’s short nozzle ejection system, creates consistent ink droplet sizes of 2 picolitres that are fired at the paper with force and precision so every ink drop is exactly the same size and travels in exactly the right direction.  This degree of control gives Canon the leading edge in fine detail in both colour documents and photo reproduction.

Packed with new photo printing features
Fast borderless photo printing is now possible on a range of media up to A4.  A new covered paper tray has been added to the auto sheet feed to hold and protect 4"x 6” photo paper, allowing users to switch printing modes without swapping paper.  Printing directly onto compatible CD-R/DVDs is now possible with the inclusion of a detachable CD-R printing unit.  The i865 also supports the new industry standard PictBridge protocol.  Any compliant camera or camcorder can now print directly to the printer via a USB cable connection, regardless of brand and with no need for a PC.

The i865 also supports a full range of specialist media offered by Canon including the newly introduced Photo Paper Plus, Semi Gloss (SG-101) & Glossy Photo Paper (GP-401).

Speed and function
The photo print speed of the i865 is up to three times faster than any other product in its class.  A borderless 4"x 6” photo print on Canon’s Photo Paper Pro (PR-101) takes only 50 seconds, while a full A4 photo can be printed in just 100 seconds.  This is also the fastest printer for monochrome & colour in its class, printing up to 23ppm mono and 16ppm colour. Advanced Precision Color Distribution technology allows high speed bi-directional printing, giving print speeds up to 2.3ppm for A4 full colour page. Single Ink technology reduces waste by ensuring individual colours are only replaced when they have completely run out.

Quality software for quality prints
A special solutions disk contains a suite of practical software for improved photo printing results:
?  CD-LabelPrint - guides users through printing to CD-R/DVD disks
?  PhotoRecord - Autoscales images to different paper sizes, making it easy to print a photo album from images of any size onto 4"x 6”, 5"x 7” & A4 media.
?  ZoomBrowser - Image management system that displays thumbnails to make it easy to edit and manage images stored on the computer, with features such as cropping, slide presentation and resizing for emailing.

Also included is Easy-PhotoPrint software, which uses information collected at the time of image capture on Exif 2.2 compliant cameras to create better quality, more natural looking photos. Additionally Easy-PhotoPrint Plus is now available to work in conjunction with Easy-PhotoPrint. It incorporates new face recognition technology to automatically detect a face or faces within an image, and apply advanced image optimizations to improve the final photo print. The software can be downloaded from the Canon Europe website.  Easy-WebPrint simplifies printing of Internet pages by scaling down output so the entire page is printed even when it extends over multiple screens. And finally to keep the desktop tidy, all software applications have been brought together under the one easy to navigate Easy-ToolBox tool bar.

Optional office features
The i865 can be shared across a network via Pricom network adapters.  An Auto Duplex Printing Unit (DPU-10) is available to allow printing on both sides of the paper without manual intervention.  An optional Paper-Feed Cassette (PFC-10) attaches to the bottom of the printer, increasing plain paper capacity by 250 sheets to 400 sheets.

The Bubble Jet i865 will be available from 1st October 2003 for around ?169 inc VAT.