Canon Press Release - 08/09/03

Canon launches the Bubble Jet i905D: Dedicated six-colour direct photo printer for ultimate quality and connectability

Canon, leader in photographic and imaging technology, is pleased to announce the launch of the 4800 x 1200 dpi1 Bubble Jet i905D, a six-colour photo printer with unsurpassed print quality and connectability.  With card slots for the most popular brands of memory cards, the i905D is also compliant with the new industry standard PictBridge protocol, allowing it to print directly from any PictBridge compatible digital camera without the need for a PC.

A new built-in colour LCD screen can display image thumbnails and provides an intuitive interface for effortless cropping, paper size selection, photo effects and image orientation. Canon’s advanced MicroFine Droplet Technology print head with 2picolitre (pl) Micro-Nozzles delivers unsurpassed levels of fine detail and smooth gradation. This patented technology enables grain-free printing - particularly for skin tones and sky colours which show up limitations in lesser brands.  The unbeatable photo quality and additional features of the i905D render it a precious tool for any digital camera user who wants the convenience of photo printing without a PC.

“The Bubble Jet i905D is easily the highest quality photo printer in its class,” says Malcolm Hills, Head of Canon Consumer Imaging in the UK and Ireland.  “It has also been designed to work with a vast array of cameras both now and in years to come”.

Ultimate connectability
The i905D has slots for CompactFlash?, Microdrive, Sony Memory Stick?, SmartMedia, Secure Digital, Multimedia card, Memory Stick DUO*, miniSD Card* and xD-Picture card Cards require optional adaptors.  Images stored on any of these memory card types can be selected, displayed and manipulated on the built-in colour LCD viewer and printed without the need to first download to a PC.  The printer also supports the new industry standard PictBridge protocol.  Any compliant digital 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.  Canon’s range of Bubble Jet Direct compatible digital cameras and digital camcorders continue to be supported.

Ultimate quality
The finest print quality results from a combination of factors: the use of a six-colour ink system, including the 1/6 density photo inks, and tiny 2pl droplet size.  High Colour inks guarantee vivid colours and high contrast for stunning photo quality.  Integrated circuit manufacturing techniques have been used to produce the advanced MicroFine Droplet Technology print head, using Micro-Nozzles with an ejection aperture measuring just 10 microns in diameter, 40% narrower than the nearest competitor. These nozzles deliver consistent ink droplet sizes of just 2pl that are fired on to the paper with unrivalled power and precision.  Every ink droplet is exactly the right size and is placed in exactly the right position on the paper.  This degree of control gives Canon the leading edge in resolution of fine detail, enhancing image depth and
eliminating the sandy texture found with inferior brands.

Packed with new photo printing features
The new model’s high density print head lays more ink down at the edge of the page, making for ultra fast borderless printing on A4, 5"x 7” and 4"x 6” media.  A 4"x 6” photo print takes just 49 seconds, considerably faster than Canon’s nearest competitor.  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 i905D 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).

Single Ink technology
Each of the Bubble Jet i905D’s six ink colours is stored in an individually replaceable tank.  To eliminate waste, only the exhausted ink tank needs to be replaced.  Users are warned with a pop up window on their computer and on the printer’s LCD when a particular colour is running low, and the printer will not start to print a page if there is insufficient ink to complete the print job.

Quality software for quality prints
To keep the desktop tidy, all print applications have been brought together under the one easy to navigate Canon Easy-ToolBox tool bar.  To help users get the most from their printer, a suite of practical software is included:
- CD-LabelPrint - guides users through printing onto CD-R/DVD disks
- PhotoRecord - Auto scales images to different paper sizes, making it easy to print a photo album from images of any size onto A4, 5"x 7” or 4"x 6” 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.
- Easy-PhotoPrint - makes it easy to scale and apply photo effects to individual images. It also uses information collected at the time of image capture on Exif 2.2 compliant cameras to create higher quality, more natural looking photos.
- Easy-PhotoPrint Plus - a new software tool that works 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 optimisations to improve the final photo print. The software can be downloaded from the Canon Europe website, www.canon-europe.com.

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The Bubble Jet i905D will be available from October 2003 for around ?249 inc VAT.