Canon Bubble Jet, imagePROGRAF series

Canon and Xerox , both mighty companies with impressive technical capabilities, took a long time to enter the wide format inkjet printer market. At DRUPA printer tradeshow Xerox did no t have a truly viable large format printer available. The XES ColorGrafx X2 was a nice printer but was meant for a niche market. At FLAAR we discuss the Xerox oil-based inkjet printer and the oil-based inks in general in the updated FLAAR Premium Report Series on Signs.

Recently, Canon bubble jet printers have been displayed at most major tradeshow s . As a result more people are beginning to ask about Canon. This caused us to request two Canon imagePROGRAF printer s for long-range evaluation. They have arrived and after several months of testing we now have reports on the m. These new models are greatly improved in every way from the earlier models of 2000-2002.

Canon at least has a range of active modes. It's hard to find much about large format on the Xerox website because it used to be XES (Xerox Engineering Systems) and not simply Xerox . At the Canon website you have to burrow down four layers before you discover their large format inkjet printers. Yet their printers are worthy of being higher up in their corporate display. Epson has done the opposite of Canon and placed their large format inkjet printers much higher in their display.

One good move that Canon-Europe made was to include PosterJet as an option to EFI Fiery RIP. The Fiery is overpriced and underpowered. PosterJet is reasonably priced, much faster than the EFI Fiery hardware RIP, and many people consider it easier to use.

Since 2002, Canon has had a whole new series of printers: the imagePROGRAF W2200 for desktop tabloid size (up to 13 x 19 ”), the imagePROGRAF 7250 for 24" , and the imagePROGRAF W7200 for 36". Since 2004 Canon has had pigmented ink in their 24" imagePROGRAF 6200 and 44" Canon imagePROGRAF W8200.

Canon is introducing two new printers in summer 2005: Canon imagePROGRAF W8400 and Canon imagePROGRAF W6400.

The FLAAR Reports on the Canon imagePROGRAF W8200 and Canon W7250 are now available from the FLAAR Premium Report Series on Wide Format Printers for CAD-GIS and from Print-for-Pay.