Canon has released its first pigment ink t A3+ inkjet printer, the Pixma Pro 9500, plus a similarly-featured model, the Pixma Pro 9000, which uses dye inks.
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February 21, 2006: Canon has released its first pigment ink t A3+ inkjet printer, the Pixma Pro 9500, plus a similarly-featured model, the Pixma Pro 9000, which uses dye inks. Both models are designed for professional photographers and serious digital imaging enthusiasts and both come with Easy-PhotoPrint Pro, which integrates seamlessly with Canon’s Digital Photo Professional or Adobe’s Photoshop CS2 to allow direct printing of raw image files. Easy-PhotoPrint Pro also contains a special ‘Grayscale Photo’ tool that allows users to create monochrome prints with fine tonal gradations. Both models also support ICC profiles and both can save user-definable colour balance, brightness and contrast settings, allowing users to create dedicated settings for specific output media. The Pixma Pro 9500, which is expected to sell for around $1500, has a 10-cartridge pigment ink set with Photo Black, Matte Black and Grey inks plus light and dark Cyan and Magenta, Yellow, Red and Blue. This is the first time Canon has used pigment inks exclusively in a professional quality printer and marks a significant advance in print durability. This model, which is particularly suitable for monochrome printing, is expected to sell for around $1500 The Pixma Pro 9000, which replaces the i9950, has an 8-cartridge ink set with dye inks. This model, which produces similar vibrant colours and subtle tonal gradations to its predecessor, is expected to retail for around $1200. Both models support direct printing of raw image files and both include one-click settings for printing multiple images on a single sheet of paper. Users can specify a variety of layouts, including borderless prints and contact sheets.
Both models provide full support for ICC profiles and both recognise the image’s colour gamut (Adobe RGB or sRGB) automatically. User-definable colour balance and contrast settings can be registered in both printers and saved for future use. Both models integrate seamlessly with Canon’s Digital Photo Professional and Adobe Photoshop CS/CS2 via Canon’s Easy-PhotoPrint Pro application. Users of Canon cameras can access additional Camera Direct printing facilities, including “print with shooting information”, “Face Brightener” and “Red-eye Correction”. They can also print 35-up contact sheets and make manual adjustments to images that faithfully reflect the Picture Style parameters of the camera. Levels, contrast, saturation and colour balance are fully adjustable and a wider range of paper sizes (8×10″, 10×12″ and 14×17″) is supported.
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