Canon Announces Two New Bubble Jet Direct Printers, and Updates the Award Winning S9000 Photo Printer

Business Wire, Feb 27, 2003

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 27, 2003

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Canon U.S.A., Inc., a subsidiary of Canon Inc. (NYSE: CAJ) today announces two new Bubble Jet Direct printers, the i450 Color Bubble Jet Printer and i470D Photo Printer, and the flagship in Canon's line of photo printers, the wide format i9100 Photo Printer replacing the S9000. The i450 and i470D will bring Canon photo printing technology and quality down to less than $150.00 to increase the ability of the general use digital camera owner to print photos at home. The i9100 will appeal to the professional level digital photographers wanting the highest quality photo printing with exceptionally fast print speeds.

"With these new printers, Canon is driving greater functionality and value to both ends of the digital photo printer market," said Yukiaki Hashimoto, senior vice president and general manager of Canon U.S.A.'s Consumer Imaging Group. "The i450 and i470D, with their price points and direct connect ability will encourage more digital camera owners to print their photos at home, while the i9100 offers even more sizes and borderless photos to the professional user."

i450 Color Bubble Jet Printer and i470D Photo Printer

New to Canon's line for 2003, are the i450 Color Bubble Jet Printer and the i470D Photo Printer. Both printers will deliver beautiful photos and sharp text using Canon features and technology formerly only found on higher priced Canon printers. Printing times of up to 18 pages per minute (ppm) in black(1) and 12 ppm in color(1) deliver the speed while a resolution of up to 4800 x 1200 dpi(2) with both 5-picoliter and ultra-fine 2-picoliter droplets provide quality output. Photo printing is exceptional using the Canon advanced MicroFine Droplet Technology(TM) and a newly designed print head that incorporates the 2-picoliter droplets along with the 5-picoliter droplets. The advanced MicroFine Droplet Technology ejects consistent prescribed-volume droplets in microscopic sizes for smooth, photo-quality images.

Printing photos at home is easy with Bubble Jet Direct printing and true borderless photo capabilities featured on the i450 and i470D. Bubble Jet Direct printing on both allow consumers to print photos with or without the computer by connecting select Canon digital cameras or camcorders directly to the printer and using the print functions built into the camera(3). Print functions on the camera or camcorder include cropping, date stamping and selecting multiple print sizes. Edge to edge printing in 4" x 6", 5" x 7" and 8.5" x 11" sizes combined with Canon's Photo Paper Pro or Photo Paper Plus Glossy media deliver excellent photo quality from digital images.

To help optimize digital photo output, the i450 and i470D both support Exif Print (Exif 2.2). When using a camera with Exif Print, vital camera settings and shooting information is stored on the jpeg image and then translated by the printer for more realistic photo prints. To make image printing easy when connected to the computer, Canon includes Easy-PhotoPrint software. Easy-PhotoPrint allows the user to simply find the image or images they want to print, choose the size of the print and paper, and then push the print button for beautiful prints sized right every time. Easy-WebPrint (Windows only) is also included with both printers and helps automatically format web pages so you are able to print full web sites in different page configurations without losing vital information.

Additionally, the i470D Photo Printer will include two features not found on the i450 -- built-in print operation panel with the all-new Canon Photo Viewer software and built-in slots for removable memory cards including CompactFlash(TM), Memory Stick(R), Microdrive(TM), SmartMedia(TM), SD Card(TM) and MultimediaCard(TM). Printing without the computer has been made easier with a redesigned LCD operation panel that includes image selection, size and paper selection, date stamp and number of prints. There will also be an ink remaining monitor on the LCD display to alert the user to replace ink tanks. The Canon Photo Viewer software is automatically installed with the printer driver and allows the user to view digital images either in standard mode or full screen mode on the computer monitor while still printing the images using the easy operation panel on the printer.

The i450 and i470D will use USB and will be compatible with Windows 98/ME/2000 and XP, and Mac OS 8.6-9.X and OS X v 10.2.1 to 10.2.4 (visit www.canontechsupport.com for updated compatibility). Both printers come with Canon's one-year limited warranty with InstantExchange (see www.canontechsupport.com for details). In addition to Easy-PhotoPrint (Windows and Mac) and Easy-WebPrint (Windows only), Canon includes PhotoRecord software (Windows) allowing end-users to easily crop digital photos, create albums and print photos; PhotoStitch (Windows and Mac) allowing users to quickly format panoramic shots taken with digital cameras and ZoomBrowser EX (Windows) and ImageBrowser (Mac) providing easy digital download, viewing and photo album capabilities. The i450 Bubble Jet printer will have an MSRP of $99.99(a) while the i470D Photo Printer will have an MSRP of $149.99(a). Both will be shipping in April 2003.