Canon's aim to cement recent wide format growth with Star Buy pricing

Canon believes it has developed some superb large format water-based inkjet printers recently, and on the back of sterling work by the distributors and resellers, has increased its market presence and market share.

To further continue this trend, recent Canon pricing changes have made the eight-colour imagePrograf S-series production printers even more accessible and affordable. With current Canon Star Buys and Cashback deals, the 44" wide iPF8000S can be had for an incredible £4995, whilst the larger 60" wide iPF9000S will set you back £9745.

These S-series printers are tailored for all-out print performance, with a maximum speed, which produces saleable print, of 37.5 square metres an hour.

Mark Keeley, Director of Canon UK distributor Velmex, says: "Fundamentally, the Canon differentiator is speed with quality. Other manufacturers offer high quality output at low speed, and high speed output at lower quality. In our experience, Canon is the only manufacturer to currently merge the two by offering super quality output at production speeds. With users output demands increasing, wide format printers need to meet these demands."

Mark continues "Canon's large format printer range also has another major benefit - low running costs. Independently tested, Canon printers used up to 34 per cent less ink than its competitors. Users can print faster and cheaper with Canon - ideal for today's demanding market place where more and more printers are competing for the same work, and margins on sales of large format output are getting ever tighter."

In a series of benchmark tests through the world renowned Buyers' Laboratory Inc (BLI) arranged by Canon, the imagePrograf iPF8000S and imagePrograf iPF8100 both scored highly against its two market leading competitors, namely the HP DesignJet Z6100 and the Epson Stylus PRO 9880.

The independent report found the imagePrograf iPF8000S used 34.5 per cent less ink than its competitors' product running under identical test conditions. Figures for Canon's imagePrograf iPF8100 were similarly good, with the Canon using 31.6 per cent less ink. In addition, the Canon iPF8000S can save an additional eight per cent of ink usage if switched into economy running mode.

Further tests from BLI, covering colour gamut volume, also showed the iPF8000S has a larger colour volume when compared to HP DesignJet Z6100.

The strength of the imagePrograf printers has led to a range of Awards.

The Canon iPF8000S / 9000S series won the Bertl's Best 2008 award for Best Wide Format in the Print-for-Pay and Production Market range. The five-colour dye / pigment Canon imagePrograf iPF710 printer was presented with the Best Wide Format System for the Low Volume Colour Printer AEC market.

Canon's large format imagePrografs iPF5100 and iPF6100 have also won accolades recently, for proofing, fine-art and photographic quality reproductions. These Canon 12-colour printers, running with an EFI Colorproof XF RIP, were awarded FOGRA certification for their print qualities, whilst the iPF5100 was presented with the European Digital Press Association award for its proofing abilities.

With publications from 15 European countries, a combined circulation of more than 120,000 copies and a readership exceeding 250,000 graphic arts professionals, the EDP award in particular is a prestigious recognition of the ability of Canon printers to meet the most accurate of proofing standards.

For anyone looking for a large format aqueous printer, be it for proofing, photographic, fine-art or all out print-for-pay production, Canon machines are well worthy of consideration.

For technical specifications and further information, go to www.canon.co.uk