Canon launches two professional printers

Users of the new Canon EOS 500D will like the Pixma's ability to print RAW files
Users of the new Canon EOS 500D will like the Pixma's ability to print RAW files

Fed up with mushy prints from the chemist? Canon has two new professional-grade inkjet printers that promise 'gallery quality' colour prints.

The Pixma Pro9000 Mark II is an A3+ printer using Canon's 8-colour ChromaLife100 Single Ink system, with a 16-bits per channel capability that gives up to 276 trillion different colours.

Droplet size is two picolitre and the Pro9000 Mark II can print on to media up to 1.2mm thick.

RAW solutions

Software offerings are strong, including Canon's Easy-PhotoPrint Pro - a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop, Canon Digital Photo Professional and the bundled Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 that simplifies printing.

When used with Canon's Digital Photo Professional software, the plug-in enables Canon EOS photographers to print directly from RAW files without having to convert images to an intermediate format.

New for the PIXMA Pro9000 Mark II is an Ambient Light Correction feature using Canon Kyuanos technology. Users can select the type of lighting under which a print will be displayed and the colours in the final print are then automatically adjusted to ensure that the displayed result looks as the photographer intended.

Pro9500 Mark II

The A3+ Pixma Pro9500 Mark II uses a 10-colour pigment based single ink system, including matte black and photo black, allowing photographers to print on gloss and matte media without the need for swapping ink tanks.

It has the same Ambient Light Correction and 276 trillion colours as the Pro9000 Mark II, and is built on a rigid 1.6mm thick steel chassis for increased durability.

The Pixma Pro9000 Mark II will cost £500 and the Pro9500 Mark II £730. Both will be available from June.

Mark Harris is Senior Research Director at Gartner.