Canon announces i860 desktop photo printer

<center>CANON'S NEW POWERHOUSE i860 DESKTOP PHOTO PRINTER CREATES

REALISTIC PHOTOS AND CRISP, QUALITY TEXT</center>

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<i><center>Affordable New Printer Features ContrastPLUS Five-Color Ink

System, PictBridge Compatibility and Innovative New Dual

"Tray-in-Tray" Paper Feed </center></i>

<p>LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., Sept. 8, 2003 - Fast, flexible and

photographically fine, Canon's new i860 Desktop Photo Printer is also

a super-efficient all-purpose printer that achieves up to 4800 x 1200

color dpi* and speeds of up to 23 pages-per-minute** (ppm) in black

text and up to 16 ppm in color**. The successor to the multi-award

winning Canon i850 printer, the i860 printer features ContrastPLUS, an

advanced five-color ink system that is the next evolutionary step in

digital printing. </p>

<p>Key to the extraordinary flexibility of the i860 printer,

ContrastPLUS features a dye-based photo-grade black ink tank for photo

printing, delivering improved image contrast and overall sharpness,

particularly when used on photo paper. The i860 Desktop Photo Printer

also has a pigment-based black ink tank to achieve crisp, fast,

high-quality black text.

<br><br>"The new i860 printer offers an impressive combination of

features that will make it the printer of choice for high volume text

and web applications as well as brilliant photo production," states

Yukiaki Hashimoto, senior vice president and general manager, Consumer

Imaging Group, Canon U.S.A., Inc., a subsidiary of Canon Inc. (NYSE:

CAJ) "Fast and economical, efficient, affordable and easy to use, the

i860 printer is equally at home in a business office, a digital

darkroom or a family room."

<br><br>New features on the i860 printer include PictBridge

technology, the newly adopted industry standard for cross-brand direct

printing from PictBridge compatible digital still and digital video

cameras***, and a photo paper tray that supports 4x6 inch photo paper

that can act as a dual paper feed allowing the i860 printer to

simultaneously accommodate 8.5 x 11 or 5 x 7 inch paper as well as 4x

6 inch photo paper. The photo paper tray has a cover to protect the

4x6 photo paper and is set into the main auto sheet feeder. This new

feature allows users to alternate printing modes or printing sizes

without stopping to change paper.

<br><br>The i860 Desktop Photo Printer offers true edge-to-edge

borderless printing in 4x6, 5x7 and 8.5x11 inch sizes. The i860 print

head features advanced MicroFine Droplet Technology with a total

of 1,856 nozzles that deliver prescribed volume ink droplets in sizes

as small as 2 and 5 picoliters, achieving professional high

definition, photo quality results. The i860 printer also increases

ink efficiency by providing individual ink tanks for all five colors

from the pigment based black as well as the dye-based photo-grade

black, cyan, magenta and yellow. This ensures that individual colors

only need to be replaced when they have been completely depleted.

<br><br>Time, Paper and Cost Saving Options

<br>Adding to the flexibility, efficiency and high performance of the

i860 printer is an optional auto duplex printing unit (DPU-10) that

automatically reroutes the page for properly formatted two-sided

printing. Both timesaving and paper saving, the Auto Duplex feature

also allows for a wider printable area than competitive duplex-capable

printers. Additionally, an optional high volume, 250 sheet paper feed

cassette (PFC-10) attaches to the base of the i860 printer to increase

the paper load capacity to 400 sheets at a time.

<br><br>PictBridge Compatibility

<br>Among the significant technological advances found on the i860

Desktop Photo Printer is the inclusion of the new PictBridge

technology protocol. The new industry standard for digital printers,

digital cameras and digital camcorders, PictBridge allows the direct

printing of images from PictBridge compatible digital cameras and

camcorders to PictBridge compatible printers, regardless of brand or

manufacturer without the use of a computer.

<br><br>Software Simplicity

<br>In addition to PictBridge direct printing capabilities of the i860

Desktop Photo Printer, the printer includes Easy-PhotoPrint****(an

ExifPrint compatible application) and Easy-WebPrint***** software.

The Easy-PhotoPrint software allows users to print high quality

digital photographs quickly and easily by automatically sizing digital

images to print borderlessly on 4x6, 5x7 and 8.5x11 inch paper solving

the aspect ratio dilemma. Easy-PhotoPrint also improves digital image

quality by eliminating "photo noise" and enhancing color saturation

with the "Vivid Photo" driver enhancements. The included

Easy-WebPrint software facilitates printing from the Internet by

automatically formatting and scaling the output so that the entire

page is printed even when it extends over multiple screens. This time

saving and cost saving feature reduces waste and ensures that the

selected pages are formatted to print properly without trimming the

right-hand margin.

<br><br>Compatible with both Windows® and Mac platforms (Windows

XP, Windows 2000/ Millennium Edition/98/95/NT 4.0 and Mac OS (8.6 to

9.x) and Mac OS X v 10.2.1 to 10.2.x.), the i860 Desktop Photo Printer

also includes the PhotoRecord**** (Windows), Zoom Browser EX****

(Windows) and ImageBrowser**** (Mac) image management software, and

PhotoStitch**** (Windows and Mac) that makes composite images from

shots taken separately.

<br> <br>Shipping in mid-September, the Canon i860 Desktop Photo

Printer carries an estimated street price of $149.99.

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SOURCE: <a

href="http://www.usa.canon.com/templatedata/pressrelease/03_sept_08_i860.html">Canon

press release</a>