Canon Achieves a Clean Sweep with Wide Format Printer Pick Awards

November 19, 2013 – Wokingham (UK) – Buyers Laboratory LLC (BLI), the world’s leading independent authority on document imaging products, has announced its prestigious Pick awards in the wide format category, with honours going to three Canon devices. An excellent source of guidance to buyers, BLI’s Pick awards acknowledge the products that gave the best performances in BLI’s extensive suite of laboratory tests. While the Picks for most product categories are announced twice a year in January and July, the wide format awards are announced annually at this time of year.

The wide format Pick winners are:

CANON, INC.
Canon imagePROGRAF iPF6400S
Outstanding 24″ 8-Colour Wide Format Graphic Arts Printer Canon imagePROGRAF iPF8400S
Outstanding 44″ 8-Colour Wide Format Graphic Arts Printer Canon imagePROGRAF iPF765 MFP M40
Outstanding Colour Wide Format Technical MFP

Canon imagePROGRAF iPF6400S and iPF8400S Provide Exceptional Colour Consistency and Top-Notch Ease of Use
Following last year’s Pick award for Canon’s 12-colour imagePROGRAF iPF6450, two newly-released 8-colour imagePROGRAF models, the iPF6400S and iPF8400S, gave equally superb performances during BLI’s demanding lab evaluation, earning them well-deserved Pick awards in the 24″ and 44″ categories, respectively. Demonstrating flawless reliability, both units produced very good colour output without graininess, mottling or banding. The imagePROGRAF iPF6400S, paired with the optional SU-21 spectrophotometer, and its sister model, the imagePROGRAF iPF8400S (8-colour models are designated by an “S” at the end of the model name), provided precise colour consistency across several media types, as evidenced by Delta E values of 0.92 and 0.79 for glossy heavyweight and matte coated papers, respectively. “After following six simple steps for calibration, the system achieved incredible results,” said Joe Tischner, BLI’s wide format printer analyst. “After printing our high-quality files on the two machines, BLI technicians were unable to discern quality or colour differences on output from the two devices. I think the SU-21 is a ‘must-have’ in any colour-critical proofing print shop.”

Colour consistency across a fleet is just one of many strengths that led to these models’ award-winning status. Canon’s Direct Print & Share utility, which is now available with the S-series models, enables straightforward file submission and sharing, helping to earn the excellent ease of use rating for both, as did the units’ well-designed control panel, easy media loading and multi-faceted Status Monitor. Canon’s Color Calibration Management Console (CCMC) utility, which comes bundled with the system, enabled technicians to monitor the calibration status and, when needed, initiate calibrations for all media used on both printers. Also noteworthy, CCMC is a convenient tool that will enable an administrator to remotely monitor a company’s entire fleet of networked Canon iPFX400S devices. The ability to replace the units’ large ink tanks on-the-fly, unique among Canon wide format devices, further enhances ease of use and proved to be a productivity advantage during the evaluation.

“We are honoured that our iPF6400S and iPF8400S printers are being recognized by the BLI Pick Awards. Both part of our award-winning imagePROGRAF series, they provide graphic artists with the ability to produce work efficiently, accurately and with consistent quality,” said Yuichi Miyano, Director, Large Format Solutions, Canon Europe. “With enhanced print management and colour control capabilities, these models provide a distinct advantage in today’s highly competitive production printing market.”

Canon imagePROGRAF iPF765 MFP M40 Offers SMBs Significant Versatility and Cloud Connectivity
A rich feature set, noteworthy versatility, superb reliability, and trouble-free cloud connectivity have helped the Canon imagePROGRAF iPF765 MFP M40 win BLI’s 2014 Pick award for Outstanding Colour Wide Format Technical MFP. Aimed at the technical printing marketplace, the 5-colour, 36″ Canon imagePROGRAF iPF765 MFP M40 excelled in many areas of BLI’s testing. The unit was lauded for its exceptional halftone output, whose smoothness of fill was the best BLI has observed to date. Its excellent feature set includes a 250-GB hard drive; a convenient flat stacker enabling orderly print collection; a unique 22″ touch-screen monitor; and Print Plug-ins for Microsoft Office, among numerous other advantages. “Conducting copy and scan operations on Canon’s very large touch-screen monitor, as well as connecting to the cloud, is so much easier than working from a small control panel,” said Tischner. “Most impressive was the system’s ability to store, retrieve and share files from the cloud via Canon’s Direct Print & Share utility, which can be easily accessed from either the monitor or Web-connected PCs. The Canon iPF765 MFP M40 is an ideal choice for SMBs’ wide format technical document print, copy and scan application needs.”

“The iPF765 5-colour large format printer is an incredibly versatile machine, utilised by industries from computer-aided design and architecture to engineering and construction,” said Miyano. “We’re pleased to have the model recognised as one of BLI’s 2014 Wide Format Picks for its versatility, quality and breadth of features, which can be applied to virtually any type of technical output.”

In a separate announcement today, Canon was named BLI’s choice for 2014 Wide Format Graphic Arts Printer Line of the Year.

Upcoming Buyers Lab Pick award announcements:
BLI’s Pick awards in the A3, A4, scanner and solutions categories are slated for mid-January.

 

About Buyers Laboratory LLC
Buyers Laboratory LLC (BLI) is the world’s leading independent provider of analytical information and service to the digital imaging and document management industry. For over 50 years, buyers have relied on BLI to help them differentiate products’ strengths and weaknesses and make the best purchasing decisions, while industry sales, marketing and product professionals have turned to BLI for insightful competitive intelligence and valued guidance on product development, competitive positioning and sales channel and marketing support. Using BLI’s web-based bliQ and Solutions Center services, 40,000 professionals worldwide create extensive side-by-side comparisons of hardware and software solutions for over 15,000 products globally, including comprehensive specifications and the performance results and ratings from BLI’s unparalleled Lab, Solutions and Environmental Test Reports, the result of months of hands-on evaluation in its US and UK labs. The services, also available via mobile devices, include a comprehensive library of BLI’s test reports, an image gallery, hard to find manufacturers’ literature and valuable tools for configuring products, calculating total cost of ownership (TCO) and annual power usage. BLI also offers consulting and private, for-hire testing services that help manufacturers develop and market better products and consumables.

For more information on Buyers Laboratory LLC, please call +44 (0) 118-977-2000, visit www.buyerslab.com, or email david.sweetnam@buyerslab.com

Canon Named BLI’s 2014 Wide Format Graphic Arts Printer Line of the Year

November 19, 2013 – Wokingham (UK) – Buyers Laboratory LLC (BLI), has selected Canon as the winner of its 2014 Wide Format Graphic Arts Printer Line of the Year award thanks to the overall strength of Canon’s imagePROGRAF graphic arts product line. BLI’s coveted Line of the Year is awarded once a year to the vendors whose product lines are determined to be the best overall in their respective categories based on their cumulative test results in BLI’s rigorous two-month evaluation. For wide format devices, among the many factors considered are reliability, image quality, ease of use, colour management, productivity and connectivity attributes. Also considered are the breadth of the manufacturer’s line and its ability to produce quality products suitable to a broad spectrum of customer needs.

Canon’s 8- and 12-Colour Models Deliver Innovation, Precise Colour Accuracy and Control
The comprehensiveness of Canon’s offerings, satisfying the production/proofing print markets with the 8-colour models and the high-end graphics markets with the 12-colour models, across all the common size ranges, together with the outstanding lab performance of all the models tested, have justly earned Canon the 2014 Line of the Year award for its wide format graphic arts printers. Indeed, every Canon graphic arts model tested in the past year has earned BLI’s Highly Recommended rating and a Pick award.

In the past year Canon has updated its 8- and 12-colour wide format printers, adding several noteworthy features such as an optional spectrophotometer and Canon’s Direct Print & Share cloud portal solution. Among the new 8-colour units (designated by an S in the model name) BLI has tested are the 24-inch imagePROGRAF iPF6400S and 44-inch iPF8400S, both of which performed extremely well in BLI testing and were selected BLI Picks today in their respective categories. Though not tested, the larger 60-inch imagePROGRAF iPF9400S, released earlier in the season, differs mainly in its width and could therefore be expected to deliver a similarly high quality performance. These stellar performers are joined in Canon’s graphic arts line by several outstanding 12-colour printers. Those include two 24-inch models—the imagePROGRAF iPF6450, a BLI Pick winner last year, and the very similar iPF6400. These models are also offered in 44- and 60-inch configurations—the iPF8400 and iPF9400, respectively.

Most notable among the devices’ numerous triumphs is the ability for users to readily manage colour output using the Color Calibration Management Control (CCMC) software, and more importantly, for the devices to consistently deliver precise colour output across multiple compatible models that employ the same number of inks—even an entire fleet—as long as just one of them is equipped with the company’s SU-21 spectrophotometer. (The SU-21 is optionally available for the two 24-inch models containing a hard drive—the imagePROGRAF iPF6400S and the 12-colour iPF6450.) In evaluating Canon’s claim of being able to achieve tight colour control between multiple compatible devices, with a Delta E value of 2.0 or less, BLI’s testing proved the Canon units were up to the task. In fact, the recent lab evaluation of the iPF6400S and iPF8400S showed extraordinary consistency of colour, with amazingly low Delta E values of 0.92 and 0.79 in output on two non-Canon media types. “This kind of colour consistency is indispensable for proof printing applications,” said Joe Tischner, BLI wide format printer analyst. “Canon builds colour tables directly into these printers for each Canon-branded media, so consistency is the expected result. However, with non-Canon media, users of these Canon devices have the tools to readily achieve extremely stable colour output.” He added that the CCMC utility is invaluable for keeping track of the calibration status of most media and performing the calibrations when needed across all of Canon’s 8- and 12-colour printers. “Conveniently,” said Tischner, “this can even be accomplished remotely for all networked iPF printers no matter their locations.” And since only one spectrophotometer is needed across all S series devices and one for all 12-colour units to perform these tasks, Canon’s graphic arts wide format line makes maintaining fleet-wide colour consistency economical and efficient.

Another feature new to these models is Canon’s Direct Print & Share utility, which enables easy job submission, bypassing software applications and print drivers, thus saving considerable time. Additionally, files stored in the cloud were easily accessible to BLI technicians and will be an advantage to collaborative teams worldwide. Another strength of these models is that Canon’s LUCIA EX ink tanks can be easily replaced on-the-fly, a capability BLI has thus far seen only with Canon large format printers.

“Canon’s iPFX400 and iPFX400S series of printers are known for their high efficiency, reliability, colour consistency and productivity,” said Yuichi Miyano, director of large format solutions, Canon Europe. “It’s an honour to be the recipient of BLI’s Wide Format Graphic Arts Printer Line of the Year Award, and to be recognised for the series’ ability to execute frequent, large-quantity requests that meet the highest standards.“