THE NEWS IN PRINT

Konica Minolta UK has introduced a new high performance printer for graphic professionals. The printer, Magicolor 7450 Grafx is a high quality printer which is capable of handling heavy loads. It is designed to handle multiple media with weights ranging from 16lb bond to 140lb index paper.

Printing speed is impressive at 25ppm for A4 and 13ppm for A3. The first print output takes around 10 seconds. It can handle A3 size prints and banners as long as 1.2 meters.

7450 is built on Emperon technology and as the company states, the printer is built for productivity. It features a 733MHz G4 CPU to process graphic-intense files, 768MB DDR SDRAM and a 40GB HDD. High speed colour printing is powered by PostScript 3, PCL 6, PDF 1.4, JPEG/TIFF Direct Print and Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000BaseTX.

The printing quality is powered by contone printing technology. It true to life photographic quality outputs 9600 X 600 dpi with ease. Pantone colour look up tables are provided for colour accurate pictures and documents.

7450 is mounted with a PictBridge port for PC-less printing. It also features USB port for direct printing.

With tons of features loaded on 7450, the price is a steep one as well. It carries a price tag of £1955.

All these days, the emphasis was on the quality of prints and the features a printer could offer, but Canon has turned the tide and provided an innovative photo storage solution. The to-be launched Selphy CP770 comes with all the bells and whistles of a quality printer plus an attractive yellow bucket for storing printer accessories.

The yellow bucket is aimed at enhancing the portability of the printer. The printer, its accessories like cables, ink cartridges, optional battery pack and others can be packed away inside the bucket for hassle free movement.

CP770 offers lab-quality prints along with a 2.5"� LCD screen for picture viewing. The speed is mediocre at 52 seconds for a 4"� X 6"� print.

The wireless access through infra-red and Bluetooth protocols makes it amicable for printing anywhere. The optional battery pack ensures that the printer can be operated in places such as beaches, parks and other holiday venues.

Selphy CP770 is due to be released in June this year. The estimated price is around £100 and its worth every penny for the bucket more than the printer itself.

via Silicon Republic

RX680 is one of the latest additions into Epson's quiver and the available features cum performance are unmatchable by most printers in this segment. The six-cartridge MFP RX680 is basically a photo printer which is supported with multi-functions like copying and scanning.

This printer prints 6"� X 4"� photos at a speed of 11 seconds per photograph and a whopping 40 text documents a minute.

The unit comes with two input trays; one for photo printing and the other for documents. A removable duplex unit adds to the various features present on the printer. The printer is capable of printing directly on CDs and DVDs.

The RX680 comes with a PictBridge port and memory slots for PC-less printing. Photos and documents can be scanned directly into memory cards in JPEG and TIFF formats.

Epson UK has upgraded the Epson R1800 with R1900 wide-format printer which offers impressive features over its predecessor. Some of the eye catching features include 18,446,774 trillion colours and the introduction of UltraChrome Hi-Gloss2 Ink technology.

From its predecessor, the blue ink is replaced by orange which enables the printer to offer as many colours as it does. Cyan, magenta, yellow, matte black, photo black, red and orange are the remaining ink cartridges that the UltraChrome Hi-Gloss2 technology leverages upon. Gloss optimiser is available to provide the gloss finish.

This wide-format printer is capable of printing photos ranging up to 13 inches wide and up to 44 inches long. It can print on various media like glossy, luster, matte, canvas and fine art papers.

Epson R1900 is presently available in the market and carries a price tag of £400. Seems like the upgrade is not only with the technology but also the price.

The world leader in photo printing has introduced a gem which is much ahead of its competitors in terms of quality and surprisingly, the looks. The Canon Pixma mini320 is a photo printer capable of printing 7"� X 5"� borderless photos.

The outlook of mini320 is unique in many ways. As seen in the picture above, it does not have normal edges and does look different and unique in multi-dimensions. The top-perched 2.5"� LCD is just the right size for a photo printer and its wide angle makes it even better. With the Easy Scroll Wheel, users can navigate through menus and images in a jiffy. It also comes with an optional battery pack for portable printing; an option I feel is a necessity on compact photo printers.

The mini320 produces a best resolution of 9600 X 2400 colour dpi. The printing is quite fast at 40 seconds for a 4"� X 6"� print and 52 seconds for a 7"� X 5"� print. The printer can work sans PC and has compatibility with most memory cards, digital cameras (PictBridge) and Bluetooth which should enable it to print directly from mobile phones.

The stylish mini320 makes a good ally for those who like to print a lot. The price of printing per photo is pretty high at 15 pennies while the printer carries a price tag of £100.