THE NEWS IN PRINT

Sony has introduced a couple new photo printers, PictureStation DPP-FP95 and DPP-FP75. These printers are compact in size and hence extra mobile and offer one touch printing. It is optimized to work with Sony cameras and also offers integration with HDTV for viewing images prior to printing.

These mobile printers use dye sublimation technology for printing and Supercoat 2 technology for applying a coating of lamination. The DPP-FP95 has the additional BIONZ image processor on it which optimizes the printer's performance with Cyber-shot and Alpha DSLR cameras.

The printing speed isn't the greatest at a minute for a 4"� X 6"� photograph.

These printers come with decent sized LCD screens on them; 3.5"� for FP75 and 3.6"� for FP95. Like all other photo printers, they have PictBridge port and compatibility with various memory cards for PC-less printing. It also comes with photo editing software embedded on the printer.

Each 4"� X 6"� print is estimated to cost at around 15 pennies. The printer will be introduced into the retail market in April this year. The cost of the printer is reasonable at £100 for DPP-FP95 and £75 for DPP-FP75.

via Press Release

Earlier this week, Canon launched an office all-in-one, Pixma MX7600 with Pigment Reaction (PgR) ink technology, supposedly a technology to change the world of printing; especially graphics. Much like its cousin MX850, it's a multi-function printer that can print, scan, copy and fax with higher capacity.

The PgR technology is unique; it initially coats the paper with clear ink before the paper hits the print-head. The print head does the usual printing on the coated paper much like any other printer. This technology has showed that graphics and photographs can be printed on plain paper without the fear of show through, curling, ink bleeding and scuffing through chemical bonding of the inks.

MX7600 prints at a speed of 28ppm for black and 23ppm for colour which is at best above average. 4 X 6 borderless photographs are printed at 43 seconds per photograph which claims to lab quality. As for as quality is concerned, Canon produces the best prints in all printers I have seen and reviewed so far.

Here are the rest of the features at a glance:
- The revolutionary Pigment Reaction (PgR) technology for presentation quality graphics, documents and photo prints on plain paper
- High speed Auto Duplex 35 page Auto Document Feeder (ADF) for scan and copy
- Auto Duplex Print & Copy as standard
- Quick Start - unit ready for use in approx. 5 seconds after power up
- High speed printing: at up to 28ppm Mono/23ppm Colour and photo-lab quality borderless 10x15cm photo prints in 43 seconds in Standard mode
- High speed copy at up to 28 cpm Mono/ 23 cpm Colour
- Ethernet connectivity
- Super G3 High Speed fax with 8 one-touch dials, 100 coded speed dials, 107 group dials and storage capacity for 250 incoming pages
- Photo-lab quality with FINE print head producing min 2pl ink droplets at max 4800x1200 dpi
- Auto Image Fix for optimal photo correction

The Canon Pixma MX7600 is built for offices and carries a fancy price tag of £329. It should be available in the retail market in April 2008.

via Press Release

Canon has been on the top of the table for the features and quality it offers. HP might be a leader much ahead of others, but Canon is the leader in my book for the printing quality it offers. Well, they have launched a new multifunction printer, Pixma MX850 which replaces the yet-to-be obsolete MP830. The new printer is designed to be placed at homes and offices with its compact size and truck load of features.

The MX850 is a multi-function inkjet printer which offers printing, scanning, copying and faxing capabilities. It is an excellent photo printer too that offers a best resolution of 9600 X 2400 dpi. The secret behind high resolution printing lies in the print head. The print head contains 4608 nozzles that can ooze out ink in pico-liters (10^-12 liters).

This is a fast printer with the maximum speeds of 31ppm for black, 24ppm for colour and 21ppm for borderless 6 X 4 photos.

The printer comes with an automatic document feeder which enables the printer to copy and scan on both sides. It is also an automatic duplex printer which is the most sought feature in the market these days.

Another unique feature of MX850 is the ability to scan and print at the same time, thereby fastening the process of copying. Other printers usually scan the first page and wait for it to print before it takes another. MX850 prints the first page while the second page is being scanned.

The Canon Pixma MX850 carries a price tag of £249 which is rather in the expensive range. But with the features it offers, it's hard to not notice this printer. A printer that's worth every penny. It will be available in the retail market from March of 2008.

via Press Release

We have seen time and time again that Samsung has introduced products that can do more than just print, actually plenty more. Samsung CLX-3160 is a colour multi-function printer which can print, copy, scan and fax.

The unique feature of this product is not in the top level features but deeper inside. A USB port available on the printer can be used to print directly from USB key and it can print jpg, pdf and txt files. Not only does it stop with printing, but the USB port extends itself towards scanning as well. Users can scan directly into the USB port and can do it sans PC. I have personally not seen or heard of a printer that can scan directly to an external device other than a PC. Quite magnificent really!

Colour printing is on the slower side as the printing technology prints one colour at a time. It prints around 14ppm for black and 26ppm for colour which is unacceptable in this era. The rest of the features are similar to other printers in the market.

The CLX-3160 costs around £250 which is a tack expensive than its competitors. I hear that Samsung is releasing an upgrade to this printer, CLX-6200, which has a much better colour printing speed as it prints all four colours simultaneously.

Lexmark E532DN is probably a perfect printer for small businesses. Its compactness coupled with high speed printing makes it attractive for office use. It is built to take on heavy loads that offices usually prefer.

The printing speed is exceptionally high at 33ppm for text and around 10ppm for graphics. It takes around 7 seconds to spit out the first print which is half the time taken by printers in this range.

It has integrated with a processor of 333Mhz and 32Mb memory which is responsible for fast printing. It is also capable of duplex printing which is a must for offices these days. It works on multiple operating systems including the likes of Mac and Linux.

The E532DN's dual line LCD makes it a happy read for printer users and mainly the administrator browsing through configurations. The menu buttons around the LCD are simple and easier to use.

At £225 , the E532DN is steeply priced but its more-than-optimum features definitely negate the price. But, nonetheless, employees don't have to wait next to the printer forever waiting for their prints to emerge. This could work in the company's favour.