Couple of days ago, Canon U.S.A. Inc. announced the new PIXMA iP2600 Photo Printer featuring photo-lab-quality printing, fast output speeds and a stylish design to capture the attention and satisfy the needs of consumers. Continuing to build on its single function printer line, Canon delivers increased printing speeds, adds Auto Image Fix technology and a sleek design.

With an attractive piano black design with rounded edges, many technology features and a value price point, this desktop printer departs from the traditional to stand out among its competition in this class. Canon brings high-end features into this category with blazing speeds and microscopic ink droplets being placed as small as two picoliters at up to 4800×1200 dpi color resolution. The Canon PIXMA iP2600 Photo Printer can deliver photo-lab-quality borderless 4″ x 6″ photos in approximately 55 seconds.

The PIXMA iP2600 Inkjet Printer is an easy-to-use model capable of printing borderless photos from wallet size straight through letter size. Unlike many previous sub-$50 printers, the iP2600 Photo Printer even includes a paper output tray to neatly hold all printed photos and documents. As an attractive addition to the home office or a student’s desktop, printing from 1,472 nozzles helps to ensure speedy printing of documents, presentations and Web pages at speeds up to 22 pages/minute (ppm) for monochrome, and up to 17 ppm for color.

With only two FINE cartridges for consumers to concern themselves with, ink management is fast and easy. Included with the four-color PIXMA iP2600 Photo Printer is a pigment-based black ink cartridge and a tri-color dye based cartridge, allowing for improved sharp text printing with pigment black ink, plus vibrant photo quality.

The PIXMA iP2600 Photo Printer employs the Canon ChromaLife100 system for long-lasting photo prints. When using the FINE print head, select genuine Canon photo papers, and select genuine Canon dye inks, prints can resist fading for up to 100 years when stored in an archival quality photo album. The 100-year-lifespan rivals that of many traditional film-based photos, long considered by consumers to be the benchmark for image permanence. Prints produced on Canon Photo Paper Pro with ChromaLife100 have up to a ten-year gas fastness when exposed to open air. ChromaLife100 prints, when created using Canon Photo Paper Pro or Photo Paper Plus Glossy, have up to a 30-year light fastness when displayed under glass.

The new Canon Photo Paper Plus Glossy II offers vivid color with a high-quality finish to consumers who are looking for a professional look in their prints at a reasonable price. As a five-star paper with an average cost as low as $0.10 per sheet, this paper has the look and feel of high-quality photo paper fresh from the printer. During the printing process, the dye is fixed to the surface of the paper producing a deeper black and a clearer overall photographic finish. The color reproduction is stabilized faster than ever before enabling consumers to enjoy their memories right away.

The new PIXMA iP2600 printer has an estimated retail price of $49.99

The Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (KTL) said in a statement Thursday that its study had concluded that laser printers emitted ultrafine particles during use. It seems the particle emission results from toner processing during printing.

KTL added that while the health impact of the printer emission had yet to be established, it was advisable to make sure office ventilation systems functioned properly.

There is however no reason to make special arrangements as normal, sound ventilation is sufficient,” said Timo Tuomi, the head of the study.

KTL tested four common makes and models under laboratory conditions and discovered that the test chamber’s fine particle level rose considerably during the printing of 200 sheets.

The institute said the study had identified neither the origin nor composition of the particles and added that further studies were needed.

This study follows ones carried out by the Queensland University of Technology, Australia, and by the Canadian Broadcasting Company, Canada. Both previous studies concluded that the particle emissions of laser printers were comparable to those from cigarette smoke.

Another study and same vague results that “require further investigation.” I think they should publish finale results that don’t need any refinement.

HP has introduced the Photosmart B8550 Photo Printer. The new printer s a complete home printing solution that is perfect for producing large-format prints while still maintaining the versatility of an everyday home printer.

Actually, users can print anything from 4 x 6-inches to 13 x 19-inches directly from digital cameras, memory cards and a PC or Mac.

The printer uses a 5-ink Vivera printing system for laser-quality pigment ink black text, and is able to print 31 color pages per minute – you’ll get an extra two if you’re printing in black and white.

The B8550 is an environmentally conscientious printer. Its dual-drop-volume print head is made from 55% recycled plastic, derived from the recycled material from Original HP ink cartridges and other sources such as plastic water bottles.

Other features of the printer include a 2.4-inch colour display for easy viewing and editing of photos before printing, and the inclusion of the HP Auto Sense technology which helps avoid common photo printing mistakes by warning you of any potential problems beforehand.

Estimated US street price of $299.99.

The other day, Xerox Corporation announced the development of “non-contact flash fusing” – a major technology breakthrough in high-speed color printing. The innovation enables color xerographic continuous feed printers to achieve speeds of nearly 500 color pages per minute.

By flashing a high-intensity Xenon light more than 2,000 times per second, Xerox printers fuse the color toner at speeds that rival black-and-white continuous feed printing while creating high quality images.

In conventional toner-based printers, the entire paper is heated and the toner is pressure-rolled onto the paper. This limits print speeds to only 110 pages per minute and restricted printing on surfaces that have adhesives.

Xerox’s new flash fusing method depends on newly developed color toners, which melt and fuse the image entirely through the energy from the Xenon lamps, producing up to 650 images per minute in monochrome and 493 images per minute in full color.

In order for flash fusing to work, Xerox scientists had to change how cyan, yellow and magenta toners absorb energy from light. So they created color toners that contain special energy-absorbing material. This allows the individual color toners to absorb enough energy and fuse as fast as the black toner, which absorbs all light.

As a result, the toners are laid down in the order of their absorption rate – with the black at the bottom. As each toner is overlaid on the preceding toners, the energy builds with each flash providing just the right amount of light to fuse each color perfectly.

Flash fusing is the technological cornerstone of the Xerox 490/980 Color Continuous Feed Printing System, the fastest, full-color toner-based continuous feed device of its kind
as well as the newly announced 650/1300 Monochrome Continuous Feed printer and the 495 Monochrome Duplex Continuous Feed printer: