Canon USA Inc. has announced the company has earned the Buyers Laboratory LLC (BLI) “2014 Wide-Format Graphic Arts Printer Line of the Year” award for the imagePROGRAF iPFx400 and iPFx400S series of large format printers (12- and 8-Color models). Additionally, Canon’s imagePROGRAF iPF6400S, iPF8400S and iPF765 MFP M40 printers have been recognized for three prestigious BLI Winter 2014 “Pick” awards in the wide-format category.

“Canon is honored to receive the ‘wide-format Graphics Printer Line of the Year’ award,” said Sam Yoshida, vice president and general manager, Marketing, Business Imaging Solutions Group, Canon U.S.A. “Our dedication to extraordinary output, color consistency, reliability and ease-of-use for the end-user is what makes these award winning products seamlessly fit the industry’s needs.”

The BLI “wide-format Graphics Printer Line of the Year” is awarded to the products that are determined to be the best overall in their respective category based on the cumulative test results in BLI’s rigorous two-month evaluation. “The comprehensiveness of Canon’s offerings, satisfying the production/proofing print markets with the 8-color models and the high-end graphics markets with the 12-color 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,” said Joe Tischner, wide-format analyst at BLI. “Canon’s imagePROGRAF models go a long way in satisfying the needs of the customer by providing numerous capabilities and outstanding overall quality.”

In addition to receiving the 2014 “wide-format Graphics Printer Line of the Year” award, the following Canon offerings were given the Winter 2014 “Pick” awards by BLI:

• Canon imagePROGRAF iPF6400S printer for “Outstanding 24” 8-Color wide-format Graphic Arts Printer”: The imagePROGRAF iPF6400S, 24-inch large format printer was designed for professionals in the commercial photography, signage display, reprographic and proofing markets who seek high standards for quality-control and image reproduction. Among its many features, the imagePROGRAF iPF6400S printer notably contains a Color Calibration Management Control (CCMC) software, which allows users to readily manage color output, an 8-Color LUCIA EX pigment ink set, an upgraded Multi-Sensor, which provides color calibration with improved color density detection, a media configuration tool, which allows customers to improve versatility even with third party media as well as an optional SU-21 spectrophotometer, which is utilized for the consistent delivery of precise color output.
• Canon imagePROGRAF iPF8400S printer for “Outstanding 44” 8-Color wide-format Graphic Arts Printer”: The imagePROGRAF iPF8400S 44-inch large format printer is tailored to those who require a versatile solution, which can produce quality large format output and enables maximum productivity. The imagePROGRAF iPF8400S printer achieves maximum productivity with large 330ml or 700ml ink tanks and a sub-ink tank system for replacing ink on-the-fly without stopping the printer. Similar to the imagePROGRAF iPF6400S, the imagePROGRAF iPF8400S printer contains Color Calibration Management Control (CCMC) software, an 8-Color LUCIA EX pigment ink set, an upgraded Multi-Sensor and a media configuration tool.
• Canon imagePROGRAF iPF765 MFP M40 printer for “Outstanding Color wide-format Technical MFP”: The imagePROGRAF iPF765 MFP M40 model offers an affordable solution that can help provide fast, high-quality, large format image capture-to-output. The system includes an imagePROGRAF iPF765 5-Color large format printer, M40 large format scanner, MFP stand, computer, SmartWorks MFP Software and a large touch-screen monitor1. Among its extensive feature set, the imagePROGRAF iPF765 MFP M40 printer includes versatile and cloud-enabled workflows that can help users produce precise image quality with double the scanner optical resolution of previous versions. In addition, the unit provides exceptional halftone output, Print Plug-ins for Microsoft Office and a 250-GB hard drive.