The DreamLabo 5000 is a seven-colour inkjet printer, which produces images at 2400dpi in formats up to 305mm wide, with a potential to print up to 920 metres non-stop. Canon says it takes imaging quality in photobooks to a new level. It can also be used for print on demand applications.
When used in combination with the automatic double-sided printing function, the DreamLabo 5000 is capable of printing the contents of a 20-page A4-size photo album in just 80 seconds. It also makes possible the single-sided printing of 40 photo prints (102 x 152mm) in just one minute. It has an on-board rip and guillotine, but finishing is off-line and not part of the package.
Canon is aiming the printer at both the commercial print and retail photo markets.
Melbourne-based Pictureworks will begin marketing its new service as a high definition photobooks through its Albumworks.com brand today (March 23). The six year old company, part-owned by On Demand is one of the leading players in the Australian market, with its own web based photobooks brand and it provides a white label service for major retailers such as OfficeWorks.
Andrew Smith, managing director at PrintWorks says, “We believe this printer will set a new standard in the market.” Printworks will now have two options on its Albumworks’ photobooks website; standard and high definition, with two price levels. Smith says, “our goal is not to be the cheapest, we are not in a race to the bottom, but to offer an end to end solution that will more than satisfy consumer expectations.”
Canon Australia managing director, Taz Nakamasu says, “The market for photobooks in Australia is growing rapidly and Canon can now offer print specialists and their customers a solution to satisfy consumer demand for a higher grade of print than that offered currently in the market.”
Canon estimates that the Australian photobook market has the potential to increase fourfold over the next few years, and says its research shows that consumers are happy to pay for quality. Its stats show we are taking four times as many photos now then ten years ago, and of the 3.5 trillion photos that have been taken since photography was invented, some four per cent of them, 140 million, are on facebook.
DreamLabo 5000 is in line Canon’s growth strategy of expanding business operations through diversification and entering new business domains, based on core technology competence. Canon’s entry into the production photo printing market builds on the company’s 75-year photo heritage and reinforces the company’s position covering the full photo imaging spectrum from input to output and the print spectrum from small volume printing at home to industrial production printing.
Leveraging and extending Canon’s existing inkjet technology, which it has successfully deployed through its Pixma desktop printers and imagePrograf large format printer range, the DreamLabo 5000 features a newly developed high-density print head, enabling the printing of output up to 305mm wide. Incorporating Canon’s Fine (full-photolithography inkjet nozzle engineering) technology, the print head enables the printing of high-quality photos and detailed text to support a variety of high value-added output, from photo albums, photo calendar, photo collages and other merchandise to high-quality POD items, such as bespoke brochures.
DreamLabo 5000 uses a seven-colour dye-based ink system that realises smooth gradation expression. Employing image processing technology that makes use of the full range of Canon’s inkjet printing colour gamut, the new printer enables the output of photo images with a level of colour representation that the company says is equal to, if not better than, that of conventional silver halide photographs.
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