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ColorStream 8000 series
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Inkjet quality as good as offset – but don’t just take our word for it!
Inkjet quality as good as offset – but don’t just take our word for it! by Hayco van Gaal
In the past ten years, huge strides have been made to develop the inkjet printing process, particularly around advances on print head, ink and drying technology. As a result of this progress, we’re confident that Canon’s inkjet quality now matches that of longer-established technologies, including offset. And as the process is underpinned by digital technology, inkjet’s flexibility enables its users to build highly automated workflows to meet market demands for shorter runs, personalisation and quicker turnarounds.
And, as we often hear from customers, quality and flexibility are essential drivers behind new technology investments. One customer who highlighted quality as being a determining factor is Madrid-based book printer, Liber Digital, whose managing director, Luis Hedo, explained: “With the ProStream, we can offer offset quality with the added advantage of profitably producing low to medium run lengths. It’s proved to be an essential investment for us as our customers can no longer distinguish between offset and inkjet printed output.”
At Canon, our focus is to ensure that we can offer customers a ‘no compromise’ solution that delivers enhanced quality, productivity and cost-efficiency. That’s why, in 2020, we expanded our inkjet technology line-up with the varioPRINT iX-series, a highly productive inkjet sheetfed press, and extended the ProStream family with the ProStream 1800 high-speed web-fed inkjet printer.
Helen Kennett, Managing Director at Henry Ling and Stuart Rising, Head of Commercial Print Sales, Canon UK
Strengthening the quality assurance we offer our customers, we’re proud to announce that the varioPRINT iX-series has recently received FOGRA51 certification from Fogra, the research institute for the printing and media industry. In addition, we’re pleased to share that, Henry Ling, a UK-based book and journal specialist, has obtained the Fogra certification on their workflow, which includes the ProStream 1000 and Canon’s PRISMA ColorSuite software.
Independently, the ProStream 1000 series has also achieved the accolade of being the world’s first digital production printer to be Fogra certified with the FOGRA59/eciCMYKv2 exchange colour space according to ProcessStandard Digital. FOGRA59 is a new variant of FOGRA53/eciCMYK. Both are CMYK exchange colour space profiles dedicated to colour communication in the field of print production. Their large gamut size covers all relevant classic output standards, and shape and tone value characteristics comply with the typical CMYK colour spaces of classic printing. Therefore the CMYK exchange colour space profiles enable a consistent colour appearance along all production steps. More importantly, the large colour gamut of the ProStream, similar to FOGRA59, also generates the opportunity to use the large process colour gamut for spot colour reproduction – the ProStream enables customers to extend the PANTONE® colour coverage to 93% with only four on-press colours, depending on the paper used. In other words, the ProStream is able to reproduce up to 2182 of the 2334 PANTONE® colours with a CIEDE2000 < 2.0. In the past, this was only achievable with a multi-colour press.
varioPRINT iX series and ProStream 1000 series
The varioPRINT iX and ProStream join a series of Canon printers that have received the certification in recent years, including the ColorStream web-fed inkjet press, the VarioPrint i-series sheetfed press, the LabelStream 4000 inkjet label press and the imagePRESS toner family, including the recently launched imagePRESS C10010VP.
The recent evaluation of the varioPRINT iX-series and ProStream 1000 series resulted in the presses achieving the highest category score (Level A), indicating that their print quality is amongst the highest achievable by digital technologies available on the market today.
The independent quality benchmark it provides enables our customers to objectively assess the capabilities of our presses. As such, when our customers invest in a Canon press, they can have the confidence that not only can their press achieve a level of quality comparable to offset, but also that their own production workflow may be capable of achieving Fogra accreditation.
Based on the ISO 15311 international digital printing standard, the Fogra PSD PrintCheck certification confirms that the digital printed output from both Canon digital inkjet engines meets the highest levels of colour fidelity, consistency, uniformity, print resolution, detail sharpness and stability of print.
But what does this mean for print service providers? With the certification, they are demonstrating their commitment to high standards and giving their customers complete confidence in the consistency, predictability and quality of their output.
The varioPRINT iX-series has achieved FOGRA51 certification
Helen Kennett, Managing Director at Henry Ling, perfectly sums up the benefits of receiving the certification: “Having the Fogra certification gives us confidence in the predictability of the print quality produced on the ProStream. This allows us to move jobs between offset and digital using the same stock and achieving the same print quality. As a result, we have broadened our business into areas which were previously not possible.”
We believe that recent innovations in our inkjet portfolio, combined with the assurance from the Fogra certification, gives our customers a competitive advantage when retaining customers and seeking new opportunities, enabling them to enhance their offering and grow their businesses.
To find out more about how the Fogra certification can be of benefit to your print business and for support with obtaining the certification on your Canon products, please speak with your local Canon team, who will be able to provide more information and guidance.
For additional information regarding Fogra standards, please refer to fogra.org and eci.org
