A Commercial Photo Printer for the Retail Photo Industry^*1 Canon's DreamLabo employs a variety of printing technologies made possible by Canon's extensive product development of everything from consumer-use inkjet printers to commercial digital multifunction printers.

2018/12/27Featured Technology

Professional printing equipment must deliver a level of image quality that equals or surpasses that of conventional silver halide photographs. Canon's DreamLabo commercial photo printer therefore incorporates a range of high-image-quality printing technologies cultivated by the company, including FINE high-density print head technology.

Seven-Color Dye-Based Ink System

DreamLabo employs a seven-color dye-based ink system that includes the standard cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and black (K) colors as well as photo cyan (PC), photo magenta (PM), and gray. This ink system makes it possible to achieve smooth gradations even in the bright areas of color photographs. Conventionally, gray is produced by mixing cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, which tends to create red or blue overtones. But, by employing gray ink, DreamLabo offers stable color reproduction without color imbalances while also enabling excellent gradation performance when printing monochrome photos.

Advanced Photo Correction Function

The DreamLabo is equipped with an advanced photo correction function that combines face detection, scene categorization, and light-source calculation technologies to automatically analyze images and adjust brightness, skin tone, etc. This feature eliminates the need for experienced operators to adjust color tone during printing.

Beautiful Text Printing Through High-Precision Ink Control

The printing of such items as catalogs requires not only high image quality but also high text quality. With conventional inkjet technology, dots become misshapen when ink droplets are ejected onto the paper, resulting in poor legibility when printing text of 3 points or smaller. DreamLabo consistently ejects uniform microscopic ink droplets, placing them accurately on the page and, through high-precision control, ensures that each dot is a near-perfect circle. This technology reduces the occurrence of text smearing, making sharp, beautiful text possible.

In addition to superior print quality, the retail photo and commercial printing markets require high productivity, which includes such factors as high-speed printing, ease of maintenance, and minimal downtime. The DreamLabo incorporates many of Canon's high-productivity technologies to meet these needs.

High-Speed Single Pass Printing with the Print Head

Canon has used its FINE high-density print head technology to develop a print head capable of printing at a width of 12 inches (approximately 30 cm) or more. This makes it possible to produce impressive albums with double-page spread layouts of 12 inches by 12 inches (approximately 30 cm by 30 cm). In addition, the DreamLabo delivers print speeds befitting a professional printer, and its One-Pass Printing can produce approximately 2,600 L-size (approximately 3.5 x 5 inches, or 89 x 127 mm) photographs per hour with a single pass of the printing paper while the print head remains in a fixed position.

Automatic Double-Sided Printing

The DreamLabo is equipped with an automatic double-sided printing feature, which eliminates later manual processes, and is capable of printing a 20-page A4-size photo album in 72 seconds and 50 albums per hour.^*2

Double Paper Magazine System

The Double Paper Magazine System makes use of two rolls of paper so that, when one roll runs out, the printer automatically switches its paper supply to the other magazine, enabling rolls to be replaced without interrupting operation. When equipped with an optional paper deck, up to four rolls of paper can be used, making even longer continuous printing possible.

Double Ink Tank System

The DreamLabo's Double Ink Tank System helps prevent downtime caused by ink running out. Ink from the main ink tank is temporarily stocked in a buffer ink tank, which supplies ink to the print head. This system enables continuous printing even when the main ink tank is empty by using the ink stocked in the buffer ink tank. The main ink tank can then be replaced without interruption.