Costing less than $450, it's aimed at home users and small businesses wanting images that rival 35mm photos in quality.
Canon's BJC-7000 printer uses an advanced Bubble Jet technology that Canon says provides color grading four times finer than conventional technology. The Canon technology reduces feathering and bleeding between colors while producing sharper text, richer hues, and denser blacks, according to the company.
The printer packs more than 1,000 nozzles and two printheads. Canon's technology makes print water-resistant, the company said.
Bundled with the printer is Canon's Creative 3, a software suite that helps users print such things as brochures, business cards, and T-shirts. The software also has a feature to print Web pages.
The printer provides resolution as high as 1200-by-600 dots per inch for both color and black ink printing. It prints 3.5 pages per minute in color (based on 15 percent page coverage), and 5 pages per minute with black ink (based on 5 percent page coverage).
The printer can also print on the whole of an 8.5-by-11-inch sheet of paper using Canon's edge-to-edge printing technology and Canon's LetterPlus paper, which, at 9 by 13.3 inches, provides a removable margin around the print.
The printer is available at an estimated street price of $449, compared to four- and five-color ink jet printers priced under $200.