The world’s first large format printer with aqueous pigment fluorescent ink, Canon’s new imagePROGRAF GP Series offers high value-added output for graphics applications

Junichi Wachi, Director of LFP EMEA, Canon Europe, comments: “As retail, hospitality and leisure businesses across EMEA focus on reopening and recovery, bright, vibrant promotional poster graphics have a critical role to play in grabbing consumers’ attention, driving footfall and stimulating sales. For graphics producers, creative agencies and in-house print departments serving these businesses, the new imagePROGRAF GP Series printers have been developed to make vivid colours pop, bringing campaign visuals to life, day after day, print after print.

“With a choice of four GP printer models offering 10 or 5 pigmented aqueous inks plus fluorescent pink ink and three different printing widths, businesses of all sizes can reproduce a wider colour gamut and add zing with fluorescent pink to make eye-catching posters that really pack a punch. And these new large format printers are just as productive, efficient and easy to use as the rest of the imagePROGRAF family, so customers can focus on the future and get ready to come back brighter.”

The world’s first large format printer with aqueous pigment fluorescent ink achieves high impact graphical output
A “Radiant Infusion” technology layers a newly developed fluorescent pink ink with other inks on the paper surface during printing, which enables bright and soft colour reproduction, while the bundled PC software “PosterArtist Lite” enables users to create high impact posters easily. In addition, the imagePROGRAF GP-4000/2000 features red, orange, green and violet inks that expand the range of colour reproduction to achieve the largest colour gamut for the imagePROGRAF series.

New printers receive a “PANTONETM-calibrated2” license for a wide range of applications
The new imagePROGRAF GP series has been awarded the world’s first “PANTONE-calibrated” license3 for “PANTONE PASTELS & NEONS GUIDE Coated”4, which includes fluorescent and pastel colours. In addition, the GP-4000/2000 models achieved 99% coverage5 of the “PANTONE FORMULA GUIDE Solid Coated” used in a wide range of applications, such as printing and design, and obtained a further “PANTONE-calibrate” license. As the choice of colour specification at the time of design expands, it becomes possible to express the colour intended by the designer.

Main features of the imagePROGRAF GP-4000 and 2000
1. The world’s first large format printer with newly developed red, orange, green and violet and aqueous pigment fluorescent inks that realise high value-added output
- The world’s first aqueous pigment large format printer with 10 colours plus fluorescent pink ink
- “Radiant Infusion” technology layers a newly developed fluorescent pink ink, used for the first time in the world in a large format inkjet printer, with other inks on the paper surface during printing. This achieves bright and soft colour reproduction and enables more vivid printing. The bundled PC software, “PosterArtist Lite”, enables users to create high impact posters easily
- In addition to the fluorescent pink ink, 10 colours, including four newly developed red, orange, green and violet inks, expand the range of colour reproduction to achieve the largest colour gamut for the imagePROGRAF series
- Fluorescent pink ink can also be used to print specific areas such as text and figures in pink and orange to enable fluorescent colour expression that makes those areas stand out
- Printing with and without fluorescent ink can be selected
- The newly developed inks enable production for applications that demand faithful colour reproduction, such as:
- Corporate colours
- Graphics that include fluorescent colours, which are difficult to reproduce with a conventional inkjet printer
- Colour proofs with a wide colour gamut
- The ability to produce large format outputs that create new value, supports the creation of new business opportunities

2. Obtained “PANTONE-calibrated” license used in a wide range of applications
- Obtained the world’s first “PANTONE-calibrated” license from Pantone, for “PANTONE PASTELS & NEONS GUIDE Coated”, which includes fluorescent and pastel colours6
- Achieved 99% coverage7 for the “PANTONE FORMULA GUIDE Solid Coated”, used in a wide range of applications such as printing and design. Obtained “PANTONE-calibrated” license from Pantone for the result of high colour reproduction rate
- Obtaining “PANTONE-calibrated” license with two Pantone publications expands the choice of colour specification at the time of design and supports output of the colour intended by the designer

3. “PosterArtist Lite” software with enhanced functions that lets users easily create highly appealing posters
- The bundled PC software “PosterArtist Lite” enables easy creation of high-grade posters with vivid colours
- “PosterArtist Lite” supports Vivid mode that uses “Radiant Infusion” technology to achieve more vibrant printing with an expanded colour gamut, and Spot mode that prints fluorescent ink in specific areas such as text, figures and clip art in pink and orange to make those areas stand out
- Printing with and without fluorescent ink can be selected
- New templates have been added to make use of the fluorescent pink ink expression
- The newly added function makes it easy for users to search photo images provided for free by three stock service providers (Pixabay, Unsplash, Pexels). From the extensive stock of millions of photos, users can select their favourite images and combine them to easily create a high quality design for their poster

4. Superior printer functions that reduce the load on users handling various types of paper
- A “Smart Roll Paper Set” function is provided that automatically performs paper supply and feeding, detects the paper type and width, estimates the remaining amount of paper, and adjusts the condition to enable printing, simply by placing the roll paper in the feed section of the printer. Automation of high-workload paper supply tasks reduces the workload on the operator. In addition, there is no need to manually insert the paper into the paper feed slot, so there is no need to touch the media surface during paper supply, which prevents the adherence of fingerprints and dirt
- The “Multifunction Roll System”, which achieves the two functions of dual roll feed and rewinding printouts on roll (a media take-up unit), is supported. By mounting the “Roll Unit” (Option) in the lower stage, it enables high-volume continuous printing, using either two rolls of the same media type or two different sizes and types of roll paper and switching during printing. In addition, the lower unit can also be used as a take-up unit for the large format output from the upper unit. This contributes to increased work efficiency and productivity