Is the Canon 6100i the new 1 picolitre model?
I really have to give kudos to Canon for this design, although I am not
sure you will ever successfully run pigmented inks through that head
design, there are soon to be some dye inks and paper formulations that
will be broadening the marketplace in terms of longevity. Say no more,
say no more.
However, I have advocated for a very small dot 4 color printer for years
now, and Canon is the one who has actually done it, and I say good on them.
It's a brave move for several reasons. One, it goes against what most
people and manufacturers have promoted in recent years, so on the
surface it appears a throwback.
However, for anyone who is ink price conscious, and it would seem that's
actually most of us, considering the cost, this idea of high dye load
ink and small dots is just the ticket.
When it comes to dyes, one of the problems is that, as we know, they
tend to be fugitive. In particular, the light dye load inks tend to
fail. The reason for this is that dye molecules are sensitive to UV
excitation and they literally fly off the page. The more dye molecules
that get piled up on top of each other, the more the ones on the top
surface help to protect the lower ones. So a heavy dye load ink which
is distributed as a small dot, provided more protection that a highly
diluted ink in a larger dot.
The problem in the past with 4 color printers, which lead to the 6 color
systems (besides the great money in ink sales by selling mainly water
with even less dye in it (the most expensive ingredient) and having that
ink used up at twice the rate of the other ink) was that larger dark
dots at a lower frequency, just didn't look very good. It was grainy
looking, caused a lot of dot gain, and didn't allow for the number of
color combinations that could successfully trick the eye.
But as printers became both faster and more accurate with more
addressable locations per inch, the main problem was making the dot
small enough so that many individual dots could be formed accurately and
interspersed with other dots of other colors. Also, at about 2
picolitres, dots become invisible individually fro all but those with
very acute vision.
Keep in mind color photographic film is only made up of three dye
layers, CM and Y, but the grain is mall and variable in size and
placement so it appears pretty continuous tone until pretty high
magnification.
So, what Canon has done here is going to cut heavily into ink usage, and
therefore sales, while creating a printer than can provide a sharp image
and more than enough color combinations for the majority of viewers. It
will be interesting to see is Canon's introduction of this concept to
the market will be copied or bucked.
Art
