On February 10, 2012, Canon had an employee teach its educational program class “The Color-production Systems of Cameras and Printers,” to 20 students of the Yokohama Municipal Fujinoki Junior High School, for career education.

The class began by having the students take on the challenge of shooting photos on their own using a single-lens reflex digital camera. These shots were printed out using a special inkjet printer prepared for the class, which allows the printing process to be viewed directly. The students raised their voices to cheer as they were able to see their photos emerge rapidly on white paper.

This was followed by using a small microscope to view the printed photos magnified by 100 times. The students were excited at seeing that a smooth and beautiful photo was actually composed of many small dots. Upon taking an even closer look, they realized that the colors of these dots were produced through combinations of only three different colors; what are called the three primary colors.

Shouts of surprise rang once more at the sight of vivid color photos being created merely by overlapping three sheets of transparent film each printed by the three respective primary colors: cyan, magenta and yellow. Thereafter, they all took part in a game where they combined colors. By playing this game they were able to actually experience for themselves the production of a variety of colors through the combination of the three primary colors alone.

Through these various activities, the class had the students learn how printers, cameras and television sets, all things they are familiar with, are able to produce beautiful color images.

In the second half of the class, the instructor introduced the students to the technology used in a Canon inkjet printer, and also explained the various operations a company undertakes, such as research and development, production and sales.

Lastly, to commemorate the class, Canon presented the school with a gigantic photograph, some three meters long, of the Milky Way Galaxy, produced using a large-size Canon inkjet printer.Exclamations of wonder could be heard from the students upon viewing this enormous vivid and beautiful print.

Experiencing the wonders of things familiar to them and also learning about how a company works and the duties of its employees, the students listened earnestly during this class, which taught them things that were unlike their usual lesson contents.