Deceptively realistic—An apt description of the large poster before me, measuring 1,524 mm high by 2,300 mm wide. (Huge banners up to 18 meters long are also possible.) The Ducati in this photo was certainly realistic enough to be mistaken for the actual Italian motorcycle. I saw none of the rough pixelation usually associated with poster printing. As closely as I looked, I found no trace of granularity or other imperfections to indicate that this was indeed a printed image. The disc brakes, the engine cylinders, the crank case... every intricate detail was faithfully captured. Even the look of the various materials showed an impressive sense of texture. With life-size dimensions, I thought I was seeing the real thing in front of me. I was floored.

This is the real power of Canon's new imagePROGRAF series of large-format printers. What's the story behind the development of L-COA, the new image processor that makes these printers possible?