Development specifications that far surpass the high performance of conventional printers
The PIXMA PRO-1, PIXMA PRO-10 and PIXMA PRO-100 were released in 2012, completing the lineup of the new series of professional inkjet printers. The stunning beauty of the photos the printers produce is simply breathtaking. Today, we would like you to tell us about your experiences developing the PIXMA PRO lineup. First of all, what was the development concept?
- Nagahara
- Generally speaking, there were two concepts. One was to provide even higher image quality than the existing top-of-the-line model. The other was to enable high-speed printing.
Providing a wider color reproduction range, uniform luster across the entire printed surface and smooth gradations are naturally themes that need to be addressed in the pursuit of excellent image quality. Along with these, from the initial stage of development we decided to focus on the image quality of monochrome photos.
Meanwhile, in terms of printing more quickly, in addition to focusing on printing speed, we decided to use a new mechanism that reduces the number of ink tank replacements required.
- Yazawa
- Essentially, we were going for more beautiful images and faster speed than in previous models, but the previous models were nothing to sneeze at. In other words, the development specifications we were aiming for were easier said than done.
If that was the case, you must have had quite an impressive development team.
- Yazawa
- That's right. And we strengthened it beyond what we had when we developed the previous top-of-the-line model.
Did the popularization of digital SLR cameras lead to a need for high-performance printers?
- Yazawa
- I think you could say that. We're seeing an increase in users who are very particular about print quality, not only among professional photographers, but also semi-professionals and photo enthusiasts.
- Kudo
- With the advanced performance now offered by cameras, it's easy to take attractive photos. This means that people want printers capable of producing attractive photo prints. It's a cycle we're seeing.
- Nagahara
- Although everyone has their own position, I feel that it's our mission to constantly listen to what we're hearing from the market, namely the wish to produce more beautiful prints, and respond to this accordingly.
Preparing for unbelievable levels of improvement
To further raise the already high level of performance, several improvements were made to fundamental inkjet printing technologies and partially new technologies were added. How did you initially feel upon tackling this development project and the various challenges it involved? How about you, Mr. Takayama? You were responsible for ink development, right?
- Takayama
- I was worried that I would cause problems for everyone again (laughs).
Why do you say that?
- Takayama
- The better the ink, the harder it is to handle. I needed the teams responsible for the inkjet print heads and controlling image processes to work hard; that was the first thing that crossed my mind. Of course, this is always the case whenever we develop new ink.
- Kudo
- Good ink is hard to discharge from the print head nozzles. It doesn't fly the way we want it to (laughs). At the same time, when the number of inks increases, it inevitably raises the bar extremely high for achieving uniform printing. This made me think that the level of improvement we'd need was far beyond our previous development efforts.
I see. Did you also sense that ensuring the necessary level of mechanical precision was going to make this a challenging development project?
- Nagahara
- The specifications we sought for precision greatly surpassed those of previous models. When starting development, targets are generally set one level above previous specifications, so it seemed as though we were aiming to develop something quite unbelievable. With the PRO-1, one theme was equipping the printer with a new ink supply system.
- Yazawa
- Newly developing almost everything the ink, print heads and mechanisms is uncommon even for a top-of-the-line model. The flip side of this, however, is that we wouldn't have been able to achieve these specifications without going to these lengths. It was a very challenging development project.
- Yamamoto
- I was responsible for the printing application software, so my concerns differed from those of the others. The thing I had the most trouble with was organizing the requirements for improving usability. You see, professionals use printers in a variety of different ways. This, however, doesn't mean that we can simply add functions to meet every conceivable need. I had trouble deciding which functions to choose.
Well, it seems that each of you in your respective roles clearly anticipated the challenges you would encounter, and then came face to face with these challenges once development began.
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