Alps Electric Introduces Photographic-Quality, Continuous-Tone Color Printer for the Desktop; Quality Rivals Lab-Processed Photographs and High-End Professional Printers.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- April 1, 1997--Alps Electric (USA), Inc., a leading manufacturer of PC and Macintosh(R) computer peripherals, today introduced the Alps Masterpiece(TM) Photographic-Quality Color Printer, a revolutionary color printer that brings high-resolution, continuous-tone images to the desktop.

The Alps Masterpiece, model MD-2300 for the PC and Macintosh, is ideal for business communicators, photographers, designers, graphic artists, hobbyists and others who want to print images with the clarity, crispness, and realism of traditional photographs from their personal computer.

The Alps Masterpiece achieves continuous-tone output by combining Alps proprietary technology from its line of Micro Dry(R) printers, with aspects of the dye sublimation process. The combination of the two technologies delivers 600x600 dpi resolution in both text and graphics. The result is smooth, continuous-tone images that rival lab-processed photographs and high-end professional printers.

High-end professional color printers are often limited to image resolutions of 300 to 400 dpi, and text resolutions of 400 dpi or less. With its higher resolution, the Alps Masterpiece can print pages with mixed text and graphics that are sharp, smooth, and consistent.

The photographic quality of the Alps Masterpiece extends beyond just the look of the image, it's also the feel of the completed print. The inks go on dry and the media remains flat -- there's no oversaturation or paper warping, even with full coverage. An overcoat ribbon delivers a smooth, consistent, semi-gloss finish, and the Photographic-Quality media has a weight and feel very similar to traditional photographic paper. The result is a final print that looks and feels like a photograph, suitable for a presentation, brochure, scrapbook or gallery.

"This unique technology, developed and owned by Alps, achieves a remarkable quality unlike any other on the desktop," said Kayvan Mozaffari, product manager for Alps. "Alps has spent years developing and refining Micro Dry(TM). Its unique properties can't be matched, and we believe it has a brilliant future."

Two Printers In One

The Alps Masterpiece is uniquely versatile -- by simply snapping in a different set of ink cartridges, users can change the type of output. For day-to-day printing tasks, users can drop in the Micro Dry(TM) standard inks. The standard inks still produce stunning 600x600 dpi photo-realistic color, while also delivering 1200x600 dpi in black-and-white and grayscale -- all of which only require a good-quality laser paper. Using the photo-realistic mode, users can produce crisp, dry overhead transparencies, sharp, colorful T-shirt transfers, and print with true metallic colors.

The photo-realistic mode is faster and less expensive to operate than the photographic-quality mode, making the Alps Masterpiece the perfect platform for going from high-quality proof to photographic-quality final. For example, a newsletter or brochure can be composed, proofed and revised using the lower-cost standard inks and off-the-shelf laser paper. When the user is ready to print the final image, they can simply snap in the Photo ink cartridges and Photographic-Quality media to produce the finished product. Because the proof-to-final process is handled by the same printer, the page setup, fonts, resolution and other elements remain consistent and accurate, saving time and expense for the user.

Easy to Set Up, Easy to Use

Setting up the Alps Masterpiece, and switching between the photo-realistic and photographic-quality modes, is as easy as snapping in the cartridges. All of the cartridges are bar-coded, so they can be loaded in any order. The printer automatically senses the type and position of each cartridge at start-up, and whenever the printer is opened and closed. When users select photographic-quality from the software driver, the printer confirms that Photo ink cartridges are loaded, and displays a message to remind the user that Photographic-Quality media must also be used.

Photographic-Quality Ink Cartridges and Media

The Alps Masterpiece uses a system of proprietary Photo ink cartridges and matching Alps Photographic-Quality media to produce smooth, continuous-tone images. There are four ink cartridges -- cyan, magenta, yellow, and an overcoat. The Photo inks are dye-based (in contrast to the standard Micro Dry(TM) inks, which are pigment-based). These dye-based inks are vaporized by the thermal print head and "sublimated" into the porous layer of the receiving media -- the Alps Photographic-Quality media.

The precise control of the heat to the print head is handled by Alps' proprietary Energy Controller (EC) chip, developed exclusively for the Micro Dry(TM) series of printers. The EC chip controls the energy of each of the 240 elements of Alps' own Micro DOS (Deposition on Silicon) print head. The silicon monocrystals that make up the head have excellent thermal properties and outstanding responsiveness, making it possible to control the heat precisely. For the Alps Masterpiece, the chip has been refined to handle the more complex heat management necessary in the dye sublimation process and the creation of continuous tones.

The dye-based inks and compatible receiving media, along with Alps' own Micro DOS head and EC chip, provide both the continuous-tone image and crisp text at maximum resolution that make the Alps Masterpiece unique.

Like the standard Micro Dry(TM) inks, the Photo inks produce images that are waterproof and smearproof, and can be handled as soon as they come out of the printer. The Photo inks are also fade resistant, but to a lesser extent than the standard inks.

Alps Masterpiece Specifications

The Alps Masterpiece is a four-pass serial printer. The average print speed in the photographic-quality mode is four to five minutes per page for 4" x 6" color images, and 1520 minutes per page for 8" x 10" color images. The Alps Masterpiece also prints 2" x 3" labels and 0.65" x 0.85" stickers.

In the standard print mode, the print speed is two pages per minute for monochrome text, and three to five minutes per page for color graphics. (Graphic print speed is dependent on a number of variables, including complexity of image, amount of coverage, type of application, and speed of CPU.)

The printer features a compact design and an automatic sheet feeder that holds 20 Photographic-Quality sheets or 100 sheets of laser paper. The sheet feeder accommodates letter, A4, B5, and legal size paper. Photographic-Quality print media is available in 8 1/2" x 11" and 4" x 6" sheets, in 2" x 3" adhesive labels (2 per sheet), and in 0.65" x 0.85" stickers (20 per sheet).

The PC version requires a parallel interface (IEEE-1284 bi-directional cable recommended). It is DOS, Windows(R), and Windows 95 compatible, and includes Alps' own Color Matching Method for color correction. The Macintosh version requires a SCSI interface and is ColorSync(R) 2.0 compatible. Support for Adobe(R) PostScript(R) Level 2 will be offered as a software option shortly after release.

Bundled Software, Ink Cartridges and Media

The Alps Masterpiece comes with two sets of ink cartridges and sample media, so users can immediately experience the quality and versatility of the printer. Four Photo ink cartridges and four standard ink cartridges are included, along with sample packs of Photographic-Quality and photo-realistic media.

Also included with every printer is Adobe(R) PhotoDeluxe(TM) photo editing software. Adobe(R) PhotoDeluxe(TM) contains over 500 pictures, clip art and templates, and more than 25 built-in guided activities for creating photo projects. It allows the user to fix common photography mistakes such as blurred images or "red eye." Users can also transform images, such as adding and removing people or objects from a scene, adding text, or changing the background.

Additionally, the Alps Masterpiece comes bundled with the Alps Image Library CD, which contains several high-resolution images so users can immediately print out photographic-quality samples.

Pricing And Availability

The Alps Masterpiece has an estimated street price of $749.00 (SRP $970.00), carries a one-year warranty, and is available immediately through national distributors, large computer chain stores, and computer superstores. The Photo ink cartridges have a suggested list price of $11.99 each, and the Photo overcoat cartridge has a suggested list price of $8.99. The standard color ink cartridges have a suggested list price of $6.60 each and the metallic color ink cartridges have a suggested list price of $8.99 each. The Photographic-Quality media has a suggested list price of: 81/2" x 11"/20 sheets, $21.99; 4" x 6"/20 sheets, $7.49; 2" x 3" labels/2 per sheet, 10 sheets, $8.99; 0.65" x 0.85" stickers/20 per sheet, 10 sheets, $8.99. The cartridges and media can be found anywhere Alps Micro Dry(TM) printers are sold.

The Micro Dry(TM) Family

The Alps Masterpiece MD-2300 is the third in a family of Micro Dry(TM) color printers from Alps, but the first to also offer continuous-tone technology that renders truly photographic-quality images. In September 1996, the company launched the MD-2010 Photo-Realistic Color Printer followed by the industry's first integrated color printer & scanner -- the MD-4000.

The entire line of printers is based on Alps' patented Micro Dry(TM) inks, which are waterproof, smearproof and resistant to fading with age or exposure to sunlight, so deep, rich color is permanent and long lasting. Freshly printed Micro Dry(TM) images can be handled right away.

The standard Micro Dry(TM) inks can also print on a variety of media in vibrant, high-resolution color, such as good-quality laser paper, overhead transparencies, backprint, and iron-on T-shirt transfers, as well as photos and other coated papers.

The Alps Micro Dry(TM) printers are also the first to offer metallic color printing. In addition to the standard color cartridges (cyan, yellow, magenta, and black), there are four metallic colors (gold, silver, cyan, and magenta). These eye-catching colors add emphasis and liveliness to business cards, letterhead, greeting cards, and other images.

Adobe Systems, Inc.

Based in Mountain View, Calif., Adobe Systems Incorporated develops and supports products to help people express and use information in more imaginative and meaningful ways, across all print and electronic media. Founded in 1982, Adobe helped launch the desktop publishing revolution. Today, the company offers a market-leading line of application software and type products for creating and distributing visually rich communication materials; licenses its industry-standard technologies to major hardware manufacturers, software developers and service providers; and offers integrated software solutions to businesses of all sizes. For more information, see Adobe's home page at www.adobe.com on the World Wide Web.

Alps Electric (USA), Inc.

Alps Electric (USA), Inc., located in San Jose, Calif., manufactures and markets peripherals, including pointing devices, such as the Alps GlidePoint(R) family of products, keyboards, floppy drives, and other electronic components for the computer market through reseller, government, OEM, and direct channels.

Alps Electric (USA), Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Alps Electric Co., Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Alps Electric Co., Ltd. is an almost $4 billion Fortune International 500 company. For more information, contact Alps Electric (USA), Inc. at [phone], or see Alps' home page at www.alpsusa.com on the World Wide Web. -0-

NOTE TO EDITORS: Adobe, Photoshop, and Adobe PhotoDeluxe are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated. GlidePoint is a registered trademark of Cirque Corporation. Other names identified by TM or R are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

CONTACT: Alps Electric (USA), Inc.

Kayvan Mozaffari, 408/432-6000

e-mail: [e-mail]

or

De Anda Communications

Jennifer De Anda, 510/516-3630

e-mail: [e-mail]