Canon Announces Desktop Performance in Its New i70 Portable Printer.

Business Editors

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 3, 2003

Fast Printing with High Quality Make the i70 the Perfect Portable

or Compact Desktop Printer

Canon U.S.A., Inc., a subsidiary of Canon Inc. (NYSE: CAJ) today announces the i70 Color Bubble Jet Printer, the next generation portable printer with desktop performance.

The i70, which replaces the award-winning and class-leading BJC-85, will benefit from the latest Canon Bubble Jet technology such as fast printing speeds, up to 4800 x 1200 color dpi(a), Bubble Jet Direct printing from select Canon digital cameras and digital video camcorders, true borderless printing and advanced MicroFine Droplet Technology(TM). The i70 will have an MSRP of $299.99(b) and will be shipping in February 2003.

"With the introduction of the new i70, Canon builds on a very successful history of leadership in portable Bubble Jet printing solutions," said Ryoichi Bamba, senior vice president and general manager of Canon U.S.A.'s Personal Imaging Systems Group. "The i70 combines the printing power of a desktop with the convenience of portability, and its high-tech, stylish design will appeal to a very broad market of users with diverse needs."

Major features on the i70 fall into three categories - Quality, Speed, and Bubble Jet Direct printing. Quality is delivered by using a maximum 4800 x 1200 dpi color resolution with Canon's advanced MicroFine Droplet Technology and a five-picoliter ink droplet. Advanced MicroFine Droplet Technology is an ink ejection process that separates and ejects prescribed-volume ultra-fine ink droplets from the nozzles with precise accuracy. Five-picoliter drop size provides excellent photo quality.

Printing speeds will rival many desktop printers at 13 pages per minute (ppm) in black and 9 ppm in color.(c) This is a dramatic increase from 5 ppm black and 2 ppm color on the BJC-85 and makes the i70 the fastest portable printer available today. Canon achieved the jump in speed by using the current award-winning S330 Color Bubble Jet printer and miniaturizing the engine and printhead to fit into a portable package. In addition to the fast text speed, the i70 will print borderless 4" x 6" photos in approximately 88 seconds.(c)

As the number of digital camera owners grows so does Canon's commitment to providing customers easy ways to print digital images. The i70 will have Bubble Jet Direct printing capability allowing owners of select Canon digital cameras and digital video camcorders to connect their devices directly to the printer and print images without the use of a computer.

To decrease the number of cables the consumer must use, Canon designed the i70 printer with a Camera Port for Bubble Jet Direct printing. With the Camera Port, users can connect their camera and printer using the USB cable included with their Canon digital camera or video camcorder and print borderless photos virtually anywhere.

The i70 will provide versatility of use by offering a couple of power options. The printer will come with a power cable for desktop and AC power use and the consumer has the option to purchase a Portable Kit that includes a Lithium Ion battery with a 450 page life per two-hour charge plus a battery holder that will allow the battery to be charged while on the unit for an MSRP of $99.99(b), (extra Lithium Ion battery inserts are available for an MSRP of $89.99(b)) or a Cradle Kit that includes the Lithium Ion battery, the battery holder and a charging cradle for an MSRP of $139.99(b).

For increased productivity, the new inks for the i70, BCI-15 black and BCI-15 color, will increase the ink yields 250% for black printing+ and 200% for color++. This increase in yield can be attributed to the volume increase of 265% in the black tank and 125% in the color tank compared to the inks for the previous BJC-85 product.

Shipping with Canon's i70 printer will be the latest version of Easy-PhotoPrint, an all-new web-printing application called Easy-WebPrint, PhotoRecord, PhotoStitch, ZoomBrowser and ImageBrowser. The new version of Easy-PhotoPrint adds 5" x 7" photo printing support to the 4" x 6" and 8.5" x 11" current printing capability. The driver also features a new Photo Noise Reduction function that helps reduce speckle noise often found in blue areas such as the sky. Easy-PhotoPrint also includes Exif technology and is available for Windows and Mac.

Easy-WebPrint (Windows) is a new software application from Canon that is designed to quickly and easily format web pages for a variety of print layouts. No more cutting off the side of the website, because your web browser can't format the page. For owners of many current and past Canon Bubble Jet printers, Easy-WebPrint will be available as a free download from the Canon U.S.A. website. PhotoRecord software (Windows) allows end-users to easily crop digital photos, create albums and print photos. PhotoStitch (Windows and Mac) allows users to quickly format panoramic shots taken with digital cameras and ZoomBrowser (Windows) and ImageBrowser (Mac) provide easy digital download, viewing and photo album capabilities.

As with all 2003 Canon printers, the i70 will support true borderless printing on 4" x 6", 5" x 7" and 8.5" x 11" papers. The 5" x 7" size Canon Photo Paper Plus Glossy is manufactured to produce vivid photos that rival that of standard mini-lab prints at an economical price. With a 10.5-mil thickness and a high-gloss surface, pictures will have the look and feel of traditional photographs. Photo Paper Plus Glossy (5" x 7" size) will be available at an MSRP of $7.99(b) for a package of 20 sheets and will be shipping in February 2003.

Connectivity on the i70 will be USB, IrDA+++ and a Camera port for select Canon digital cameras. It will be compatible with Windows 98/ME/2000 and XP, and Mac OS compatibility will be 8.6 to 9.x and OS X v 10.1 or later (Mac OS X borderless printing requires v 10.2 or later.). The i70 comes with Canon's one-year limited warranty with InstantExchange (see Canon U.S.A. website for details).

Canon U.S.A., Inc. delivers consumer, business-to-business, and industrial imaging solutions. In 2001, the Company was listed as one of Fortune's Most Admired Companies in America, and was ranked #41 on the BusinessWeek list of "Top 100 Brands." Its parent company Canon Inc. (NYSE:CAJ) is a top patent-holder of technology, ranking third overall in the U.S. in 2001, with global revenues of $22 billion. Canon U.S.A. employs approximately 11,000 people at over 30 locations. For more information, visit www.usa.canon.com .

Specifications subject to change without notice. All referenced product names, and other marks, are trademarks of their respective owners.

(a) Ink droplets can be placed with a pitch of 1/4800 inch at minimum.

(b) Prices are MSRP at time materials were created. Prices subject to change at any time. Actual prices are determined by individual dealers and may vary.

(c) PPM printer speed based on high-speed draft mode. 4" x 6" photo print speed based on standard (default) mode using Canon Photo Paper Pro For Borderless Printing 4" x 6". Print speed will vary depending on system configuration, software, document complexity, print mode and page coverage.

+ Based on 1,500 characters per page normal text, on standard and

plain paper mode with Windows XP.

++ Based on printing the ISO/JIS-SCID N5 pattern on standard and

plain paper mode with Windows XP.

+++ IrDA printing compatible with Windows 98/ME/2000 and XP.