The DreamLabo runs web widths of 127-305mm and is targeted at the production retail photo market dominated by silver halide technology, including high-end personalised photobooks, calendars, and art books.
The company said that high value, ultra short-run or personalised brochures were another possible application, thanks to its ability to produce sharp text down to three point, but initially the press will be restricted to four photo-type coated papers.
"We want to become a top 100 global company and we need to do that through diversification – the DreamLabo represents a market-driven product aimed at a sizeable, untapped opportunity," said Ryoichi Bamba, president and chief executive of Canon Europe, Middle East and Africa.
The 2,400x1,200dpi machine utilises the company’s Full-photolithography Inkjet Nozzle Engineering (FINE) heads, similar to those used in its Pixma range of consumer printers and its imagePrograf wide-format machines, in new 305mm-wide high-density thermal inkjet array.
The DreamLabo 5000 is capable of 16.6 A4 duplex pages per minute, which while slow in commercial print terms is, according to the company, fast in the photo lab market, outputting a 20-page A4-size photo album in 72 seconds or 40 6x4 inch photo prints in one minute.
"The platform itself, the heads, are very fast, but quality and speed is trade-off and for the DreamLabo 5000 we have concentrated on quality," said Canon managing director and chief executive inkjet products operations Katsuichi Shimizu.
It features a seven-colour dye-based ink set, CMYK plus photo magenta, photo cyan and grey, and offers an optical density of 2.2, which according to Canon outperformed technologies including toner and offset.
Duplexing comes as standard, as do double ink tanks and options include a double paper magazine system which can handle up to four reels for non-stop operation.
Designed for 24/7 operation, the DreamLabo 5000 will beginning shopping in Japan in November. European shipments are expected in early 2012 and pricing is yet to be finalised, but Chris Gould, head of Canon Europe’s production photo printing department, said it would be in the region of €420,000 (£362,000).
Story updated with information included in this week's copy of PrintWeek magazine.
Updated: Canon unveils debut production printer for photo applications
Canon has premiered the Dream-Labo 5000 digital press, a technology that could prove to be the manufacturer's first step in developing a high-speed inkjet web platform.
