The two were signed for a week after Drupa and replace a fleet of Xerox products, which Top Print managing director Giles Lock said had reached the end of their lives.

They were installed on 17 August and join Top Print’s two Océ VarioPrint 6000s, purchased a few years ago. Top Print mainly produces short-run digital books for the education market.

Speaking at Canon’s Commercial Printing Business Day in Munich, Lock said: “We’d been in the market and had assessed products from competitors and also the offering from Xerox, but when it came to the image quality, the 800 was just that far different that there was only going to be one result. Having been to Drupa and had a good scout again, we managed to do a deal.

“I like the speed, the functionality and the reliability, as well as Océ Prismaprepare software, which we also run on our 6000s, so marrying the front end works well and productivity has been incredible.”

The C800 prints at speeds of up to 80ppm and the C700 prints at up to 70ppm. They both print at a resolution of 2,400dpi, have a maximum sheet size of SRA3 and can handle grades from 52-300gsm.

Lock said the install initially allowed the 14-staff outfit to take on a project at the end of August that it had been “shying away from” for some time, a vintage vehicle directory, which had a run length too short for litho but needed to be of a high quality.

With the increase in capacity, Lock said he is already considering purchasing another Canon machine in the near future and is also looking at the Plockmatic SquareFold machine for Top Print’s finishing department.

Top Print runs a number of other bits of finishing kit in its Alton, Hampshire-based premises, including Watkiss PowerSquares, offline perfect binding and offline wiring.

“I didn’t feel the technology had moved on with the Xerox machines nearly as far as with Canon. The graduations and pastel tints coming through on the 800 are really very impressive and it’s going to help our business,” added Lock.

Last year, Top Print had sales just shy of £1m.

Canon announced at its Commercial Printing Business Day that it has now installed more than 1,000 continuous-feed inkjet printers worldwide since 2008.