It is disheartening when you dig up old photos (of yourself sporting that tragic Flock of Seagulls hairstyle, or wearing a "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" shirt, or while somewhere between Burnham Park and the void) stored in drawers with your old socks and secrets, and then find them torn and faded beyond restoration, even of Sistine Chapel-like magnitude.
Memory is an undependable machine; moments don’t last forever; so photographs should function as everlasting mementos (pieces of evidence that we walked this earth).
Canon, a leader in photographic and imaging technology, recently unveiled a new line of printers that will allow users to print pictures with an archival lifespan of – believe it or not – a century. Imagine, prints that won’t fade like wayward loves or untalented pop idols. This is made possible with Canon’s cutting-edge ChromaLife 100 ink technology, which is one of the key features of its new line of Pixma printers (eight models all in all). These new printers deliver prints with kaleidoscopic colors that could overcome the harmful effects of UV light, ozone, humidity and, of course the grand thug of them all, time.
The company recently invited journalists from the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, India, to Tokyo, Japan for its "Photo Perfection for Life" press tour. The Filipino delegates included Canon Philippines assistant marketing manager Lesley Ann Ang, Art Samaniego from Manila Bulletin, Beia Formoso from the Philippine Daily Inquirer, and this writer. Canon presented its Pixma products, and took the journalists on a tour of Japan – from the Canon headquarters to souvenir zone Asakusa to electronic town Akihabara to Nikko Edo Century Village and to the Toshogu Shrine. Which birthed photos upon photos that could practically adorn Canon scrapbooks for a hundred years.
You have an important paper to submit to class (say, about Hegel’s and Marx’s diagnosis of the decadence of Western thought, or how annihilative and annoying Filipino action movies are – the leather jackets, the retarded sidekicks, the token starlets, the chit-chats before blasting one’s brains out, etc.), and you need to print several million papers before you go to class and submit them to your professor who wears barongs that reek of sweat, solitude and spite. The problem is, a sloth could run faster (with time to drink Gatorade and such) than a regular printer could churn out printouts. And if you need to submit graphics or visuals, you’d get printouts as colorful as a Bear Brand commercial. You have no choice but to get a humiliating grade from your professor X.
Because of companies like Canon which constantly push the technological envelope, the era of sluggish, slowpoke printers is as vivid and as indelible as a vodka-fueled nightmare. Lucky are college kids these days who don’t have to go through paralyzing tedium just to have their theses printed. During one of the presentations in Tokyo, Canon Singapore consumer imaging and information division vice president Melvyn Ho charted the improvement of Canon printer technology.
"In 1996, we started our ‘Photo Realism’ concept," Ho said. Three years later, Canon pursued photolithography with its BJC-8200 full-color inkjet printer, featuring a new printing head know-how called MicroFine Droplet Technology.
"In 2001, we introduced the first camera-direct products, which allow digital pictures to be printed on inkjet printer directly from a camera," he explained. Because of this technology, users can get their pictures in a jiffy without any need for computer access. "This started the ‘My Foto Lab’ concept," Ho added.
Other techno-logies that followed included the Easy-PhotoPrint software, the PictBridge compatible photo printers, and the world’s first one picoliter ink droplet printer in 2004. What this techno-speak translates to is this: beautiful prints, as simple as that. The advantage Canon has over other printer companies is that Canon also manufactures digital cameras. Needless to say, one technology complements the other. And it turns out that the company is not done with raising the bar for photo printing.
Canon Singapore regional director and GM Eiichi Udagawa, domestic director and GM Andrew Koh, and assistant marketing manager Nelson Tan talked about Canon’s new Pixma all-in-one photo printers, which boast all the functions of a photo lab kiosk. No need to head for the lab and wait an eternity (like enduring David Hasselhoff’s concert at the Berlin Wall) for those vacation photos.
The Canon executives informed us that all the models have the pioneering Full-Photolithography Inkjet Nozzle Engineering (FINE) print head system for impressive speed and quality. The new Pixmas allow users to print their photos without using a computer. They are equipped with individual smart LED ink tanks to alert customers when ink is running low. They have built-in trays so users can print labels directly onto a DVD or CD (which could prove beneficial to independent rock acts who want to release their albums DIY-style.) More nozzles mean greater speed (36 seconds tops for 4R photo). As for design, those Pixma printers are compact, slanted, and sleek mothers.
"Photo-printing has become easy and convenient for users," observed Tan. Ho agreed, "Our new printers give consumers with varying printing needs more choices, more features and better value." The Canon VP added that Canon took into account the need for "ease of use, affordability, quality, durability, and an enhanced photo printing experience."
Easy-PhotoPrint can take care of the red- eye effect (so the subject doesn’t have to look like Wonder Woman when shot with an oppressive camera flash); adjusts the subject’s face to the ideal tone (when it is underexposed or covered by a shadow); gives the skin a delicate, translucent appearance (when lighting makes the skin appear rough or make spots more prominent); enhances the sharpness of the subject (for clearer, more expressive portraits) and removes blemishes (when you have a face that looks like one of the moons of Saturn).
PhotoRecord allows users to create their own unique photo albums. With this software, they can add text, decorate pages with clip art (or even their own illustrations and graphics), resize and rotate photos and even print on Canon’s double-sided photo paper.
Thus, with the PhotoRecord, users can say goodbye to slapdash scrapbooks with shabby cutouts that smell of glue and toil. Hey, if you’re creative enough maybe you could incorporate your boring mug shots into Hipgnosis’ Yes sleeve artworks with their otherworldly landscapes and topographic oceans, or the cover of "Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band" or John Lennon’s Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds illustration. (Maybe an archeologist will unearth them a hundred years from now and think you were The Beatle’s glockenspiel player or something.)
A journalist asked what the limit is in terms of Canon’s relentless drive to come up with new printer technologies.
No limits, answered Ho. "Canon’s goal is to keep providing users with more benefits. We must always move one step ahead of the competition. This business is a survival game."
Yes, the same way photographs are all about surviving or overcoming time.