July 1, 2001 (Copenhagen, Denmark). Contex Scanning Technology, the leading manufacturer of wide format color scanners and related software products has introduced a new line of 36” color scanners, “The Cougar”. The Cougar incorporates the latest imaging technology for high-quality color scanning and copying. The new Cougar implements several Contex patents, including: High Precision Color Scanners, variable line resolution and adaptive error diffusion, thus making it one of the most technological, versatile and advanced color scanner on the market today. The Cougar is an ideal tool for sign companies, pre-press shops, photo labs, copy shops, point-of-purchase and exhibit/display providers. Additionally, Architectural and Engineering offices will find the Cougar 36 and its small footprint, a convenient tool for their CAD and GIS applications. Contex’s new precision color technology enables the Cougar to be calibrated to both the new sRGB and the NTSC standards using an industry standard ANSI IT8 calibration target. The Cougar captures images using all digital 36 bit color from two 10680 pixel tri-linear CCD’s. The Cougar comes fully featured with an amazing 425 dpi optical resolution and a maximum scaled resolution of 2400 dpi. Included in the features list are all of Contex’s unique image processing capabilities for scanning poor quality images, like patented 2D adaptive threshold, sharpening, softening, blurring, and of course Contex’s unique ADL+ error diffusion halftone copying algorithm. The Cougar is the first Contex scanner implementing a new concept of One Touch Scanning. “One Touch Scanning allows the user to scan to file for archiving purposes, print to copy or scan directly to the customer's email system with a single touch” states Bill Mitchell, Contex National Sales Manager. The Cougar comes in two flavors, a base version and a plus version and can be upgraded using Contex’s unique Smartcard Technology. “What’s really exciting about the new Cougar is the total automation of scanner maintenance. With the new Cougar 36 we can now align, stitch, basic calibrate and color calibrate using a single calibration sheet within 5 minutes, and without user intervention, it’s now a fully automated process” states Dan Bennett service manager for Contex. The new automated process, which is the first of its kind in the industry, utilizes motorized cameras to ensure perfect alignment and stitching. In order to meet industry requirements in the print for pay industry, the new Cougar can scan up to 0.6” thick documents using Contex’s new All-Wheel Drive precision rollers with contour adjustment. “Precision tracking of thick documents has become increasingly important for our customers, and with our new All-Wheel Drive, Contex not only avoids slippage of thick documents, but also maintains precision accuracy, even for thick documents” states Henrik Vestermark, Division Manager for North & South America.