(Read the official product announcement here.) 

drupa 2020 may be postponed until 2021, but new product announcements spurred by pre-drupa development keep on coming, and you can expect even more. Today’s announcement comes from Canon.

Canon originally introduced its VarioPrint i300 in 2015, the i200 in 2017, and today, with more than 250 VarioPrint i-series machines installed around the world, the very successful sheetfed platform is the one that their competitors are constantly trying to emulate. The i-series has evolved since its initial introduction in 2015 as a transactional and book press, with new inks, printheads, and “optional” ColorGrip (see below), which in aggregate raised the bar on the imaging quality, media compatibility, and overall performance. These “iQuarius” updates have allowed many i-series owners to regularly produce direct mail and some general commercial work that would previously be produced with toner or offset presses. In fact, some of these same developments found their way into the ProStream 1000, Canon’s premier production inkjet press. Five years later, it is time to add further improvements with an eye on the needs of the high-quality commercial print market, so it is time for a new platform.