TAMPA, Fla., Oct. 10 -- Mutoh America Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Mutoh Industries Ltd. of Tokyo, Japan, has announced the release of its new RJ-8000 Falcon II large format color inkjet printers, featuring photo quality production printing. Available in 49-, 64- and 86-inch print widths, the Falcon II offers a wide variety of advanced features, from Dynamic Variable Dot imaging, to adjustable head height, automatic media thickness compensation for media up to 1.5mm thick, and print speeds up to 430 sq. feet per hour. Printing up to eight ink colors, this state-of-the-art printer includes resolution options from 360x360 to 1440x2880 dpi. The Falcon II will be shown, for the first time, this week at the Big Picture Conference being held at the Tampa Convention Center. "The Falcon II family of printers is among the most advanced large format printers available on the market,'' said Guy Cipresso, Vice President of New Business Development for Mutoh America. "It is truly a breakthrough in combined high speed and high resolution output, making it equally suitable for short-run production printing and high-quality photographic reproduction. It is the most versatile performer in its class.'' The piezoelectric drop-on-demand Dynamic Variable Dot imaging technology produces multiple, unique dot sizes. The Falcon II can adjust the size of the ink droplets from each of its nozzles, on-the-fly, resulting in finer detail, smoother gradients and solid crisp colors that are closer to true continuous- tone imaging. Mutoh's Falcon II offers a variety of ink configuration options. Shops that run both pigment and dye inks can load one set of KCMY pigment and one set of KCMY dye simultaneously and instantly switch from one ink type to the other. Mutoh's low-cost dye inks offer vibrant colors and a wide color palette, while the pigment inks provide good outdoor durability and years of indoor archiveability on a wide range of media. Featuring throughput of up to 430 sq. feet per hour, the unit can print a full color poster in less than 45 seconds and a 3x5-foot vinyl banner in less than two minutes. For exhibition graphics, a 4x8-foot panel can be imaged in just 3 minutes, 45 seconds...or an entire 8x20-foot exhibit booth wall in less than 20 minutes. Standard features of the Falcon II include a 128MB image buffer, a 21GB hard disk and, for dependable unattended printing, a motorized media take-up system and automatic ink level monitoring. Available options include a 256MB image buffer and a 100Base-T Ethernet interface. Falcon II also includes a PostScript-3 compatible network RIP server known as the Thunderbird PS-1000. This advanced, Mutoh-developed RIP allows direct printing from any Windows or Macintosh application. By simply connecting the RIP to their network, users can print with spooling capabilities to handle multiple jobs from multiple clients simultaneously. The RIP also features automatic job status reporting, unattended print monitoring and a graphical Web-based user interface. "No longer do you have to make a choice between high production and high quality,'' said Cipresso. "The Falcon II clearly demonstrates Mutoh's innovative technology for advanced color imaging.''