Canon Announces MX7600 With New Ink Pigment Printing System 3rd March 08 - Canon announced today the addition of a new multifunction printer, Canon Pixma MX7600, designed for the home office and small businesses. The MX7600 is capable of coping, faxing, printing and scanning. The highlight of the printer is what’s inside – the ink system. Along with the printer, Canon introduced Pigment Reaction Technology (PgR), to the MX7600.  Canon claims PgR Technology will improve print quality and longevity. The Canon Pixma MX7600 will be available for purchase for $399. PgR is a system where the printer roller sets a thin layer of clear ink on to plain paper before the actual pigmented inks begin dispensing. This clear ink, Canon claims, improves the quality of the pigmented ink by producing sharper text and images, raising intensity, preventing bleeding and curling and producing prints that are water-fast, smudge-resistant and long-lasting. Canon claims when pigmented ink is ejected on to the clear ink, they react, and the reaction improves saturation and ink fixation. Canon also claims PgR Technology prevents inks from seeping to the bottom of the plain paper because of the layer of clear ink. According to Canon, this is the reason behind the images and text having higher intensity and ink fixation. We'll have to wait until we can test the MX7600 before we can test these claims, but the technology differs from the clear top coat that other photo printers have used; these put a clear coat over the ink, while  PgR puts the clear ink under the pigmented layer. Canon also claims that the MX7600 can manage up to 28 pages per minute (PPM) on black and white prints and 23 ppm for color prints. A 4 by 6 borderless photo print can be produced in 43 seconds, they also claim. The MX7600 is nearly identical to the Canon Pixma MX850 in appearance and function. Both have coping, faxing, printing and scanning capabilties and share the same external design and size. The MX7600 is larger than the MX850 by about 1.6 inches total.   The MX7600 loses inches, however, in its TFT screen. The MX850 carries a TFT screen of 2.5 inches, while the MX7600’s TFT screen is a mere 1.8 inches. The MX7600 does possibly make up for the inches lost in the screen and inches gained in size by losing 14.1lbs. While the MX850 weighs in at 30.7lbs, Canon states the MX7600 to be 16.6lbs.  The Canon Pixma MX7600 will be released  for $399.