Printing Pics in a Snap

Trying to stand out in a computer printer market traditionally defined by “speeds and feeds,” Canon Computer Inc. in Costa Mesa has focused on marketing printers that do more than just turn out pages of text.

Over the past year, Canon has introduced color printers that can make everything from greeting cards to T-shirt decals. The company’s latest model can be used to produce home photographs, a sign that Canon officials are counting on continued growth in the popularity of digital cameras that store images as computer data instead of on film. The pictures they record can be loaded into a personal computer and printed, if the PC is connected to a fancy enough printer.

Such printers cost thousands of dollars just a few years ago, but technological advances combined and cheaper production methods have reduced prices dramatically. Canon’s new BJC line of printers are priced from $179 to $499. One of those machines comes ready to print high-quality pictures, while the other three require a $45 kit that includes a special printer head, paper and ink.

The image quality and durability may not be quite as good as the prints you get at your local drug store, but are “definitely approaching that which you would find from a professional processor,” said Peter Bergman, vice president of marketing at Canon.

Canon digital cameras go for about $1,000, and that doesn’t count the cost of the computer or the printer. Still, as PCs and printers find their way into more households, at-home picture developing may someday be as simple as a few taps on a keyboard.

Greg Miller covers high technology for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-7830 and at [email protected]