Canon goes after CAD and GIS market with Canon imagePROGRAF iPF700 wide format inkjet printer.

CAD, GIS, and technical drawings are part of our background at FLAAR for several decades. We have experience with architectural drawings, maps, and are in the same building as the architecture department on our university campus. Plus every generation of the Hellmuth family has produced several architects: of these HOK Architects is the best known.

So far, we instinctively use HP Designjet printers, because that is what architects have used for years, since the era of pen plotters.

Besides, HP Designjet printers are the ones we already have. But if any Canon imagePROGRAF iPF700 printers land in our institute, we will consider evaluating them. But in the meantime, we use HP Designjet printers because that is the generally accepted solution for CAD and GIS.

Canon is also trying for the CAD market with their Canon imagePROGRAF iPF600. Even Mutoh is trying to get into the CAD market (probably because otherwise the market for water-based printers is sinking as everyone moves to solvent-based inks). Mutoh is now offering their

The CAD and GIS printer we know most about is the new HP DesignJet 4500, since we were in San Diego the same day it was being presented, so we got invited to listen to the presentation.

If you need a printer to do photographs as well as CAD or GIS, then there are other models to chose from. The easiest way to learn about all the different printers is to find a company that sells all three brands: HP, Epson, and Canon. This way they have no incentive to push one brand over the other (if you deal with a place that sells only one brand, they will naturally tend to suggest that brand over the others). FLAAR has used all three brands over the years.

If you are looking for a place that is not a box-pusher (meaning you want a place that provides service after the sale), then one place we know for many years is Parrot Digigraphic. Their telephone is 978.670.7766.