The i9900 photo printer features the Canon Think Tank System™, an intelligent
ink-management system that uses individual ink tanks for each color. You replace
only the color that runs out rather than an entire cartridge.
This is the sight that greets you when you lift the cover on the i9900 printer.
Canon's new ChromaPLUS 8-color ink system adds individual red and green ink tanks to
the cyan, magenta, yellow, black, photo cyan and photo magenta inks that are
found on six-color printers.
The red ink tank allows for an approximately 60% increase in
the orange/red gamut over six-color printing and provides for previously unobtainable
orange hues and well as richer reds. The green ink adds about 30% increase in green gamut
as compared to six-color printing and creates more accurate and deeper greens in grass and
foliage.
The i9900 features the world's longest and highest nozzle-density print
head in a consumer printer and has 6,144 nozzles (two times the number of nozzles on
last year's i9100 printer), capable of ejecting a staggering 122 million droplets per
second that are a mere two picoliters in size. The print head uses Canon’s exclusive
advanced MicroFine Droplet Technology™, which ejects consistent prescribed-volume ink
droplets for smooth gradations, accurate skin tones and rich, vibrant colors.
Not only can the user replace the individual ink tanks, you can also replace the
entire print head if necessary. (Replacement print heads are available from Canon
Service after it is determined that a replacement is necessary.) Epson printers
require a trip to the service center when they encounter a print head problem.
Optical ink sensors automatically monitor all ink color levels and communicate
with your computer--giving you a pop-up message indicating exactly what colors
are running low. You can also check the status of the ink tanks at any time
using the Status Monitor of the driver as shown above.
Canon's optical low ink detection system prevents wasted printouts by
notifying you via the Printer Status Monitor before any ink tank becomes
empty, so you'll never unexpectedly run out of ink in the middle of a job again.
A light beam shines through a prism located at the bottom of each ink tank. When
there is sufficient ink, the light is detected by the sensor. When only about
20% of ink is left in any of the ink tanks, the light beam is refracted,
triggering the sensor which tells the printer driver to display a low ink tank
notification for that ink tank.
| 
