Canon Printer Cartridges

From Cameras to Ink: The History of Canon

The company we know today as Canon was first founded in 1933, as a small streetside shop called Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory. The founders, Goro Yoshida and Saburo Uchida, started the company in order to produce a 35-millimetre rangefinder camera.   The first camera the company developed went by the name "Kwanon," after a Buddhist Bodhisattva. Although three versions of this camera were marketed and as many as ten were said to be in production, none were ever sold on a large commercial scale.  Although Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory had developed a camera, it had failed to develop a lens. The company decided to partner with Japan Optical Industries—the company we now know as Nikon. This company had developed a camera lens under the name "Nikkor." In 1936, Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory released its first camera to the commercial market: the Hansa Canon.

The Hansa Canon was only the beginning. In 1939, the company began producing its own lenses in-house. A year later, the Japanese army approached several manufacturing companies with a request to produce an X-ray camera. These companies in turn came to Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory with the request. Toward the end of the year, the company produced the first X-ray cameras.  In 1945, the company was disbanded briefly after the end of World War II, after part of its facilities were destroyed by fire. When Allied forces came to occupy Japan, the company's president, Takeshi Mitarai, noticed they showed an interest in Japanese cameras. He made the decision to reopen the company to cater to these interests, inviting back workers who had been let go when the plant closed.

In 1947, Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory changed its name to Canon Camera Company. The name was more appealing than the previous one had been to the occupying allied forces, and the script used in Japanese to write the new name was a style that other companies of the time never used—so the name stood out among its competitors and in the Japanese stock exchange.  Canon's company may have begun with cameras, but it eventually expanded into other markets. In 1982, the company introduced its first personal copying machines to the market. Later, in 1987, the company introduced color copying machines. Technology improved further over the years as the company developed inkjet and laser printers and the world's first ferroelectric liquid crystal display (FLCD).

Today, Canon is well known for its line of cameras, computer printers, and other electronics for home use. However, the company also offers business products such as analog and digital copiers, scanners, and all-in-one machines—and these make a significant amount of the company's revenue. Canon has also developed a line of flat-panel televisions in partnership with Toshiba, under the name SED, Inc.

Among Canon's product lines, the ImageRUNNER series is worth mentioning. This office-sized copier is designed to be environmentally conscious. It warms up in just sixteen seconds, saving energy as well as time. The products in this line also conform to European laws that demand the reduction of lead and other environmentally damaging substances used in manufacturing.  Canon's ImageDirect printer series was also groundbreaking. These Inkjet printers allow users to print directly from their cameras without going through a computer. The printers use photo-quality paper and ink to produce prints that look like snapshots.

Canon's printers are primarily Inkjet, and the company produces a wide range of models from compact desktop printers to all-in-one printers, scanners and copiers. Canon is generally known to sell a high-quality product. However, the print head in a Canon printer is often mounted directly onto the ink cartridge—meaning users must change the ink cartridges if they need to change the print head. In addition, many of Canon's printers use ink cartridge configurations that are not compatible with other Canon printers; some machines use all-in-one ink cartridges, while others require separate black, cyan, blue and magenta cartridges.

Canon is one of the groundbreaking companies that can be credited with the development and improvement of printer technology throughout the years. The company has come a long way since its beginning, and it's one of the oldest printer and electronics companies still in business today.