Pittsburgh, April 29, 2009 – Canon U.S.A. Inc., a leader in digital imaging and office technologies, today introduced PosterArtist 2009^*, an easy-to-use poster-creation application for the Canon imagePROGRAF series of large format printers. With the use of large format inkjet printers continuing to expand in a variety of different vertical markets, there has been an increasing demand for a simplified poster creation workflow targeted for the novice user. With PosterArtist 2009, Canon's fourth generation of PosterArtist software, the latest additions and improvements ensure users the ability to produce professional, high-quality posters with ease.

"Since its inception, the PosterArtist software platform has been a highly successful design tool which provides advanced design capabilities that many printing environments and end-users previously lacked." said Jim Rosetta, vice president and general manager, Imaging Systems Group, Canon U.S.A. "By offering these advanced design features with a user-friendly interface, we hope to help printing environments reduce their overall graphic costs without having to sacrifice quality or innovative designs."

The new PosterArtist 2009 provides the tools necessary to create design-savvy posters without the need for a graphic design specialist, resulting in time and cost savings for large format print jobs that may have been previously outsourced. The bundled software package includes everything needed to create professional posters, signs and banners right out of the box, as well as more than 200 pre-designed templates, more than 1,500 royalty free images, clipart, backgrounds and much more. In addition, several new and improved features of PosterArtist 2009 include: