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The following information is true and accurate at the time of publication.
December 2 , 2002
Leaders in Digital Imaging Market
Propose New Industry Standard for Direct Printing from Digital
Still Cameras
PALO ALTO, Calif., and TOKYO, Dec.
2, 2002 -- Canon Inc., Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd., HP, Olympus
Optical Co., Ltd., Seiko Epson Corporation and Sony Corporation
today announced a proposal for an industry standard that
enables consumers to easily print photos by directly connecting
their digital still cameras to their printers -- no PC required.
Until now, each company had its own proprietary solution
for direct printing -- without a computer -- between their
own branded digital still cameras and printers. This situation
has proven to be limiting to consumers, as they are unable
to achieve the same convenience and ease of use when using
a combination of products of different brands. The unified
specification, tentatively named "DPS," ensures compatibility
across digital cameras and printers, regardless of brand,
giving consumers the flexibility and simplicity to create
high-quality photos.
The specification was originally developed by Canon, HP,
Seiko Epson and Sony. Fuji and Olympus later joined discussions
and collectively the specification was finalized. Together,
these six companies, all leaders in digital imaging, will
continue to advocate industry adoption of this new standard,
which is expected to spur the growth of digital photography.
About DPS
DPS specifies an application layer control protocol and
is independent from any physical transport. It was designed
to be extensible for implementation on future physical interfaces.
The DPS version 1.0 document, which will be published formally
later, is written for USB as a physical transport and Picture
Transfer Protocol(1) as
data transfer protocol. Consumers can simply connect a DPS-enabled
digital still camera to a DPS-enabled printer, using the
camera to perform operations and easily print high-quality
photos.
The following features are supported by a DPS system according
to the recommended specifications:
- Print an image displayed on the digital still camera
- Print two or more images selected from the display
on the digital still camera
- Automatically print images using the Digital Print
Order Format(2) specification
- Print an index of all images
- Print all images
The following features are available using the print setup
option:
- Print part of the image by specifying clip area
- Print multiple copies of a single image
- Print with date
- Specify exact size of a print
The following printer status information is displayed on
digital still camera:
- Establishment of DPS connection
- Printer Error
- Printing progress
- End of print
- Cable can be safely disconnected
More information on DPS is available at http://www.camera-direct.info/.
(1) Picture Transfer
Protocol (PTP) was developed by the International Imaging
Industry Association, an industry standard body, as a standard
for image file transfer. With this protocol, image files
can be transferred between a digital still camera and PC
via USB.
(2) Digital Print Order Format (DPOF) is a standard format control file that is stored in the digital still camera's removable memory card, which specifies which image files should be printed, and the number of copies.
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