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The company says the PIXMA iP5000 squirts out ink droplets at a tiny 1 picolitre in size and can create prints of 9600 x 2400dpi resolution.

The print heads have also been improved to a level close to the integrated circuits used at professional print labs using technology it refers to as FINE (Full-photolithography Inkjet Nozzle Engineering).

The iP5000 prints at 25 ppm in mono and 17 ppm colour. It costs £169 inc VAT and also supports direct printing from digital cameras.

Also new to Canon's arsenal is the iP6000D - a six colour photo inkjet offering prints of 4800 x 1200 dpi. It also incorporates the new FINE print head technology.

As well as direct printing from digital cameras, it additionally supports infra-red, so many mobile phones will be able to send jpegs straight to the printer without having

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to send it to a PC first. It costs £199 inc VAT. It also has an LCD panel that can be used to preview images and even perform a few basic editing functions such as cropping.

The iP4000R is another new hand on deck, with 802.11g wireless technology (54mbps) and print server software pre-installed meaning it can be networked and used by multiple machines without any scrabbling around hooking up cables. There is an Ethernet port to connect 'wired' as well.

Again, it's a five-ink inkjet printer with FINE print heads with 2 picolitre-sized droplets. It too costs £199 inc VAT.

Finally the iP8500 is at the high end of home printing with eight inks. Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Light Cyan, Light Magenta, Black, are the standard six - but additional red and green inks have been added for more vibrant colours.

With a 4800 x 2400 dpi resolution and eight ink technology, Canon is expecting the printer to handle some large and detailed images and has fitted a USB 2 port so that data can be fed in fast enough to keep up with the print engine.

The iP8500 costs £329 inc VAT.

All the new printers support Windows and Mac platforms. They use individual ink wells for each colour that can be replaced as and when needed, rather than having to replace all the inks of an integrated unit when one colour is low.

They are supplied with software for easy image management, editing and printing.