A light shows you exactly where an issue is; you're not guessing.
In the ongoing human effort to make complex tools feel intuitive, Canon's two commercial printing systems have been recognized by one of the world's oldest and most respected design competitions. The Red Dot Design Award, now in its seventh decade, acknowledged the varioPRINT iX1700 and Colorado XL-series not merely for what they produce, but for how thoughtfully they invite the people who operate them into the process. It is a quiet reminder that in industrial design, as in much of life, the most meaningful innovations are often the ones that reduce friction between a person and their work.
- Two Canon commercial printers earned Red Dot Design Awards in 2026, adding to iF Design Award recognition already secured earlier this year — a rare double validation in the competitive world of industrial design.
- The varioPRINT iX1700 pushes 170 A4 pages per minute while navigation lights and a real-time viewing window spare operators the frustration of hunting for problems mid-run.
- The Colorado XL7 line handles everything from flexible banners to rigid acrylic sheets at consistent speed, with a repositionable touchscreen and LED guidance lights that eliminate alignment guesswork.
- Judged across nine criteria by international specialists drawing from 61 countries, the awards signal that ergonomics and user experience have become genuine competitive battlegrounds in commercial printing.
- For Canon, the dual recognition affirms a design philosophy built around reducing operator fatigue and downtime — details that translate directly into money and momentum on a production floor.
On May 29, Canon announced that two of its commercial printing systems had earned the Red Dot Design Award for Product Design in 2026 — a distinction that followed iF Design Award recognition from Germany earlier in the year.
The varioPRINT iX1700 is a high-speed digital press capable of moving 170 A4 sheets per minute, pairing a high-definition printhead with an ink circulation system built for high-density latex ink. What sets it apart in design terms is how it thinks about the operator: navigation lights identify problems at a glance, a flat top surface doubles as a workspace, and a large side window lets workers watch the printing process unfold without interruption.
Canon Production Printing's Colorado XL7 line takes a similarly operator-centered approach to large-format UV inkjet printing. Available in roll-to-roll and hybrid configurations, it handles flexible film, foam board, acrylic, and rigid substrates at the same speed. A repositionable touchscreen, LED guidance lights for media alignment, and a transparent top cover all work together to keep operators informed and in control throughout a run.
The Red Dot Design Award, established in 1955 and now drawing entries from 61 countries, evaluates products across nine criteria including innovation, functionality, and ergonomics. For Canon, earning the award twice over reinforces a broader design conviction: that in commercial printing, where downtime costs money and operator fatigue compounds across a shift, the most valuable engineering is the kind that quietly gets out of the way.
Canon announced on May 29 that two of its commercial printing systems have earned the Red Dot Design Award for Product Design in 2026, adding to recognition the machines had already received from the iF Design Awards in Germany earlier this year.
The varioPRINT iX1700, built by Canon Inc., is a high-speed digital press engineered to move paper through at a clip of 170 A4-size sheets per minute, or 73 larger B3-size pages in the same span. The machine pairs a high-definition printhead with an ink circulation system designed to handle high-density latex ink, which keeps downtime low while producing output that rivals traditional offset printing in quality. The design choices reflect thinking about how people actually work with the machine. Navigation lights pinpoint where problems occur, so an operator can see at a glance what needs attention without hunting through menus. The flat top surface doubles as a workspace when needed. A large window runs along the side, letting operators watch the printing process unfold in real time.
Canon Production Printing developed the Colorado XL7 line—available in both roll-to-roll and hybrid configurations—large-format UV inkjet printers that handle an unusually wide range of materials at the same speed. Banners, flexible film, foam board, acrylic sheets, rigid substrates: the machine treats them all the same. The design prioritizes clarity in how operators interact with it. The touchscreen can be positioned at either the input end or the output end depending on the workflow. LED guidance lights provide immediate visual feedback as media feeds in, ensuring proper placement and alignment. A transparent top cover lets operators see the printing process continuously, eliminating guesswork.
The Red Dot Design Award, established in 1955 and administered by Switzerland-based Red Dot Award AG, ranks among the world's largest design competitions. This year's judging drew entries from 61 countries and regions, evaluated by international design specialists across nine criteria: innovation, functionality, quality, ergonomics, and others. The award recognizes three categories—Product Design, Brand & Communication Design, and Design Concept—and carries weight in an industry where user experience and intuitive operation have become competitive differentiators.
For Canon, the dual recognition signals that its approach to commercial printing equipment—embedding thoughtfulness into the physical and digital interfaces operators touch every day—resonates with design professionals worldwide. Both machines prioritize reducing friction: fewer reasons to consult a manual, fewer moments of confusion, fewer interruptions to the work itself. In a sector where downtime costs money and operator fatigue compounds over a shift, those details matter.
Citações Notáveis
The design streamlines operator interaction through clearly structured touchpoints and integrated LED guidance that provides immediate visual feedback.— Canon Production Printing, on the Colorado XL7 design
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why does design matter so much in industrial printing equipment? Isn't it mostly about speed and output quality?
Speed and quality are table stakes, but they're not enough. An operator running one of these machines eight hours a day needs to understand what's happening without constant friction. If you have to stop and think about where a problem is, or fumble with menus, that's lost time and lost money.
So the navigation lights and the transparent covers—those aren't just nice to have?
They're fundamental to how the machine works in practice. A light that shows you exactly where an issue is means you're not guessing. A window that lets you see the process means you catch problems before they compound. That's not decoration; that's engineering.
The Colorado XL7 can handle both flexible and rigid media at the same speed. How does that change what a print shop can do?
It means you're not buying two machines or reconfiguring between jobs. You can run banners, then foam board, then film, without stopping to swap equipment or adjust settings. That's efficiency at the workflow level, not just the machine level.
And the touchscreen that can move to either end—is that solving a real problem?
Yes. Different shops have different layouts. Some want to control from the input side, some from the output. Instead of forcing one choice, the design accommodates both. That's thinking about how the machine actually lives in a workspace.