Tokyo, Japan – The Camera & Imaging Products Association (CIPA) announced today the establishment PictBridge, a new industry standard to facilitate the direct printing of photos from a digital camera to a printer.
The standard, which was originally proposed last December by Canon, Fujifilm, Olympus, Seiko Epson, and Sony, is intended to enable any digital camera to directly print via a USB connection to any photo printer without a printer. Consumers would be able to control print functions (like the number of prints desired) from the camera’s LCD screen.
It is expected that the aforementioned companies will be the first to sign onto the new spec, with enabled products to follow later in the year.
Currently companies such as Canon and HP have their own proprietary solution for direct printing between digital still cameras and printers – a feature that is increasingly prevalent among vendors’ products. The unified and open specification would ensure compatibility across all PictBridge-enabled digital cameras and printers.
According to CIPA, the uses of the standard can extend to any input or output device that receives, views, and send digital still images, including PDAs and camera equipped cellphones.