Ricoh Corporation, the leading provider of digital office equipment, today introduced the Ricoh Aficio G700/G500 Series, two color printers that utilize Ricoh's innovative GelSprinter technology. Designed for small businesses and workgroups, the Aficio G700/G500 GelSprinter Series provides full color printing with crisp images that is unlike anything available in today's color printer market.

Color printers usually fall into one of two categories: inkjet or laser. The Aficio G700/G500 GelSprinter Series uses viscous ink and wide print heads creating a new color category. High-speed black and white and color printing, in addition to cost-efficient Level Color mode, enables the Aficio G700/G500 GelSprinter Series to produce vibrant images quickly without high-ownership costs. Also, individual color cartridges maximize ink use and minimize replacement costs, and with wider print heads, users can achieve both swift print speeds and high quality prints on plain paper from the same system.

GelSprinter technology, the viscous ink found in the Aficio G700/G500 GelSprinter Series, is a fast drying, water resistant formula that reduces blurs and bleeding while producing laser-like quality prints on plain or recycled paper. By incorporating 1.27 inch-wide print heads in the design, the viscous ink can be distributed to a larger area with more power than traditional inkjet technology, and by powering the Aficio G700/G500 printers with an electrostatic belt-feeding system, duplex printing with high reliability is possible.

To maintain a low ownership cost, the Aficio G700/G500 Series is designed with separate ink chambers that ensure ink is completely used before a cartridge change, print heads that are developed to last the lifetime of the printer, as well as a Ricoh RPCS Raster driver that enables easy PC configuration and monitoring. Additionally, the Aficio G700/G500 GelSprinter Series is equipped with five quality print modes - including High Quality, Standard/Quality priority, Standard/Speed priority, High Speed Draft, and Level Color.

The Aficio G500 is available at a suggested retail price of $329.00, and the Aficio G700 is available for $449.00.