Business News
HP Indigo Digital Solutions Lead Photo-specialty Product Production
Thursday 25. September 2008 - At Photokina 2008 in Hall 4.1, HP will demonstrate its portfolio for the printing and finishing of photo-specialty products, based on its HP Indigo digital presses, new HP SmartStream workflow portfolio and digital front-end and finishing solutions.
“Visitors to the stand will see how HP has continued to develop its photo-specialty solutions to meet customers’ business demands,” said Alon Bar-Shany, vice president and general manager, Indigo division, HP. “Year over year, our customers are experiencing 100 percent growth via HP Indigo solutions that are reliable, versatile and able to meet the combined demands of extreme print quality and mission-critical production.”
In the photo specialty market, HP Indigo digital presses have a leading market share(1). Multiple press orders from leading photofinishers reflect industry confidence in HP Indigo presses and HP’s ability to meet their requirements.
The HP Indigo press 5500 is ideal for the production of photobooks, calendars, greetings cards, postcards and other photo-specialty products. Now enhanced with options to facilitate greater productivity – including inline connectivity to the HP Indigo UV Coater, streamlined HP SmartStream workflow management, an additional feeding unit and thick substrate support – the HP Indigo press 5500 is even better suited to meet the needs of digital printers who need to produce on-demand, short-run applications.
Software solutions from HP partners including Pixami, Digilabs and Ultimate Technographics, and finishing solutions from CP Bourg, Renz and Schmedt will also be featured in the HP stand at Photokina. These partner solutions, with the HP Indigo press 5500, will demonstrate the ease and quality of end-to-end production of perfect bound and hard cover photobooks, calendars and other photo-specialty products.
Earlier this year, HP introduced the HP Indigo 7000 Digital Press that offers increased production power to photofinishers and other print service providers. HP has already seen great success with the HP Indigo 7000 Digital Press with more than 100 installations around the world with more than half in photo-specialty applications.
“The HP Indigo 7000 Digital Press offers greater benefits than other digital presses through increased speed and print capacity, lowering print costs at equal, or even better quality and greater productivity,” said Reiner Fageth, Chief Technical Officer at leading European photofinisher CeWe Color AG. “The enhanced speed capabilities are helping us to optimize our finishing equipment when binding photobooks. We are able to print and bind books at very fast speeds making it more economical and increasing uptime. This positively effects our bottom-line.”
Online photo printing and personal publishing market leader Photobox has teamed up with UK franchise Boots and French online retailer Cdiscouunt to become their exclusive online photo printing partner. Photobox, which merged with the French photo printer Photoways in 2006, will be providing innovative digital services including personalized photobooks and greeting cards.
“Photobox has made substantial investments in the last 12 months,” said Mark Chapman, managing director, Photobox. “We’ve more or less doubled our digital printing capacity by taking advantage of the exceptional productivity of the new HP Indigo 7000 Digital Press.” Group-wide, the company has eleven presses, including two new HP Indigo 7000 Digital Presses installed recently in Sartrouville.
HP will also feature its new HP SmartStream workflow solutions at Photokina 2008 including:
HP SmartStream Production Pro Print Server, a highly scalable, automated and productive print server for managing large print volumes, as well as complex variable data jobs
HP SmartStream Photo Enhancement Server, a scalable solution for image sharpening, smoothing, contrast improvement, red eye removal and shadow enhancement
HP SmartStream Director, a web-to-fulfillment workflow solution, powered by Press-sense, provides a set of applications to meet print buyers online requirements, and streamlines and automates production processes.
Also available in the portfolio, is the HP SmartStream Ultra Print Server offering a completely automated workflow and high-performance RIP solution for high-volume, short-run, image rich print production for photo merchandise applications.
(1) HP internal estimates.