Inkjet & Digital Printing
HP Unveils Partner Portal and Exhibits with Key Partners at Graph Expo
Tuesday 28. October 2008 - HP today announced that its portfolio of prepress, workflow and finishing partners for digital printing is more comprehensive than ever before, enabling a wider range of production printing applications.
At Graph Expo, HP is launching the HP Indigo Partner Center, a website that serves as a central point for information on HP Indigo partners and partnering programs.
HP is exhibiting at the trade show with more than 20 partner companies, offering an extensive lineup of solutions for the HP Indigo presses and HP Specialty Printing Systems product lines.
The HP Inkjet High-speed Production Solutions division will have a new exhibit of videos of the HP Inkjet Web Press and its partner solutions.
“HPs extensive portfolio of graphic arts solutions has attracted an impressive number of top-quality technology providers that enable our customers to pursue greater profit opportunities within their print businesses,” said Michael Hoffmann, senior vice president, Graphics Solutions Business, HP. “Customers can differentiate themselves and successfully approach new market areas by employing HP technology with solutions from our partners.”
The HP Indigo Partner Center: a one-stop information source
Accessible at www.myhpipc.com, the HP Indigo Partner Center is the central place for information about partner solutions compatible with HP Indigo presses. The site includes two sections, one for HP SmartStream workflow partners and finishing partners, and one for HP Indigo media partners and preferred media partners.
Each partner section on the HP Indigo Partner Center includes up-to-date information for customers and prospective partners.
Customers can search and review compatible solutions for their specific press model to find accurate information on the right workflow, finishing and media choices available for photo specialty, labels and packaging, publishing, direct mail and general commercial printing, or any other application handled by HP Indigo devices.
Prospective partners can view program requirements and partnership applications as well as information on software development kits. The website also features detailed comparison charts showing the different features and benefits available through tiered partnership programs for HP Indigo presses.
Strong showing of partners
HPs Graph Expo exhibit features an expanded list of partners, emphasizing how industry-leading workflow, prepress and finishing technology providers can combine with HP solutions for higher productivity and profit potential. Partners and featured partner products for HP Indigo presses, the HP Inkjet Web Press and HP Specialty Printing Systems product lines highlighted at the HP Graph Expo booth are listed below.(1)
HP Indigo partners
DigiLabs offers HP Indigo operators a simple, fast and cost-effective way to enter the photo market. Using privately labeled DigiLabs software, print service providers (PSPs) and photo labs can have their customers create and send to them a large variety of photo products, including photobooks, calendars and cards for printing.
DirectSmile, a pioneer of image personalization and developer of variable-data publishing (VDP) tools, storefront integration, campaign management and associated technologies, helps printers, web developers and designers implement complex personalization tasks with ease and efficiency. Image personalization offers opportunities for creative designs with variable content for print, email and personalized URL marketing as well as Web and e-commerce initiatives.
A leader in digital color finishing, Duplo is the only manufacturer dedicated to the production of a complete line of on-demand solutions. An ideal complement to digital color production presses, Duplos DC-645 Slitter/Cutter/Creaser is a great finishing solution for digitally printed documents as it performs up to six slits, 15 cuts and 10 creases in a single pass, eliminating unattractive white borders and cracked spines.
EskoArtwork has in the HP booth a display of its production workflow for folding cartons along with a Kongsberg i-XE 10 digital finishing table enhanced by i-cut technology. The packaging design and packaging prepress software demonstrated is based on EskoArtwork Studio for Boxes and the Plato step and repeat solution. EskoArtwork is also an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partner with HP for the suite of HP SmartStream Labels and Packaging Solutions.
GBC, an ACCO Brands company, is a world leader in the development of equipment and supplies that laminate, bind and display information. As an innovator in thermal and pressure-sensitive lamination, GBC offers an extensive range of laminating films constructed with various adhesives, opacities and finishes to support any application in the on-demand and digital printing markets.
GP2 Technologies Inc. is well recognized as a world leader in the manufacture of casemakers for print-on-demand, short run, and entry-level automation applications. Its products include the EC-3 Autocase – an efficient solution to automate short-run casemaking in low volumes, the SC-2 Autocase and the fully automated AC-20 Autocase casemaker, which features near-zero makeready and a production throughput up to 1,200 covers per hour.
Leading lenticular 3-D software developer HumanEyes Technologies brings its new extensive range of revolutionary tools and features in the newest HumanEyes Producer³D lenticular workflow solution to Graph Expo. Designed in response to market needs, HumanEyes Producer³D offers an array of new lenticular tools and “industry first” prepress features that simplify the preprint process, greatly improve lenticular printing efficiency and provide superior lenticular print output.
Morgana Systems offers solutions developed to overcome the problems inherent in finishing digital output. Solutions include DigiFold, the worlds first combined creaser/folder; the DocuMaster, a complete finishing system for digital printers that combines feeding, creasing and high-quality booklet making to enable precollated booklets or brochures to be finished in one highly automated operation; the AutoCreaser, an affordable, high-speed creaser; and the Electro-Creaser, a semi-automatic unit for lower-volume creasing applications. Morgana solutions combine patented technologies designed to combat cracking, as well as provide the speed of set-up and ease of use that are essential in the on-demand print environment.
Pageflex develops best-in-breed technology that enables users to take their web-to-print and customized communication efforts to a new level. From the desktop to the enterprise, Pageflex supports customers efforts to create compelling communications and improve the way they do business.
Pixami is a software development company formed in 1998 to provide products and technology to the online photo space. Pixamis “Photo Site” is a turnkey, highly customizable, brandable solution that allows customers to build a successful business from the sale of custom photo books, greeting cards, calendars and other digitally printed products.
Press-sense, the leading developer and supplier of business flow automation for the print industry, offers solutions that allow PSPs to deliver more efficient services to their clients while at the same time opening up new and profitable business opportunities for themselves. By applying process automation to the PSP business (from order taking and price quoting through planning, estimating, business management, fulfillment and shipping), Press-sense solutions offer printers the tools to fully manage, control and automate their business operations. Press-sense is also an OEM partner for the new HP SmartStream Director Web-to-fulfillment workflow solution.
Printable, a leading provider of technologies for intelligent marketing, has a long history of partnering with HP to offer its industry-leading FusionPro VDP suite and comprehensive Web-to-HP press solutions that let PSPs and marketing agencies benefit from online management, personalization, production and fulfillment of their marketing materials in one fully integrated system. Built on open-architected technology, Printables FusionPro solution suite offers both Web-to-print systems (available in both SaaS and server versions) and scalable VDP software to produce powerful, customized marketing campaigns.
For the first time at Graph Expo, the Rollem JetStream will demonstrate in-line finishing of multiple-up postcards. Production is greatly increased as sheets are UV-coated and fed from the HP Indigo UV Coater to the JetStream for highly accurate slitting, trimming and scoring in one automatic system to produce collated packs of card products.
Saepio provides simple-to-use yet powerful marketing asset management software solutions. Saepios LightsOut printing technology helps innovative PSPs and corporate in-plant operations automate the print production process from Web-to- print versioning through final delivery.
Standard Finishing Systems offers a complete range of feeding and finishing solutions geared to short-run digital and offset printing, including the new Standard Hunkeler Gen6 unwinders, rewinders and rotary cutters with chip-out for high-speed continuous-feed digital printers; the new Standard Horizon BQ- 270C single-clamp automated perfect binder; and a fully automated AFC-566FG floor-model folder.
HP Inkjet Web Press partners
BÖWE BELL + HOWELL offers industry-leading technologies for enhancing communication impact, operational efficiency, integrity and the quality of every job and every document produced in a high-volume inkjet environment. The companys portfolio of inserting, sorting, plastic card, integrity, cutting, packaging, print-on-demand and software solutions is the most comprehensive product offering for paper-based and digital mail communications.
CMC designs and produces film wrappers, traditional envelope inserters and paper wrapping systems, and manages related marketing, sales and after-sales assistance activities. The CMC JWR paper wrapper to be used with the HP Inkjet Web Press creates envelopes by wrapping HP-printed documents with paper from a separate web at high speeds, turning a mail piece into a real marketing tool with efficient production in a workflow where messages are printed on both documents and envelopes.
EMT manufactures and engineers web-processing consumables, tooling, sections and finishing lines for the digital, direct mail, commercial and transactional printing markets. The EMT Chameleon 2000 web processing and finishing line is built for widths up to 30 in (762 mm) and can be integrated inline or near-line with an HP digital press as a modular solution or combined to form complete web processing and finishing lines for punching, perfing, sheeting, coating, stacking and batching at tight-web speeds to 500 ft (152 m) per minute.
The Hunkeler digital business unit incorporates pre- and post- solutions for digital production lines in computer centers and lettershops, in print-on-demand and in the production of mailings and forms. The Hunkeler POPP7 system to be used with the HP Inkjet Web Press allows the production of book signatures during the day and newspapers during the evening hours, with the additional opportunity to help users produce as few or as many newspapers as needed, with as few or as many pages of locally relevant content needed.
Pitney Bowes provides the worlds most comprehensive suite of mailstream hardware, software, services and solutions to help manage the flow of information, mail documents and packages for organizations of all sizes. Multiple Pitney Bowes solutions may be used in transpromotional/transactional printing with the HP Inkjet Web Press, and featured solutions include the DOC1 Series 5 document composition solution with Content Author for variable transpromotional messaging; Emtex VIP/VDE for document transformation; barcoding and output management; and the Mailstream Productivity Series and FPS Flexible Productivity Series high-speed, ultra-high-integrity inserters with EMS Envelope Messaging System.
Muller Martini , a worldwide market leader in print finishing, manufactures and provides a broad range of systems to the graphic arts industry, including SigmaLine, a total solution for digital book production that provides consistent integration of prepress digital printing and finishing subprocesses like cutting, folding, gathering, perfect binding and trimming. In-line book production with the Muller Martini SigmaLine, which is based on JDF/JMF workflow and is controlled by an integrated, end-to-end line control system, works with the HP Inkjet Web Press to offer a fully automated single- operation production sequence – from PDF to the finished book – that makes it possible to produce short to medium runs quickly and economically.
HP SPS partner
Microboards Technology , which uses HP SPS thermal inkjet technology for disc printing, will be displaying the MX Disc Publisher, an automated solution for printing and recording DVDs, CDs and blu-ray discs at high speed and low cost per disc. PSPs can quickly expand their offerings to include disc duplication with the MX Disc Publisher and PrintWrite Software, a new step-by-step publishing application that works with all Microboards Publisher series products.