Its recently released report defined the term ’universal’ as a press that cost-effectively prints in both colour and monochrome modes.
The US-based global market research and consulting firm, which focuses on digital imaging technologies and markets, says HP’s Indigo press 5000 is the first example of a device that truly addresses universal production not only from a cost perspective, but through engineering changes that make it more attractive to print black-only pages on a colour device.
The Infotrends report also pointed out that the monochrome production speed of the Indigo 5000 was more than twice as fast as its competitors and said it was the only digital press with seven-colour output capability.
Infotrends’ research shows that a quarter of mono pages are printed on colour devices in a print-on-demand environment and 22.6 per cent of this mono print is produced on high-speed colour devices.
HP’s Indigo press 5000 achieves 100 per cent faster print speeds for monochrome (1/0) printing with up to 16,000 impressions per hour, or 272 pages per minute, HP claims.
Research by HP found that the number of one and two colour pages produced by Indigo press 5000 users was 17 per cent of total output.
According to Alon Bar-Shany vice president and general manager of HP’s Indigo Division, colour volumes are expected to grow, “and we recognise that with the new speed and cost improvements that can be achieved with the Indigo 5000, users will double the number of pages that are printed in single colour and two-colour.”
“Print service providers now have the flexibility to print a wider range of applications on a single device, without it having an impact on their bottom line. This eliminates the need to create or implement new workflows to print occasional single-colour jobs on a separate device.”
Featuring new software editions and hardware options, the top-selling seven-colour digital press is designed to be optimised to print manuals, variable-data statements, transactional documents and other materials that require extensive single colour printing.
The Indigo press also facilitates a more streamlined production process for the printing of books for example, where text pages in mono can be printed alongside full colour pictures and graphics, as well as postcards, where full colour is printed on one side and mono the other, Mr Bar-Shany adds.
