SubscribeIt is now more than a decade since digital printing made its debut.
For those companies that adopted the technology, and for their customers who have explored and exploited its benefits, it has transformed the way they think about print, and operate their printing and data management businesses.
Traditional printers have become 'print service providers,' offering a wide range of digital services, often alongside traditional printing operations. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) support, internet distribution, and digital picture library management are now among the services 'printers' offer.
The entry of HP into the commercial, label and specialty printing sectors, with the acquisition of Indigo in 2002, gave an impetus and authority to digital printing that is driving the technology and its adoption by major companies and institutions worldwide.
The key advantage of digital printing is that it is a clean, fast process that doesn't require time-consuming and costly plate making and processing. Digital artwork files in standard formats (Quark, AdobeŽ IllustratorŽ, PDF, AdobeŽ InDesignŽ, and others) can be received over the internet and run after a quick 'pre-flight.' Jobs that used to take two or three days can now be turned around in an afternoon.
HP Indigo Digital Presses
So what does digital printing mean for brand managers, and how can its benefits be leveraged to deliver added value and brand protection?
HP Indigo digital printinghas distinct areas where it can deliver what brand managers are looking for.
- HP Indigo digital presses can print on-demand from standard page formats delivered over the web, reducing the time to market.
- The growing trend to shorter more targeted print runs is not only possible, but cost-effective.
- HP Indigo presses use the unique HP ElectroInk that can reproduce 97 percent of the PANTONEŽ Colour range. With up to up to 7-colour capabilities, presses can print special corporate or brand colours with accuracy and assurance, time after time.
- The ability to print on a very wide range of substrates gives HP Indigo presses unrivalled versatility. For example, the HP Indigo press ws4500, for labels, shrink sleeve and flexible packaging applications is able to print on paper, board, polypropylenes, polyethylenes, polyesters as well as specialised substrates such as metalised PET, 'no label look'
substrates . . . . - The feature that makes digital printing the technology for today and tomorrow is its ability to produce variable data printing (VDP), enabling the production of unique products. This enables coding, numbering, bar coding (1-D and 2-D), the inclusion of brand integrity devices and the production of limited editions or short runs of languages.
The web press, the HP Indigo press ws4500, is the one with the most to offer brand managers in the pharmaceutical, healthcare, cosmetics and food and drink markets. This is because the HP Indigo press ws4500 delivers cost-effective, fast turn-arounds of high quality labels in the short-to medium run lengths that are required by today's just-in-time supply chains.
The ability to print on transparent label substrates with up to 16-layers of colour, including white (enabling double sided labels) is especially attractive to the healthcare and beauty markets. Label finishing can be carried out either with inline or near-line die cutting, or laser cutting as part of a complete HP end-to-end solution.
The HP Indigo Digital Laser Workflow Solution
is the first fully digital end-to-end production system that combines digital printing with digital laser cutting, so not only can label designs be changed on the fly, but also the shape of the finished labels.
The solution is supported by prepress software from Esko and a laser finishing line from A. B. Graphic International.
Harnessing The Power Of VDP
The ability to produce printed products that are unique offers an enormous variety of marketing opportunities and potential for ensuring brand and image integrity. Major pharmaceutical, cosmetics and food and drink suppliers are already using digital printing for labels and other materials.
Apart from production quality and convenience, such things as wine labels can include hotel or restaurant names and images, and even be personalised for special occasions. Cosmetics and toiletries can be branded to specific retails outlets, even particular locations.
When used in combination with coding, this adds an extra degree of product security and trackability. (If a well-known brand of perfume with a label that includes in its branding the name of a London department store shows up in a local street market, its provenance is immediately recognized as fraudulent).
VDP can be harnessed for security purposes, either on its own, or in conjunction with other techniques. Overt and covert features ranging from special colours, UV ink and micro-text to sophisticated colour tiles, colour lines with variable and static sequences, simultaneously aid stocking (track and trace) while providing brand and product protection.
Digital Watermarking
Digital watermarking and data hiding techniques, from HP partner MediaSec, are also well suited to use with the HP Indigo press ws4500. In addition, the ability of HP Indigo presses to print on a wide variety of substrates enables use with materials that include RFID technology. For pharmaceutical applications, a validation pack is available for the HP Indigo press ws4500 that enables printers to provide customers with evidence of compliance with US and EU requirements.
On-demand printing itself has security implications: just-in-time deliveries serviced by on-demand digital printing means that sensitive print isn't subject to sitting around in storage, vulnerable to theft or unwanted examination. Batch numbers and codes can be supplied to printers at the last minute, further controlling the process. Printing what you need, when you need it, for specific markets makes good business sense, and today, about 66% of static (non-VDP) label orders are for run lengths within the 'sweet spot' of the HP Indigo press ws4500's optimum cost-effective production.
Digital printing may also be used in conjunction with other printing processes. For example, UV varnishes, holograms, and other devices may be added during the finishing process, increasing the overall level of protection given to products process.
Limited Only By The Imagination
This same variable data technology can be exploited by marketing managers and designers to produce materials that are only limited by their imaginations. Powerful CRM tools and materials can be generated at sites nearer end-users in cost-effective devolved production.
Since HP Indigo digital print is offset quality, digitally printed products can be readily mixed with conventionally printed ones that make up the portfolio of materials that support a product. Digital printing is now well enough established, and of sufficient quality, that printers with the capability are using it based not only on necessity, but also on production decisions for static jobs.
Image integrity, increased security, faster turn-arounds, variable data printing, substrate versatility, high print quality and special colours are only some of the benefits that digital print can offer international brand managers.
HP Indigo Press Technology
Behind HP Indigo press technology is the whole HP organisation, delivering internet-based production solutions, data management tools and a reputation for global service and support.
Digital printing with HP offers international brand managers a new range of tools and techniques that can change the way their products are distributed, branded, kept secure and delivered to meet today's market demands.