Perhaps you’ve heard your print or marketing consultant tell you that your job would be printed on the HP Indigo digital press, as if you were supposed to get excited about such great news. As in most industries, there are terms and technology that aren’t easy to keep up with, and quite honestly, print and marketing customers shouldn’t have to.

It’s likely that only your print specialist gets excited about the model of printer being used. However, the HP Indigo press is a rather impressive machine and offers services unmatched by any other printer. Alexander’s uses two HP Indigo presses.

I’d like to share four things about the Indigo so our print customers know what kind of capabilities they have access to.

1. Productivity

At Alexander’s we use the HP Indigo 7000 digital press. It has a powerful engine for high-volume production. The press can generate 120 letter-sized pages per minute in full color or 240 pages per minute in either monochrome or two colors. This is good news for your printer because that means they can do more work in less time. But, this is especially great news for the customer. In the past, you often had longer wait times for print jobs coming off the press, whether it was offset or digital, but if your printer can crank out 3.5 million color pages every month with just one of these machines, your jobs will be done faster and you won’t have to compromise quality.

2. Digital Technology

People often ask us what the difference between digital and offset printing is. Traditionally, offset lithography has been the most common way to print high volume jobs. This method takes the print image and burns it onto a plate, then the image is transferred from the plate, to a rubber blanket, and onto the printing surface. Offset printing allows for exact color matching, and typically the price of printing goes down as the quantity goes up.

However, digital printing doesn’t rely on production of films or color proofs, which makes the whole process faster. While offset still has many advantages, digital printing offers quicker turnaround, better accuracy and less waste. You also don’t have to print thousands of sheets to get the price per unit that you want. With digital technology shorter runs are more affordable.

3. Top Quality Prints

The HP Indigo 7000 digital press provides sharper images, more vivid colors, and better gloss uniformity than ever before. This means the Indigo can bring you offset quality and color in smaller quantities. With the HP Indigo Ink Mixing System, special spot colors can be created so that you can match all your collateral materials and maintain better brand identity.

4. Variable Data

With digital technology, the HP Indigo can handle variable data. This means that we take information from a database or external file, and we can print that variable data on individualized pieces without slowing down our press. Typically our customers use this technology for newsletters, direct mail campaigns, or other personalize marketing collateral. However, we take the hassle out of processes like addressing wedding invitations, or creating customized collateral for corporate events or meetings. We’ve found that with variable data technology and a little creativity, marketing materials are much more effective.

If you have more questions about digital printing, or you’d like a bid on a print or marketing project you may have, contact us.