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HP to Update Indigos, Designjets; Touts CMYK Plus
2004-03-15 12:12  ???:1820
　　Hewlett-Packard announced several new printers and a color management product at a press conference in Barcelona last week. The lineup includes:
  • HP Indigo 3050 - Based on the current Indigo 3000, the 3050 has been tweaked for better paper-feed reliability, better software stability and, via alliances with Hunkeler, Nilpeter, Omega and AB Graphic, a wider range of finishing options. The 3050 also supports the new Series 4 ElectroInk, which is said to cost less than current consumables and allow longer life of the imaging medium. In addition, HP anticipates that, by Drupa, the 3050 will have received Pantone certification.
  • HP Indigo 5000 - This will be the first HP press to be developed entirely under HP auspices. Among HP's engineering contributions is extensive monitoring of internal conditions that supports a failure-prediction system. Although it runs at the same nominal speed as the 3050 (4,000 four-color A4 pages per hour, or 16,000 single-color pages per hour), the 5000 is engineered for a higher duty cycle. It will be offered with four- to seven-ink printing, again using Series 4 inks, which will allow users to mix custom colors off-press. (HP will also offer its own line of custom-mixed, Pantone-numbered inks.) The standard paper feed provides three trays, and up to four feed units can be installed together. Shipments will begin in May.
  • HP 9850mfp - Although targeting the office market as a combo printer, scanner, copier and fax, the 9850 will also be sold as a digital press. It is rated at 50 pages per minute, with duty cycle of 40,000 to 70,000 page per month. HP's preliminary price of $60,000 includes a Fiery RIP and HP's own workflow tools and color management.
  • For the proofing and design market, HP is adding the Designjet 30 for 13x19-inch pages and the larger 24-inch wide, roll-fed Designjet 130. These models will offer 2,400-dpi resolution with 4-picoliter droplets in all six inks. They will also support HP's newes dye inks, said to resist fading up to 70 years in Wilhelm tests. Of more immediate impact, the inks also reach their final color quickly; on any HP-recommended paper, color will be stable within one hour (within 15 minutes on certain papers). The printers will be bundled with a custom version of EFI's Bestcolor RIP and GretagMacbeth's EyeOne colorimeter. Shipments will begin in the fall.

　　For all of its color printers, HP is introducing its own CMYK Plus color management software. This is primarily a set of carefully tuned color profiles for each print engine. The profiles define a CMYK-to-CMYK transformation that, we are told, allows a CMYK image to reproduce with optimum gamut, yet similar visual appearance, on any HP device without manual intervention. Although this has long been the claim of color management products in the graphic arts, we understand that HP expects to make this an important part of its push into the broader, enterprise markets long dominated by copier-printer makers.

　　Our take. The new capabilities in the print engines that HP will roll out at Drupa are useful, but not unexpected. Of more interest at the Barcelona press conference was the fact that HP had used its digital presses to personalize the handouts- not just the brochures, but also each attendee's hotel-room key, complementary wine bottle, plastic press-kit envelope, etc. Long before it was a digital-press maker, HP was a world-class computer hardware and software vendor; it knows databases and it understands the people who run databases. Now it is starting to bring that know-how to bear on the world of print. We expect it to be a major contender in one of the few areas of the printing business that's growing fast.