HP Expands Graphic Arts Portfolio to Help Customers Drive Growth

ROME—May 10, 2007—HP today expanded its graphic arts portfolio to offer customers an even wider range of digital solutions that feature industry-leading productivity, print quality and color consistency.

The new solutions, which focus on accelerating HP’s growth in key areas of the printing market, enable customers to offer high-quality services, differentiate from competitors and, in turn, increase revenue opportunities. Highlights of the news announced at the 2007 HP Graphic Arts Summit include:

• Two new HP Indigo presses – including the flagship HP Indigo press 5500, which is also available in a special photo package, and the entry-level HP Indigo press 3500 – that are designed to bring industry-leading productivity and digital offset print quality to commercial printers;
• The company’s first branded finishing accessory, the HP Indigo UV Coater;
• The HP mPrinter 1700c, the company’s first process-color device for original equipment manufacturer partners;
• The HP Designjet T Printer series, offering new levels of print quality and dependability to the technical market; and The HP Designjet Z6100 Printer series, which offers a market-leading combination of speed, quality and consistency to print service providers and technical work teams.

Featuring more than 50 digital solutions that enable the professional printing of everything from postage stamps to building wraps, HP’s graphic arts portfolio is designed for a wide variety of customers, including commercial printers and specialty businesses such as photo merchandise providers, direct mail houses, graphic design firms and technical organizations. By 2010, the value of pages printed in the global graphic arts market is projected to be $98 billion.(1)

The new solutions in particular focus on four key areas of the printing market: marketing collateral, direct mail, photography and technical, which includes architectural, engineering and construction, computer-aided design (CAD) and geographic information systems (GIS).“The digital solutions announced today are not only easy to use, cost-effective and high quality, but also enable commercial printers to grow their businesses with broader service offerings and increased profit margins,” said Stephen Nigro, senior vice president, Graphics and Imaging Business, HP.

Increased performance, options for HP Indigo portfolio
Extending the versatility of the HP Indigo press 5000, the new HP Indigo press 5500 offers tangible, profit-enhancing improvements for commercial printers, including higher monthly duty cycles, fast ink replacement for spot colors and support for a wider range of media, including economical off-the-shelf media.

Printing up to seven colors, the HP Indigo press 5500 is ideal for high-volume production markets such as marketing collateral, direct mail and books and manuals. For added value in the photo merchandise market, the press also supports new light cyan and light magenta inks for six-color (CMYKcm) photo imaging.

Building on the success of the HP Indigo press 3050, the new HP Indigo press 3500 is a digital production device available at an entry-level price. Designed for commercial and in-plant printing firms, the press provides greater quality and versatility for those looking to adopt digital technology for the first time or to upgrade from color copier technologies.

HP also launched several new accessories for its line of digital presses. The HP Indigo UV Coater is the company’s first digital press finishing device and is ideal for use on high-quality, color applications. A near-line, user-friendly device able to support multiple HP Indigo presses, the HP Indigo UV Coater protects printed materials against damage from finishing or mailing systems, while also adding high-value appeal to printed materials by applying attractive gloss, matte and satin UV finishes.

To enable efficient processing on new and existing HP Indigo press models, several new digital front end (DFE) solutions are now available, including Version 1.2 of the HP Indigo Production Stream Server, Powered by Creo; Version 1.1 of the HP Indigo Production Manager DFE, and connectivity to Screen Trueflow print workflow systems. All of the new DFEs available for HP Indigo users offer robust, reliable performance.

In addition, HP has combined several of these new solutions to create the new HP Indigo photo package for high-value photo applications such as photo books, albums and greeting cards. A new study conducted by the SpencerLab Digital Color Laboratory found that HP Indigo photo package prints surpassed conventional silver halide processing, earning higher marks overall and ranking as good or better in three out of four critical areas of print quality.(2)

The new package includes the 5500 model press and the HP Indigo Photo Enhancement Server, which is designed to automatically detect and correct images in need of sharpening and smoothing, as well as to improve contrast and shadow detail. The package also includes the new HP Indigo UV Coater and the HP Indigo Production Manager version 1.1 DFE, which is scalable up to 16 RIPs and drives several presses.

For comprehensive business development and support, the HP Indigo Capture program offers a full range of tools to help HP Indigo customers manage and grow their digital printing businesses. In addition to customer training, marketing tools and media locator services available on the “my HP Indigo” online customer portal, the HP Indigo Capture program now includes comprehensive estimating tools that help customers determine cost-effective conventional and digital crossover points for commercial and label printing.

Bringing color to the front of the envelope
The new HP mPrinter 1700c brings color to variable text and graphics, using HP’s low-cost, high-quality thermal inkjet technology. Developed by HP Specialty Printing Systems, the HP mPrinter 1700c cost-effectively produces CMY-process color that can be used for personalized mail, transactional print and other operations.

The HP mPrinter 1700c is HP’s first offering to use process-color inkjet imaging, which is available for use in original equipment manufacturer partner technologies and provides a price/performance ratio that enables vendors in the mail processing, in-line variable imprinting, and other markets to develop new, color-driven applications for stand-out highlights and graphics.

Reinforcing HP as the trusted choice in large-format printing
HP introduced two versatile, dependable HP Designjet printers for print service providers (PSPs) and architectural, engineering, construction, CAD and GIS professionals.

The new HP Designjet T Printer series and HP Designjet Z6100 Printer series allow PSPs and technical professionals to expand their service offerings – from creating beautiful fine art reproductions and photographic-quality prints to producing high-quality, precise line drawings and renders in-house – all with a high level of color excellence.

The HP Designjet Z6100 Printer series with HP Vivera pigment inks delivers vivid, high-impact prints at maximum print speeds – all with HP’s remarkable level of intuitive color management. The series is ideal for indoor and short-term outdoor banners and large-format applications such as photos and fine art prints, drawings, maps and renders. The HP Designjet Z6100 also features HP DreamColor Technologies, a certified system of color technologies and sciences that make it easy to produce accurate, predictable and consistent color across a series of digital color devices.

In addition, HP is developing a compatibility certification program linked to the HP Designjet Z6100 Printer series, and six RIP vendors are currently engaged in the initial pilot phase: Caldera Graphics, EFI, GMG, Onyx Graphics, PosterJet and SA International. Vendors will be awarded HP Designjet Z6100 Printer series Certified status after meeting the required compatibility criteria.

With print speeds up to three times faster than HP’s previous offering in this category,(3) the new HP Designjet T Printers series, which includes the HP Designjet T610 and T1100 Printer series, delivers superior results using technology innovations such as HP Three-black inks and new printheads. The Three-black ink set produces true neutral grays, enabling enhanced detail and hard-to-achieve tones and, combined with HP Vivera inks, produces images with even, subtle contrasts from vivid color to soft tones. The series’ large printhead design produces pinpoint line accuracy and crisp text with improved line accuracy to 0.1 percent.(4)

In addition, the HP Designjet T Printer series is widely compatible with CAD applications and readily connects to operating systems with HP-GL/2. HP has partnered with companies such as Autodesk, Bentley Systems, Dassault Systèmes and ESRI to ensure HP Designjet T Printer series users have connectivity and software compatibility with the industry’s key CAD and GIS applications.

More information on the abovementioned solutions and related offerings from the HP Graphic Arts portfolio is available in an online press kit at http://www.hp.com/go/gasummit2007.

About HP
HP focuses on simplifying technology experiences for all of its customers – from individual consumers to the largest businesses. With a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure, HP is among the world’s largest IT companies, with revenue totaling $94.1 billion for the four fiscal quarters ended Jan. 31, 2007. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com.

(1) HP internal estimates.
(2) Spencer & Associates Publishing, “Digital Presses Rise to a New Challenge – HP Indigo press 5500 leads in Photographic Print Quality,” April 30, 2007.
(3) Mechanical printing time on plain media in fast mode with economode on compared to HP Designjet 800 series.
(4) Based on four copies of 50 A1 pages using normal print quality on plain paper. Intervention time not included.