Continuous-Feed Inkjet Paper Options Continue to Ramp Up

Continuous-feed production inkjet means high-speed digital printing. Digital printing. Short runs. Why do we need high-speed short runs?

As we evolve from digital printing being about short runs to digital printing being about versioning and personalization, higher speeds and greater efficiency mean lower cost. With mass customization, runs can indeed be long, but with each piece different. One example that demonstrates the value of continuous-feed inkjet is a case study with Hearst Magazines' Popular Mechanics. The project featured 4.8 million localized pages as 16-page customized inserts that were bound in the November 2011 issue of Popular Mechanics, plus 300,000 personalized onserts. There were several critical requirements that could only be met with continuous-feed inkjet. The customized onserts and inserts required digital printing, and the more than five million total pages could not be handled cost-effectively with toner-based printing. Moreover, quality had to be appropriate for a high-quality, offset-printed magazine and, with an HP color inkjet web press and Appleton Coated's Utopia Inkjet, the quality demand was met. The response rate was more than 4 percent, far exceeding the typical 1 to 2 percent response rate for direct mail.