LFP - Large-Format-Printing

HP Digital Imaging Wins Top European Trophies

Monday 09. March 2009 - Seven prestigious industry awards for HP printers and scanners

Four products from HP’s extensive Graphic Arts portfolio have won European Digital Press Association (EDP) “Best Product of the Year 2007” awards.

HP digital imaging also walked away with three Technical Image Press Association (TIPA) Awards, known as the “Oscars” of the digital photographic industry.

The winners are, from the EDP:

HP Designjet Z6100 – Best Wide Format Printer of the Year (up to 1,6M)
HP Premium Vivid Colour Backlit Film – Best Indoor Media of the Year
HP Vivera Inks with HP 91 ink cartridge – Best Indoor Inks of the Year
HP Scitex FB6700 – Best Industrial Printing Solutions of the Year
And from TIPA:

HP Designjet Z3100 – Best Large format Printer
HP Photosmart Studio – Best Photo Kiosk
HP Scanjet G4050 – Best Flatbed Photo Scanner
The EDP is the first association of digital graphic press in Europe. The association comprises leading digital printing magazines from across Europe and the awards are chosen by an association of editors, consultants and graphics professionals. Standards are high; if no product is considered good enough a category will be dropped.
TIPA comprises 31 European photo and imaging publications, including Chasseur d’Images, Foto Multimedia News and Professional Photographer. The awards recognise products from across the digital photography spectrum.

Bill DeLacy, senior vice president and general manger, HP Imaging and Printing Group, EMEA said: “HP is focused on leveraging our printing leadership to continue providing customers with an innovative and wide ranging portfolio that meets their needs. The awards show that these prestigious associations have recognised this. As part of this ongoing commitment HP has recently formed a dedicated Graphic Arts business unit to better focus its portfolio of digital imaging technology aimed at the sector. Because we understand the needs of this specialised market, our products give our customers quality and competitive advantage.”

About the winners

The HP Designjet Z6100 Printer series is available in 42 or 60 inch models. It produces high quality applications including photos, exhibition graphics, point-of-purchase displays, drawings, maps and presentations. It is ideal for print service providers (PSPs) and GIS and CAD professionals who want to reduce turn around times and produce high-impact prints with outstanding quality and breakthrough consistency and predictable colour. It is the most productive large format printer in its class(1) with the first-ever Optical Media Advance Sensor that allows printing at higher speeds without sacrificing image quality. The embedded spectrophotometer with X-rite i1 colour technology offers breakthrough colour consistency and accuracy across prints every time, regardless of time and changing environmental conditions.

HP Premium Vivid Colour Backlit Film – Illuminated backlit displays are commonly found in locations such as airports, shopping malls and stadiums. This fast drying, easy to handle, economically priced film, creates eye-catching backlit displays with vivid colours, superb colour contrast and enhanced image definition.

HP Vivera inks with HP 91 ink cartridge provides an excellent combination of vivid, brilliant colour and permanence for durable, long-lasting prints. Utilising HP Vivera pigment inks, the 8-ink HP Designjet Z6100 printing system delivers vivid, water-resistant, exceptionally fade-resistant prints including high-impact indoor retail signage, museum-quality fine art photos and clean, crisp line drawings.

The HP Scitex FB6700”s ability to cost-effectively print high-quality, short and medium runs gives customers competitive advantage. The flatbed industrial digital inkjet press brings the advantages of digital processes to rigid-media printing, making it an optimal machine for the production of POP and POS display, samples, short-run packages and exhibition stands. For increased quality the presses use water-based, pigmented HP Scitex WB300 Supreme Inks which are also UV², abrasion and water-resistant.

The HP Designjet Z3100 Photo Printer is a professional printer available in 24 or 44in models. TIPA valued the printer for its 12-ink printing system with HP Vivera inks, which improves gamut, durability and print quality in colour and black and white. Colour control and reproduction is improved due to the embedded spectrophotometer with X-Rite i1 colour technology, which allows the printer to calibrate colour reproduction in an automated process.

TIPA praised the HP Photosmart Studio for saving time in producing photo books. It is the first and only in-store kiosk where consumers can design creative products in about five minutes and pick them up in one hour or less. Simple and quick to use, the process does not require people to select, crop or place photos into templates on each individual page. Instead, hundreds of photos are laid out in minutes using sophisticated proprietary image management algorithms.

The HP Scanjet G4050 gives superior colour accuracy and photo reproduction, thanks to its innovative 6-colour, 96-bit scanning engine, TIPA said. It scans up to sixteen 35 mm slides or 30 negative frames and can scan other film sizes using a built-in adapter. Dust and scratches on the film are removed at the touch of a button, and faded colour is corrected using the included software.

(1) Compared to large format inkjet printers under €19,000. Based on the fastest rated colour speeds as published by manufacturers as of January 2007. Test methods vary.

(2) In central-Europe. According to standard ASTM-D2565-99