PALO ALTO, Calif., August 2, 2005—HP today announced that Communication Specialists Inc. (CSI), a full-service imaging, printing and direct-mail company headquartered in Austin, Texas, is increasing its full color personalized print jobs and expanding its business by employing the high-speed, high-quality HP Indigo press 3050. Since installing a seven-color HP Indigo press 3050 last January, the $30 million company, which offers all-under-one-roof pre-press, press and post-press services for Yahoo, SBC, Verizon, Intel, 3-M and other high-end clients, has already made successful in-roads into the growing variable data market. “It’s paying for itself,” said CSI president Chuck Sack. “The HP Indigo press has rounded out our services and allows us to produce virtually anything that our clients would like produced. It has filled the short-run color hole in our complete services, and in the long run it’s going to allow us to lead the market in color variable printing.” To support high-value applications such as full-color variable brochures for a nationally known investment house, CSI has also invested in DL-100 software from HP partner Printable Technologies, which is fully compatible with both Adobe InDesign and Quark Xpress and fully integrated into the HP Indigo press 3050’s open-standards-based workflow. “HP’s open standards initiative has resulted in seamless connectivity with the best variable data software from leading vendors, making it easier for print service providers to produce full-color personalized collateral that really reaches its intended audience,” said Alon Bar-Shany, vice president and general manager, Indigo division, HP. “In today’s marketplace, that kind of return on investment has become increasingly essential.” Founded in 1939 as a mailing service, CSI evolved into a high-quality commercial sheetfed printing and fulfillment firm and in 1995 was purchased by Capital Spectrum, specialists in electronic prepress and color management services for ad agencies, publishing houses and large web printers. A pioneer in black-and-white variable data, CSI has been personalizing direct-mail letters since 1993. The company also specializes in sending out innovative ticklers and agency kits that generate high rates of response from prospective customers. CSI’s new HP Indigo press 3050 not only supports these types of targeted applications but also provides quick turnaround of full-color short-run printing jobs, with fifth and sixth PMS colors that are Pantone-matched for corporate branding requirements, as well as the industry’s most versatile substrate capacity. “One of the main reasons we purchased the press was because of the variety of papers that we can run through it. It offers a wider range than other color variable data digital presses, which is a real benefit, and allows us to run a job partially on our offset presses and finish the variable data color aspects on the HP Indigo,” said Sack. “It works really well and looks really good – and client response to the quality has been tremendous.” Designed for the most demanding production environments, the HP Indigo press 3050 offers rapid turnaround times even for high-volume printing and uses unique HP ElectroInk liquid ink technology to deliver rich, vibrant color prints and high-definition imaging at 180 lines per inch. A high-level performer in database-driven variable-data jobs where images and text changes on every sheet, the HP Indigo press 3050 is available with optional five-, six- and seven-color inking stations.