PALO ALTO, Calif. – HP today announced that Capitol City Press, Tumwater, Wash., has installed two HP Indigo 7000 digital presses with HP SmartStream workflow solutions, replacing less-efficient analog offset systems.

The company selected HP based on end-to-end production efficiencies that streamline operations without sacrificing the quality of the three small offset presses that the HP Indigo 7000s replaced.

"Capitol City Press is well-positioned to move ahead in the graphic arts space with its new digital printing solutions," said Jan Riecher, vice president and general manager, Graphics Solutions Business – Americas, HP. "The efficiencies that the HP Indigo 7000 and HP SmartStream Director offer can magnify profitable growth opportunities."

HP Indigo productivity and quality make offset transfer a reality
When Capitol City Press first started shopping for new presses in early 2009, its executives were seeking ways to grow their direct-mail offerings. With its new technology installation, the company gains true offset-quality digital printing with the HP Indigo 7000s.

The pair of HP Indigos replaces older, less-efficient offset press capacity. The new HP Indigo 7000s now print the 750,000 four-color sheets per month that Capitol City previously ran on three small offset presses.

"Having jobs running on three different presses resulted in issues with print quality and consistency," said Mike Thompson, vice president of technology, Capitol City Press. "Our customers demand a high level of quality and consistency, and they want it quickly and inexpensively. The HP Indigo meets all of those requirements."

The HP Indigo 7000 Digital Press delivers fast production speeds of 120 high-quality four-color A4-size pages per minute. Designed to significantly increase the break-even point of digital compared with offset, the HP Indigo 7000 is an ideal press for the production of large numbers of static jobs with run lengths ranging from one copy into the thousands. It is also ideal for variable-data work requiring the "every page is different" capabilities of digital.

The HP Indigo 7000 offers one of the widest digital color gamuts available with 4-, 6- or 7-color PANTONE-licensed emulation including Pantone Goe, as well as off-press mixing of true spot colors. In addition, the HP Indigo 7000 Digital Press incorporates HP DreamColor Technologies, a certified system of color technologies and sciences that makes it easy to produce accurate, predictable and consistent color across a series of digital color devices.

Minimizing waste, maximizing sustainability
Capitol City Press supports digital printing because of its ability to reduce environmental impact. The near-elimination of makeready achieved with the HP Indigo presses reduces waste and makes print jobs more cost-effective for clients.

"Transferring from offset to digital significantly reduces paper usage," said Thompson. "For example, when running a job with our older offset, we needed 500 to 700 overs. Running the same job on the HP Indigo needs only 25 to 50 overs. When we're running 20 to 30 jobs in a 24-hour period, the paper savings is enormous, and the resulting cost savings allows us to be more price-competitive in the marketplace."

The company installed an HP SmartStream Director end-to-end workflow solution with its new presses to make its digital color production operation more efficient and cost-effective. Capitol City Press is currently using HP SmartStream Director to create a retail web portal, and the workflow solution's end-to-end functionality helps the company profitably take on smaller jobs by eliminating the time and expense of several prepress and job-routing tasks.