PALO ALTO, Calif. -- RPI Inc., one of North America?s leading producers of photo books and other photo specialty products, is expanding its capacity with the purchase of an HP Indigo W7200 Digital Press that is specially adapted for the photo market.

RPI, based in Seattle, purchased the press last month at the Ipex trade show in the United Kingdom. The press is scheduled for delivery in July and will be installed with an in-line Hunkeler POPP6 finishing solution.

"It is only fitting that a photo specialty leader like RPI should become one of the first companies in the U.S. to install the new photo-customized model of the HP Indigo W7200 Digital Press," said Jan Riecher, vice president and general manager, Graphics Solutions Business, Americas – HP. "The press?s innovative color technologies and high productivity make it an ideal solution for growing print volume in one of the most dynamic segments of the graphic arts industry."

Re-igniting growth in a hot photo specialty market

Founded 31 years ago as a general commercial printing service provider, RPI reinvented itself in 2006 to concentrate on the emerging photo specialty market. Since that shift, the company has consistently achieved double-digit growth offering automated manufacturing and fulfillment for the consumer make-on-demand printed products market including photo books, invitations, calendars, stationery and business cards.

To fulfill orders globally from top-tier retailers, RPI currently uses 16 5000-series HP Indigo presses, as well as an HP Indigo WS6000 Digital Press that prints book covers and dust jackets. The new HP Indigo W7200 Digital Press will add the capacity RPI needs in the photo specialty market?s annual peak production season – a three-month period when companies like RPI run their equipment non-stop to meet December holiday demand for photo books, photo greeting cards and other products.

"The speed and productivity of the HP Indigo W7200 Digital Press will make a great impact on our capacity and productivity," said Susan Jackson, vice president, operations, RPI. "It will enable efficient production of our „quantity one? print on demand products, provide redundancy for our book cover production, and print several times faster than our smaller presses."

Maximizing the quality and value of industry-leading HP Indigo imaging

Designed to meet large photo-specialty firms? production needs, the enhanced HP Indigo W7200 press prints 240 four-color letter-size pages per minute at volumes up to 7.5 million pages per month. It also includes new linked color-management utilities on both of its print engines for more accurate, consistent photo prints.

At Ipex, HP showcased for the first time on the W7200 model six-color photo imaging with light cyan and light magenta inks, a technique that offers photo-realistic quality with reduced granularity and smoother images and tone transitions. The photo-customized HP Indigo W7200 coming to RPI from Ipex also includes new, in-line lamination features.

Photo specialty printing is the fastest-growing segment of the HP Indigo business. The product line has been recognized for its superior imaging and ability to meet stringent photo quality needs. For example, two Indigo press models earned top prizes for photo image quality in the 2010 Digital Imaging Marketing Association?s Printer Shoot-Out Awards. Also in 2010, HP Indigo prints outperformed silver halide prints in thorough testing when HP Indigo became the first and only digital press technology to receive Wilhelm Imaging Research Display Permanence and Album/Dark Storage ratings.