Palo Alto, Calif. – To cost-effectively meet growing demand for short and medium run-length book titles that are expensive to produce using existing analog or digital printing systems, book manufacturer King Printing Co. Inc. has installed a new HP T300 Color Inkjet Web Press.

Installed earlier this month, the high-volume digital color web press adds to the company's extensive line-up of digital and analog presses.

King Printing is also installing a new Hunkeler PF7 Double Plow Folder from Standard Finishing Systems for streamlined, inline finishing that increases overall throughput.

"By meeting publishers' medium-run needs, the HP T300 is changing the dynamics of the publishing supply chain, reducing the warehousing and waste of the analog book printing world," said Aurelio Maruggi, vice president and general manager, Inkjet High-speed Production Solutions, HP. "Working with Standard and Hunkeler, we are providing a unique, efficient solution for print-on-demand publishing that will give King Printing a competitive edge in the market."

Taking print-on-demand production to the next level
Founded in 1978 and based in Lowell, Mass., King Printing is known as a progressive provider of short-run hard- and softcover books. The new HP T300 press will help King grow its page volume at a time when publishers are looking to produce higher quantities without sacrificing the cost benefits they receive with print-on-demand digital printing.

The company first adopted inkjet book manufacturing in 2007, and its experience in digital book printing makes the adoption of the HP T300 platform an ideal expansion opportunity. The added press capacity rounds out King's current installation of heat-set web- and sheetfed offset presses, toner-based digital sheetfed presses and inkjet-based digital web presses.

"The addition of the T300 will augment our capacity for four-color, short- and medium-run books. As our page volumes continue to grow, the press will be a well-suited and logical solution for the type of production we target," said Adi Chinai, managing director, King Printing.

Since its first commercial installation in December 2008, the HP T300 Color Inkjet Web Press has helped advance digital print from niche to mainstream applications by offering cost-effective, high-volume digital color production. The press prints a 30-inch wide roll with 1,200 x 600 addressable dots per inch (dpi) four-color-process printing at a speed of 400 feet per minute – a size, speed and resolution combination capable of creating 500 200-page books an hour with image quality that meets or exceeds book trade standards on any low-cost, uncoated paper, as well as on a range of coated media.

The HP T300 offers print service providers attractive capital acquisition and operating costs, including the ability to purchase consumables as needed without click charges.

Standard Finishing Systems, through a 2008 partnership agreement with HP, sells Hunkeler devices to HP customers in North America, in addition to providing post-sales support in the field. Hunkeler devices can be used as in-line post-press solutions on web-fed HP Indigo presses as well as HP Inkjet Web presses.