PALO ALTO, Calif., – To meet the campus’ growing demand for large-format printed output, University Printing Services (UPS) at California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) has installed an HP Designjet L25500 Printer – the best-selling large-format printer in its class.

Responsible for meeting about 90 percent of the campus’ printing needs, from course outlines and exams to banners, signage and business cards, UPS selected the HP Designjet L25500 Printer because of its versatile performance, ease of use and cost efficiency.

The decision to invest
For nearly seven years, the print shop relied heavily on an HP Designjet 5500 Printer, but was outsourcing a number of large-format job requests from across the 15,000-student campus. Many jobs were just too big, complicated or required the use of alternative media for outdoor applications.

When it came time to select a new printer, Emmit Williams, assistant vice president of Contracts and Procurement at CSUDH, and his team considered the purchase an investment opportunity.

“The university was faced with the decision to move the print shop forward or to stay with basic services and outsource everything else,” said Williams. “As a business, our choice was to stagnate or evolve and grow. The university decided to back UPS, and our senior administration resolved to boost our printing capacity and capabilities.”

Stay in-house to grow
Francisco Quinonez, assistant director of procurements, manages all UPS operations and experienced the immediate and sustained impact of the new HP Designjet solution.

”The HP Designjet L25500 Printer saves us money, time and labor, but what it really does is open up a whole world of possibilities when it comes to the size and variety of the jobs we can fulfill,” said Quinonez.

Graduate student and graphic designer Lupita Garcia quickly came to appreciate the quality, versatility and capacity of the HP Designjet L25500 Printer.

“We can line up and complete a large amount of jobs all together,” said Garcia. “Students, faculty and customers go out of their way to comment on the quality of the prints.”

For example, the University Art Gallery recently created a dramatic backdrop using HP PVC-free Wall Paper for an installation. Thanks to the HP Designjet L25500 Printer, UPS now has the ability to print on a variety of media, from recyclable HDPE banners to a range of gloss and matte photo papers.

Easy to use, easy on the user
Pairing the HP Designjet L25500 Printer with production-oriented operating software from Caldera streamlines workflow and simplifies color management.

“The printer is user-friendly, straightforward and easy to navigate, regardless the job,” said Garcia. “Caldera RIP is faster than other solutions, and I love being able to print directly from Adobe Illustrator.”

The HP Designjet L25500 Printer also offers a dual take-up roll reel so there is little user intervention required for big jobs, and customers can easily replace printheads.

Along with easy operation, the HP Designjet L25500 Printer is designed with the environment in mind so that both customers and print shop employees enjoy a workshop free from many of the health and safety considerations of eco-solvent-based printers. HP Latex Inks require no hazard labels or special ventilation equipment and produce odor-free prints that are ready to use right out of the printer.

The CSUDH printing center now promotes the availability of recyclable printing materials compatible with the HP Designjet L25500 Printer. Customers can return used signage produced on compatible printing materials through the HP Large-format Media take-back program for free at www.hp.com/go/recycle.

Results yield “synergy”
The success of the Dominguez Hills UPS has not gone unnoticed beyond the campus. CSUDH is a finalist in the Synergy Project, a university-wide project among all system campuses to identify cost savings and secure the right to assist in printing and reprographic services at the CSU Chancellor’s Office in Long Beach. Other universities in the CSU system are also paying attention and another university approached Williams to learn how they might replicate some of the success in their own campus print operations. Williams places a good deal of the credit for this attention on the new printer.

“The HP Designjet L25500 Printer really put us above other campuses for the Synergy Project and people both on and off campus recognize the quality product we can turn out with the HP technology. It has played a huge role in our growth and success.”

More information about HP Designjet Printers is available at www.hp.com/go/gsb, on YouTube at www.youtube.com/hpgraphicarts, or through the HP Graphic Arts Twitter feed.