PALO ALTO, Calif., November 21, 2005 — HP today announced that commercial and digital printing solutions firm Graphic Partners, based in Zion, IL, has purchased an HP Indigo press 5000 to meet growing customer demand for full color, personalized direct marketing collateral. The recently installed press differentiates Graphic Partners from many local competitors by allowing the company to offer the highest-quality variable-data printing to a marketplace that depends on direct mail pieces to represent brands and generate sales. “When it comes to creating high quality personalized direct marketing pieces, HP Indigo is the solution of choice,” said Alon Bar-Shany, vice president and general manager, Indigo division, HP. “Our digital liquid ink process results in true offset quality and the ability to accurately recreate brand colors, combined with an extensive suite of software solutions offering a myriad of personalization options. For companies that went to set themselves apart with high value services, this is the winning combination.” Graphic Partners provides its clients with innovative solutions using a combination of on-line, personalization, digital printing, conventional printing, and fulfillment tools for dynamic versioning and high response one-to-one marketing campaigns. According to a study on personalization in direct marketing(1), direct mail pieces that are printed in full color and apply database information into their messaging can obtain response rates as much as 500% better than the response rates garnered by static, black-and-white mailings. Color alone on static mailpieces, according to the study, increased response rates by 45%.i “With the HP Indigo press 5000, we can support customers’ full-color one-to-one marketing and print-on-demand needs, but do it with offset-quality printing,” said Kirk Larsen, vice president, Graphic Partners. “Everyone else asks their customers to accept lesser quality for one-to-one printing, but the ability to offer the look and feel of offset will be a huge customer benefit over the next few years.” While experiencing this shift to personalization from its customers, Graphic Partners began examining digital presses one and a half years ago, a process that company vice president Dan Sikora says was more extensive than any previous equipment search the company has made in its 10-year history. “In the end, we really saw that HP ElectroInk provided a much better solution than dry toner,” said Sikora. “It has the look our offset customers want to see, plus it is the only digital press that allows us to mix true PMS colors when we need them.” Designed specifically for mid- to large-size commercial printers who want to take quick advantage of the virtually unlimited opportunities of digital printing, the HP Indigo press 5000 delivers up to seven-color printing, producing high-definition text and images using HP's unique Adaptive Halftoning technology. It also prints on a wide range of substrates from the industry’s widest selection of certified digital printing papers. Using HP Indichrome EleoctroInk formulations, users can access Pantone-approved digital colors to match virtually all Pantone colors. Plus, an ink mixing station provides a true spot color match for colors that cannot be produced through process methods.