Palo Alto, Calif. – HP today announced that Rotolito Lombarda, S.p.A., of Piotello, Milan, Italy, has completed the purchase of one of the first HP T300 Color Inkjet Web Presses in Europe to respond to increased demands for shorter runs of books, catalogs, magazines and comics.

A leading book printer, Rotolito Lombarda has four printing plants, 400 employees and a customer base that is evenly divided between Italy, France, UK, Germany and Scandinavia.

Since its establishment in 1976, specializing in comic book production, Rotolito Lombarda subsequently developed expertise in color for book production, high quality catalogs and collateral for large retailers.

"We have been monitoring the development of digital printing since its debut on the market," said Emanuele Bandecchi, digital business developer, Rotolito Lombarda. "We always thought that digital printing represented a strategic solution for the future, but we needed to identify a system that could address the specific needs of book production. After having deeply tested the HP T300 Color Inkjet Web Press, we finally realized that we were making the right choice purchasing it."

Changes in production to satisfy print demand
With the HP T300 Color Inkjet Web Press, Rotolito Lombarda is able to cost-effectively meet increasing demand for book runs up to about 3,000 copies, depending on the number of pages and on the product size.

"Publishers are trying to reduce costs for stock holding and warehousing," continued Bandecchi. "They are now tending to place smaller, but more frequent, orders. With our new HP web press, we have been able to service that trend to an off-set substitute product, responding to our traditional customers needs in terms of quality and service, as digital printing can deliver stability and continuity in results."

Rotolito Lombarda also has an HP Indigo press that it uses for printing book covers and other short-run color work.

"The adoption of the HP T300 Color Inkjet Web Press by Rotolito Lombarda further demonstrates the suitability of this technology for high quality publications as well as being able to respond to the changing needs of publishers," said Aurelio Maruggi, vice president and general manager, Inkjet High-Speed Production Solutions, HP.