BARCELONA, Spain, - HP today announced that Fovea AS, based in Nittedal, Norway, has purchased an HP Indigo WS6000p Digital Press to produce high-quality photographic prints and win new business.

Fovea is a market leading photographic company with photographers, graphic designers, photo printing facilities and a photo lab housed at the company's headquarters in Nittedal just outside Oslo. The company specialises in serving the school and kindergarten photography market and offers a range of products including portraits, group photographs, catalogues and yearbooks to pupils, parents and teachers.

In 2005, the company started to produce its own photo-specialty products in-house when it purchased an HP Indigo press 3050. This was followed by further investments in HP's digital technology with Fovea acquiring an HP Indigo press 5500 and an HP Indigo 7500 Digital Press, both of which still operate today.

The company's latest investment is a roll-to-roll HP Indigo WS6000p Digital Press fitted with inline lamination for a high-quality finish. Up to 90 per cent of Fovea's output is in full colour and the accurate production of skintones, textures and shading is vital. The press delivers superior quality photo prints using HP Indigo's six-colour printing with light cyan and light magenta inks for photorealistic output when added to the CMYK ink set.

"We looked at presses by other manufacturers but in our opinion the HP Indigo WS6000p Digital Press was the only device that could offer the photo-quality that we need," said Morten Øyås, CEO, Fovea. "Silver halide prints have set the standard that our customers expect, so we compared these prints to some produced on the HP Indigo. We believe that quality of the prints produced on the HP Indigo matched and even exceeded those produced traditionally. The resolution and intricate details looked fantastic."

To streamline its workflow, Fovea has migrated the production of its portraits and group photographs to its HP Indigo WS6000p Digital Press, which is a commercial modification of HP labels and packaging press, supporting an image format of up to 317 x 980mm for larger applications. Photobooks, catalogues and yearbooks are printed using the company's existing HP Indigo presses.

The HP Indigo WS6000p Digital Press reaches speeds of up to 136 four-colour pages per minute, ideal for fast paced production environments such as Fovea, which aims to fulfil orders within four working days, including the time spent re-touching the images.

Fovea has used its HP Indigo WS6000p Digital Press to add value to applications by eliminating lengthy production processes and reducing waste to offer customers a way to reduce the impact of printing on the environment.

"The HP Indigo WS6000p Digital Press has been a perfect fit for our business and we love its combination of speed and reliability," said Øyås. "Not only is the press easy-to-use but it has also enabled us to attract new business. Many of our customers are school children, who are very aware about the need to protect the environment. So it's very important for us to offer a Digital printing service that addresses their concerns. Our HP Indigo presses use fewer chemicals and results in less waste than the traditional method of producing photos. These benefits have helped us to attract environmentally conscious customers."

Fovea's HP Indigo WS6000p Digital Press was supplied by Visutech Digital AB, of Gothenburg, Sweden, which supports HP Indigo presses in the Nordic countries.

"This installation illustrates the transformation of the whole photographic business," said Jan-Olof Jungersen, CEO, Visutech Digital. "Fovea's new roll-to-roll HP Indigo WS6000p Digital Press will handle the production previously supported by four analogue silver halide printers, which apart from commercial benefits will reduce the impact on the environment.

"Digital photo-printing means that greater volumes and extended editions can now be printed without expensive substrates adding to the cost. This results in a more a more flexible and user-friendly production method at price-points attractive to consumers and profitable to print service providers," concluded Jungersten."

More information on Fovea is available at www.fovea.no .

For more information on Vistutech Digital AB, please visit www.visutech.se.

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