Wide: HP’s Gido van Praag highlights the arrival of PageWide to large format printing
HP today announced the scaling of its inkjet-based PageWide Technology for large-format printing, which it says delivers high-quality prints at faster speeds and lower costs. The technology consists of more than 200,000 nozzles on a stationary print bar and spans the width of the page, enables users to produce a variety of black-and-white and colour applications, such as drawings, maps and posters. HP claims its PageWide Technology will disrupt the $1.3bn production printing market currently dominated by monochrome light-emitting diode (LED) printers. HP is also expanding its existing large-format portfolio with new devices and software designed to meet specific business demands for high-volume, production printing. The new products include the HP Designjet T7200 Production Printer, a full-colour large-format printer built for central reprographic departments (CRDs) and reprographic houses with high-volume print demands, and HP Designjet SmartStream, a software program that streamlines the complete printing workflow. HP says these solutions can handle the volume and diverse print needs of enterprise organisations; CRDs; architectural, engineering, construction (AEC) and design firms; public sector agencies; quick printers and small- to medium-sized reprographic houses.
Gido van Praag, vice president and general manager, Graphics Solutions Business, HP Asia Pacific and Japan.
“Our customers are continuously seeking cost-effective and reliable printing technologies that improve the way they work,” says Gido van Praag, vice president and general manager, Graphics Solutions Business, HP Asia Pacific and Japan. “The new large-format HP PageWide Technology will disrupt the production printing market by offering customers an affordable option for high-volume quality prints, transforming an industry that typically prints in monochrome to now print in colour without compromising speed.” Building on the success of its HP PageWide Technology from industrial production in HP Colour Inkjet Web Presses to business printing with HP Officejet Pro X and HP Officejet Enterprise X series, HP will offer customers dependable and economical operation for high-quality, large-format printing at high speeds. With inkjet technologies, the ink vehicle, which carries the colourant to the surface of the printer, is crucial to the stability of the ink, the drop ejection process and the overall print result. The HP PageWide printhead is built with thousands of identical drop generators that offer uniform volume, speed and trajectory for precise printing. The technology also regulates the speed and penetration of original HP pigment ink to accelerate drying and to control dot size, feathering and colour-to-colour bleed for high-quality prints. HP says that together with HP Thermal Inkjet Technology and HP pigment inks, the new HP PageWide Technology for large-format printers reduces the cost per page and offers the flexibility to use low-cost photo papers for graphically rich applications. Additionally, the PageWide platform prints the full page in a single pass for decreased turnaround time. The 42-inch (1,067 mm) HP Designjet T7200 Production Printer is capable of handling three heavy media rolls. It can produce both colour and black-and-white prints on a wide range of media, from bond to glossy photo paper, with a low cost of operation comparable to monochrome LED printers. The HP Designjet SmartStream software makes print management more efficient by streamlining workflow for highly demanding print environments. It offers true PDF management, along with accurate and error-free prints with the HP Crystal Preview technology. It also can reduce job preparation time by up to 50 per cent on multipage print jobs. For IT managers, HP also introduced a new HP Designjet Universal Print Driver, which allows users to manage their entire HP Designjet fleet with a standardised single driver. This reduces the amount of time and cost in testing and deployment—and in keeping the software across all HP Designjet printers up to date.
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