Previously only available for consumer printers, Hewlett-Packard's Vivera inks are now available for wide-format printers. These inks were designed to deliver vivid, lifelike colors, crisp black text, and a broad color gamut. And, due to the purity of the inks, reports HP, printhead clogging is reduced. The first large-format printer to utilize Vivera inks is the Designjet 90, a 6-color printer that outputs images as large as 18 x 63 in.

In addition, HP is now making the high-speed Indigo press 5000, first introduced at Drupa 2004, available in North America and other regions. The Indigo 5000 is a 4-color press (expandable to 7-colors) that can print up to 4000 4-color 8.5 x 11-in. images per hour (two-up). It can output graphics up to 12.1 x 17.7 in.

With its HP Press Production manager and integrated Harlequin on-press RIP, the press is designed for variable-data jobs. As an option, it's expandable to two or four RIPs, providing scalable RIP power.
The Indigo 5000 utilizes 4-color (CMYK) liquid HP ElectroInk, and also offers the option of 5- or 6-color printing (CMYKVO), as well as a 7-color option for spot color matching. HP claims that the latest generation of ElectroInk can print 97% of Pantone colors, including many brand-essential corporate colors. It can print images up to 812 x 812 dpi and lines screens up to 230 lpi. Using HP Halftoning technology, the Indigo 5000 analyzes the text as it is being printed, and adds dots to fill gaps at the edges.

HP announced the above two products in Atlanta, at the grand opening of its new 4000-sq ft HP Graphics Arts Center. From prepress to print, visitors can see the entire print process in real-world scenarios, and can decide on the system that will best fit their needs. The center features the new Indigo press 5000, Indigo 1050, Indigo 3050, Indigo 3200, the Designjet 5500 and 130nr printers, and HP Color 9850mfp and HP Color 9500mfp models. The center also features equipment from finishing companies such as Hunkeler, Dorn SPE, and Duplo. (Hewlett-Packard: www.hp.com)