What’s now called embellishment or special effects used to be a group of purely post-press operations. These included lamination, spot or flood varnishing and foiling (hot or cold). Other eye-catching things have always had to be done in or on the press – if you wanted metallic colours you had to use a special ink or print on a metallised substrate; the same applied for fluorescent or other special colours.

Digital print has blurred those boundaries, bringing a number of ways of achieving the same or ‘close enough’ effects, combined with the flexibility and minimal set-up requirements characteristic of digital print. These also split into in-press effects and subsequently-applied effects.

Before looking at these in detail, it’s also worth noting that a sustainability argument is emerging for digital embellishment as an alternative to more conventional processes. This comes from Scodix, which makes stand-alone ‘embellishment presses’ (distributed in the UK by Friedheim) that can apply a wide range of decorative effects to printed sheets, with full digital flexibility in each.

Scodix carried out a lifecycle assessment of its digital foiling options which found that compared to conventional hot stamp foiling, its version reduces CO2e (CO2 equivalent) by 85%, fossil fuel usage by nearly 85%, and water consumption by 80% per B1 sheet. The study, carried out by EcamRicert, and Mérieux NutriSciences Companies, compared the enhancement of a single B1 sheet through to 100,000 B1 sheets using Scodix foil (175g) versus traditional foiling methods.

That’s only one of the options that Scodix offers and there’s no indication given that any of the other supported techniques offer comparable advantages. However, like any other form of digital printing, it seems likely that overall wastage of materials and energy is likely to be lower simply through the ability to only print or finish the number required.

The main argument in favour of these types of effects though is that they add impact to printed products and therefore margin to your work. Some you can only do if you bought the right press, though they could also be a factor in choosing a new one. There’s an increasing number of toner presses that offer additional colours which may include clear ‘varnish’, white, fluorescent and metallic colours, though usually only one or sometimes two at a time.

Plus-one – or more

Machines that offer a fifth colour include Xerox’s iGen line and Ricoh’s Pro C7200, also sold by Heidelberg as the Versafire EV (and about to be replaced by the Pro C7500, though we’ve not seen any specification for this yet). Kodak’s Nexpress and Nexfinity models could do this too, with options over where in the laydown sequence the fifth colour went, though both are now discontinued. Moving up to six colours brings in the popular Xerox Iridesse, and the more recent Fujifilm Revoria, while most HP Indigos can handle up to seven colours, though of course click charges go up in proportion with all extra colour presses. Xerox also offers a conversion kit for two-pass printing on its entry-level PrimeLink C9065/C9070, which potentially allows the use of up to eight colours, albeit with a complete change of toner cartridges between passes.

The exact choice of extra colours varies by manufacturer, but in addition to white – for use on coloured or transparent substrates – and clear – used to create flood or spot varnish effects – fluorescent or ‘neon’ colours are offered, particularly pink and sometimes yellow. These can replace or be mixed with their standard CMYK equivalents to expand the colour gamut for more eye-catching effects. A few offer metallic toners too, which again can be printed solid or mixed to provide novel colours and finishes.

After the event

Post-press options are more about foiling, spot varnish and various creative lamination processes, often in combination. A good entry-level choice here is foil-over-toner, a two-pass method that uses ‘real’ foil in a laminator like Vivid’s Matrix models or those from Caslon, Foliant (sold via IFS), Komfi (from Friedheim) or Autobond. Similar options also come from GMP and Intec, now part of the Plockmatic group.

An entry-level option for foil-over-toner is Vivid’s Matrix, seen here at a trade show

In these, the initial colour print is first laminated with a clear film, then printed again with the foil pattern in black toner on top of the film, before a second pass through the laminator transfers the foil to the partially melted black toner. It’s a more labour-intensive process but it works with a very wide range of foil types and doesn’t require special consumables.

Then there are the fully ‘digital’ embellishment devices that offer spot UV and/or foiling in a single operation. This category includes devices like Duplo’s B2 DuSense 8000, which is offered in various configurations providing spot UV, digital foiling or both, including a pre-treatment option for expanding the types of print that can be handled. It’s also possible to build up textured ‘3D’ effects with multiple passes, which the smaller B3 DuSense 810 also supports. An alternative is the B3+ Konica Minolta AccurioShine 3600, which uses technology from MGI, in which Konica Minolta holds a significant stake. It too can produce ‘dimensional’ effects.

At the top end of the digital embellishment market are the ranges from Konica Minolta/MGI and Scodix. These are dedicated industrial production devices that offer UV varnish and foiling, with Scodix offering a particularly wide range of foils and finished effects, while MGI’s line goes up to B1 sheet size in the form of the print-and-embellish AlphaJet that was formally launched in October 2022. Kurz is another player at the industrial end of the scale, having bought Steinemann, whose inkjet varnish and foiling systems it was already marketing as Digital Metal. These include the sheet-fed B2 DM-Smartliner for 2D flat varnishing and foiling and the DM-Maxliner for raised and textured effects.

Whether you’re just ready to dip a toe into digital embellishment and cautious with the investment, or know that you’ve got a ready market for it but need to be sure it’s good enough and fast enough to meet your customers’ needs, there should be something to suit and help your work shine.

Preparing files for embellishment

All digital embellishment processes require ‘artwork’ to control where the effects are applied. Usually this means creating additional layers in the originating applications and/or print PDFs, though some vendors offer DFE-based tools to create embellishment guides or colour substitutions from standard PDFs on-the-fly.

Andrew Bailes-Collins of Ultimate Technographics, which makes imposition, nesting and ganging software, has written a handy guide to preparing generic PDFs that should process correctly through most embellishment vendors’ DFEs and thus avoid some of the common pitfalls that require manual reworking in the prepress studio.

Called PDF Creation for Digital Embellishment, it covers the use of spot colours, layers, knock-out and overprint and choice of correct versions of PDF for hand-off. It’s available free from Ultimate Technographics’ website.

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The term ‘embellishment’ can encompass inline printed effects such as metallic, pearlescent or fluorescent inks, or post-press processes such as raised and textured effects – sometimes called ‘tactile’ or ‘haptic’ – plus a wide variety of foiled effects that can range from mirror-bright metallics through diffraction and holographic effects, or just special colours.

A lot of the recent action has been over the Atlantic, but much of it is relevant to the UK and Europe. September saw the existing US based Foil & Specialty Effects Association (FSEA) announce the formation of the more focused Digital Embellishment Alliance (DEA), which it describes as a community to create educational and communication opportunities in the growing digital print embellishment segment.

This followed a three-day event in June in Minneapolis called Amplify Print, organised by the FSEA and APTech, which highlighted digital embellishment.

‘In the world of digital print embellishments, we see a market that is on the cusp of going mainstream but still suffers from an awareness issue at the brand and designer level,’ explained Gene Petrie, chair of the FSEA board of directors. ‘A key aim of the DEA is to help users and manufacturers educate their customers and increase understanding of how these digital embellishment technologies can help brands increase their print ROI.’ This year’s LabelExpo in Chicago, the first one to be held since the 2019 show in Brussels, featured a Digital Embellishment Trail for the first time, where stands featuring these effects were flagged up.

While the market for label embellishment is different to commercial printing and packaging, it’s also an indicator of which way the wind is blowing. It’s also worth mentioning Actega’s unique EcoLeaf filmless foiling technology, so far only for narrow web label presses, which applies metallic nanoflakes to a special inkjetted fluid to give a mirror-smooth metallic finish with no waste.

Inline on presses

Digital presses increasingly offer fifth and even sixth units that can take a variety of special toners, some to extend the colour gamut and some to add embellishments such as metallics, spot gloss or other effects. Kodak was the first to really make a go of this in 2008 with the fifth unit on its second-generation Nexpresses, which not only offered a wide range of special colours but could build up a raised ‘dimensional’ embossed effect with clear toner.

An example of the effects achievable with the combination
of digital spot UV and foiling on Duplo’s DuSense 8000

This has been continued with the latest Nexfinity models, whose fifth unit can produce 13 effects, including gold, silver, dimensional or gloss clear, and an opaque white. Xerox has also offered extra colours for years, most notably with its Iridesse model, which as the name suggests majors on its special effects abilities. Iridesse is still the only dry toner press to offer six colour stations, though HP Indigo liquid toner presses can have up to seven. Iridesse can run special toners in the first and sixth, or fifth and sixth positions – you might choose white in the first position as an undercoat on clear, dark or metallised substrates. Special toners can be white, clear (high or low gloss), fluorescent pink, gold or silver. The past few years have seen Xerox introduce add-on embellishment options as ‘Adaptive CMYK+’ kits for the mid-production Versants and the entry-level PrimeLink C9065/C9070.

These allow users to swap out the CMYK cartridges for a second embellishment pass. There’s a choice of ‘Vivid’ (silver, gold, white and clear, or fluorescent (cyan, magenta yellow, plus normal black). These can be fitted aftermarket if needed. Switching between toner sets takes 10 minutes or so, but Xerox Europe’s head of marketing Kevin O’Donnell says that it allows smaller printers to broaden their offerings and keep embellishment work inhouse. The high end iGen 6 has a fifth unit too, which gained a new fluorescent yellow toner option last year, alongside white, clear and some Pantone specials. Ricoh’s Pro C7200sx series toner presses have an inline fifth unit that can run white, clear, neon yellow, neon pink and ‘invisible’ security red.

White can run as the first colour if needed as an undercoat. HP Indigo digital presses are still unique in the way they can run up to seven colours with easy swapping. ‘Special’ inks include two white types, gloss and matt clear, silver, fluorescents (green, orange and pink), plus gamut[1]extending and tone-smoothing colours. Xeikon is developing a range of embellishment modules for its web toner presses that it calls Fusion; at LabelExpo it demonstrated an opaque white and silver printing on clear film. Foiling with laminators The post-press ‘sleeking’ market of foil embellishment via lightly modified thermal laminators makes a very attractive entry level for jobs where metal dies aren’t cost-effective. Several laminator suppliers promote this in the UK.

The results may not be as sharp as metal dies or the expensive inkjet foilers, but the entry costs are very low indeed, especially as the machines still work for conventional lamination, as with D&K’s range which foils up to B2. The Korean manufacturer GMP pioneered laminators with foiling facilities and sells three via GMP UK, a part of Gardiner Graphics. Intec Printing Systems – recently bought by Plockmatic and now sold alongside Morgana in the UK – bases its pair of ColorFlare foil laminators on GMP hardware: the CF350 costs £1999 and the CF1200 starts from £7999.

It also sells compatible foils, which were recently extended with a fashionable rose gold colour, plus copper and a useful opaque white. Vivid Lamination also offers a special Matrix Metallic version of its popular 420mm wide sheet-fed thermal laminator, for spot foils and gloss effects. This features modified rollers and a foil feeder. Other suppliers of laminator with foiling options include Autobond, Foliant (sold by IFS, using the retrofittable Multi-functional Imprinting Unit) and Komfi (sold by Friedheim). It was Caslon who pioneered the foil-onto-toner market in the 1980s, using dedicated heater-applicators rather than laminators. The company currently sells US-built FoilTech. machines, starting about £2000 for a 340mm wide manual feed model, up to a bit over £4000 for an auto-feed twin ribbon machine. A much more expensive but faster option is Kurz’s dedicated 4000sph B1 digital DM-Luxliner, which foils directly onto dry toner or HP Indigo prints.

Inkjets for ultimate effects

Inkjet-based embellishers have tended to get all the publicity ever since MGI announced JetVarnish, a digital spot UV varnisher, at drupa 2008 (though so did Komfi, but with less fanfare). At Ipex 2010 Scodix showed the first ‘high-build’ inkjet UV varnisher, with a raised and textured effect.

MGI soon followed with a high-build model called JetVarnish 3D. A few years later both worked out how to apply foil over the raised clear polymer. Scodix still offers more effects though, including faceted gems and Cast & Cure for high-end packaging. Scodix has gone through several generations and today has standardised on the Ultra 1000 series, with six models ranging in price from about £400,000 to £1.1 million. Most of them are B2 format, but with different front end configurations for commercial print, web-to-print and carton packaging.

Kurz offers high-end digital foiling options
supporting sheet sizes up to B1

There are two configurations for most applications. The base model uses a single polymer type, which VP global sales and marketing manager Mark Nixon says is suitable for ‘75% of all possible jobs.’ The other type has four polymer feeds, with different characteristics formulated between them to adhere to pretty well any substrate. The top model is the Ultra 6000, the only current B1 format offering, with a top speed of 1000sph. There was briefly a 4000sph B1 model, the E106, but the £2 million-plus price was too much for the market to bear. Mr Nixon says that users are happy with 1000 sph, as it compares favourably with high end analogue foiling systems that use metal dies and which can take hours to make ready. MGI today is in effect a subsidiary of Konica Minolta which as of October 202 held a 42.3% stake. KM sells the range worldwide, though not exclusively. Three models are B2 format, offering up to 4200sph, one is roll-to-roll on a 420mm web, and there is a long-A3 format model that was originally called JetVarnish 3D One, which was exclusive to KM even before it increased its shareholding in MGI.

This summer the MGI-badged One has been replaced by the Konica Minolta-branded AccurioShine 3600, which is apparently the same thing with a different colour scheme, though there may be technical differences we haven’t found out yet. MGI’s enormous B1 AlphaJet, which is now available after years of development and previews, can print full p The Konica Minolta-branded AccurioShine 3600 replaces the MGI JetVarnish 3D One colour and embellish with 3D polymer and foil inline at 1800sph. So far there’s only one user, ISRA, in France, announced this year. An official launch is due in October and will be reported in Digital Printer. At LabelExpo 2019, a prototype digital cutting and creasing unit was demonstrated that may find its way onto the AlphaJet too. Germany’s foil manufacturer Kurz recently acquired the Swiss Steinemann company, whose inkjet varnish and foiling systems it was already marketing as Digital Metal. These include the sheetfed B2 DM-Smartliner for 2D flat varnishing and overfoiling and the DM-Maxliner for raised and textured effects. There are also narrow web label models. Duplo’s B3 DuSense 810 is probably the entry level for 3D varnish effects.

Duplo is very resistant to giving prices, but the launch price in 2017 was reportedly £139,000. That’s a lot less than any of the current MGI or Scodix machines, though Konica Minolta’s AccurioShine 3600 may be in the same price league. DuSense can be fitted with optional inline foiling using the Bagel MiniLam lamination/foil unit. There is now also a B2 model, the DuSense 8000, launched in May 2022, which is offered in various configurations providing the spot UV, digital foiling or both, including a pre-treatment option for expanding the types of print that can be handled.

How to sell it

With embellishment systems becoming relatively common, at least as options, the challenge is now how to get the message out to the customers – designers, brands, even high street shops, who won’t order effects that they don’t realise exist. Xerox is well aware of this, says Kevin O’Donnell, and is making a big push to support help its users develop their markets for the embellishment options on their presses. Its Genesis Initiative is a multi-level set of free offerings that aim to build the market for what it calls ‘beyond CMYK.’ This includes helping printers to market embellishment effectively, and also to understand how to price it. There are also courses for designers to learn about embellishment, and how to use it and explain it to their customers too. Mr O’Donnell says ‘The key is not just the technology. More important is market engagement, and design skills. Every printer should be looking at the ‘plus’, over and above the norm. That’s not just embellishment, but anything you can do to stand out from the crowd, even if it’s just giving a box of doughnuts to new customers! ‘Embellishment might be priced for profitable value-added business, or it might equally be priced as a loss-leader to get new business,’ he says.

‘Some 90 – 95% of your business might always be CMYK, but if the embellishment brings in new customers, you’ve got a good chance of retaining them for future CMYK work.’ Another separate initiative is what’s probably the first consultancy intended specifically at helping creatives and producers get the best out of digital embellishment. Taktiful in California has been set up by Kevin Abergel, who worked for many years for MGI. He was most recently sales director for North America, but that office closed when Konica Minolta took on sales and distribution.

He’s now established a network of consultants with practical experience of digital embellishment in North America, and is looking to expand his services into Europe and the UK soon. He’s not confining his work to MGI/Konica Minolta based systems, but across the whole range of processes and manufacturers. He says that digital embellishment systems aren’t being sold enough to customers, especially the built-in fifth units on digital presses. ‘People aren’t selling it correctly, they aren’t necessarily understanding how to pitch it or how to teach their clients how to design for it. A lot of the clients we work with at Taktiful have a fifth colour and say, ‘Yeah, I never use it. It’s just sitting there’, or ‘I’ve had this machine for two years. Maybe I’ve run 10 jobs on it’.

Overall, you ask them what percentage of jobs are they actually using it on. Typically they say less than four or five per cent. It’s a nice-to-have, but right now it’s not a need to-have because they’re not actually putting in a lot of the marketing effort needed to be able to take that off the ground. ‘But then we see some small mom and pop companies, little three, four-person shops, and embellishment is all they talk about. They go around, they talk to every restaurant, every little trophy shop or every little shoe store. They talk about how great the print could look. They say, ‘You could put in this fluorescent green on your next mailing, or let’s put in some dimensional on your menu so that you can actually feel the wood grain’. These are the people who get it and they’re the ones that are making it work for them.’

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The machine, featuring the same design attributes as the B2 FB775 launched in May 2022, enables users to add packaging, label and PoS production and prototyping to their operations. The new B3 cutter has advanced software, a cutting table that accommodates up to one SRA3  sheet, and offers digital cutting, creasing and perforation on a range of materials up to 600 microns thick.

The device also features no physical dies and vacuum suction media to hold down the media for small items. It also has a dual-tool head for same-time cutting and creasing with up to 1kg force.

Swedish finishing equipment manufacturer Plockmatic Group recently acquired Intec in an effort to expand its sales through the existing Intec and Morgana international dealer networks. Intec, founded by Ian Melville in 1989, continues to design and configure products at its Poole, Dorset, headquarters.

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Intec, founded by Ian Melville in 1989 and who is now stepping down, will continue to design and configure products at its Poole, Dorset, headquarters and all current staff will be retained. The acquisition includes the company’s US operation based in Tampa, Florida.

Intec’s most popular range, ColorCut, is a collection of entry-level large-format production flatbed cutting products. The company is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Plockmatic International and part of the Plockmatic Group, which includes the Morgana and Watkiss ranges of offline finishing systems.

Plockmatic’s CEO, Jan Marstorp, who will continue to head the expanded group of companies, said, ‘Intec are well known in the industry for providing quality products at competitive prices. The ColorCut range of cutting systems have been well received by the market, with sales in the UK, across North America, and many other international territories.

‘These systems are ideal for small to medium sized print-based operations that need to provide professionally-cut and finished promotional display boards, boxes, labels and more. This is a sector of the market that has grown rapidly in recent years, and one that Plockmatic is keen to further explore and expand. We also see a good match for these products with our large OEM customers who provide printers. These products will enable more applications and allow them to grow further into the light packaging and labelling market segment.’

Ray Hillhouse, vice president of sales and marketing at Plockmatic’s offline business unit, added, ‘Our UK Morgana sales team have enjoyed considerable success with the Valiani range of large format finishing systems in recent years.

‘We see the ColorCut suite of products complementing these in the UK and providing a terrific opportunity in this expanding market segment for our international dealerships worldwide.’

Mr Melville said, ‘Having started the business focusing on Apple Macs and pre-press products back in 1989, we’ve travelled right through the printing process to our current range of post-press equipment. I can safely say that it has been a long, eventful, highly enjoyable, and, ultimately, very successful journey. It has been a great delight to meet with printers and print equipment suppliers from all around the world – they are all great people. It has been a pleasure to be a part of this fantastic and highly adaptable industry.

“As the owner of a successful business there comes a time when the question of where the business goes after I’m gone has to be posed. The sale of the business to Plockmatic has come at a good time for me and for my fantastic team. This transaction will give me the opportunity to spend more time on several charitable projects that I have been involved with, as well as enjoying some well-earned holiday time. For the business and the staff, it will provide the solid backing from a successful international manufacturer.’

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Designed for light-to-medium digital print finishing, the FB775 accepts sheet media up to 580 x 800mm, with an effective cutting area of 480 x 715mm and can also accommodate two SRA3 sheets simultaneously for higher productivity. Cutting and creasing jobs are processed at up to 1200mm/sec, with a typical SRA3 sheet cut time of between 15 and 45 seconds, depending on complexity.

The dual tool head supports creasing pressure up to 1.5kgf and cutting up to 1.2kgf and there are three speed modes that trade of path complexity against cutting or creasing speed. An upgraded registration system allows for quick job retrieval, with registration marks found automatically by a CCD camera. Materials that can be handled include folding box board, card, paper, synthetics, soft boards, vinyl and label stocks.

The machine is driven via the included ColorCut Production Studio package, part of Intec’s ColorCut Pro software suite. This can be used as a stand-alone application with the cutter or as part of a networked solution in conjunction with Intec’s ColorCut Pro Server Station. The latter offers a Job Library Manager workflow application and a new Template Maker application for producing vector box templates, to use with Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw.

Product and marketing manager Terri Winstanley stated, ‘The new FB775 is a really powerful yet compact digital die-cutter providing accurate and fast production efficiency for any business requiring digital finishing. Anyone who uses it can cut and crease a wide range of materials and fast! However, it’s not all about speed – this model also offers our blended speed modes, so you can cut really fast on the straights and use the high-definition setting for those intricate cuts, all on the same job at the same time. And being able to handle B2 and larger sheets, the FB775 provides the user increased productivity with a small footprint device. We are confident that at its incredibly aggressive price point, the FB775 will be an extremely popular model.’

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The new cutter-creaser borrows technology developed for the company’s larger flatbed cutters and has two tool holders, allowing cutting and creasing in the same operation, on media up to 350micron thick and up to SRA3 in size. The units occupies only one square metre of floor space and has retractable media trays and wheels so that it can easily be moved around the production floor and stored when not needed.

A sophisticated input system that uses four media separation techniques is said to provide ‘faultless’ media feeding. This is coupled with a CCD-based registration sensor that allows compensation for scale, skew or rotation errors and which can also scan each sheet for QR codes to retrieve cutting files. This enables mixed batches of work to be loaded and left to run unattended; the feeder may be topped-up while the cutter is operating. The SC5000 is supplied with ColorCut Pro software which includes plus-in for Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw, to enable cutting and creasing paths to be defined from within these programs.

‘Today’s commercial printers have been limited with a choice when considering a cutter for their business.  Until now, it has been limited to devices based around basic vinyl cutters that are suitable for labels but not really card, or larger flatbed tables that can cut card but lack any real automation unless they invest in the new breed of larger automated flatbed . However, the Intec SC5000 is set to change all that by introducing a cross-over product,’ said Intec’s Mark Baker-Homes.

‘The Intec SC5000 has been over two years in design and development and seeks to blend the advantages of all three devices into one simple, automated, small footprint device aimed at the small commercial printer.’

The Intec SC5000 is priced at £4999 and is available immediately.

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According to Intec, applications for the clear toner with the 50ppm (A4) press include security-related items such as ID cards, event tickets and wristbands, as well as emulation of spot-UV gloss, while white can be used on coloured or transparent stocks for premium effects for corporate or wedding work.

The ColorSplash CS5000 is a five-colour SRA3 press that offers 1200 x 1200dpi resolution and can print to a maximum sheet length of 1321mm for banner production. A modular system allow the addition of a multiple drawer cabinet, high-capacity feeder, production envelope feeder, shingling conveyor and Fiery XF Rip for enhanced workflow and colour management, in addition to the banner extension tray. Single-sided print on media up to 450gsm is supported, 320gsm for duplex, and a wide range of substrates is supported, including paper, card, film and various synthetic media.

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The ColorFlares are compact dual laminator and foil flaring solutions designed to offer commercial printers, marketers and designers in-house decorative effects. Primarily designed for short run, on-demand digital applications as well as lamination for traditional litho output, the ColorFlares open up new opportunities for the production of greetings cards, vouchers, security print, packaging, book jackets and labels.

Intec’s CF350 offers the flexibility of laminating and foiling and with its softer feed rollers, useful for foiling trickier items such as envelopes without any detrimental effects.

Meanwhile CF750 offers three different set up options; as a desktop solution, with a stand and with the new dual feed roller assembly so lamination and foil rolls can be loaded together for exact material alignment and quicker production set.

‘We were very encouraged by the incredible sales received from the launch of the flagship CF1200,’ explained managing director Ian Melville. ‘After extensive market research we discovered that there was a gap in the market for smaller, entry level, desktop solutions that utilised the more cost effective 3 inch core materials in the market, so we developed these units to fill that gap.’

Coupled with the ColorSplash colour digital printer or printers from other manufacturers, the ColorFlare can foil onto printed toner and lamination films creating special effects without set up charges. The machines in the range use industry standard 3 inch core for both laminate and foils.

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The Intec CP3000 MFP is intended for ‘ultra-high quality’ short run production print, the company said, and includes the Intec printing press, running at 3000 sheets per hour, on stocks up to 400 gsm and up to 1.2 metres long (47 inches), the Intec finishing system, allowing folding, collating, hole punching, stapling and booklet making (up to 64 pages), and multi-functionality, with a new large touch screen to manage copying, faxing, scan to print, scan to e-mail, print from USB stick and other tasks, and a hardware Fiery RIP for professional colour management, imposition, step and repeat, IQ2400dpi resolution, automatic adjustment for page creep.

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Intec Printing Solutions claims its new A3 colour digital printer – the CP3000 – leads its class in cost per copy. The toner-based system, which is aimed at digital print companies, marketing departments and advertising agencies where imaging cost is of paramount importance, has been developed specifically to produce cost-effective quality digital print.

The company said it has calculated a cost per copy of 1.56 pence per sheets with 5% toner coverage, and says this compares favourably with all other A3 laser printers on the market. It is available from 1 November 2013, and from 1 December will also be paired with a Fiery RIP. A range of configurations include integrated finishing functions such as folding, hole punching (up to four holes), saddle stitching, collating, and stapling on media from A6 up to SRA3 and banner lengths up to 1.2 metres long.

While Intec is known for its heavy stock printers such as the XP2020, which has a straight paper path and can handle substrates up to 600 gsm, the CP3000 has been developed specifically with cost per copy in mind. Even so, it can still print onto 400 gsm papers. The company said that the CP3000 will cost ‘well under £10,000’ and will be paid for through a toner fee that includes all maintenance and support, rather than a click charge. 

‘Not everyone needs to print on 600 gsm, they just want good cost per copy,’ director of business development Mark Baker-Homes told Digital Printer. ‘Our goal was to deliver something that would really set itself apart in the A3 market space. We compared more than 10 different A3 laser printers used in a selection of different print environments and this system came out head and shoulders above the rest in terms of print quality and is unbeatable in imaging costs.

‘We are offering the CP3000 as a toner-based solution; customers will get low cost per copy and won’t get penalised for every copy they produce.’

The CP3000 prints at speeds of up to 50 pages per minute (black) and 45 pages per minute (colour). Toner cartridges yield up to 32,000 pages (black) and 22,000 (colour).

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