New Year, New Print Possibilities

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New Year, New Print Possibilities

February 10, 2020 Leave a commentBlog, Design Resource, Marketing, PrintingBy Caden Coleman

New Year, New Print Possibilities

With our purchase of the Komori 40” offset press the beginning of 2019, our offset department added a large variety of in-house services. And we began to feel like our digital department needed a similar upgrade.

We couldn’t let the large quantity jobs have all the fun.

So, at the end of October, we invested in the new HP Indigo 7900 for our digital department.

On top of maintaining the features we already offer (like raised UV and variable data), the new digital features include: metallic ink, white ink, fluorescent ink, invisible ink, edge printing, and new specialty substrates.

But, we also have to mention that we are one of a handful of printers in the nation to have the HP Indigo 7900 with all its new features. So, needless to say, it has been a research and development process to figure out these new services.

For the past couple of weeks (now that we are past the Christmas rush), we have been coming up with design ideas and running test prints on our new digital press.

And, we are now ready to pass on what we have learned to you.

Metallic Silver Ink

Metallic silver can be used on its own, like this:

Or, it can be layered underneath a color to create a metallic shine, like this:

White Ink

Printing on colored or transparent paper is now possible in-house.

Like metallic silver, it can also be used on its own. Or, it can be layered underneath the CMYK process to print colors on colored or transparent paper stock.

Fluorescent Ink

You have four color options: green, orange, pink and yellow. (It may be cliché to say this, but pictures really don’t do these colors justice.)

You can only do one fluorescent ink a time, but you can run one fluorescent ink with the normal CMYK process and metallic at the same time. Or print it on a specialty paper… like pearlized gold.

(Fluorescent inks are also glow-in-the-dark under UV lights, so that’s a fun bonus.)

Invisible Ink

The invisible ink feature is intended mostly for security purposes, but could have more creative uses. It can only be seen under a UV light.

We are currently an HP Beta-Tester for invisible ink, so with this one, there is a lot more to learn about.

Edge Printing

This is a feature intended for anything bound with a spine… booklets, notepads, magazines, catalogs, etc. Basically, there is a continuous image on the edges of the booklet. You could put your logo, an image or pattern, or a solid color even.

Image provided by HP Inc. Click on the image to read more about edge printing.

New Specialty Substrates

Simply put, the HP Indigo 7900 has a wider variety of paper stock and substrates it can print on. Like a thicker media, synthetics, and paperboard.

The above examples are just barely scratching the surface on the possibilities. With all the test prints we have run, your sales rep will be able to recommend strategies for the best visual impact, our prepress team can guide you through knowing how to design your file, and our press operator knows what to look out for in order to best bring your design to life.