HP Link offers a low cost way of integrating print with other channels
HP has launched Link Technology, a platform that enables print to be integrated with other channels in a way that goes beyond augmented reality (AR), image recognition (IR) and QR codes, and which it claims is easier and cheaper to deploy.
Link was one of the firm’s announcements at Graph Expo, along with the upgrade of its T300 PageWide web press to use its HDNA print technology, which offers higher quality and productivity.
‘Print should be part of the Internet of Things (IoT); every business card, poster and DM piece should be actionable with your smartphone to access additional information and connection to another channel,’ said David Murphy, worldwide director of marketing, HP PageWide Web Press. ‘We have this ability with QR codes, which are archaic, omnipresent and the ugliest thing to happen to print. To create an AR or IR campaign gets cost prohibitive very quickly.
‘HP intends to make it affordable, as close as free as possible, to help make print more relevant,’ Mr Murphy added.
Underpinning Link is a digital watermark technology that can be used within images and text and can be used for both overt uses for marketing and promotion and covert uses for supply chain traceability and product authentication.
Link is being rolled out to HP customers, initially PageWide press users, but is also applicable for Indigo and wide format customers. The Link Reader, which also reads QR codes, is available to download for Apple and Android devices.
At Graph Expo the company showed a book publishing example produced by Canadian customer Webcom. The demonstration featured personalised copies of Unsquaring the Wheel, written by US printing experts Joe Webb, Chris Bondy and Wayne Peterson and described by industry guru Frank Romano as ‘an operating manual for the printing company of the future’.
The T300, the firm’s 30-inch inkjet web, is the last of the range to gain the ability to use its HDNA architecture. The three new models, the T370, T380 and T390 offer 1,200 dpi resolution at 150 m/minute and higher throughput of up to 305 m/minute (T390) in high speed mode.
Monthly print volumes for the T390 have increased from 99 m A4 ppm to 157 m A4 ppm. Existing machines are field upgradeable to the new specification.
‘The benefits of HDNA are improved image quality, which opens up new, higher profitability applications,’ said Mr Murphy. ‘The increased duty cycle is quite a bit of capacity upgrade, and for 20% of the initial capital cost represents quite a lot of value.’
