To print a commemorative fine art and poetry book for the National Gallery Company, Pureprint Group Ltd, used the HP Indigo 10000 digital press.
When the National Gallery acquired several new paintings by the Renaissance painter Titian, it decided to commemorate it with the publication of a book of poetry inspired by the art. Unsure of demand, it decided to print 2,400 copies of Metamorphosis: Poems Inspired by Titian.
‘The book proved highly successful and quickly sold out,’ said Jane Hyne, production manager. ‘The lead time for a conventional re-print was more than six weeks and we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to capitalise on the interest and momentum.’
The company wanted to see if a cost-effective digitally printed run of the book could be produced quickly and to the same high quality standard as the conventional edition. For each reprint, it took a mere two weeks from receipt of the order to delivery.
The book is a 56 page, soft-covered book with sewn binding and a 210 x 148 mm finished format. ‘This was a great project for demonstrating the capabilities of our Indigo 10000,’ said Aaron Archer, technical director. ‘The B2 format meant that we could impose as classic 16 pp folding sections, making production faster and more cost-effective. While printing on a traditional publishing material, 150 gsm Hello matt, ensured an exact match.’
While the company did have previous experience of book printing on its other HP Indigo presses, this was the first to be printed commercially on the HP Indigo 10000 Digital Press which it has been beta-testing since November 2012.
The ability of Indigo presses to print on the same coated and uncoated stocks (in matt, gloss and semi-gloss finishes) as litho gives publishers great flexibility to use both technologies to help meet the printing requirements of a book throughout its life cycle. Digitally printing books also means that quantities produced can more closely match demand and help to reduce warehousing costs.
