Digital Printing – HP Indigo

In this post, we wanted to discuss the digital printing capabilities of our HP Indigo Digital Press. This bundle of technology does so many amazing things, from the wide range of substrates to specialty inks, the Indigo is one of our most versatile printing engines.

Let’s start with inks. Our HP Indigo press is fully loaded with 7 colors, which opens up a mind-boggling combination of design possibilities. While most digital presses only print in CMYK and a few have very limited ability to add a single spot color like white or metallic toner, the HP Indigo gives us three extra inkwells to create some pretty amazing effects.

HP’s liquid ink is different than any other digital press, as opposed to the old dry toner that you find in your office copier and all other toner-based digital presses, the HP Indigo lays down a thin and smooth ink film that looks like traditional high quality offset printing and not something your intern made on the office copier during their lunch hour. 

While any list of Indigo capabilities is limited (because we keep coming up with new ideas), here are a few to get your wheels turning: 

• White Ink – It is simple to see the benefits of white ink if you are printing on a clear substrate like a window cling, but white ink opens the door to a lot of really interesting design concepts as well. Printing white on a dark stock is neat, but you can also print your full-color photograph on that same dark stock and have a vibrant image by laying down white under your photo. Printing white ink in combination with process inks on metallic stocks can make unbelievably eye-catching graphics. White ink on a black soft-touch laminate is a super cool look – ask us to see samples of that the next time you are in for a visit.
• Expanded Color Gamut – have you ever been unhappy with the limited color gamut of CMYK – We can add Orange, Green, or Violet to our CMYK to expand your color gamut and print your vibrant product photos in lifelike color that you never knew existed in the print world before.
• Light Cyan, Light Magenta, Light Black, and Light Light Black – Print black and white photography with amazing depth using light black and light-light black, or add depth to your pastel images with light cyan and magenta.
• Transparent Ink – Can print from 1 to 30 layers of clear transparent ink to make stunning raise ink effects. 
• Invisible Ink – Readable with the application of UV light for security printing or fun event printing. 
• Fluorescent Pink Ink – Grab attention with fluorescent inks
• Digital Matte Inks – Available for a matte look on gloss papers
• Spot Colors – These can be mixed to make an exact match of your corporate spot color – no more having to give up on hitting your spot color on digital print jobs – we can match virtually any spot color with accuracy and repeatability.

These options give not only a broad spectrum of color but also the freedom to add creative touches to your printed pieces.