New digital front-end solutions designed for HP Indigo presses streamline colour management and production workflow

BOEBLINGEN, Germany, – HP has announced an agreement with Esko to become a provider of Esko digital front end products as part of an end-to-end digital printing solution for the label, flexible packaging and shrink sleeve industries.

HP will now be a value added reseller for two HP Indigo-optimised digital front-end solutions from Esko: the Esko Optimise Pack and the Scope Pack. Both dramatically decrease print preparation and colour management times, enhancing the overall workflow productivity of HP Indigo presses.

"Our successful integration with Esko is a major win for the label industry as HP continues to expand its digital end-to-end workflow solutions for industrial printing," said Alon Bar-Shany, vice president and general manager, Indigo division, HP. "We are supporting hybrid environments where analogue and digital printing co-exist, enabling converters to choose the right technology for each job. HP will maintain market leadership by offering new products and innovative solutions that enable a smooth transformation to digital."

"Today's label and packaging production workflow demands more powerful solutions that dramatically shorten lead time and reduce cost. Our intense cooperation with HP has provided clear evidence of Esko's unique ability to bring tangible benefits to label and packaging converters," said Carsten Knudsen, chief executive officer of Esko.

A faster colour matching solution for digital labels

The two digital front end solutions, now available for users of HP Indigo press models ws4000, ws4050 and the new ws4500, reduce colour matching time by as much as 50% (1).

Both solutions are built around the Esko Kaleidoscope device-independent colour engine. Kaleidoscope spectrally profiles the six or seven colour set in the HP Indigo press, as well as any brand colour that is to be simulated using a six or seven colour set. It then digitises all colour intelligence into a central colour database to dramatically reduce the colour matching process on the HP Indigo press and provides ultimate colour consistency, repeatability and predictability.

The Esko Optimise Pack enables seamless output to HP Indigo presses and digital proofing systems, even on jobs originally designed for flexography. It includes Esko FlexRIP, Esko Kaleidoscope colour management, and pre-written profiles of users' specific HP Indigo press model.

The Esko Scope Pack for HP Indigo has the features and capabilities of the Optimise Pack with the addition of features from Esko’s powerful Scope Pre-Production Workflow Software. With the Scope Pack, users gain automation capabilities and imposition and barcoding tools provided by the Esko BackStage workflow server and Esko DeskPack packaging software, while the Esko’s DeskPack plug-ins for Adobe Illustrator provide production tools on the platform of choice in labels and packaging design.

A history of product integration with real benefits for the future

This announcement builds on a successful relationship between HP and Esko that began at the Drupa 2004 trade show, when Esko first announced solutions designed to drive HP Indigo label and packaging presses. Since that time, customers using HP Indigo presses in tandem with Esko technologies have had the opportunity to gain efficiencies and productivities that enhance the value of digital converting operations.
The new Esko Optimise Pack and Esko Scope Pack are the natural next steps in expanding the successful collaboration between HP and Esko. The companies' joint efforts will continue to offer benefits to customers with technologies that are currently in development. One such future product planned in the HP and Esko collaborative relationship is a variable-data label printing application.

The Esko Optimise Pack for HP Indigo and Esko Scope Pack for HP Indigo are available from HP as of November 2006, and include a unique driver that ensures ready-to-print files for HP Indigo presses.