Stationery Office Gears-Up Short-Run Colour Work

The Stationery Office (TSO) in the UK has installed a seven-colour HP Indigo press 5000 at its division dedicated to producing governmental and parliamentary work in London.

The Stationery Office (TSO) in the UK has installed a seven-colour HP Indigo press 5000 at its division dedicated to producing governmental and parliamentary work in London.

The new digital press will enable TSO to print on-demand, short-run colour work that it previously had to outsource.

Its new HP Indigo 5000 will be used predominantly to print government and departmental reports, which are available for purchase by the general public and government officials at TSO's on-line bookshop.

"We have seen an increasing demand for the production of spot and full colour short run work from both governmental departments and commercial customers and this was a key reason for investing in our Indigo 5000," said Terry Bailey, operations director at TSO.

"The new digital press allows us to load spot colours on to the press, in addition to the usual CMYK colour gamut.

Not only does this enable us to produce corporate and brand colours for commercial customers, it is important for our government work as the print runs of many of our core products are becoming shorter, yet more frequent.

We needed to find a technical solution that would allow us to produce such products to meet demanding schedules, whilst maintaining the high quality levels we achieve using traditional litho.

The Indigo 5000 provided us with that solution," he added.

By using HP's off-site ink mixing service, special colours can be manufactured and supplied to the user, enabling the Indigo 5000 to simulate up to 97 per cent of the Pantone colour range, said HP.

Alternatively special orange and violet inks can be loaded on to the press, which extends the traditional CMYK colour gamut for the printer.

Using its Indigo 5000, TSO can now produce extra runs on-demand after lithographic runs have been completed.

"Because the Indigo 5000 uses liquid ink, not toner, we are able to get an excellent high quality colour match to that of our lithographic presses.

This is a great benefit to our customers as we can match the quality of repeat runs to the original job," said Terry Bailey.

TSO installed its first mono digital press in 1999.

As customers began to increasingly demand shorter, more frequent, colour runs, which gave rise to a need for an in-house digital colour printing facility.

With its new print on-demand service, TSO can print short runs as required, allowing it to accurately estimate run lengths and significantly reduce stock holdings and wastage.

Utilising the benefits of its Indigo 5000, TSO plans to offer new and existing customers innovative services, including the production of personalised documents.

The Indigo 5000 is claimed to be suitable for medium and large sized commercial printers, delivering cost effective and high quality print.

The press can output up to 4,000 four-colour, A4 images per hour or up to 8,000 two-colour or single colour images per hour, claimed HP.

HP said that it has a long history in providing digital colour printing systems from entry-level printers to large format presses and as cost of ownership falls, more companies are adopting and using this technology.

The Stationery Office is Britain's largest publisher by output, publishing 15,000 printed and electronic products each year and employs over 600 people throughout the UK at locations including London, Edinburgh, Belfast, Cardiff, Birmingham, Manchester and Norwich.

TSO, formerly part of Her Majesty's Stationery Office, was privatised in 1996 and now has revenues of GBP80 million per annum, with clients that include the UK Government, Parliament and Assemblies, the Office of Public Sector Information (formerly HMSO), the Driving Standards Agency and Network Rail.

TSO has 200 years' experience in official print and publishing and provides document and publishing services to the public and private sectors.

Back to top