A Tale of Two Offsets

HP Indigo Digital Offset Press

"It was the best of times, 

it was the worst of times... " 

Charles Dickens

March 22nd marked the ten year anniversary of the purchase of Indigo by Hewlett Packard which brought digital offset printing technology to a much larger market. During this decade, Indigo users have thrived while traditional offset printers have declined dramatically.

The contrast between the two printing technologies was very apparent in data presented by Alon Bar-Shany, Vice President and General Manager of HP Indigo, at this years Dscoop conference. Since 2006, print industry revenues have declined 49% from $108.5 billion to $55 billion. Large offset print campaigns have been replaced by small, carefully targeted campaigns and electronic publishing has eliminated the need for many printed documents.

However, Indigo digital offset page volumes have increased from nine billion in 2008 to twenty billion in 2012. The growth in short run printing, personalized marketing and personalized publishing have been a great opportunity for those who have embraced the digital technology.

Bar-Shany went on to announce a new family of HP digital presses that will challenge offset printing even more radically. The HP Indigo 10,000 is a 29" platform that can print a full eight page signature with the same seven color capability, automatic duplexing and multi-source feeder as the current Indigo line.

Printing and publishing have changed radically in the last decade and the pace of change is accelerating. How are you preparing for these changes?