InkJet Age

DEC 2014

Inkjet's Age, a print supplement to Quick Printing, is a business and technology brand dedicated to corporate and senior management and focusing on issues surrounding inkjet printing technology in all its forms. Inkjet's Age covers the industry news,

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www.MyPRINTResource.com DECEMBER 2014 • INKJET'S AGE 19 mized papers. "As the market grew, more paper companies became interested and independently developed inkjet papers," explained Murphy. HP has since tested and certified a large number of these pa- pers as well as standard offset papers that its inkjet press can print on with the HP Bonding Agent The company maintains a media locator for the latest information about compatible papers as well as implementing an ongo- ing program to help its customers evaluate new media options. It also maintains a list of tested and certified papers for HP Inkjet Web Presses. HP works with more than 30 paper companies and has certified more than 130 papers, with more in the testing queue. In addition, there are more than 95 Color- PRO papers listed in the Media Locator that are engineered and optimized for use on its inkjet web presses. "Formulation and production processes come together to yield media that works optimally with HP Inkjet Web Presses," said Murphy. "Many papers producing great results have come to market, and more will come." "The HP T-series high-speed web inkjet presses have been the most successful to date in providing high-quality printing on reasonably priced coated stocks for the text book publishing, and direct mail markets," Whalen added. Certification assures the PSP that the media will print successfully on an inkjet press. Vendors such as HP and Kodak measure a range of variables, to ensure their customers can make well informed decisions, including evaluating the trade- offs (i.e., choosing coated vs. uncoated). Kodak's Paper Rating Program for its Prosper presses continues to expand the range of papers that have been tested and rated. Launched in 2012, the program's purpose is to help assure PSPs that the media they select will perform as needed during production runs and also are engi- neered to provide the best results possible for specific applications. The rating sys- tem, which ranges from one diamond to five diamonds, is based on quantifiable da- ta used to determine media performance. For example, Felix Schoeller JET- SPEED paper, a premium coated inkjet paper for brochures, direct mail, and other full-color printing applications, received five diamonds in the program. JET- SPEED is available in weights of 130 gsm, 200 gsm, and 250 gsm. Collaborating with OEMs "Finch Paper works closely with all of the OEMs to qualify and certify Finch's untreated and treated media," said Povie. "Specific scripts for the media that the OEM can provide will greatly increase the print providers' quality and uptime. For example, on the HP T-series, Finch Inkjet Pi has been certified and is pre-treated so that the print provider does not have to apply the bonding agent. Printing Finch Inkjet Pi saves time, energy, and money for projects over 25 to 28 percent coverage." Finch Inkjet Pi is specially treated for pigment inks used in HP, Kodak, and Canon platforms. Finch Inkjet Pi is a popular choice for full-color books, such as ElHi (elementary and high school text books) where high PPI, color "pop" and minimal show through are all essential. Finch Inkjet DS is engineered for run- nability with both pigment and dye-based inks. This substrate is superior in terms of show-through on lighter basis weights, 20 lb. and 24 lb., for the transactional market. Finch's papers for production inkjet have been engineered to hold the colorant on the surface while allowing for immediate drying and minimal show-through. Appleton Coated, too, has addressed the issue of providing coated papers that per- form well with inkjet, by working closely with the OEMs. "Appleton's Utopia Inkjet coated papers are the only coated papers in North America to carry the HP ColorPRO Technology Trademark, signifying the paper is engineered to deliver color excel- lence in digital printing and optimized for the HP inkjet web presses," Whalen said. " Appleton Coated worked with HP to develop the coated products for the HP inkjet web presses and inks." Appleton Coated's Utopia Inkjet matte finish coated papers also are used and de- liver a high-quality image on Kodak Pros- per high-speed inkjet technology. To break through the confusion in choosing papers for inkjet printing, Apple- ton Coated created the "What Works Where" tool. Launched in November, it will help printers understand which Apple- ton Coated Utopia Inkjet papers work best on the various high-speed web inkjet platforms, with either pigment or dye- based inks. The piece includes coated and uncoated paper selections that work on the following technology platforms: HP T-se- ries, Pitney Bowes Intellijet, Kodak Prosper and Versamark, Canon Oce' Colorstream and Jetstream, Ricoh Infoprint, Screen Truepress, Xerox Inpika, and Fujifilm J Press. The piece explains which papers work best with which press platforms and ink types, said Whalen. While certification programs provide comfort to printers that a substrate will perform on the press; it does not neces- sarily mean that the papers have been op- timized, in the way the ColorPRO Tech- nology indicates that Appleton Coated's Utopia papers are optimized for the HP presses, said Whalen. "Today, there is much more visibility to available papers in the market," added Murphy. "We've observed substantial in- creases in the number of papers that yield excellent results. Runability, image and text print quality, gamut, and show-through have all improved. More gloss inkjet-com- patible papers are coming to market and will help printers get the results and media choice they are seeking." ✚

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