Xerox unveils ‘Color 1000’ hitting new roads

Digital printing has been undergoing a swift development ever since its widespread popularity achieved in the Indian market. Xerox India subsequently endeavours to set this progress at right acceleration with the introduction of its Color 1000 press in a three-day event organised recently in Mumbai. Vipin Tuteja, executive director, Marketing and International Business, Xerox India talked at length about every minute significance of this digital press recommended for producing more than 125,000 pages per month with a resolution of 2,400 dpi in an exclusive interview with Sonal Khurana of Print & Publishing. Xerox Color 1000 press stands out in many ways than one. Positioned between the company’s hugely successful DocuColor 8002 and iGen4 digital presses, Color 1000 is an answer to commercial printers, photo finishers, direct-mail houses, digital service providers etc who are looking for high-quality outputs. “But the choice of Xerox presses largely depends upon the overall workload requirement and production capacity. For instance, Color 8000 is ideal for job producing more than 300,000 copies a month; for 125,000 copies per month, one can opt for Color 1000 machine,” said Vipin adding that Xerox India has plans to introduce Color 800 in the subcontinent in near future.

Concerning the current market demands in India, Vipin mentioned that if given a chance between Xerox Color 800 and Color 1000, the latter would be more preferable by end-users in the country. With the Color 1000’s fine print quality of 2,400 dpi resolution, Xerox India eyes to tap the photo lab segment. “Of course, photo album is one of the biggest applications which are growing vigorously in the Indian market. That’s why we are targeting photo labs as well as those who wish to make an entry into this segment with Color 1000,” asserted Vipin. A landmark in digital printing, Color 1000 was introduced worldwide at IPEX 2010 in Birmingham.

Advantageous features

So far so good, customers’ feedbacks to this press were extremely encouraging and some of them even booked orders on the spot, which included a couple of customers from photo printing segment and others engaging in colour printing jobs during the launch event. Apart from photo albums, jobs that this press can do with its optional fifth dry ink station for ‘clear dry ink’ amplifying full-colour outputs suitable for ‘on demand printing’ and various other applications including booklets (signature, square-fold and lay flat options), brochures, postcards, business cards, manuals, calendars, invitations and newsletters etc in fine-tuned image quality.

Compatible with sheet sizes ranging from 7.2 x 7.2 inch up to 13 x19.2 inch weighing between coated and uncoated 55-350 gsm, flexible finishing options of Color 1000 allows fulfilling custom built application needs. This press offers two 2,000-sheet trays positioned below the print engine, providing a smaller footprint compared to other systems. An optional oversized high capacity feeder with two additional trays in the machine can increase capacity up to 8,000 sheets for longer unattended run time. Z-card and tri-fold fliers are some of the unique applications of Color 1000.

“The new 1000 press is an impressive equipment with its amazing finishing options and free flow print server. The equipment is capable of producing large amounts in very little time with high resolution imaging and digital quality. We feel that the applications that it can cater to including manuals and photo books will be of help for our unit,” said Shiva Kumar (Futura Digital Press, Bangalore). “The 1000 press can run several applications with highest speed and precision possible. The flexible finishing options allowing systems to be customized will certainly help in growing our business,” commented Thahir Batcha (Penguin Xerox, Chennai).

“Color 1000 is the machine that can bridge the gap between iGen4 and DocuColor 8002 in terms of cost effectiveness and its idyllic photo album printing. Even the size of the machine is compact to save a good space which form a major investment and its power consumption is as low as 10 KV with less carbon footprint,” remarked Vipin. He added that the fifth toner (fifth colour) bringing value to the outputs is an added feature of the machine making it as a preferred choice to posses.

New revolution

Market dominance of Color 1000 will conceivably help the traditional concept of photo labs find a new standard. “Now in many Tier II and Tier III towns, one can find many going for photographs being digitally printed. So, it may take two to three years down the line to catch up with the presses like Color 1000 in this kind of business,” stated Vipin. It’s typically a repeat of what happened in the printing industry when the digital printing was first introduced in India. People had a preconceived mindset that digital technology is not comparable with offset prints—colours looking different, midtone shade missing and so on. Now people finally realise that the outputs delivered to the end users don’t make any difference if it is coming out of commercial offset or digital.

“Our end users don’t even know much about the difference between offset and digital printing. What they really concern about is something which is quick; if they want it in one hour, it should be printed or done in time. These are the requirements we would provide through Color 1000 to the end customers,” explained Vipin. Though he agreed that offset printing will always remain in the industry. And offset printers eventually realising that room for digital printing is equally important as many customers have understood the value of digital press, how quickly and consistently it works. Thus digital printing is not all about replacing something but just fulfilling the additional requirements, complementing the traditional printing.

New applications

Digital presses have requisite roles in book publishing sector too. “I would say that the second most growing sector occupied by digital press is the book publishing industry,” mentioned Vipin. According to him, there is a clear fact that many publishers in these days recognise huge market demand and potential for short-run production of 200-300 books. Earlier publishers would never agree to such short-run production. However, with the advent of digital presses, they found opportunities and advantages in short-run book publishing turning out to be easier than expected.

“Today, many publication houses accept orders to produce archive titles and works of new authors knocking on their doors requiring short-runs,” asserted Vipin adding that Xerox India aims to capture the publication sector in bigger aspect. And another potential domain the company is now eyeing to march into is luxury-packaging segment, which is still untapped properly and there is still value proposition in it. Clutching on to the increasingly expanded digital printing market, came alongside Xerox are other digital press majors like Ricoh, Canon and Konika Minolta. Rather than competition, Vipin is very optimistic about helping each counterpart to further prosper within the sector, which is really big enough to co-exist.