HP announced that it set new industry records in digital printing in calendar year 2006, surpassing several milestones that signify an acceleration in its Indigo digital press business, including:

• Number of annual impressions printed on HP Indigo surpassed 10 billion;

• Single-month record with more than 1 billion impressions printed in November;

• HP Indigo year-over-year impressions grew by 40 percent.

According to industry analyst firm InfoTrends, overall US revenues for digital presses in the high-volume, “1M+ average monthly impressions” category is expected to grow from $3.5 billion in 2006 to $13.5 billion by 2010.

“Achieving the 10 billion impressions milestone demonstrates how the advantages of HP Indigo digital print technology, such as personalisation, short-run quantities and elimination of inventories, are helping HP lead the transformation from analogue to digital,” said Alon Bar-Shany, vice president and general manager, Indigo Division, HP.

“Our customers are discovering that the real profit opportunity in digital comes from offering the best quality, and this is especially apparent in direct mail and marketing collateral markets as well as rapidly-growing niche markets such as books-on-demand, photo merchandise and label printing.”

Marketers, publishers, consumer-product companies and consumers are increasingly using digital-print technology to produce everything from marketing collateral and direct mail to photo merchandise and books and manuals. Digital print technology, like that found in HP Indigo presses, offers great value and convenience with its ability to print in small runs while also providing offset-quality imaging.