The World's Best Digital Printer: What It Is And Why It Matters
We’ve recently installed the world’s best printer for stickers and labels. And no, we are not just saying this because it sounds good (even though it really does). It is as good as you can get – and it has made us pretty happy.
It’s a beauty, isn’t it?! But why should you care?
Because you get better stickers even faster, of course.
We’re not kidding when we say it’s the world’s best. It’s a £0.5 million bit of kit that uses incredible technology to print beautiful quality.
There are bigger, faster and even more expensive printers in the world, but if you want digitally printed stickers or labels, this is the crème de la crème.
But let’s dive into just what makes this printer so good. I’m here to tell you just that and explain how it makes your stickers and labels even better than they were before. Let’s begin…
It prints stunning, vibrant colours
This new machine has seven ink stations which means we can print the normal CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow & black) plus white. You are probably familiar with this from switching out your ink cartridges at home. But here is where our new printer comes in.
We can also use spot colours to widen the colour gamut (the number of colours we can print). Orange, violet and green are the most popular and allow us to hit more Pantone colours than ever.
Pantone themselves says that CMYK printers can print 55% of Pantone spot colours. In contrast, CMYKOVG can print 90% of Pantone spot colours – this is a massive difference. Learn more about what can and can’t be printed in CMYK here.
It’s not only the number of inks that’s better. It’s also how we put ink on the media that’s so clever.
The original inventor of this print technology is a chemist who made conductive ink. This allows us to very specifically control where ink is placed. Add to that we can apply multiple layers of a specific colour, this allows us to build inks with amazing control and therefore match particular colours that weren’t possible before.
Tiny details are clearer than ever
We can now print the smallest of text. There is even a special font that is so small it can only be read through a magnifying glass.
The reason this incredible detail is possible is because of the unique technology used by the HP Indigo.It employs a print process known as digital offset. Without boring you senseless, the image made from ink is applied to a rubber blanket and then in one hit, put onto the media to create the printed image of your sticker.
This has two major benefits; the first is perfect registration so we get a crisp image every time, and the second is that it gives the ink a little bit of time to wet out – a fancy printing term for drying -, which means you get a match smoother, more solid, detailed print.
Here is a cool video if you’re interested in learning more about the print process.
It’s better for the environment
The printer is manufactured in a carbon neutral process, which means there’s no carbon emitted into the atmosphere when building a machine. It’s the only machine we know of with these credentials. It’s even got a certificate to prove it!
The inks contain no animal products which is of course great for the environment and vegan-friendly brands. You can download a letter here for confirmation.
And one of the best environmental features is that the ink is certified compostable. Because the ink is actually more of a paste, it means we can apply very thin layers to the sticker. Because these layers are so thin they meet the threshold for being home compostable. Here is the certificate showing this certification.
The materials have been upgraded
The new printer allows us to buy direct from material manufacturers because it takes giant, rolls that are up to 2km long.
We’ve taken this opportunity to work with the manufacturers and create custom products, just for us.
Multiple products in our range have improved, the biggest being the eco-friendly white and the eco-friendly clear stickers.
We’ve put these products on a thicker backing paper so they stay nice and flat and are easier to peel. We also laminate them with a compostable layer to give them a nice glossy finish and maximum protection.
This means that you no longer have to make compromises when opting for an eco-friendly option. Now, you can really have your cake and eat it: a thick stickers that is just as environmentally friendly as before. Just see how beautiful some of the stickers are coming from this machine:
It’s fasttttt 💨
This printer is insanely fast! It prints up to 50 linear metres every minute. All whilst still printing incredible detail. It’s mindblowing!
This means we can deliver your order even quicker than before.
50m per minute is hard to imagine, but it’s faster than the eye can see. Here’s what it looks like when printing.