“Our agenda is to do something new every year. This time we are talking about the B2 size print for the photo industry. The Indigo 10000 is on show at this event,” said A Appadurai, country manager, Indigo and Inkjet Solutions, GSB, HP India, about the main agenda for the 2016 edition of Consumer Electronic Imaging Fair (CEIF) held in Mumbai from 7 to 10 January.
In recent years, robust growth in the Indian commercial photo printing segment has been driven by wedding photography. According to A Appadurai, the HP Indigo 10000 is capable of printing large sized prints and this capability has fuelled the scope of professional photo printing applications to unimaginable levels. “Introduction of the 20 x 30 inches sheet size means a lot for the photo industry,” he said.
Segmentation is something that will further boost growth in the industry. Apart from wedding photography, which is the current mainstay of the industry, occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries will also migrate to print. Another segment ripe for growth in the country is that of holiday photography which often overlaps the amateur photography category. “This is a completely untapped market. What is missing is that nobody has offered a convenient way for people to go for print. However, I am sure somebody will come up with a solution very soon. And the medium will be the web.”
Speaking briefly about the upcoming drupa 2016 event, he said that the event will be the gamechanger for HP India and the digital printing market in the country. In addition to the HP Indigo, the stand also contained an HP Indigo 7800 and Indigo 5600 presses, an HP Latex 360 printer, an HP DesignJet Z3200 photo printer, an HP DesignJet Z5400 PostScript ePrinter and an HP DesignJet D5800 production printer.
The Indigo 7800 has been upgraded with an in-line spectrophotometer, eliminating the need for manual color calibration and monitoring. The press also features a new optimizer on-press production management tool that helps manage the print queue, prioritize print jobs, plan substrate usage and improve overall efficiencies. Speaking about the technologies shown for the large format market, Devang Karia, country manager, large format design, GSB, HP India stated that the HP DesignJet Z3200 photo printer, HP DesignJet Z5400 PostScript ePrinter and the HP DesignJet D5800 production printers cover a wide spectrum of the market, targeting small to medium to big players.
“These three products are for different solutions at different price points,” Karia said. Apart from the comprehensive variety of presses and printers on show, over 50 HP Indigo customers exhibited their work at the HP stand, including high-quality wedding albums, photo books, posters, cards, calendars, and more photo-specialty HP Indigo applications.
