Digital presses have had significant developments in recent years. Since the acquisition of Indigo by HP, technology advancements in digital color printing have lead to excellent business opportunities for many vendors. The concept of variable data printing has been around since the 1980’s. During this time, transactional information such as bank and credit card statements were variable, but done only with black ink. Before its acquisition, Indigo pioneered the full color variable data printing industry into how we know it today. Currently, there are four major vendors of variable data presses. These are HP Indigo, Xerox iGen3, Xeikon, and the Kodak NexPress. The HP Indigo series uses one imaging drum combined with a patented static-charged ink. This technology allows the ink to transfer to the image area on the drum then transfers the image to the paper. This process is very similar to traditional offset and is the only ink-on-paper variable data digital press. The HP Indigo prints on a wide range of substrates, but for optimum performance, it is best to use a pre-treated paper. The HP line of variable data digital presses include the affordable 6-color 1050, the high volume web-fed w3200, the efficient 3050, and the flagship 5000. Xerox produces several printers that are capable of variable data printing. However, for high-production, Xerox created the iGen3. This toner-based press can produce high volumes with an extremely high print quality. One advantage of the iGen3, is the capability to mix several types of stock in one run, outputting collated print media at the end of the press. Xeikon print engines are now considered the ‘Hummer’ of variable data digital presses. The new Xeikon 5000 is a toner-based web press that can produce up to 3,000,000 pages a month with in-line perfecting. The Xeikon 5000 also features automatic density and registration which increases a vendor’s efficiency and productivity. Since the Kodak acquisition of the NexPress from Heidelberg, Kodak has made significant improvements to the press. Like it’s competitors, it is also a toner-based printer and features in-line perfecting like the Xeikon. The NexPress also contains multiple paper drawers enhancing the ability to mix several types of stock in the same run. Each of these printers fits into a niche market. In another words, the Xeikon 5000 is extremely efficient with high volume jobs such as customized transactional statements but would not be the best fit for a company that produces shorter and more complicated runs. Please check back to see our upcoming reports on these presses.