New features drive profit for print providers

Custom-blended color technology to expand highlight color printing choices

Dubai, UAE - 4 December 2006 - Xerox Middle East & Africa has enhanced its DocuTech 180 Highlight Color System with two new features that open the door to creating new and different types of print jobs and significantly expand the breadth of colors that can be printed.  The improvements will help print providers grow their business, drive revenue and increase profits.

The DocuTech 180 Highlight Color System - the world's fastest cut-sheet highlight color printer at 180 pages per minute - now has finishing options that enable print providers to produce high-volume publishing documents such as books, booklets and catalogs.  Previously, the system specialized in printing transactional documents such as invoices and statements. Also, Xerox will be able to create custom-blended colors for the printer so print providers can offer more choices to their clients, such as a color match for a client's logo to strengthen brand identity and recognition.

Highlight color printers - which produce documents in black plus one other color - can help make documents more effective by drawing attention to relevant information such as sale prices and discounts, the balance due on an invoice, warning labels, or a sidebar story in an employee booklet.

According to a recent survey conducted by INTERQUEST, a leading market and technology research and consulting firm, digital spot color (highlight color) print volume will grow by 11 percent per year through 2009.

"Our studies show that manuals and educational books represent a major growth opportunity for highlight color digital printing," said Gilles Biscos, president of INTERQUEST.  "The Xerox DocuTech 180 Highlight Color System - with its new finishing options and custom-blended colors - will provide printers the ability to run a wide range of highlight color applications intended for offset, opening up new business opportunities and increasing revenue and profits."

Equipped for Publishing

Thanks to new finishing options - stacking, stitching and tape binding - the DocuTech 180 Highlight Color system can now produce high-volume publishing jobs such as brochures and direct-mail pieces, in addition to its ability to create transactional print pieces. The enhanced digital printing system will be particularly useful for commercial-print and quick-print shops, in-plant operations and marketing communication companies that want to add one color at almost the same cost as black-and-white printing.

"Xerox helps print professionals generate higher profits and deliver more value to their customers, by providing the right digital production technology, the right workflow and the right business development resources and the DocuTech 180 system" said Chris Govier, Production Business Manager, Xerox Middle East and Africa.

The DocuTech 180 Highlight Color System also has a new two-tray page inserter that automatically assembles jobs with pre-printed black-and-white or full-color inserts into one document, eliminating the need to collate the pages by hand.  The enhanced system has several paper drawers to hold a variety of paper, making it easy for professional printers to build one document with many different kinds of paper in it, such as marketing brochures and newsletters. 

In addition to the Xerox finishing options, the digital highlight color press will support the Xerox DS5000 High Capacity Stacker and third-party finishing devices that help print providers create a variety of documents like professionally-bound books, booklets and manuals.

Expanded Color Palette

Available early next year on all Xerox digital highlight color systems - the DocuTech 180, DocuTech 128 and DocuTech 155 - Xerox's custom-blended colors will allow print providers to offer a near-infinite number of highlight colors.  Print providers will be able to select the color they want duplicated and, similar to a custom-blended paint, Xerox engineers will create the "recipe" for the color in a lab.  Xerox also added magenta as a standard color on its entire line of digital highlight color systems.  The other standard colors are red, cardinal red, green, blue, royal blue and cyan.  Yellow will be available as a standard color by the end of 2006.

Image quality on Xerox digital highlight color systems is the best in the industry, printing at 2400 x 600 dpi resolution for black and white and 600 x 600 dpi for color.

Pricing and Availability

The DocuTech 180 Highlight Color System with finishing options is immediately available in the Middle East region through Xerox appointed partners and distributors in the region.

For more information about Xerox digital printing systems, visit www.xerox.com/tr/products.

-Ends-

About Xerox
Established in 1985, Xerox's regional HQ is in Dubai and operates through a regional distributor network, which markets its range of innovative document management products, applications and solutions. The company's product portfolio includes high-end digital production publishing and printing systems, networked digital multi-functional office devices, a complete range of production and office colour solutions as well as laser printers and fax machines. Xerox's commitment to quality is supported by specialized business managers and technical specialists, who work with Xerox's partners, identifying and meeting customer needs. For more information on Xerox, visit www.xerox.com/news. 

XEROX is a trademark of XEROX CORPORATION.

© Press Release 2006