Kodak has brought full-colour to its Prosper S20 imprinting system, which adds variable data capability possibilities to newspaper and commercial web presses.

The company is showing its hybrid print technology – which images 600 x 300 dpi at up to 610 metres per minute – at GraphExpo in Chicago next week.

The new Prosper S20 Imprinting System with CMYK delivers offset-class variable data applications, inline with web-offset presses and finishing equipment. Applications include commercial inserts, versioned ads in magazines and newspapers, and commercial direct marketing, all while leveraging existing offset printing and finishing equipment.

The system will be on display as a technology demonstration in the Adphos stand during the September 11-14 show.

For commercial web users, it offers the opportunity to combine high-value base print – including metallic inks, heavy colour saturation, scratch-off coatings, and other speciality inks and coatings – with process colour variable-data digital printing inline at production speeds.

Kodak says current Prosper S10 users will be able to upgrade to the new, faster system by leveraging their current transport without any changes in integration. Flexible mounting options mean the heads can be used with a variety of web offset presses and finishing lines. Pigment-based process colour inks that offer fade, scratch, and water resistance are used to print in an area of up to 105 mm wide across the web.

The system is being seen as an opportunity to offer the benefits of personalised text and images without the expense of installing a full white paper digital print system.

Several users – including Guy Forester, general manager of UK-based CN Newsprint, interviewed for GXpress in May – have said that the quality is such that customers think the work has been printed offset.

In the UK, heatset printer Lettershop is using the S10 technology to print personalised direct mail pieces including full colour pictures and personalised data. Chief executive

John Hornby says the system overcomes customers’ first objections that it would be too expensive and quality would not be good enough. A video explains the system’s application in the production of  a personalised holiday brochure.