Indigo

Research that became a printing press

Indigo was founded in Israel in 1977 by Benny Landa. It worked on technology for color printing directly from a computer file, and grew from a research company into a maker of presses for print shops. Unlike a home printer, its presses were meant for commercial production of books, advertising materials and, later, labels and packaging as well. The product was not software alone: the company developed a printing process, a press and a dedicated ink that worked together. This combination let print shops produce color jobs without preparing a fixed printing plate for each new job.

The 1993 milestone

At the IPEX trade show in 1993 Indigo introduced the E-Print 1000, described as the world's first digital color offset press. At the same show Xeikon also introduced a digital color press, based on dry toner; Indigo's first refers to digital offset, not to all computerized color printing. The innovation was commercial printing from a file, with the option of changing the content from page to page. It laid the groundwork for short runs and personalized printing that did not justify preparing traditional plates.

How the ink and the image reach the paper

Indigo's technology is called liquid electrophotography. Tiny particles in ElectroInk carry an electric charge, and the image is formed on a reusable imaging surface. The color separations are transferred to a heated intermediate blanket, and from there to the printing substrate. The heat turns the ink particles into a thin layer; on contact with the substrate it sets. In this way the press combines digital image creation with transfer through an intermediate blanket, similar to the offset principle. The process is used for paper and other types of substrates, including materials for labels and packaging, and does not depend on preparing a fixed plate for each copy.

The IPO and the sale to HP

Indigo went public on Nasdaq in 1994. In the deal announcement of September 2001, the purchase of the remaining shares was valued at about $629 million in HP shares, plus a contingent future payment of up to $253 million. Before the deal HP held 13.4% of its shares; the acquisition was completed on 22 March 2002, according to HP's reports. HP's 2003 report recorded total consideration of $719 million, including shares, assumed options, transaction costs and an earlier investment from October 2000. The report also describes rights to a contingent payment based on future revenue, with a maximum obligation of $237 million. The company ceased to be an independent public company and the business was merged into HP. On 1 November 2005 HP also completed the purchase of Scitex Vision, one of the digital printing businesses of Scitex, for about $230 million in cash.

Legacy

Indigo's presses and their ink continue to appear in HP Indigo products. Uses include personal photo books, books on demand, and short runs of labels and packaging. The legacy is the ability to combine commercial print quality with variable content, not just the transfer of ownership of a company. Benny Landa continued doing research and developing nano printing through Landa Labs and the company he founded after selling Indigo. Among the people he recruited were some from HP. In 2012 Landa presented printing presses based on Nanography at the drupa trade show, while HP Indigo products continued to develop around the ElectroInk process.