The Media and Precision Technology Company of Screen Holding Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Kyoto, Japan), is providing full cooperation to Panasonic Corporation (Headquarters: Osaka, Japan) by offering its inkjet printer to Panasonic's consumer electronics promotion, "Take Over Shibuya at Night with the Night Color Series"*. As part of Panasonic's multimedia promotion, the Truepress Jet2500UV, Screen's wide-format UV inkjet printing system, prints out appealing vivid color B0 size posters, which are displayed in and around JR Shibuya Station.
In such large-scale multimedia promotions, there have been two challenges: color management and limitation of printing paper. Color variation caused by differences between printing systems has made it extremely difficult to produce a unified sense of colors. Moreover, large posters printed on paper media have conventionally been printed using water-based inkjet printers, but the need to use certain specialized paper types created issues on the design front by imposing restrictions on the designer's expressive intentions.
Screen's Truepress Jet2500UV is the answer. This printing system, which is used in Panasonic's promotion, supports both roll and sheet media and utilizes the non-penetrative nature of UV-cured inks to enable printing on a diverse range of media including a variety of paper types commonly used in the printing industry, as well as acrylic, PET, and metals. Furthermore, the system employs ultrafine inks with a wider color gamut (the range of colors that a printing system is capable of reproducing) than those used in offset printing systems and also supports the use of white inks. In large-scale promotions like Panasonic's Night Color Series campaign, where colors must be matched across different media, this color reproduction feature allows the system to produce a more precise, standardized sense of color and facilitates the use of an expanded range of advertising methods. Impressed with the system's ability to solve conventional problems as well as its excellent print quality and weatherability, Panasonic selected the Truepress Jet2500UV for large posters in their multimedia campaign, since color uniformity across different media was critical.
Screen will continue to respond to the expectations of the design industry going forward, while pursuing even more advanced advertising quality and contributing to the ever-diversifying advertising industry by its printing solutions.
Comments from Takuya Suzuki, Home Appliances & Wellness Products Marketing Division, Panasonic Corporation:
In a project like the Night Color Series promotion, where we wanted to create lots of different poster designs and only print a small run of each, costs would have quickly added up if we had used offset printing, so we would ordinarily have used a water-based inkjet printer. Because the printer we used only accepted specialized paper, our choice of paper types was rather restricted. The flexibility that the Truepress Jet2500UV offered in this area proved to be a major benefit in terms of the range of expression we were able to incorporate into our advertisements.
In large-scale promotions where we're bringing together various different types of media, each medium has its own characteristics and the inks have different colors. This leads to a whole range of issues including tonal variation in the final output and the need to create plates and proof colors for each medium individually. The ability to print onto a variety of media with a single printing system is very important in orchestrating a campaign that projects a unified image.
Comments from Reina Endo, Art Director, Creative Division, Hakuhodo Inc.:
I was looking forward to seeing what kind of finish the latest UV inkjet printer would produce. Through this event, I was very impressed with the quality of the resolution and the colors produced by the inks. In large-scale multimedia promotions, I'm sure the Truepress Jet2500UV gives you the ability to process everything on a single system that offers flexible support for a range of paper and media types. This ability is a very important element in terms of both design and efficiency for us, and I think it's impossible to overstate just how beneficial it is. An advertising agency like us can really improve efficiency by sending all work to a single outsourcer.
As a designer, I constantly strive to design high quality, environmentally friendly products that will not get thrown out. Not only does the Truepress Jet2500UV reproduce the images I want with great precision, but thanks to its environmentally friendly design that uses no volatile organic compounds, it also means I'm able to reduce my own environmental footprint.
I can't wait to use the Truepress Jet2500UV in future promotions.
Comments from Jun Fujiwara, Art Director, Naoki Nakano Advertising Office:
We decided on the Truepress Jet2500UV because of its support for a wide selection of paper types, its wide color gamut, and its high-fidelity reproducibility among other factors. I think the flexibility it offers in terms of paper types is a big advantage of the system. The Truepress Jet2500UV has given us the choice of simply printing out jobs on demand for which previously we would only have been able to achieve satisfactory results with conventional press printing.
The UV inkjet printers we had used in the past produced results with distinctive scanning lines that tended to stand out. Maybe it is because the Truepress Jet2500UV uses ultra-fast-drying UV inks, but I was surprised at the high quality, high image quality, and extremely beautiful finish that it is able to produce. We intend to use the system on a variety of projects in the future.
