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On June 1, Keypoint Intelligence announced the worthy recipients of its Buyers Lab (BLI) Colour PRO Awards, which recognize the best performances of mid- to high-volume presses that have undergone our Production 2.0 testing. Since the program’s inception in 2021, we have tested a range of presses from all the major players in the digital production space.
“In a teeming market, we are very pleased to show how brilliantly this trio of presses performed to win our BLI 2022 Colour PRO Awards,” said David Sweetnam, Director of Research & Lab Services EMEA/Asia at Keypoint Intelligence. “We use an algorithm across multiple test attributes to judge overall performance. The devices must deliver at a very high level in the first place to even be eligible for a PRO Award, so it’s not just a case of being best in a category.”
Vendors in the production print industry are pushing more than ever to differentiate themselves from their competitors. During testing, we’ve seen presses that offer best-in-class controllers with elite job scheduling capabilities, blue-ribbon technology for streamlined calibration and media-registration profiling, impeccable colour and image registration stability over long runs, impressive colour matching of challenging spot colours, and versatile support for extensive finishing options.
“Excitingly, we have two CMYK+ award winners—underlining the important shift in where the industry is heading,” Sweetnam said. “CMYK+ allows print service providers to deliver a wider range of creative options to their clients, who ultimately want their printed pieces to stand out from the crowd. We’ve certainly seen outstanding colour image quality results, one of which earned our first 5-Star rating for colour gamut.”
So, who took home the hardware? Click here, here, and here to find out!
Next Up: Monochrome
Based on the success of our Production 2.0 colour testing, with its deeper dive into analysis and the ability to utilize test data in side-by-sides in bliQ Pro, we’ve upgraded things on the monochrome side as well. Tasks that did not differentiate the products significantly enough have been removed and replaced with test areas designed to do just that, such as the ability to maintain tight front-to-back registration on standard-grade and lighter-grade paper.
Mono production testing kicked off this year with vendors keen to get their devices submitted for this new challenging test program. We expect to have a high percentage of the mono market tested in time for our first-ever BLI Monochrome PRO Awards, which will coincide with PRINTING United 2022 in October.
Stay tuned for more!
Log in to bliQ to view more information about our Production 2.0 testing as well as associated reports, test data, and awards. If you’re not a subscriber, just send us an email at sales@keypointintelligence.com for more info.