Printer Review: Screen Truepress Jet2500UV

Ed Garvey had a pretty good idea of the type of print work that the Garvey Group could generate as the result of installing the Screen Truepress Jet2500UV in 2009. As it turns out, the new grand-format inkjet printer defied all expectations in the best possible way.

“The Truepress Jet2500UV is part of an overall strategy to add value beyond high-quality commercial printing. Inkjet printing is a growing market, and The Garvey Group made a serious commitment with our equipment acquisition. Wide-format inkjet was the next logical service offering," said Garvey, president and owner of The Garvey Group. A third-generation company, The Garvey Group has been in business over 90 years. The Niles, IL-based Garvey Group consists of the main plant in the Chicago suburbs and three satellite locations in Wisconsin.

The Garvey Group spent all of 2008 testing every high-quality digital printing system on the market—including wide- and superwide-format printers from EFI Vutek, Inca Digital, Gandi Innovations (now Agfa), and HP. At the time, Screen let them know a new device was in the works. “Screen said, ‘We have a new device coming out—the Truepress Jet2500UV—and asked if The Garvey group would we be willing to involve Screen in our testing, which we agreed to do," said Dennis Muraro, general manager in Milwaukee. "The initial results from the Truepress Jet2500UV, which we didn’t get to test first off because it was still in Japan, were very impressive. We sent files to Japan, and we immediately were impressed with the print quality coming off the Screen device. … We waited literally for the machine to be available here in the States to conduct live testing on it.” The Garvey Group saw the Truepress Jet2500UV for the first time at the Screen (USA) demonstration center at the Rolling Meadows, IL, corporate headquarters.

 “When we looked at image quality and set our criteria, resolution became probably the single most important benchmark. Image detail put the Truepress Jet2500UV at a whole different level and sets it apart from other inkjet devices. It not only has a high dpi setting to print fine images, but the variable spot technology also enhances the resolution. When you compare printed images, you can see a distinct advantage of printing with the Truepress Jet2500UV compared to competing machines. It gives us a true market edge," said Muraro.

According to Garvey, the size of the Truepress Jet2500UV complemented the size of the large-format sheetfed presses at Garvey's Niles facility. "We wanted to capture that level of work in quantities that don’t really match litho printing. Some projects that are available to us withstand digital production, and that is why we chose digital. But we needed digital output that closely resembled the quality of our litho output. The very high image resolution and output quality of the Truepress Jet2500UV give us the ability to match the color between litho printing and digital printing. That is why we chose the Truepress,” said Garvey.

Market Opportunities

The addition of the Truepress Jet2500UV has really opened up new markets and applications for Garvey. “In fact, we are capturing digital work that is distinct from our litho opportunities. The Truepress Jet2500UV has taken us in a whole new direction and provided opportunities for different kinds of displays and signage that we did not anticipate," said Garvey.

Point-of-purchase materials, signage, backlit displays and small production runs of prototypes and sales samples can be printed cost-effectively with high visual impact on the Truepress Jet2500UV, according to Ed Garvey.

“Contrast in-store marketing materials with billboards, for instance,” he said. “As opposed to looking at a billboard from a distance, customers can view the retail displays and signage up close and see how well the Truepress represents the products. They are really seeing litho quality printed digitally. In those smaller quantities, the Truepress offers a much better output answer than a traditional digital machine.”

Added Muraro: “The Truepress Jet2500UV prints on styrene, corrugated plastic, foamcore—the list of rigid and flexible substrates is endless. That offers customers in the packaging industry different options for signage and displays. If customers want 500 large POP displays, lithography might be a more competitive method. But versioning of displays, printing 10 separate displays in quantities of 50 each, is extremely cost-effective on the Truepress Jet2500UV."

Garvey has designed a special marketing program, "Garvey Knows Retail", just for the Truepress. According to Muraro, the new equipment has already opened up doors of opportunity and the marketing program will only help to increase business.

“The Truepress is one of the reasons that we have grown our litho business. We use prototypes printed on the Truepress that will then turn into, perhaps, pilot runs off the Truepress that will then turn into a long litho run, once the pilot shows success," said Muraro. "We’re very proud of our capabilities, and it was the main reason we invested in the Screen Truepress.”