Etoile Imprim has become the first print house in France to print metallic gold effects digitally with a Kodak Nexpress SX3900 Digital Production Color Press.
The company, based in Bezons to the north of Paris, is the first in France to make the investment in the new Kodak Nexpress Gold Dry Ink.
According to Kodak, the Kodak Nexpress Gold Solution can enhance any application printed on a Nexpress press, including direct mail, catalogues, posters, business cards, certificates, photo merchandise, dust jackets and book covers, labels, ads and flyers, and “virtually any other type of corporate, marketing or sales communication”.
When equipped with the Kodak Nexpress Fifth Imaging Unit Solutions, the SX3900 press gives users access to a wide range of value-adding applications: Gold Dry Ink, Dimensional Printing, matt or gloss varnish, red fluorescing dry ink, light black HD dry ink, and red, green and blue dry ink.
According to the company, it also improves reproduction in a five-colour process and spot colours (Pantone).
Originally a sheet-fed offset operation, Etoile Imprim shifted to digital printing in 2010 with the purchase of another Kodak Nexpress press model.
Using Kodak's newest XXL Long Sheet option (914 mm x 356mm), Etoile Imprim can print new products digitally, such as French-style four A4 leaf or Italian-style three-leaf brochures, document folders and book jackets.
The platform will take nearly 800 substrates without prior treatment, to which operators can add a “virtually unlimited” number of personalised substrates.
“The metallic digital printing really sets us apart from the competition, as there’s nothing else like it on the market,” says Etoile Imprim chief executive Nassib Kazma.
