Under the agreement, Arjowiggins will provide recycled paper for HP Indigo machinery testing, as well as supplying the digital press manufacturer at trade shows, including Drupa 2012.

The two companies have also begun cross-training employees, with HP staff taken to a paper mill and Arjowiggins employees trained on HP machinery at its Barcelona demo centre.

John Cooper, customer support director at Arjowiggins told PrintWeek that there was a natural synergy between recycled paper and digital printing.

He said: "Both are aimed at reducing waste – waste trees and unwanted print. This takes us further down that route.

"We will have a dialogue regarding the development of new machines and paper to go with those machines. This is something that hasn't existed in the past – we are creating the total solution from the outset, rather than finding that a paper won't run on a machine."

"We want to work with all the digital OEMs but this relationship is important because HP is a market leader."