The postcards were printed by Derby-based Colourstream on a 10-colour Heidelberg Anicolor and shipped to Düsseldorf for Autobond to laminate and spot-UV varnish live on its stand.

"If we were going to have to run 22 tonnes of print through our machines to show what they could do, we didn’t want to dump all that print afterwards," said managing director John Gilmore.

"So we talked to the Salvation Army and other Christian organisations and decided to print postcards with excerpts of scripture that could be distributed after the show."

Initially, around 250,000 postcards will be shipped to the Salvation Army and other religious groups within the capital for distribution during the London games, but if these run out then Gilmore will be sending more.

Boxes of 100 postcards have also been sent all around the country to parishes and individuals that have requested them. "If you are going to produce something at an Ipex or Drupa, it may as well be useful. We used to print and finish maps for schools, but this time around we decided to do the postcards for the Olympics," added Gilmore.

The postcards were matt laminated or soft touch laminated, and then spot varnished inline. Autobond launched the high-speed B1 laminator Mini 105 TPHS at the show, alongside two inkjet spot UV machines – the Mini 36 SD TPM-36 SUV and the offline 52 SUV-SDF.