Blackmore installed the ink optimisation software at the start of the year to coincide with an investment "will over £1m" in two Komori presses, an LS40-5+L five-colour B1 press with anilox coater and an LS29-5 B2 press, which was installed at its Reading-based sister company Lamport Gilbert.

According to Blackmore, it has been able to save between 14-25% on ink costs, depending on the job's image content, since installing the software across both businesses back in January. Sales and marketing director David Bland added that there had also been a notable improvement in image quality.

He said: "It's been particularly advantageous on the web presses, because the improvement in the imagery on anything from 40gsm upwards has been very remarkable - so much so that we've had rave reviews from some of our weekly publications saying that they've never had print quality as high."

Bland said that the software had resulted in increased tonal range and sharpness, particularly when printing on uncoated stock, and led to productivity improvements.

"On the sheetfed side, we've been able to show dramatic improvements in quality across a wide range of products and papers, and what's more we're printing and drying the print very quickly indeed," he said.

"The Undercolour Removal (UCR) means you can run with up to 30% less ink, so it's a cost saving, an environmental saving and a production throughput improvement."

Blackmore and its sister company Lamport Gilbert are one of the largest independent suppliers of political campaign print in the UK. "There are very few people around who can do the kind of four-page tabloid pieces that we specialise in," said Bland.

"They tend to be a four or an eight-page and the big newspaper printers don't go down that small, whereas we're capable of doing a four, eight or 12pp quite happily."