"We truly believe that we have pushed the economics of digital into screen like no other machine has to this point," Chuck Dourlet, EFI Vutek vice-president of marketing, said.

"Traditionally, we've been talking about machines in hundreds of square feet per hour. With the DS, we're talking about thousands of square feet per hour."

Dourlet added the technology, which is on show at Drupa as a prototype rather than a saleable product, would not complement screen printing, but replace it.

List prices are yet to be finalised but a DS without sheet feeder will sell for "less than €1m", he said.

The eight-colour is capable of 557sqm per hour at 600dpi and has a maximum resolution of 1,200dpi. The vacuum bed of the press can handle rigid substrates up to 1.6x2.4m and 50mm thick, although the DS will also be available with an optional high-speed sheet feeder capable of supplying 100 sheets per hour.

The company declined to reveal the press' printhead technology, as this is still under an NDA agreement, but did reveal it was a "high-density array" that was not based on variable drop-sized printheads.

It will use new inks specially developed by EFI sister firm Inkware. It will also be able to run in "four fast mode" where the eight heads print with two sets of CMYK.