Athesia Druck in Bolzano, Italy, has become the first customer to place an order for the technology, which was launched at Drupa, for use with its Colorman XXL Autoprint press.

Manuel Kosok, Manroland’s manager of project engineering and product management automation, said the technology could be retrofitted to existing Manroland or third party newspaper and commercial presses, as well as ordered with its new presses.

 "We designed the One Touch system as an operating solution that can also be offered as an upgrade to users of presses made by other manufacturers," he said.

One Touch combines four static and mobile touchscreen devices with Manroland's ControlCentre software program to replace the traditional control desk.

John Ellis, managing director of Manroland Web Systems UK, said the technology was part of Manroland Web Systems’ Autoprint programme.

"With technology like One Touch and our automatic plate-changing systems, the idea is that the printer becomes the production manager."

Ellis said One Touch had been beta tested by various European countries – mainly in Germany – and would be a "revolutionary" addition to the market.

"Eventually this will be how all presses are delivered. It can be retrofitted but it will come with most of the new presses that we sell in Europe," he said.

The technology has an optional soft-proofing feature, which uses two screens to allow newspaper press operators to display and proof pages. Commercial printing companies can carry out soft-proofing with TrueColorProof system.