The two companies have agreed to develop a digital press that will debut at next year's Drupa, forming a partnership that both parties said they expected to "reinvigorate" the industry.

Through the partnership, KBA has also licensed RR Donnelley's Apollo digital technology to use in its own presses.

According to RR Donnelley, the agreement is the culmination of lengthy discussions, and it described KBA as an "ideal partner not only for the breadth and depth of their product offerings, but also for their expertise across nearly all major printing processes".

"Our relationship with KBA is accelerating our ability to develop and market next-generation digital printing solutions such as Apollo and ProteusJet," said Thomas Quinlan, president and chief executive of RR Donnelley.

"This relationship will inject our technologies into new segments, such as newspapers, certain kinds of packaging, securities printing and smartcards. This faster expansion will accelerate the speed at which RR Donnelley can generate revenues from these new segments."

The collaboration will involve RR Donnelley’s New York-based R&D centre working with KBA's multiple sites in Germany to develop the Drupa-bound machine.

Helge Hansen, chief executive of KBA, said "In our analysis, it was clear that RR Donnelley was uniquely positioned to partner with us from a digital print technology, experience, and scale perspective.

"It’s more than a sales and service agreement for existing technology. We look forward to jointly reinvigorating this industry with new digital imaging platforms."