The upgrade, which will be available worldwide from 1 May, can be applied to the Scitex FB7600 or to Scitex FB7500s that have installed the FB7500 industrial press upgrade kit.

It uses the two dormant ink beams in the originally six-colour presses to allow them to run up to eight colours. The first two inks available for the colour pack upgrade will be the HP FB225 Orange and Light Black Scitex inks.

HP said that the orange ink provided a broader colour gamut with more realistic skin tones and improved spot matching for brand colours, while the light black ink creates smoother grey solids and improves neutrality.

Users will therefore be able to run the machine in its original six-colour configuration of CMYK plus light cyan and light magenta, or in a seven- or eight-colour configuration with any of the three additional inks now available (orange, light black and the previously launched white ink).

HP said that because the Scitex FB7600 was designed with a future upgrade path in mind (leading to the inclusion of the two dormant ink beams), the downtime involved in applying the Enhanced Color Pack would be "minimal".

The list price for the upgrade is £59,000. One consequence of using the extra ink channels is a reduction in speed, arising from the need to handle more data. HP said that the reduction was up to a maximum of 3% when using seven channels and up to 10% when using all eight. The exact percentage reduction will depend on the print mode.

In addition to the new orange and light black inks, Scitex users can also now print metallics thanks to HP software partner Color-Logic, which was also responsible for enabling metallic printing on HP Indigo presses.

Scitex users will need the Color-Logic Printers Design Suite & License, HP FB251 white ink and HP-approved media for metallic substrates to allow them to produce metallic effects "ideal for high-quality retail and POP applications, as well as package prototyping".

Meanwhile, HP has announced a licensing agreement with specialist media distribution business Brand Management Group to improve service quality and availability for its HP-branded sign and display media for HP latex inks.

Under the terms of the agreement, BMG will source, market and distribute a limited portfolio of HP-branded media, limited to those intended for sign and display applications, optimised for HP latex inks and available on three inch cores.

HP has also announced the first partners to co-develop media using its ColorPRO Technology: Aurora Specialty Textiles Group and Cooley Group. The pair will develop, manufacture and distribute textile substrates for use with HP latex inks and non-PVC banner solutions for use with HP latex and UV inks. These new media are expected to be available in late summer 2013.