Installation of the heads has taken place over the past few weeks at the Gosport, Hampshire-based company’s 5,575sqm site.

The business, which predominantly produces books, magazines, journals and other publications, also operates Heidelberg Speedmaster and KBA litho presses, Ricoh sheetfed digital kit and a Domino K630i digital booklet system, which was installed last year.

“This investment means that we can go to book publishers with options across the board to suit their requirements,” said Ashford Colour Press sales director Mark Jones.

The HDNA printhead doubles the native print resolution of HP inkjet printheads to 1,200dpi, delivered by 2,400 nozzles per inch.

The heads increase speeds in Performance Mode to 244m/min while in Quality Mode they can run at up to 122m/min.

The 1,200dpi native resolution achievable in Quality Mode is said to enable sharper text, fine lines, accurate skin tones, smoother grade transitions, improved grain and enhanced highlight and shadow detail.

“The quality is going to be litho comparable for certain products. It will be very good for short-run journals that need good quality – medical journals for example. We don’t currently do any of these but we could now hit these markets,” said Jones.

“We’re still carrying out tests and coming up with some sample books that we can show customers so that we can demonstrate the difference between the normal heads and the HDNA heads.

“We’re also looking at the pricing structure because while the HDNA setting gives a much better finish, as you’re running the press at half the speed there’s a cost implication.”

Ashford Colour Press, which has a turnover of around £12.6m and employs nearly 140 staff, predominantly serves clients in the education and training sector.