The Hexham, Northumberland-based commercial printer is using the new machine to carry out work for an ongoing contract with a national company producing charity greetings cards.

The five-staff business has also experienced an upturn in customer demand for digitally-printed, short-run work following the Canon installation.

Neil McKie, director at Robson Print, said: "By providing faster turnaround times with the quality to boot, more clients are opting for digital, it's cost-effective too."

He added: "The Canon is going like a dream. We encountered initial difficulties tracking down a machine that could handle the card substrate but the imagePress does it with ease."

The imagePress C6000VP can print at resolutions of 1200dpi at speeds of up to 60 letter-sized pages a minute.

Robson Print anticipates the new press will allow the company to move into the variable data personalisation market, a service it may implement into its card overprinting work.

"We're currently printing the messages in charity cards and we can now personalise them. It adds value while also giving us the flexibility to provide additional services," he said.

The company prints a range of commercial stationery and also operates a four-colour B3 Ryobi press.