The device, which includes an inline booklet-maker, cost around £60,000 and is an addition to a kit list that includes a Konica Minolta C6500 and two Heidelberg Speedmasters, a CD102-5 and an XL75-5 with laminator.

The Linoprint C751 medium-volume device is driven by an EFI E41A RIP and runs at 75 pages per minute.

Joint managing director Simon Tilbrook said: "It’s very fast and offers excellent quality. It also prints on a slighter longer sheet, so we can now do A4 landscape work. Both digital machines are extremely busy."

Norwich-based Swallowtail employs 53 staff and makes £6m turnover from work including brochures, stationery, newsletters, magazines, greetings cards and books.

Production director James Baxter said: "Our customers will struggle to see which process is used and that means where we produce a short run digitally and then a full run subsequently – which happens quite regularly with book or new product launches – we can move from digital to litho with confidence, using the most appropriate technology for the volume." 

Swallowtail Print was created two years ago with the merger of local businesses, Norwich Colour Print and F Crowe & Sons.