Available for both retrofitting and with new machines, the new toner will be shown for the first time at Print 17, Chicago next month and will be available from October.

Xerox did not disclose the price of the additional unit but said it will be inline with the other optional iGen 5 toners, orange, blue, green and clear. A number of additional iGen enhancements will also be announced at Print 17. 

Kevin O’Donnell, Xerox head of marketing for graphic communications and production systems, said the addition of the white would “sit very well within the iGen”.

“We believe the iGen is the most automotive and productive system by a mile in the industry and clearly if we add the white capability we still keep that automation and productivity,” said O’Donnell.

Xerox listed the white’s advantages as having outstanding brightness and opacity in one pass and the ability to print White Dry Ink only as well as white layers under or over CMYK. It also has an automated multi-pass mode for up to two layers of white and additional layers of white that can be manually printed for custom applications. 

O’Donnell added: “Whilst the orange, green and blue add capability in gamut and pantone matching and you’ve got a client base of applications that lend itself to them, white will be slightly different in so far as it adds both opportunity to existing applications but more importantly it allows printers to attack a wider range of applications and segments within the industry, whether that be printing cartonboard for packaging or enhancing design for a digital or commercial printer.”

O’Donnell also highlighted research from industry analyst Infotrends, which found that 89% of buyers and brand owners would be willing to pay more for embellishment and enhancement. 

“The iGen white and clear, plus orange, green and blue sits very well with that,” he said. 

Commenting on the introduction of the toner, Infotrends group director Jim Hamilton said that it opened up a whole range of new applications, with designers loving the ability to use white on coloured and transparent substrates to create promotional items. 

He also pointed to Infotrends research stating that digital print enhancement volume is predicted to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 27% between 2015 and 2020.

Launched in 2015 as the first Xerox machine with additional fifth colour unit, the 150ppm iGen has a resolution of 2,400 dpi and can handle coated, uncoated, textured and speciality stocks.