| Despite being almost seventy years old, Hollywood epic Gone with the Wind is still the biggest grossing film of all time, beating Star Wars and Titanic. While much of its success is clearly down to the gripping story and Vivien Leigh’s fiery on-screen presence, colour was also crucial. Would the burning of Atlanta still be one of the most famous scenes in cinema if it had been in black and white? |
Colour adds value |
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| The fact is, no matter what your message is, it has more impact in colour. This is just as applicable to the 21st-century enterprise as it was to Hollywood in the 1930s. According to research by market analysts CAP Ventures1, among others, printing in colour makes it 80 percent easier for readers to find the information they need, increases the chance that customers will remember your message by 65 percent and improves brand recognition by over 80 percent. The lesson is clear: if you want to stand out from crowd, print in colour. |
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The challenge of cost control |
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| There’s only one snag: colour costs more than black and white. The challenge is to make sure that everyone who needs it has access to colour, while at the same time preventing inappropriate use. You don’t want to pay for employees to print their holiday snaps. You could try and control access to colour with existing technologies, but results are often mixed. Using Microsoft Active Directory, for instance, you can prevent a user from connecting to a printer, but that’s about as specific as it gets. You can’t control how that user accesses the printer. |
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The solution |
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| HP's range of print management software, and the Embedded Web Server that's part of every HP Color LaserJet printer, makes it possible to track colour usage and specify colour permissions by user or application2. |
| With the HP Universal Print Driver you can control colour access by user, application or time of day. You might, for instance, allow a user to print only in black and white from Microsoft Word, but in colour from PowerPoint – you can be that specific. |
| Using the remote printer management software, HP Web Jetadmin, you can monitor colour usage by device, user and cost centre. Not only does this allow you to accurately and fairly assign the cost for colour printing, it also gives you the information you need to make sure that you have the right mix of devices and capabilities, deployed in the most effective way, to meet your organisation’s needs. |
| With compatible HP devices and HP management software, colour printing can be deployed where it is required, in the confidence that it will be used in a way that supports your organisation’s goals. That means higher productivity, higher return on investment (ROI), lowers costs and happier users. |
- Sources: HP, CAP Ventures, White, Jan V. Color for Impact. CAP Ventures, Organizations are Ready to Tackle Document Output Costs in the Office, December 2004. The Persuasive Properties of Color, Robert E. Green, Marketing Communications; USA Today. Wharton Business School, Case & Company. Bureau of Advertising, Color in Newspaper Advertising; What's Working in Direct Marketing.
- The capabilities of the Embedded Web Server differ according to device, with some devices allowing administrators to define colour usage permissions, others not.
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