Large-format for GIS Professionals

Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard founded HP (Hewlett Packard) in 1939. Today the company offers IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services, and imaging and printing for consumers, businesses and institutions around the globe.

In 1991, focusing on the technical market, the company introduced the HP DesignJet as the first low-cost raster inkjet plotter that featured 300-dpi output for E-size and D-size paper at 3 minutes per page. This was followed in 1995 by the introduction of a first large-format colour plotter for the low-end CAD market. The latest addition to the large-format portfolio, Designjet 4000, introduces production-level printing speed without compromising on print quality. HP now has a team of 150,000 employees conducting business in more than 170 countries.

Large-format Market
HP large-format solutions have had great success in North America and European countries; now, however, there are also now significant growth opportunities in emerging markets such as China, India, Brazil, and countries in the Middle East. These solutions are used by cartographers, engineers involved in oil & gas exploration and mining, civil engineers, land planners and other GIS professionals delivering crucial services in utilities, natural resources, telecommunication and government sectors.

Growing GIS Trade
The GIS market is evolving. Traditionally GIS users were likely to be part of a single department of experts and specialists focusing their efforts on analysing data and creating intelligent maps. Today the emphasis is on solving a broad range of business problems within many different industries, requiring new processes and more efficient workflows. Users need more sophisticated tools and expect real-time access to data both in the field and in the office. So the solutions being developed at HP are more flexible and more finely tuned to the unique requirements of the GIS professional. Location-specific information is a vital component of geomatics work. Access to accurate data allows significant increase in efficiency of operation and improvements in earning potential. The aim at HP is to provide the best large-format printing solutions for GIS requirements.
Accurate data is of importance; equally critical is how well this information is visually represented. Our printing and scanning systems offer consistent photo-quality colours and sharp lines, to meet GIS professional standards for accuracy and image quality. Whether what is required is consistent and accurate colour coding, area fill and shading, sharp contour lines or high-resolution photo output, large-format hardcopy is still the best way to take information into the field.
Large-format hardcopy enables the creation of detailed thematic maps with geoscientific data, and complex thermal imagery. Raster imaging and vector data can be mixed. Images and maps of the Earth’s surface come alive and spatial trends and patterns become more obvious. For digitising printed documents such as old network or cartographic maps, digital input of data into a GIS, HP Designjet scanning solutions offer high quality and efficient scanning, ensuring the easiest integration into existing workflows or the option to copy, scan or print with a single multifunction device.

Dynamic Environment
For the four fiscal quarters ended 30th April 2005 company revenues totalled US$ 83.3 billion, whilst annual corporate R&D investment of nearly US$ 4 billion fuels the invention of products, solutions and new technologies. The company produces an average of eleven patents a day across the world. The large-format printing market is continually expanding to meet a diverse range of customers and printing needs; ever faster printing speed, reduced cost of ownership, improved ease of use, photo-quality printing and simplicity of colour management. This dynamic environment makes it crucial that HP continue to drive technology innovations and, most importantly, promote transformation from analogue to digital in all markets. We also continue to research not only new solutions enabling a full range of applications but also technologies that drive down costs.