Before the Indigo digital printing technology came to be owned by HP, it was originally owned by the Indigo company.
Founded in 1977 by Benny Lamma in Tel Aviv, Indigo was primarily a research and development focused enterprise that sold the technologies to other companies, but also focused its work on liquid ink which was rapidly gaining importance as the digital market grew. One of its most important developments was ElectroInk, a liquid ink that when heated, would transform into plastic. The company kept pushing with the technology and by the start of the 1990s were competing with traditional xerographic imaging techniques from companies such as Canon and Xerox.
The first printer Indigo launched was the E-Print 1000 in 1993. It proved to be revolutionary in the printing industry. Unlike traditional plate printing techniques, all the information was digital, and there was no lengthy set up process. The E-Print 1000 used a static charge along a photo imaging plate to get the ink into place, then the ink would be transferred onto whatever material was being used for the printing with a 100% transferral rate. This meant the printer could be used for short run and long run prints of different colours and quality, all rivalling the standard of regular printing.
After the success unveiling of the E-Print, Indigo was quick to attract investors and the share price went through the roof and the company was traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange. By 1995 the company was worth two billion dollars.
In 2000 HP began to buy up shares in Indigo, keen to take ownership of the Indigo digital printing technology, and completed a full scale buyout the following year. Indigo continued its success under the ownership of HP, cornering 75% of the world market for printing commercial photos and is ranked first in the high volume digital press market.