Indigo pioneer wins Reed Technology medal

Benny Landa, founder of Indigo and now strategic advisor to HP Chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina, has been named the recipient of the Robert F Reed Technology Medal 2003.

Established in 1974 by the Society of Fellows (SOF) of the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (GATF) to commemorate the ‘Dean of Lithography’, the Reed Technology Medal is presented to an individual who has made a major contribution to technical and scientific development within the graphic arts industry. Landa is being honored for his scientific and technological inventions, which have advanced the development of color digital printing.

When Landa founded Indigo in 1977, its mission was to develop an improved photocopying process using an imaging medium based on the qualities of liquid printing ink, rather than powder toners. When ElectroInk became a reality in 1983, Landa pursued the idea of using it to replace the ink in offset printing, and thus make offset printing digital. A decade later Indigo launched the E-Print 1000, a plateless digital press combining Digital Offset Color printing technology and ElectroInk.

Landa is Indigo’s most prolific inventor, with more than 140 US patents – and a hundred more worldwide.