The method of offset printing is still the benchmark for which new commercial printing technology is judged by. Eastman Kodak Co. is unveiling a new line of digital printing equipment using a type of inkjet printing that runs as quickly and cheaply as offset, with the image quality of offset.

Kodak has been working on Stream technology for nearly a decade and has been publicly talking about it for close to four years. The Rochester-based printing and imaging company gave its first major public unveiling this spring at Drupa, the print industry’s major trade show held every four years in Germany. Industry research group and Massachusetts-based InfoTrends predicts that the color Stream press from Kodak will be available in 2010 and most likely set the bar for speed and quality of the next generation of products.

Continuous inkjet systems like Stream work by having a hose-like constant flow of ink going through the print heads – a flow that gets broken up into small globules. Kodak’s Stream system then uses air currents to guide the ink – big blobs fall onto the paper, smaller blobs get blown away and recycled back into the print head.