HP's new big business: art reproduction?
HP finds a hot growth market in re-creating ancient artworks.
By Amanda Cantrell, CNNMoney.com staff writer

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - People in the art world may not think of computing giant Hewlett-Packard as a player in their business, but the technology stalwart is out to change that.

Yesterday HP (down $0.46 to $33.73, Research) unveiled the initial fruits of an ambitious collaboration project with Japan's Kyoto International Culture Foundation, in which HP will work with the foundation to reproduce ancient artworks created between the 13th and 17th centuries found in over 3,500 shrines in the city of Kyoto.

"Tigers" is one of the artworks HP helped re-create as part of the Kyoto project.

The project, while admirable, is hardly philanthropy for HP; the company is being paid for its services. Art reproduction is part of what HP calls its "wide format market," a $7.5 billion market for printing images that are several feet wide, such as outdoor signs and posters.

HP says that market is growing at 30 percent a year, making it the fastest-growing market in the field of graphic arts, according to Pradeep Jotwani, senior vice president in the supplies division of HP's imaging and printing group. Since these reproductions are often made by a computer, and are printed on a variety of surfaces, they require sophisticated printing technology and precise re-creation of colors, all of which will showcase HP's technology.

Such an initiative is a strong fit for HP's new philosophy surrounding its imaging and printing unit, which is a roughly $25 billion business and the company's largest division. This new vision aims to increase the number of pages that end users print -- whether those printouts take the form of documents, photos or even reproductions of ancient art.

"A huge number of paintings around the world have deteriorated," said Jotwani. "This is complicated stuff; there is no margin for error. It requires complex printing and storage and security."

Jotwani said HP has other clients in this area, including the National Gallery of London, and that it also does commercial reproductions of works by popular artists such as painter Thomas Kinkade.

"Printing, not printers"

One of CEO Mark Hurd's major initiatives has been to aggressively pursue new growth opportunities in the imaging and printing group, stressing the company's new mantra that the focus should be on "printing, not printers."

To that end, HP last week announced a plan to launch retail photo kiosks in drugstores, grocery stores and other retail outlets that will let customers print photos and make customized calendars and other items. Supplying ink to these kiosks is one way HP will stand to gain from the move.

In the most recent quarter, HP got a huge boost from its imaging supplies division, which makes ink and toner cartridges for printers. HP's printing division generated sales of $6.5 billion last quarter -- an 8 percent sales increase from the year-ago quarter. Revenue from supplies grew 11 percent. Revenues from the imaging and printing group currently account for between 50 percent and 60 percent of HP's total sales. That's down from the 70% or so of sales it once accounted for, but still a significant chunk.

Art reproduction is an area which promises to help HP grow its supplies revenue even more, as it is a labor-intensive process that requires a lot of ink, as well as cutting-edge printers and other supplies.

HP is involved in every step of the Kyoto reproduction project. The process of re-creating each piece of art starts with capturing a digital image of the original art work. From there, HP's team of color scientists will work with artists to re-create the colors, design the ink, and even create the same kind of paper, made with mulberry bark, on which the original paintings were created.

The results are remarkable, producing images that look strikingly similar to the originals, capturing the look and feel of ink on paper, down to the distressed effects of deterioration present in the original works.

When HP's work is finished, the original artwork that had been stored in the shrines will be stored in a controlled climate, and the reproductions will take the place of the original pieces in the shrines. The shrines will then be open to the public for the first time ever.

The process is both painstaking and expensive. Jotwani said such projects are usually funded by grants received by the museums themselves, and said that some galleries, such as the National Gallery of London, will also sell reproductions to consumers.

For Tatsuski Kani, president of the Kyoto International Culture Foundation, the project holds a deeper significance, as the project means art lovers around the world will see the images for the first time. (See correction.)

Most of the artifacts being reproduced have been stored in temples and shrines in Kyoto, and because they are extremely delicate, their owners tended to be very protective of them and closed them off to the outside world, Kani explained.

"To know the culture of Kyoto is to know the culture of Japan," he said through a translator. "This has helped us expose the cultural heritage of Japan to the general public."

The results of some of the recreations are currently on display in New York City as part of the annual Artexpo conference.

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Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified Mr. Kani. CNNMoney.com regrets the error. (Return to story.)

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.