BERTL has handed the product a Best Award for Innovation while the Buyers Laboratory gave it a "recommended" rating.

BERTL handed its accolade due to the HC5000's "unique potential to open up an entirely new market segment for low cost digital colour printing". The Buyers Laboratory's rating came after an "intensive" two-month evaluation.

The HC5000 was one of the hits at last year's Drupa and earlier in 2005 reseller Printware linked up with Riso to distribute the printer in the UK.

The HC5000 is an A3 machine that can print at speeds of up to 105 A4 pages per minute. According to Riso, it has a cost per page that's equivalent to black and white.

"We are challenging the traditional high investment colour print sector by providing a solution for everyday office and one-hit marketing colour communication," said Riso UK managing director Richard Thompson.