HP announced that Staples will now offer large-format printing services in their stores using HP printers. These printers will be able to produce prints up to 2 feet wide and 50 feet long. A few Staples stores will also have an HP Designjet 5500 for printing banners.

Staples will be using the HP Designjet 130 printer to produce these giant works. You have probably never heard of it because large-format printers are very expensive and pretty rare. The machine itself costs anywhere from $1300-$2000 depending on which version you get, and the six replacement ink cartridges will cost $200+ for the set. So far there is no indication of how much it will cost customers to use these machines, but given that they are very expensive and for “professional graphic design”, it’s probably not going to be very cheap.

Although Staples sells lots of HP printers and computers, this is a pretty interesting arrangement since Staples sells, among others, remanufactured HP ink cartridges. So they make a big deal about having HP bring in these fancy expensive printers, yet all the while they probably have annoyed HP by selling remanufactured cartridges.

Staples Selects HP for Nationwide Large-format Printing Services [Press Release]