Printing press with highlighting device for producing personalized printed products

1 . A printing press comprising:

a printing unit printing images on a substrate;

a highlight application unit producing highlights on the substrate; and

a controller directing the highlight application unit to produce the highlight on the substrate.

2 . The printing press as recited in claim 1 wherein the highlights produced on the substrate by the highlight application unit are transparent or semi-transparent.

3 . The printing press as recited in claim 1 wherein the images printed on the substrate by the printing unit are text and graphics and the highlight application unit produces highlights over customer-specific text and graphics as directed by the controller.

4 . The printing press as recited in claim 1 wherein the highlight application unit is an inkjet.

5 . The printing press as recited in claim 1 wherein the substrate is processed into a group of printed products and the highlights on a first printed product of the group and a following second printed product of the group are the same.

6 . The printing press as recited in claim 1 wherein the substrate is processed into a group of printed products and the highlights on a first printed product of the group and a following second printed product of the group are different.

7 . The printing press as recited in claim 1 wherein the highlight application unit produces highlights of one or more shapes on the substrate and the one or more shapes each correspond to a specific highlight meaning.

8 . The printing press as recited in claim 1 wherein the highlight application unit produces highlights of one or more colors on the substrate and the one or more colors each correspond to a specific highlight meaning.

9 . The printing press as recited in claim 1 wherein the highlight application unit is located directly downstream of the printing unit.

10 . The printing press as recited in claim 1 wherein the highlight application unit is a piece of post-press equipment.

11 . The printing press as recited in claim 1 wherein the substrate is a web.

12 . A method for producing a highlighted printed product comprising:

determining at least one of customer interests or customer information;

using the at least one of customer interests or customer information to identify customer-specific text and images from common text and graphics to be printed on a substrate;

printing the common text and graphics on the substrate;

highlighting the customer-specific text and graphics with a highlight application unit as the customer-specific text and graphics pass by the highlight application unit.

13 . The method for producing a highlighted printed product as recited in claim 12 further comprising determining a timing of the of one or more printing units printing the common text and graphics on a web.

14 . The method for producing a highlighted printed product as recited in claim 13 further comprising determining a time the customer-specific text and images will pass by a highlight application unit and directing the highlight application unit to highlight the customer-specific text and images at the time.

15 . The method for producing a highlighted printed product recited in claim 12 wherein the at least one of customer interests or customer information is stored in a highlighting database.

16 . The method for producing a highlighted printed product recited in claim 12 wherein the common text and graphics are stored in a highlighting database.

17 . The method for producing a highlighted printed product recited in claim 12 wherein the customer-specific text and graphics are identified by a comparator.

18 . The method for producing a highlighted printed product recited in claim 12 wherein the customer-specific text and graphics include advertisements.