The Ipswich Star is set to double its colour pages in a £1.5m press project.

The Star currently has 16 colour pages each day.

Work is being carried out at the Ipswich Press Centre ready for the installation of a 45-ton press tower which will be put in place in July.

The press is expected to be rolling by September in a move which will benefit the Star, the West Suffolk Mercury, the Lowestoft Journal and 24 other local newspapers.

The investment will upgrade the printing units as well as refurbishing the supplement and leaflet inserting system.

Editor Nigel Pickover said: “We have recognised the need for more colour on our pages and we will be able to produce more eye-catching editorial. Our advertisers will have more opportunity to have more full colour displays.”

The printing tower will be supplied by Goss Graphics of Preston, which owns the French firm Creusot Loire, which supplied and installed the original press in 1982.

Managing director of Archant Print, Peter Dodds, said: “The Ipswich press development programme is customer-driven.

“The work will result in a general improvement in print quality together with a significantly wider range of colour page options being made available to our print customers.”