Of all the issues, and they are many, facing the graphic arts and printing industry today, none can ignite a heated debate more quickly than the issue of computer-to-plate (CTP) vs. computer-to-film (CTF) among their respective ardent supporters. In the past few years, as CTP became a reality with efficient, dependable and cost-effective equipment, increasing numbers of companies replaced aging imagesetters with platesetting devices. Why? Because many printers saw the new breed of CTP devices as an opportunity to springboard to a shorter production workflow without the added consumables and chemicals of film processing. Also, the new digital, CTP plates are more uniform, longer-wearing
Eastern Rainbow
Of all the issues, and they are many, facing the graphic arts and printing industry today, none can ignite a heated debate more quickly than the issue of computer-to-plate (CTP) vs. computer-to-film (CTF) among their respective ardent supporters. In the past few years, as CTP became a reality with efficient, dependable and cost-effective equipment, increasing numbers of companies replaced aging imagesetters with platesetting devices. Why? Because many printers saw the new breed of CTP devices as an opportunity to springboard to a shorter production workflow without the added consumables and chemicals of film processing. Also, the new digital, CTP plates are more uniform, longer-wearing
Eastern Rainbow and Offset Paperback are knee-deep in beta exercises. Eastern Rainbow is testing Agfa's new violet laser digital platesetter, Galileo VS. Offset Paperback is exploring new reverse imposition territories with a new Purup-Eskofot EskoScan.Why the testing? What are the verdicts? BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO Beta duty. It ain't pretty. In the trenches, dozens upon dozens of commercial printing operations in the United States, each year, open their doors, their digital infrastructures, their prepress departments, their pressrooms, to bleeding-edge technologies. There are PDF workflows to test; there are new digital proofing devices to calibrate; there are top secret on-press imaging technologies to
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