DIGITAL bytes

LARGO, MD—After more than a year of researching the various CTP options, the management of Chroma Graphics decided to install a Screen (USA) PlateRite 8000II thermal plate recorder. The company reportedly was producing 100 percent of its work on the eight-up device within a month of the installation. Chroma Graphics was started in 1989 as a prepress operation and has since evolved into a full-service commercial sheetfed printer with sales of $9.5 million in 2001. It serves a broad base of customers, including high-profile clients such as the Washington Redskins, Nasdaq and the National Academy of Sciences. (www.screenusa.com)

TAMPA, FL—Martin Litho is said to be the first commercial printer to use an Escher-Grad Cobalt-8 violet CTP system to expose 30mW photopolymer violet plates from Lastra/Western Lithotech. This digital platemaking operation is driven by an Agfa Apogee workflow system. Founded in 1970 as a small, single-color print shop, Martin Litho has grown into a full-service company. (ww.martinlitho.com/www.escher-grad.com)

LAVERGNE, TN—Lightning Source, a provider of print-on-demand publishing solutions to the book industry, reports it has teamed with IBM to complete a large-scale equipment upgrade at its print production operation here. The central component of this move to enhance print quality was upgrading to the IBM Infoprint 4100 line of digital printers, company management says. It expects the upgrade to produce crisper halftone images with improved definition, and the automated controls in the new line of printers to ensure sharper text print and consistent print quality from one book to the next.

"With the recent printing of our five millionth book, Lightning Source has clearly demonstrated that our 'one book at a time' approach to transforming the way our customers do business is a success," asserts Larry Brewster, COO. The company stores books and other information electronically and delivers them on-demand in either traditional printed format or as e-books in response to orders from booksellers, librarians and publishers. (www.lightningsource.com/www.ibm.com/printers)