Pre-Press - Computer-to-plate

Ditial Prepress--Beta Watch!
May 1, 2000

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

CTP--The Digital DRUPA
March 1, 2000

DRUPA 1995 was the beginning of the thermal computer-to-plate frenzy. Leading the charge: Creo and Kodak. Five years later, new platesetting initiatives are poised for DRUPA 2000. What digital platesetters will be announced at DRUPA 2000? Dusseldorf, Germany, holds the answers. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO At DRUPA 1995, a tiny Creo Products—tiny compared with the CTP giants Linotype-Hell, Gerber and Scitex— touted the production and workflow merits of thermal CTP for commercial printing. Creo's message was all thermal. Kodak consumables were Creo's enabling technology, bridging Creo's thermal output engines with the digital plate production demands of the average commercial printer. Who didn't take

CTP--What's New In Blue?
January 1, 2000

Blue laser diode platesetters (that actually emit energy in the violet spectrum) will be in vogue this year. Who will be the customer of choice for these technologically advanced units? What consumables (silver-based or negative-working conventional plates, for instance) will support a "true blue" 2000? Read on. . . BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO Blame Sony. For that matter, blame Pioneer. (Or, depending on where you sit on the issue, thank them.) These two major Japanese suppliers are feeding the race to develop the perfect blue-laser-based, gallium-nitride disk player, both trailing the current leader, Nichia Chemical Industries. Why should you care? Blue

CTP--New Tools, Old Theories
September 1, 1999

When considering a computer-to-plate purchase, printers usually look at utilization measurement rates to determine whether or not the purchase would be a wise one. But decision-makers should proceed with caution. While the use of utilization rates are based on sound, albeit traditional, financial principles, they do not take into account newer management theories. BY HOWIE FENTON Equipment purchasing decisions are never easy. This is particularly difficult today, due to the momentum-driving technologies such as computer-to-plate and the compressed life cycles of digital equipment. Now add to this problem the hidden expenses associated with the implementation of computer-to-plate such as: Digital contract proofing—faster networks;

Thermal CTP--Making Life. . .and Plates. . .Easier
August 1, 1999

Two printers share their thoughts on how computer-to-plate technology has changed, and simplified, the production of plates. BY ERIK CAGLE To hear the newest members of the thermal computer-to-plate club tell it, the filmless process outranks even the television remote control in terms of convenience. While few 20-somethings can remember TV life without the armchair quarterback, many of today's commercial printers can scarcely believe how they made do without the convenience of digital platesetters. The difference between digital and conventional workflows, it seems, represents a chasm as expansive (not to mention palatable) as pâté and liverwurst. Bruce Wexler is a believer. The executive vice

CTP--Hot, Hotter, Hottest!!!
August 1, 1999

What's the latest technological perks to thermal platesetting? What is the hot news on thermal consumables? What recent thermal purchases are fueling CTP? What's the current talk on thermal? Here are hot bytes on the hottest developments. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO Thermal innovator Creo Products and Heidelberg Prepress report the installation of the 1,000th CTP system at Holland, MI-based Steketee-Van Huis. SVH recently took delivery of its new Trendsetter Spectrum 3244 digital halftone proofing system. The installation of the thermal Spectrum marks the 1,000th digital CTP system implemented by Creo and Heidelberg. Of the 1,000 installs, roughly 900 have been thermal. At Steketee-Van Huis, the Trendsetter Spectrum

Southeastern Color--Mapping Roads
April 1, 1999

With a pioneering spirit, Southeastern Color Graphics is one book printer intent on mapping digital prepress trails and charting new digital horizons. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO The management team at Southeastern Color Graphics has a motto: You can't fight and win without good weapons. "If it's nearly affordable and it's a sound investment, we will find a way to make it happen. We don't just invest for the sake of spending capital, we invest for the sake of perpetuating our success and expanding our portfolio of prepress and printing services," reveals Charlie Montgomery, chairman and CEO. "Our attorney laughs that while, comparatively speaking,

Dome Printing--Matching Proof to Plate
April 1, 1999

In an age of consolidation, Dome Printing—a $20 million, family run commercial printing operation servicing clients the caliber of Intel and Sutter Home—is a prime example of what good management, a clean production process and industrial-strength digital color proofing can do to retool a once-traditional printer. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO Perfection is one word that must be very near and dear to the Poole family at Dome Printing. Family patriarch and president of Dome Printing, Ray Poole, and his three sons, Tim, Andy and Robert, operate the Sacramento, CA-based commercial printing facility. What makes Dome Printing unique? For one thing, the plant is

CTP--Still Testing the Waters
February 1, 1999

As computer-to-plate grows in popularity and application, prepress officials and technology providers trade outlooks on CTP's hottest issues—especially the true commercial availability of thermal plates. What's better—thermal or non-thermal? Warning: They tell it like it is. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO Is the jury still out on the long-term merits of thermal imaging—and the consumables considerations any reasonable prepress director must labor over when deliberating which output device to recommend, thermal or non-thermal? For one, Maureen Richards, prepress technical director at United Lithograph, now a Mail-Well company, has her thermal reservations. "The current thermal technology is not 'utopia,' but I am perhaps biased by

ROI on CTP--To Buy or Not to Buy?
August 1, 1998

That is the (killer) question... BY CHERYL A. ADAMS "It's not really a matter of ROI, but RIB—remain in business," contends Maureen Richards, technical director of prepress at United Lithograph, in Somerville, MA. (She attributes the RIB acronym to an article she saw.) "There are a lot of efficiencies that can easily justify the ROI on CTP, but the ability to do a quick fix when customers want to make last-minute changes is what makes CTP so valuable. You're able to make those changes and still be on press within moments of deadline. CTP gives you optimum control of the prepress process." Customers