Pre-Press - Computer-to-plate

Pull up a chair! Welcome to Printing Impressions' round-table discussion of the status, the direction and the promise of thermal computer-to-plate (CTP). Technology providers, ranging from thermal CTP's marketing-savvy pioneer Creo Products—whose campaign with Kodak ignited the industry's thermal frenzy—to an array of other world-class thermal technology suppliers, will debate the merits of thermal CTP today, address the technology's weaknesses on the consumables front and wager predictions for thermal CTP's next 100 days. Where do you think thermal CTP is headed, and when will your organization reap its full, processless potential? Time will tell. For now, let's join the discussion . . . When

PITTSBURGH—Attendees here at the recent fifth annual Tech Alert conference, sponsored by the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (GATF), witnessed the first detailed study comparing CTP-exposed thermal plates. GATF designed a special digital test image for this test. The image contained vignettes and gray backgrounds to show anomalies such as banding, streaks and inconsistent imaging. There was no real difference among any plates in dot imaging consistency. The Kodak DITP, Fuji LH-P and Fuji LH-N plates had the broadest highlight to shadow dot range of 0.5 percent to 98 percent on the printed samples. The difference among the remaining plates was not appreciable. These same

Be it expanding the performance of a conventional CTP site or capitalizing on thermal CTP, this sampling of digital prepress pioneers runs the gamut. As technologies for improving computer-to-plate performance continue to test the mettle of the most ingenious of today's commercial printers, the question raised seems more a statement of logic than a much-pondered, genuine inquiry. How good is CTP? Whether the direction is a conventional CTP route, with investments in a team of platesetting devices and digital proofers, or a thermal CTP focus capitalizing on the proliferation of thermal plates and growing volume of thermal platesetting devices, one factor seems clear: CTP