|
|
Installs at national papers gets CTP up and runningLAS VEGAS -- For those of you who have dropped out of the ongoing publishing revolution that's swept over newspapers in the 1990s, here's your millennial wakeup call. Just try these four trendy steps for gaining precious deadline time and coming that much closer to closing the back shop forever:
Obviously, if it were that easy, then there would be no need to get an update on the state of the computer-to-plate (CTP) process at newspapers. But this is an ongoing story (see The Cole Papers, July 1998, July 1997) so let's quickly summarize where we are. In 1998, things were going forward at a rapid pace in Europe, but lagging behind in the U.S. newspaper community. Recent developments suggest the American market has been opened up, and NEXPO '99 seemed to confirm this notion. Suppliers that have something riding on or related to the developing CTP market numbered at least two dozen on the NEXPO floor. All were excited about the breakthrough sales to the U.S. CTP market. Now, all bets are off if a paper isn't fully paginated. The coveted Holy Grail, pagination, is no longer a mirage, but an ongoing reality for papers of all sizes. Leading the way into CTP are the New York Times, Usa Today and Investor's Business Daily. The Times purchased eight DiamondSetter platesetters from Western Lithotech of St. Louis (a unit of Mitsubishi Chemical Co.) and will become the first major U.S. metro daily to be fully computer-to-plate, with four CTP units at each of the Times' two printing plants. The speed and automated operation of the DiamondSetter was certainly a consideration. Using two lasers, each unit is capable of imaging up to 266 single-page (broadsheet) plates per hour. The Times also will have the DiamondSetter plate management workflow software on one workstation at each plant. Usa Today has made the largest purchase of CTP equipment ever by a newspaper -- a complete system for each of the national daily's 28 printing sites. The deal was overseen by a consortium led by the Pitman Co. of Totowa, N.J., and including Barco Graphics Inc. of Vandalia, Ohio, and Agfa Corp. of Ridgefield Park, N.J. Usa Today selected the Barco CrescentNews CTP system, which has multi-cassette flexibility -- broadsheet and double-truck plates are on-line at the same time. CrescentNews uses a drum for imaging the plates, rather than a flatbed. Since plates have to be curved when put on the press anyway, drum advocates feel imaging on a drum results in a more accurate transfer of the image from the computer to the press.
Investing in CTP
The DMX 2737 does all the things a good CTP system should, but demonstrates its Scandinavian character by looking very stylish at the same time. Two DMX units are already in use at the Daily's Los Angeles headquarters. "We expect that this program will save us an extra 20 minutes to start presses earlier or to hold for later news, maintaining current press starts," said Ken Kirkhart, vice president for production. (More about the DMX and its hybrid sibling, the ImageMaker, later.) In view of these big purchases, the next logical question might be, "What's holding back the coming tide of computer-to-plate purchases?" Asking that question at the two dozen NEXPO booths dealing in CTP produced a variety of answers that usually centered on the cost of CTP's special plates, as opposed to the more inexpensive plates used in traditional methods by the majority of U.S. dailies. The CTP people stressed the overall cost savings when factoring in the elimination of film, associated chemicals and film handling, as well as the advantage of a first generation image on the press, with no intermediate film step that compromises fidelity. Conceding that CTP plates are more expensive than conventional plates, suppliers thought economies of scale would lead to cheaper plates when CTP obtained a bigger foothold in the U.S. market. Developments in lowering the cost of plates were on display at NEXPO. Sonoran Scanners Inc. of Tucson, Ariz., announced the CactusSetter CTP imaging system. It will use less expensive plates, ones that can be exposed by ultraviolet laser light. The CactusSetter, to be available in October, will also image plates at a speedy 250 per hour, making it the newest and fastest platesetter on the market. If it can live up to its advanced cost-cutting capabilities, Sonoran may make a big splash come the millennium. Already making it big is Agfa, which has 150 CTP installations worldwide. Agfa announced two new models of its Polaris 100 platesetter, the speedier 150-plate-per-hour Polaris 100XT, and the Polaris 100E, for papers with lower output requirements (85 plates per hour). Use Agfa's software RIP or one from another supplier; the company has the horses to be a single source for all things CTP -- automated, flexible and extensible (ah, a buzzword for the '90s). Agfa has a plate, too, the aluminum N90A, engineered for high-speed runs. It can be exposed by either green or blue lasers, needs less laser energy to expose the plate, and is free of silver and other heavy metals.
Soon at a pressroom near you
Headquartered in Holyoke, Mass., Anitec -- currently a big supplier of newspaper printing plates -- expects to "soon" introduce a thermal laser CTP system for mid-sized newspapers. Producing up to 80 plates an hour, it will use a metal plate obtainable only from Kodak. Rounding out the low end of CTP is the High Water Platinum 2230 from Spectrecom of Northridge, Calif. Installed at 75 sites world-wide, it can do both CTP and film on a single flatbed, running on a Harlequin RIP with a SCSI 2 interface. This is for small shops only, those who want to "wet their beak" by testing CTP workflow. An all-manual model about the size of a small foreign car was displayed on the show floor -- a sort of flatbed press for the Y2K set. The other dual-purpose CTP platesetter comes from Purup-Eskofot. In addition to the DMX 2737, Purup-Eskofot offers the Imagemaker, which can produce film and CTP from one machine. The modular configuration supports just about any combination of plate and film processing imaginable, and is a good choice for those papers that want to keep their options open while modernizing. Output of 100 plates per hour is possible. The machine comes with a Windows NT-based RIP and software for control of the page flow. There's more:
Plateware
Since this is such a new area for pre-press software to handle, no real standard like Quark XPress or Photoshop has yet emerged. Most do use a Windows NT workstation of some kind, and all keep track of plates in a current edition, in case re-imaging any one plate becomes necessary. Some workflow applications would enable the press manager to assess the state of the press run from an Internet browser, or check the status of a page by its color on a monitor from across a room. Software also is used to balance the workload so each platesetter is operating at peak efficiency. Other related CTP software takes care of proofing what's on the plate for that final look. With no pasted-up flats to see, proofing becomes a critical step before pressing the start button on the press. Here are several products worth noting:
"Not only does Computer to Proof software provide tools to match the ink colors and densities of a newspaper web press, but our software outputs a proof reproduced with the original file's halftone dots," said Karen Barr, vice president of sales and marketing for SeeColor.
This software is truly the final gatekeeper, the last set of electronic eyes to check a digital file (PDF, separate or composite PostScript, or EPS) and then whip it directly to the RIP, or export it in any of the aforementioned formats. Version 3.1 runs on Windows NT 4.0, or the MacOS X Server.
RIP either ads or editorial matter first, then let PostStrip combine them in a single, composite PDF file. The same production methods that took a printer running from the ad alley with a late ad for the page now can be done electronically. And as we all know, that scenario has been familiar. Even if the back shop's days are about over, it looks as if the best of the workflow habits can live on in software. There's always something. -- George Powell
Agfa Corp., See also PrePRESS Solutions, Monotype in agreementFrom THE COLE PAPERS, July 1999, Copyright © 1999, All Rights Reserved.
|
|
Top |
ColeGroup.com |
Consulting |
Cole Papers |
NewsInc. |
Cole's Store |
Miscellanea |
Search Copyright © 1990-2010, The Cole Group. All Rights Reserved. Contact us. Modified date: 07/22/2002, 11:43:32 AM. URL: http://www.colepapers.net/tcp.archive/Cole_Papers_99/TCP_99_07/ctp.html |
