Alive And Well. E-Marketing. The Future Of Print. Transitioning To CtP.
Transcription
Alive And Well. E-Marketing. The Future Of Print. Transitioning To CtP.
International Publication for the Media Arts 28 This issue’s feature Plate Technology 6 Transitioning To CtP. The Three Valuable Lessons. 10 CtF: Alive And Well. 12 E-Marketing. 14 The Future Of Print. Users Tell Us Why. Reaching Today’s Print Buyers. Communications In The 21st Century. | see more | do more | 2 O L E C T E A M S W I T H A G FA T O M A X I M I S E P R E S S P E R F O R M A N C E . High-Performance Partnership. As a leading producer of state-of-the-art light sources, exposure frames, light meters, plate punch/bender and trimmer systems Olec rounds off Agfa’s assortment to bring companies a complete solution—from think to ink. Plate Technology Feature One of the things that has made Agfa a leader in prepress is the company’s ability to provide a complete system from document processing to printing plate. But Agfa also knows that the process doesn’t end with film or platemaking. Printing plates, for instance, still have to be bent and prepped for the printing press. That is why Agfa has developed a close relationship with Olec Corporation whose brands include Stoesser, Pac Glass, Diamond and Teaneck. Centerline Imposition Control. q Technology Marketing Points of View User Profile Product News According to Olec the Avantra 44 makes press optimisation easy because it exposes films on centre with a side punch and a centre tail pin. By adjusting the pin system for platemaking, the operator can move the images to the necessary image lay back to match any press. This flexibility reduces last-minute makeovers to change position for presses or sheet size. The side and tail punch format on the Avantra 44 provides the best registration control of any 8-up record devices on the market, says Olec. Centerline Control also allows plate makers to make work and turn and perfecting jobs just by turning the film 180° for the second plate. They can also expose a variety of plate formats from one original film. The Avantra’s Centerline Imposition Control provides stability across the long dimension of the film, with the tail pin. Imposition on centre is also universal for most post recorder applications. This is especially beneficial for 4-mil film users. but also the ability to permanently bend polyester plates with a heat set bender in sizes from 20" to 42". Reduced Plate Size Inventories. Frames. Olec vertical drawdown vacuum frames actually pull the glass down to the pin system that holds the film and plate stable. This prevents films and plates from moving. The frames can also be fitted with lamps designed for a specific application— contacting, proofing or platemaking. Tiling Films. Olec vertical drawdown vacuum frames also have an adjustable pin system, which allows users to take 4-up flats from an Avantra 30 or Phoenix imagesetter and easily tile two of them onto a plate for 8-up imposition. Users can also tile 8-up films to accommodate larger plate sizes. Register On Post-Punch Output. The Agfa Galileo’s edge register makes precision punching and bending easy for any press. By using a transfer punch/trimmer printers can accurately trim plates to fit available presses to minimise inventory of both conventional and digital-imaging plates. Users can trim plates for both size and lay back of the different presses allowing more flexibility without making new plates. Photopolymer Exposure Frames. Olec’s newly designed exposure units for photopolymer plates use a point source lamp instead of the traditional bank-light. The result is a sharper, more accurate final plate. Light Meter. The Olec “AccuMeter” reduces set-up times, gives accurate exposure diagnostics, has a built-in data logging feature and measures two spectral ranges (340-390 nm, 380-420 nm in both MiliWatts and Milijoules). ■ Polyester Plate Punches/Benders. To assist in registering and punching polyester plates Olec offers not only the accuracy of punching off line For more information about Olec products visit www.olec.com. 3 Marc Verbiest [email protected] Editorial. Plate Technology Feature Remarkably, few people think about plates as high technology. In reality plates can make the difference between meeting a deadline and having to turn away business. A high-quality plate not only images faster but it can cut make ready significantly. Which saves not only time but also cuts paper waste. And then there is the matter of ink retention and dot gain. Both of which are directly related to plate performance. Production Notes. All photography and prepress We believe that the more you know about various technologies, the better your pur- using Agfa systems. The following chasing decisions, and the more efficient your AgfaType fonts were used: workflow. That’s why for this issue of Interface, Hermes and Rotis. Thermostar we have decided to feature plates, one of the plates imaged on Galileo Thermal most crucial components when it comes to using CristalRaster screening quality and workflow optimisation. technology. Imposition and contract proofing with the Sherpa digital proofing system. In the pages that follow you’ll find a helpful overview of various plate technologies and the Editorial Committee: applications for which each is best suited, as Agfa France: Sylvie Gibout well as some surprising market statistics. You’ll Agfa Germany: Günter Kopp also find a point-of-view on where the tech- Agfa U.K.: Tim Light nology is headed. As always, we’re rounding Agfa Iberia: José Mª Corominas Editor: Rosemarie Monaco out this issue with marketing advice and a look Managing editor: Marc Verbiest at the future of our industry. Associate editors: Thank you for letting us know the topics you’d like us to address Anne-Mie Vansteelant in the future issues of Interface. Bart Verduyn Credits: Contact [email protected] ■ Design, Production and Co-ordination: Living Stone N.V. For more info on Agfa products: http://www.agfa.com Next Feature: q Automation 4 Conventional And DI Presses. Plate Technology “ … A N D T H E Y B O T H L I V E D H A P P I LY E V E R A F T E R .” Feature The ultimate future of offset printing is direct imaging of the printing form on the press. This is the fastest and leanest production model for offset, in which all the steps of the process will have been optimised as far as possible. Apart from the technological side, there are also the economic aspects. If the “new” process is too expensive compared with the “dominant” process, this will prevent it from becoming generally accepted. It was not until 1990 that a press manufacturer first offered automatic plate change on a sheet offset press. Others denied the usefulness of this innovation. Yet, in the months that followed they worked hard on their own solutions for semi-automatic and automatic plate change. Nowadays, practically all printing presses are equipped with such plate-change systems. Technology simply needs a certain amount of time to become accepted and established. The MAN-Roland DicoWEB. The Heidelberg QuickMaster DI. By Alain Vermeire. With more than 20 years experience as a journalist covering the graphic arts, Alain Vermeire is editor in chief of Belgium’s leading prepress and printing publication “Grafisch Nieuws/Nouvelles Graphiques”. He is also managing editor of all ICT (Information & Communication Technology) titles published by Keesing Publishing. DI Methodologies. Direct imaging on press can be done in various ways. For example, on the Heidelberg QuickMaster DI a roll of polyester material is located inside the plate cylinder, just like photographic film in its roll. This material is fed from inside the cylinder to form the polyester plate for waterless offset. On the MAN-Roland DicoWEB, imaging, erasing and exposing the printing cylinder are all done on the press, without using film or printing plates. This is done by transferring imaging material onto the surface of the cylinder using a thermal transfer process. Agfa LiteSpeed is a spray technology for a plateless printing process. In this process a polymer coating is sprayed directly onto the reusable substrate on the cylinder, after which the medium is thermally exposed in the same way as a “normal” plate. After printing, the LiteSpeed coating is washed off, and then new coating can be applied. LiteSpeed is a thermal non-ablative process that uses a water-based substance. CreoScitex demonstrated this technology with its exposure heads on a Shinohara press in September 2000. At Print 01, Heidelberg demonstrated a SM 74 DI with Saphira plates. The hybrid printing technology used on this Speedmaster can also be used to print offset plates exposed offline. Heidelberg is a firm believer in DI technology with plates for its own existing presses. “In 10 years time, DI should become an option on all presses, just like automatic plate changing,” said a Heidelberg spokesperson. In conventional DI presses, the plates are fastened on the cylinder and exposed, which in fact is simply combining a CtP system with an ordinary press. Plate-based DI applications are a further development of conventional offset, with the choice of plate being dependent on the type of application. Plateless systems in most cases will probably be closed systems, as this is the only way to guarantee faultless operation. Imaging Front end system Off-press imaging Inking Press start-up Dampening Inking Dampening Cleaning Inking Printing Dampening Inking Dampening On-press imaging Laser 830 nm thermal platesetter Press start-up Step 1: Exposure Thermal energy fuses the thermoplastic particles to the aluminum plate in the exposed areas. Step 2: Dampening The dampening rollers are applied for a few revolutions as the fountain solution wets the non-image areas. Plate mounted on press Wetting the plate Step 3: Cleaning The inking rollers are applied and remove the coating from the non-image areas. Step 4: Printing At the start of printing, the ink containing the non-image coating is removed by the first few press sheets. Removing the coating Printing Technology Marketing The Economics: Presses And Plates. At present it is possible to expose plates in different formats on one and the same offline CtP system, but this cannot be done on a DI press where the printer is restricted to the format of the press. Furthermore, the time gained with DI technology is minimal compared with presses equipped with automatic plateloading systems. And to cap it all, a DI press is more expensive. There are thermal ablative and nonablative plates. Thermal non-ablative material offers the additional advantage that no debris has to be removed. Examples are Agfa’s Thermolite and Heidelberg’s Saphira. Thermolite has a conventional aluminium substrate with a coating closely related to LiteSpeed. The latter is non-ablative, and can also be applied on other hydrophilic substrates. It is therefore not restricted to the plate as a physical medium—the medium can just as easily be a sleeve. The fount and inking systems on the printing press play an active role in the processing of Thermolite and Saphira. Depending on the paper and the printing conditions, run lengths of about 25,000 are currently possible, and double this should be possible in the near future. However, the price of the plate is still about 50% more than for a processless thermal plate at the moment. Conventional Longevity. The first digital plate, the N90 from Hoechst, was demonstrated as a prototype at Drupa 1990. At Drupa 1995, the range of computer-to-plate systems shown was overwhelming, but sales got off to a slow start. At that time, few printers were interested in an expensive technology that had still not proved its worth. It was not until Drupa 2000 that investments in CtP systems on a larger scale were considered. DI presses were offered by several manufacturers at both Drupa 2000 and Print 01. However, press manufacturers also demonstrated how changing plates for a new job in combination with CtP could be completed in 15 minutes. This means that the days of the conventional press are far from being numbered, and neither are those of offline CtP systems. ■ Points of View User Profile Product News t 6 Transitioning To CtP. I N T H R E E VA L U A B L E L E S S O N S . Full-service printing company, Kölnermedienfabrik made the transition from conventional processes to an all-digital computer-to-plate workflow in three steps— computer-to-film, workflow digitisation, computer-toplate. With high-volume demands for both commercial and package printing, the Cologne, Germany based printer opted for an 8-up violet-laser system. Plate Technology Feature Those responsible for the CtP project (from left to right): Guido Walter, Ulrich Carthaus and Jürgen Kühn of Agfa Germany. About four years ago, Kölnermedienfabrik installed its first CtF system, an Avantra 44 imagesetter with online processor. The large format, says managing director Ulrich Carthaus, allowed the company to produce fully imposed Operators feed new violet plates into the Galileo. forms without manual paste-up, providing a valuable first lesson in the road to digitisation. Seeing the immediate benefit of going directly to film opened the door to the next step-saving possibility—going directly to plate. “But at the time, we considered that the technology was still not sufficiently advanced,” recalls Carthaus. “Only a few customers were able to supply material in digital form then, so we would have been forced to digitise too many documents.” The Galileo Violet internal drum CtP platesetter uses a long-life violet laser diode with a wavelength of 410 nm. The violet laser diode permits exposure speeds of up to 3,173 cm2 per minute. Technology Marketing Building A Digital Infrastructure. Kölnermedienfabrik took its next step towards CtP with the installation of a complete Apogee workflow. For Carthaus, the advantages of the Apogee Pilot production manager are its great user-friendliness and its production reliability. The prepress operators are able to work continuously, producing jobs one after the other. Customer data can be preflighted visually after being normalised to PDF files, so most errors are caught very early in the workflow. After being RIPped, the final job data is sent to the Apogee PrintDrive output manager, where it is stored until being exposed on film or plate. As far as Carthaus is concerned, PrintDrive is the highlight of the entire digital workflow. “Apart from the high flexibility and productivity, it offers us a degree of reliability we have never had before. We are now able to check the content as if we had a printed example,” he says. With the composite workflow, the company had been able to minimise most of the uncertainties with trapping and colour matching. And since the proofs are now produced with the same RIPped data that is used to expose the plate or film afterwards, all doubts are eliminated. The company also has more flexibility in dealing with last-minute customer corrections. If there are last minute changes, only the corresponding page has to be corrected and RIPped again. Choosing The Right CtP Technology. After looking at all the possibilities, violet-laser technology seemed to be the most promising, because of its high exposure speed and economy. “Agfa convinced us with its highly productive, fully automatic ‘Apogeeready’ systems. We decided in favour of the Agfa Galileo VS and the Lithostar Ultra-V plate,” says Carthaus. “We carried out a few tests, corrected the positioning of the plate and adjusted a few parameters such as the compensation curves, and were able to continue without a hitch,” says Carthaus. Kölnermedienfabrik now produces more than 80% of its printing plates on the Agfa Galileo VS. “Exposing directly to the printing plate enables us to work significantly faster and more reliably, but with the same high quality,” says Carthaus. “Problems like vacuum spots are a thing of the past—there are hardly any faults now.” Carthaus also testifies to the wide user latitude of the Agfa Lithostar Ultra-V printing plates, which reduces the risk of plate damage to a minimum. The plates can be processed under daylight conditions and the exposure time is very short, so there is no barrier to the high productivity of the Galileo system. They also behave perfectly well on the printing press. “For our printers, the first digitally-exposed plate was a printing plate just like any other,” says Carthaus. Points of View User Profile Product News “For our printers, the first digitallyexposed plate was a printing plate just like any other.” According to Carthaus production has been going so smoothly that the company has not even had to call on its Agfa Odyssey remote diagnostic system. “And if we do run into difficulty, we know from experience that we can count on rapid help from Agfa Support,” he says. The next step in digitising the prepress workflow at Kölnermedienfabrik will be to connect the printing press to the CIP3 interface, InkDrive, an option for the Apogee. ■ t 8 C H O O S I N G T H E R I G H T T E C H N O L O G Y. Plate Options. Unquestionably CtP (computer-to-plate) technology has become mainstream. But technology is never simple. Digital-plate technology varies from visible-light diode to thermal imaging, from plates that offer dry processing to those that require no processing at all. Understanding a little about the various plate technologies will help you to select the right system for your application. The CtP market can look confusFeature ing with different technologies appearing to compete with each other. In reality the technology is broadly split into two main categories: Visible light or thermal CtP. Plate Technology The difference is simply the laser wavelength used to expose the plates, and depending on the application there will be a different emphasis placed on variables such as quality, cost, speed, run length etc. CtP Momentum. The year 2000 proved to be a defining year for CtP. Digital technologies were adopted in unprecedented volumes, and CtP was seen as a mature, viable technology for How LiteSpeed Works. The LiteSpeed coating is sprayed onto a hydrophilic surface (1), e.g. a normal anodised offset plate (2). The coating, which is thinner than one micrometre, is imaged with an 830 nm laser diode. The printing areas are melted at a temperature of around 100°C, without chemical cross-linking (3). When the press starts up, the damping roller must first make contact for 15 or so revolutions with the printing cylinder in order to moisten the surface (4). When the inking roller then starts to operate, it strips the coating away from the non-printing areas in a few revolutions and transfers it to the paper (5). No contamination of the fountain solution or inking system takes place. printers in all the different print segments. Worldwide, CtP sales were approximately 40–50 million m2— with Agfa achieving approx. a 50% market share. CtP technologies, analogue plates are still the main plate technology used today. During 2000, analogue plates accounted for 85%–90% of all printing plates sold worldwide. CtP growth continued in 2001 with Violet technology attaining the strongest gains. We expect continued growth in 2002 in newspaper and commercial CtP in all three key technologies –silver, thermal and photopolymer– and with Violet taking the lead among companies newly adopting CtP. Within the next three years the worldwide CtP market is expected to double in size, and continue to grow after that. Analogue plates are made by contact exposure with rapid access/hard dot films in combination with a powerful UV light source. Analogue Mainstay. Digital Plate Technology. Despite the growing importance of digital workflows and the success of Silver halide is a multi purpose plate for commercial and newspaper applications. Silver halide uses extremely light sensitive coatings, similar in some respects to the technology used in imagesetter films. The technology is proven, stable and predictable. The success of analogue technologies lies in the many years of consistent performance in all types of presses, all over the world. Analogue plate markets are actually growing strongly in some regions, such as Asia. Silver based plates can be exposed by the latest low cost, long life, violet diode based platesetters. Many CtP users choose violet technology because of its high-speed imaging and low platesetter costs. The recent emergence of Violet laser diodes has added extra momentum to this exciting technology. Violet laser diodes are a compact and low cost light source that is a technology spin-off from the DVD industry. Violet plates can be handled in near-daylight conditions. As CtP moves down market with smaller, lower cost devices, the Over view Of Agfa Plate Technologies. Plate Description Features Popular With Meridian P5S Conventional, positive. Wide user latitude and high quality capability. Typically used by high quality sheet fed printers producing high quality work such as advertising, brochures, and all types of prestigious colour printing. Meridian P450 Conventional, positive. Electrochemically grained and anodised. Good resolution, strong colour change on exposure, wide latitude. Designed to meet the needs of commercial printing environment where high productivity, ease of use and reliabiity are key. Used by small offset, commercial sheet and web as well as forms printers. Zenith N550 Conventional, negative. Fast exposure speed, multi-purpose negative plate popular in different applications. Everything from forms printers, to general commercial web and heatset, and newspapers. Robust performance and wide fitting specification. Zenith N61 Conventional, negative. Robust, durable with excellent reputation. Used widely in newspapers with excellent results. Wide tonal range also allows use in higher quality applications such as UV work. Thermostar Digital, positive working, exposable by 830 nm or 1064 nm lasers. Very high resolution, daylight operation, bakeable plate technology for the most demanding press conditions. Commercial printers of all types. Thermostar has set new standards for thermal plate technology and has been most successfully used in the 8-up and VLF areas. N91 Digital, negative working, exposable on 532 nm FD YAG CtP systems. Durable, predictable and reliable press performance with wide latitude in use. Resolution somewhat lower than thermal and silver halide CtP. N91 has seen highest popularity with newspaper printers where the plate properties exactly match the most important features on any CtP newspaper printers wish list. Lithostar Ultra Digital, positive working. Exposable by green, violet or red lasers. Fast exposure, simple processing, wide compatibility with a wide range of platesetter devices. Newspapers and commercial printers covering anything from 2-up to 8-up. High resolutions coupled with fast imaging make Lithostar a popular choice with a broad range of printers. SF1 PE Conventional, negative. Fast exposure, hard dots. Simple processing. Resistant to tearing and cracking on press due to special alloy. Made in North America for the North American market. Wide latitude in use, wide tonal range and robust performance over different applications. Technology Marketing violet-diode phenomenon continues to fuel CtP adoption. The success of the violet diode is not just limited to the smaller CtP device; violet diodes have been successful in everything from 8-up systems to newspaper exposure devices. Photopolymer has a reputation for providing a robust press performance, tolerating a wide variety of press conditions. Thermal plates, capable of high resolution and excellent press performance, have very quickly established themselves as the most versatile and robust digital plate technology available today. Thermal imaging, however, requires plate technologies that need exposure energies thousands of times higher than those required for silver or photopolymer plates. Thermal plates can be baked for longrun printing. Certain requirements, such as the UV inks used by some package printers, also require baked plates. For these applications thermal technology is the preferred solution. Processing: Wet, Dr y Or None At All. One of the greatest benefits of CtP is the elimination of the film intermediary. No more dot degradation and no more messy, smelly chemicals. Most plates, however, whether analogue or digitally imaged, still require chemical processing. There are some exceptions to this rule. Process-free thermal imaging is a subject that has been widely debated. Elimination of the chemical development removes a variable from the process and is rightly seen by many as a very attractive customer benefit. Does this mean that some day, all CtP will be process free? Possibly, but most probably processfree plates will co-exist alongside the existing (wet processed) plates. One example of a plate that requires no processing at all is Agfa’s Thermolite. Thermolite may be exposed either on or off press using thermal lasers. The removal of non-image areas is done on press by the inking rollers. Points of View User Profile Product News Other Innovations From Agfa. Agfa’s Thermostar is a thermal plate that offers a simple processing system and does not require preheating. The plates are processed in a standard processor used for positive presensitised plates under full daylight conditions. LiteSpeed is an innovative liquid coating that is applied on press to a reusable metal substrate and then digitally imaged. The patented formula is based on Agfa’s Thermolite plate technology. It is non-ablative and requires no chemical processing. Performance on press is equal to a conventional lithographic printing plate, with a run length of 20,000 impressions. ■ LiteSpeed liquid coating is applied on press to a reusable metal substrate and then digitally imaged. t 10 By Knud Wasserman. U S E R S T E L L U S W H Y. Knud Wasserman is a prepress and printing technology expert and the managing director of the bw-works full-service agency in Vienna, Austria. As an author, he specialises in publishing and information technology. CtF: Alive And Well. Users now have a wide range of technical options open to them on the way to the printing plate. Although Computerto-Plate undoubtedly represents the most technologically advanced of these, many companies continue to rely on tried and tested film. Interface guest editor Knud Wasserman spoke to users in Europe about how they see the future of computer-to-film. Computer-to-Plate (CtP) was a logical development of Computerto-Film (CtF), and as such it has established itself very rapidly in the past few years. Based on the demand, Agfa has more than quadrupled its sales of CtP plates in Europe over the past three years. However, this does not mean to say that film is dead. On the contrary, in 2000, an estimated 600 or more 8-up CtF systems were sold in Europe, and more than 1,000 4-up systems. Sales in 2001 were similar, and so Agfa is continuing to invest considerable amounts in R&D for graphic film and accompanying exposure systems. Investment decisions by users are not determined simply by the availability of a particular technology; in the final analysis they are determined by market demand, the type of work that has to be done, the existing work processes, the capital costs and the operating costs. All these aspects may plead in favour of CtF, depending on the approach of the individual company concerned. essential intermediate step on the way to direct plate exposure. “Somebody who tries to introduce CtP without mastering Computerto-Film first is doomed to failure,” he says. “CtF is the ideal method for training in the use of digital data, and to become familiar with the digital workflow and all its pitfalls. The experience gained in this way makes it easier to switch over to CtP at a later stage.” An Essential Intermediate Step. Short Learning Cur ve. Ulf Walter, general manager of the Weitzer & Partner prepress company in Graz, Austria, sees CtF as an Sven Linke is assistant manager at the Rademann company in Lüdinghausen, Germany. 11 In February last year he implemented a CtF solution, seeing it as the ideal way for his employees to become acquainted with digital imposition. “If something goes wrong with a film it's no big deal, which is a considerable advantage especially during the learning stage. However, we were pleasantly surprised to find how quickly we were able to produce print-ready output. The intuitive user interface of the Apogee workflow management system made an important contribution to this.” Rademann uses the Apogee system to drive an Avantra 25 for 4-up imposition forms and an Avantra 44 for 8-up forms. Film Enables Flexibility. For Weitzer & Partner, CtF is currently the optimum solution. “As a pure prepress company we are not able to supply all the different plate formats required by our customers, in particular all the register punch patterns. Print-ready exposure on film gives us the flexibility to cover the various format requirements of the printing shops. Furthermore, if the worst comes to the worst, the printers can quickly turn out a replacement plate themselves.” This question of being able to obtain replacement plates whenever necessary currently deters many printers from entrusting plate exposure to a service provider. For companies that are dependent on using film archives or supplied film, CtF offers the possibility of incorporating film in the workflow at a relatively low cost, without redigitisation. Andrew Gunn of B•A•S Printers in Stockbridge, UK, is confronted by the challenge of using pre-existing film for a large number of jobs. “Re-digitising such a large quantity of film is economically just not feasible, at least for the moment. And in any case, customers are generally unwilling to pay for this service,” he explains. The Strobel printing company in Arnsberg, Germany, is faced with a similar situation. It produces a whole series of specialist magazines dealing with sanitary equipment, heating, air-conditioning, home automation and energy control for its main customer, the Strobel publishing company. Two thirds of the advertisements for the various publications are supplied in analogue form, i.e. as film. “I worked it out and came to the conclusion that re-digitising the advertisements would take too much time, and so would be too expensive,” says manager Peter Tack. “We therefore decided to go for a CtF solution consisting of an Avantra 30 with Apogee workflow.” Faster Depreciation. Isaac Rodriguez Montero, manager of the Sisdigraf prepress service provider in Barcelona, continues to prefer print-ready film exposure for purely economic reasons. “With the very intense competition in Spain at the moment it is difficult to make a CtP system pay for itself. For this very reason, we have actually increased our use of Computer-to-Film. In April we installed a second Avantra 44 film recorder with a complete Apogee workflow system.” In the experience of Sisdigraf, the payback period for a CtF system is one year. A CtP system would take about three years to pay for itself, according to Isaac Rodriguez Montero. “The pay-back period is of course somewhat longer for a pure prepress company, since unlike a printing company we don't save an imposition operator,” he concludes. Simple Economics. Manfred Edelbacher Jr. of the Edelbacher printing company in Vienna argues similarly. The company has been using a CtF workflow since 1993, producing around 12,000 4-up and 8-up plates per year. “Given our organisation, a CtP system and the corresponding plates would still be too expensive, and so computer-to-film is the most appropriate for us in economic terms at present. Sven Linke of Rademann is convinced that a CtF solution like the Avantra can still compete with a CtP system in economic terms. “However, the advantage will increasingly shift towards CtP in future. For this reason we took a two-year option to exchange the two Avantra film recorders for a Galileo CtP system.” The question of whether a particular solution is economic is a very tricky one, which every company has to solve for itself. Nevertheless, computer-to-film still seems to be an interesting option for small and medium-sized printing companies in particular. Technology Marketing Points of View User Profile Product News Speed. A Strong Argument. A CtF workflow can generates a lasting increase in productivity. The Strobel printing company, for example, has reduced its lead times by a factor of five. The print-ready output also has positive effects on the printing press. “Since we started producing imposed signatures with the Avantra 30, we have been able to cut the press set-up times dramatically. This has been very useful in enabling us to produce smaller and smaller runs economically,” explains Peter Tack. Award-Winning Quality. In terms of quality, it is extremely important for any printer to reduce the number of intermediate steps in plate production. CtP is of course the ultimate in this respect. Nevertheless, it is still possible to produce absolutely top-notch results with a CtF workflow, as demonstrated by the awards won by B•A•S Printers and Edelbacher. B•A•S Printers, which specialises in art printing, won the “Fine Art Printer of the Year” and “Book Printer of the Year” categories at the PrintWeek Awards in 2000. “Our switch to CtF three years ago brought a huge improvement in quality,” says Andrew Gunn. “In the specialised field of art printing, quality plays an essential role, especially the colour fidelity.” The Edelbacher printing company for its part, another long-term CtF user, won a bronze medal in this year’s Sappi Europe Awards. ■ Ulf Walter, general manager of the Weitzer & Partner prepress company in Graz, Austria. Manfred Edelbacher Jr. of the Edelbacher printing company in Vienna. t 12 R E A C H I N G T O D AY ’ S P R I N T B U Y E R S . E-Marketing. You cannot demonstrate your printing capabilities in an email. You need hard copy for that. But the experts say that your brochure is more likely to end up in the dustbin than in front of the print buyer, and that today email is the most effective way of getting a buyer’s attention. What’s a print marketer to do? One of the most important rules for effective marketing is “know your audience”. You wouldn’t have much success selling cars to animal-rights activists if the supermodel in your advertisement is wearing a fur coat. Another example that is closer to home and not as obvious would be telling print buyers that you have high productivity. It would be far more meaningful to them if you can simply deliver the job faster. In other words, you need to push the buyers’ hot buttons not your own. Use language they can understand immediately and which requires no interpretation. 13 E-marketing: The Stats. As a loyalty device, email clicks with customers, 88% of whom say they have made a purchase as a result of receiving a permission-based electronic message, according to a recent US survey from DoubleClick. Even more dramatic, 37% said they made a purchase after clicking through an email solicitation, according to Court Cunningham, vice president and general manager of DoubleClick unit DARTmail technology online advertising company, which sponsored the research. Email use in general is up, with consumers receiving 159 messages a week, 45 of which are business related. Among all email messages, an average of 36 are permission-based, twice the prior year’s number. Another DoubleClick study, conducted by Ecom Interaction and Benchmark research, reveals that nearly half of European marketers (46%) are engaging in online marketing as part of them the option of “opting out” or removing their names from your database. Keep the message short. No more than one paragraph with a high-impact message and one or two lines only about who you are and what you do. Make an offer that represents value to the buyer. Take off your printer’s hat and put yourself in the buyers’ shoes. Ask yourself what you can offer to solve a problem or make their lives easier and more rewarding. their marketing strategy. Marketers in the United Kingdom and Spain are ahead of the pack with 73% and 66%, respectively, engaging in online marketing. European marketers are involved in email marketing more than any other form of online marketing. Data from this study shows that 31% of European marketers participate in email marketing, whereas 27% are engaging in targeted banner advertising. 2% 13% 31% Email marketing Targeted banners 3% Newsletters Website 24% Other 27% Include a live link. If your message is powerful it will elicit immediate action. Let the link click them to your Website or to a page where they can register for the special offer. This will also allow you to add profiling information to your database. Tell them to look in their mailbox for a special offer and a sample of your capabilities. Getting Them To Drink. Didn’t respond Now you’ve got their attention, it’s time to show them your stuff. Time your email to reach the buyers a few days before they receive your brochure in the mail. Reaching The Target Audience. The other side of the “audience” coin is knowing how best to reach your target. We used to ask: Which publications do they read? Today, the better question is how do print buyers receive their information? Email is rapidly replacing the phone and postal service as the primary source of communication in the business place. Statistics confirm permission-based or opt-in email marketing as fast becoming the most effective medium in the quest to manage information overload. Leading Them To Water. If the most powerful way to a buyer’s eyes these days is through email, than email marketing needs to be included in your marketing strategy. There are a few simple rules for email marketing that assure its effectiveness. “There are a few simple rules for email marketing that assure its effectiveness.” If your list is not already qualified as permission-based, than you must let the recipients know that you received their names as individuals who might be interested in getting information from you and give Use the same graphics or repeat the headline you used in the email; this will increase recognition. Refer to the email and repeat the offer. Now you can provide more detail and demonstrate your printing prowess. New Rules For The “E” Generation. Technology Marketing Points of View User Profile Using the most effective medium is essential to successful marketing. If the medium doesn’t allow you to demonstrate your work, then use it to pull their attention toward the medium that does. Rely on proven statistics. It is truer today than ever before that in a world cluttered with information, frequency is important. Keep the emails and postal mailers ongoing. Vary the message but maintain your company or “brand” identification. ■ Product News t 14 C O M M U N I C AT I O N S I N T H E 2 1 S T C E N T U R Y. The Future Of Print. While the subject may already seem exhausted, there is none more relevant to our industry than the role of print in the 21st Century. We cannot ignore the inevitable and must consider how print will change if we are to plan business growth. The following data was taken from a research report “Printing in the Age of the Web & Beyond” prepared by The Electronic Document Systems Foundation (EDSF). According to the EDSF a major objective of its research was to describe what people might be doing in the future in regard to printed or electronic documents, by comparing their responses to various demographic and technological trends. Following are some key opinions extrapolated from “Printing in the Age of the Web and Beyond”. Periodicals. Magazines and journals will see some advertising move away from print. Since advertising drives the number of periodical pages, the loss of one ad page equals the loss of an editorial page. As promotion budgets are reallocated to accommodate the Internet, magazines will see a reduction in their page volume. The printed periodical and the Internet will work together in the future as new revenue models evolve. One will not replace the other. Print-on-demand for selected articles will take place in bookstores and business/home locations. Some print volume will shift from the factory to the home or office. Elec tron ic 65% 52% 30% 70% 1995 Print 48% 2010 35% 2020 Source: RIT analysis (Rochester Institute Of Technology). Newspapers will have to expand demographic coverage in order to retain the promotional circular/insert component of their advertising. To increase revenue, newspapers are installing colour printing presses to produce more value-added colour advertising and provide a more consumer-oriented product. Direct Marketing. Magazines printing will move from centralised manufacturing plants to points closer to the customer. ATMs for periodical printing will evolve so that readers can have certain issues, articles or combinations of issues and articles printed on-demand or downloaded to an e-reader. Newspapers. Percent of information: print versus electronic form 1995-2020. Print volume grows, market share decreases. they will opt for in-depth and local-market area-coverage. Newspapers will experience a significant drop in volume. The Internet in terms of immediacy and comprehensiveness challenges newspapers, as well as advertising. The Web is already a major channel for classified ads. As long as newspapers can retain their market coverage, they can derive revenue from ad circulars, flyers and other advertising inserts. But, overall, newspapers face the greatest challenge in the new media age. Newspapers will continue to compete with other media for news dissemination. Since newspapers cannot provide the immediacy that broadcast media or the Internet can, Direct mail marketing will grow slightly. It is a push promotion medium that can target audiences and is independent of technology. It is the most democratic promotional channel since it can provide total coverage by geography or demography. Personalised promotions will be the norm as vendors develop more finely tuned approaches to relationship marketing. Postal rate increases will force direct marketers to find alternative channels. Mass mailings will continue. Until everyone has access to the same electronic data, there is no other way to reach a large audience. Direct mail is “democratic”. By 2010, e-mail and physical mail locations will be linked, which will then usher in a new direct e-mail market. The postal database will be the national repository of street and e-mail addresses so that crossmedia mailings can be made. Internet Usage… The Never-ending Story. So far, the US has led the way in internet usage and e-commerce. But the tides are already turning. US dominance will diminish as the millions 650 European, Asian and Latin American 600 internet economies expand. 550 By 2002, Europe will have more 500 450 internet users than any other 400 single region. 350 300 North America 250 Even the predominance of the Europe 200 English language online will decline. Asia/Pacific Rim 150 Latin America 100 Today, 48% of Web users are Africa and the Middle East 50 English speaking. Although English 0 Worldwide Total 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 year will most likely remain the language Active adult internet users aged 14+ worldwide, 2000-2004 (in millions). of global business, within the next few years the majority of internet users will speak another language. 200 150 100 Source: eMarketer’s eGlobal Report. (www.emarketer.com ) 50 0 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050 2060 2070 2080 2090 2100 Print is expected to grow until 20402050 and then see a gradual decline. Print will not disappear. Source: RIT analysis (Rochester Institute Of Technology). Packaging. This is a major growth area since there are no electronic alternatives to packaging. Look for shorter runs of geographic and demographic labels and packaging. Changes in regulations will necessitate continued changes in packaging, as well as changes in marketing and products. E-commerce will cause a growth in packaging since the goods purchased online will have to be shipped in something. Packaging has no electronic competitor and will grow significantly through 2020 and beyond. Worldwide, lithographic and flexographic presses print seven million square metres of labels. By 2020, 30 percent or more of this volume will be printed digitally. Regulatory requirements for nutritional information and regionalised packaging will keep this segment in a growth mode for more than 20 years as packages are revised and reprinted. Advertising. Advertising and promotional materials –for example, brochures and flyers– will see some of the strongest growth in the print industry. Most print is produced because someone wants to sell something to someone else. There is no major electronic replacement projected for advertising. Printed advertising and promotional materials will continue to grow in volume through 2020 and probably beyond. A major competitor to offset-based advertising printing will be increasingly higher quality colour printers, both inkjet and toner. This will allow stores and other locations to print the materials themselves, on demand. The creative community will require a move to six-colour printing and other high-fidelity colour approaches along with varnish and lamination operations. High-quality colour printing will continue well into the century. A Final Opinion. Typographic documents printed on paper will co-exist and co-evolve with digital documents on electronic displays well into the future. The question may not be whether the information is printed on paper, but whether it is typographic, as opposed to audio and video. ■ To purchase the full report or for more information contact EDSF. Telephone: +1-310-791-9521 +1-310-541-1481 Fax: +1-310-375-4240 Email: [email protected] Web site: www.edsf.org Technology Marketing Points of View User Profile Product News t 16 Technology Marketing Points of View User Profile q Product News Grand Sherpa Hi-Res InkJet Proofing System. Open Access For Proofing Non-Agfa Formats. Graphic Centre to show users how they can make the transition to new technologies. ■ Running on the system’s Proofer RIP, Open Access accepts most legacy file formats and converts those to a Postscript or PDF file for output on any Agfa Sherpa proofer. This allows the Sherpa to integrate easily into most non-Agfa workflows and handle third-party files such as Heidelberg Delta List, Scitex CT/LW or Harlequin ScriptWorks bitmaps. The Apogee Proofer RIP then applies colourmanagement profiles to ensure absolute colour accuracy for contract proofing applications. Agfa Open Access preserves absolute data integrity by applying a PDF or PostScript wrapper around the RIPped content. In this way, the original file can travel intact through the workflow as an industry-standard open format. Agfa Open Access also preserves the spot colours in the original file, thus taking advantage of the Pantone libraries and custom colours defined in Lab values in the Apogee Proofing RIP. Open Access accepts Heidelberg, Scitex and Harlequin files in an unscreened, un-rendered format. The Agfa Proofer RIP can then render and colour manage the proprietary data for optimum output on the AgfaJet Sherpa. HotFolder technology lets the Sherpa integrate easily in any Windows 2000 or Windows NT network. The Sherpa can also be configured into Unixbased networks. Agfa developed Open Access to provide all print providers Sherpa’s affordable, highquality digital contract colour proofing capability. ■ Sublima Patented Screening Technology. Agfa CtP Centre In Offenbach. Agfa’s Marc Elsermans cuts the ribbon at the Agfa CtP Centre at MAN Roland. The Agfa CtP (computer-to-plate) Technology Centre at the MAN Roland Graphic Centre in Offenbach, Germany is an ultra-modern, high-tech centre. Agfa digital prepress solutions are demonstrated under real operating conditions to show how state-of-the-art prepress systems can address current workflow issues. Agfa’s experts have installed a prepress network that fully exploits what is technically feasible today. To address businesses of every size, Agfa took the requirements of various companies into account when designing the centre. Prepress production is controlled by the latest version of the PDF-based workflow management system Agfa Apogee. Another important field at the new Agfa CtP Technology Centre is proofing in digital workflows. Here, Agfa demonstrates the latest options for contract and imposition. Via the InkDrive CIP3 interface of the Apogee Series 2 PrintDrive, the Agfa prepress workflow is linked to MAN Roland’s PECOM press control, so that the inkkey settings for the presses can be transferred directly. Agfa and MAN Roland will continue to present their latest products, systems and solutions at the Sublima is a hybrid screening technology for newspaper printing. Agfa’s patented technology combines stochastic screening (frequency modulation) techniques with Agfa’s Balanced Screening to deliver a continuous-tone quality, never before available specifically for high-speed newspaper printing. Agfa factored three things into the development of Sublima—the characteristics of newsprint stock, the standard 85 to 100 line-screen ruling, and the high-speed of newspaper presses. Using the experience gained with its CristalRaster stochastic screening technology, used primarily by commercial printers, and its industry-standard ABS (Agfa Balanced Screening), Agfa formulated photo-quality screening that works within the specific conditions of the newspaper environment. Agfa Sublima delivers a 1 to 99% dot reproduction. It reproduces black and white and colour images, line drawings and logos with finer detail in highlight, shadow and midtone areas. It delivers a level of print quality on conventional newspaper stock that mimics commercial printing. ■ JDF-Compliant Apogee Series3. Apogee Series3 offers a more advanced level of automation, control, openness, scalability, and ease of use. As one of the initiators of the Job Definition Format (JDF) standard, Agfa enables JDF import into Apogee Series3 to further expand and streamline workflow. Apogee’s scalability enhancements let any size organisation –from a small printing shop to a global operation– benefit from workflow automation. Because Agfa designed and developed Apogee in close cooperation with customers and partners, Series3 includes a wide range of customer-driven enhancements such as flexible process control and automation. Load balancing can be designated with ease for any task from input to rasterizing to proofing to output. Site to site transfer of digital film becomes as straightforward as sending jobs to a local output device. Apogee also offers the flexibility of working with full flats or a late binding page-based workflow to accommodate different work styles and production requirements. To help minimize the risk of errors and responsibility, Agfa has integrated Enfocus’ latest ‘Certified PDF’, enabling everyone in the production chain to find out by whom and with which profile PDF’s were preflighted, or which changes were made. Apogee Series3 enhances Apogee Pilot production manager by adding JDF specifications. Reply Fax 17 JDF is a set of open, extensible, XML-based job ticket standards that create a flexible, comprehensive solution for the entire workflow. JDF links Management Information Systems (MIS) groups and solutions with the print production area. ■ Name: Company: Street: N°: City: Grand Sherpa Hi-Res InkJet Proofing System. The Grand Sherpa is the first in its class with true 1440 x 1440-dpi resolution, variable dot size, eightcolour capacity, and two-minute print speed. Agfa adds improved colour-management software, a quality-management system and workflow integration software to extend the systems capabilities even further. In addition to features that represent a breakthrough in inkjet quality, the Grand Sherpa is priced at a fraction of what systems offering this level of quality currently cost. The Grand Sherpa uses multi-density, drop-ondemand piezo-electric technology. Agfa configures the system with six ink cassettes –CCMMYK– four process colours, a light cyan and light magenta. The multi-density inks offer better ink-blending and widen the colour gamut to more accurately match difficult colours such as flesh tones. The system matches over 85% of PANTONE spot colours and special logo colours. The two additional ink slots in the Grand Sherpa can be used for CCMMYYKK for high speed imposition proofing. The Grand Sherpa prints at two high-resolutions for contract proofing—1440 x 1440 and 720 x 720 dpi, and a faster 360 x 360 for imposition proofing. Printing speed is two minutes for a 33 x 47-inch (A0) form at 360 dpi. Precision media transport assures exact registration. The media heads adjust to accommodate a wide variety of media from .1 to 2.2 mm-thick. The Apogee Proofer RIP, which is Adobe PostScript 3, provides automatic queuing and spooling, handles composite or pre-separated files and in an Apogee workflow provides absolute digital file integrity. The Grand Sherpa will be available in three sizes—50 inches (1273 mm) 64 inches (1653 mm) and 87 inches (2240 mm). Systems will be ready for shipment in Q1 2002. ■ Agfa Builds Plate Plant In Asia. Agfa is investing in a new production line in China, operational by mid 2003, that will produce printing plates for the Asian market. The demand for analogue printing plates in Europe is declining more rapidly than expected. This contrasts with the Far East where demand is stable. The investment in a new production line in Wuxi (China) would improve Agfa’s efficiency in plate manufacturing for the Asian markets. ■ Phone: Fax: Your Agfa dealer: Information request for: ❏ Apogee publishing production system ❏ IntelliNet Newsflow for newspapers ❏ RIPs ❏ CtP systems for newspapers ❏ CtP systems (4-up) ❏ CtP systems (8-up) ❏ CtP systems (large-format) ❏ Digital offset plates ❏ Analogue offset plates ❏ Sherpa proofing systems ❏ Agfajet inkjet media ❏ Analogue proofing systems ❏ Imagesetters and film (CtF) ❏ Agfa screening technologies ❏ Colour-management/separation software ❏ Ecology systems ❏ Agfa Educational Publications ❏ AgfaScan scanners ❏ I would like a demo of: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................................................... ❏ I would like your representative to contact me for: ........................................................... Please send Interface to: Name: Title: Company: Address: Phone: Fax: Type of Business: AGFA, the Agfa-Rhombus and AgfaJet are trademarks of Agfa-Gevaert AG, Germany. Sherpa, AgfaScan, Alliance, Avantra, ColorTune, CristalRaster, FotoTune, Galileo, ImPower, IntelliNet, Lithostar, Polaris and Thermostar are trademarks of Agfa-Gevaert N.V., Belgium. PostScript, Acrobat, PDF, PageMaker and Photoshop are trademarks of Adobe Systems, Inc. which may be registered in certain jurisdictions. All other trademarks are held by their respective companies and are used in an editorial fashion with no intention of infringement. 18 ColorTune Pro 4.0 CMS. Screened Proofs For Newspapers. Agfa Balanced Screening (ABS) for newspaper proofing generates screened colour proofs with the Agfa Sherpa 6-colour inkjet system. The dots used in newspaper printing are simulated on inkjet proof using ABS 85 or 100 lpi (lines per inch). In addition to more accurately representing the screened quality of newspaper printing, ABS makes it possible to predict scan as well as subject moiré. With the ABS option, Agfa gives users the flexibility of choosing between error-diffused screening and ABS technology. They can switch from one to the other depending on the specific need. The Agfa Sherpa digital proofing system using Agfa’s error-diffused screening technique and colour-management software reproduces accurate contract colour proofs. These digital proofs have a smooth, continuous-tone quality; they do not show the coarse image texture that results from screens used for newspaper printing. Agfa Balanced Screening makes this possible. It allows newspaper printers and advertising departments to reproduce proofs that more accurately represent the look of the final printed newspaper. Agfa Acquires Autologic. Autologic designs, manufactures, markets and services computer-based electronic prepress systems. The acquisition of Autologic, which was competed in December 2001, builds on Agfa’s commitment to develop and market advanced digital prepress production systems for the publishing and printing industry. Autologic computer-to-plate (CtP) and computer-to-film (CtF) systems have earned an excellent reputation particularly in the newspaper market in North America. Agfa and Autologic are committed to combining the best of their individual expertise to benefit customers in all market segments. ■ Expanded Plate Facility In US. Agfa is currently producing N91 digital-imaging plates and Thermostar thermal plates for commercial use from its newly expanded facility in the United States. To commemorate the opening of the new production line, Robert Stabler, president of Agfa Graphic Systems U.S. hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony last October in the Branchburg, New Jersey facility. Joining him for the ceremony were Heikki Koskimies, president and CEO of Agfa Corporation, Wilfried Beck, senior vice president, photo chemical production for the U.S. and Jeff Aurichio, Branchburg’s plant manager. Other Agfa executives as well as plant employees also attended. Guests included a notable assembly of high-ranking industry executives from several printing companies. In an address to the group, Stabler pledged Agfa’s ongoing commitment for producing firstquality plates under the highest standards for quality control. Presentations from plant executives included an overview of Agfa’s quality-control process. Ken Margolies, head of quality control for Branchburg, offered to share the company’s formula for maintaining the highest ISO ratings for manufacturing with the printing executives who attended the opening. U.S. senior marketing manager for computerto-plate systems, David Furman explained that all plates made in the Branchburg plant will primarily serve the North American market and will be manufactured to meet specific needs of these printers. ■ Interface is an international publication. Some products and services may not be available in all countries. Please contact your local Agfa dealer or sales office for availability. ColorTune Pro 4.0 CMS. This new version of Agfa’s colour-management software automatically compensates for differences in colour ranges among input devices, monitor, printer, proofer and printing press. Because the system can remap the colour space of a monitor and proofer to match the colour gamut of a specific press, ColorTune Pro 4.0 delivers end-to-end colour management and produces accurate hardcopy and soft proofs. In addition to creating more accurate colour blends to precisely match a specific output device, ColorTune Pro 4.0 maps the colours for a specific colour gamut. It uses different gamut-mapping techniques to create profiles for various printing technologies-gamuts vary in size and shape depending on specific technology. The software uses the PANTONE library to match 85% of Pantone colours. With the ColorPicker module users can also match a company logo or any custom colour. ColorTune’s newly engineered algorithms map device-specific colour with precision accuracy. Users can create individual scanner profiles that accurately reproduce fine shadow detail and colour subtleties. Output algorithms have also been re-engineered. Dark colours as well as neutrals are cleaner and reproduce with greater accuracy. The new version of ColorTune is also easier to use. Users can choose a Wizard to guide them through the application step by step. ■ Error-diffused screening technology can show moiré that has been recorded during the scanning process. It cannot, however, show moiré that is the result of interference between subject detail and the screen frequency (subject moiré). Agfa Balanced screening allows to predict both scan and subject moiré. ■ 19 Technology Marketing Points of View Users Profile Product News Agfa Acquires 70% Of Image Building, Co-Developers Of Agfa Delano. Image Building bvba is a design and prepress company located in Antwerp, Belgium and co-developer with Agfa of Agfa Delano. Agfa Delano is Web-based, collaborative project management and communication software for the printing industry. Identifying the need for a Web-based project management system that would improve print project implementation, follow-up and completion, Image Building sought the expertise of Agfa, a leading manufacturer of prepress systems and workflow software. Agfa Delano has since been designed in co-operation with Quebecor World who participated in defining the requirements for the interactions and processes between the publisher and the printer, and is currently testing Agfa Delano. Agfa Delano will offer design, publishing and production teams a common workspace where fullspectrum, real-time project information is posted, tracked, updated, approved, proofed and prepared for print production—while offering automation and improved efficiency. It is an open system that can be integrated with existing design, publishing, prepress and pressroom workflows, and can communicate with emerging e-commerce solutions. Whether or not the members of a project team use Agfa digital imaging solutions, Agfa Delano will bring a common set of job management tools and automation to a print production environment. The web-based application will be available in multiple languages. Agfa will be selling, integrating and supporting the product worldwide in 2002. ■ Palladio 4-Up Violet-Laser CtP System. Agfa Palladio is a fully automated, 4-up (B2) flatbed platesetter designed for small- to medium-sized printers. A special media cassette keeps 50 plates online and ready for imaging—eliminating the need for an operator to manually load each plate. And the system automatically removes slip sheets. An optional internal notching system further automates the process, and enables users to switch between two notching configurations as required. Palladio outputs Agfa’s Lithostar LAP-V plates, a high-sensitivity plate designed for ideal imaging with the Palladio’s violet laser. The system outputs plates at 1200, 2400 and 3000 dpi – offering printers the wide range of resolutions they need to meet the needs of their customers. Palladio is based on a proven, reliable flatbed design that enables plates to be stored and imaged horizontally—a simple approach that ensures maximum reliability. A precision-engineered transport system allows the imaging table to move smoothly across the imaging plane—providing accurate imaging every time. Plus, the system’s violet laser diode is extremely reliable, providing consistent laser output for 7,000+ hours. ■ Palladio 4-Up Violet-Laser CtP System. SherpaMatic Duplex Proofing System. SherpaMatic has a built in alignment mechanism that automatically turns the paper over in exact alignment for precise, unattended two sided proofing. Agfa includes 100-gm dual-coated imposition proofing media with the SherpaMatic. Agfa’s new 43-inch duplex proofing system uses multi-density piezo-electric technology for contract quality proofing. It prints at 720 x 720-dpi resolution, and a faster 360 x 360 dpi resolution. The SherpaMatic prints with error-diffused screening and uses six colours-CMYK plus a light magenta and a light cyan to achieve a wider colour gamut. The two extra colours also soften highlights for better rendition of difficult colours such as flesh tones. The SherpaMatic’s unique realignment system ensures precise hair-point registration of the back to the front. This feature makes it possible to produce high-quality mock-ups for presentations or project samples, as well as imposition dummies. The SherpaMatic prints a 30 x 40-inch duplex form at 360 dpi in less than 15 minutes. A specially designed sensor system prevents the media from telescoping. Because the SherpaMatic uses a very efficient piezo inkjet system, it conserves ink with no loss in quality. This makes the system cost efficient to operate and maintain. Apogee PrintDrive output manager lets users view and adjust digital films as single pages or full imposed flats, or flats, then manage their output to proofers, platesetters, and other devices. In complement to the SherpaMatic duplex capability, PrintDrive handles flat positioning (work and turn and work and tumble workflow) for accurate proofing of signatures before final output. ■ SherpaMatic Duplex Proofing System. t CtP For The Smaller Printer. U.S. Printer Finds Affordable Solution. Small- and mid-size printers are in the unenviable position of having to keep up with their larger counterparts. Customers expect them to produce work of the same quality that the big players can. How is a small NATIONAL GRAPHICS business expected to reliably offer their customers fast imaging speeds at low prices, when the large companies can afford the highest quality digital systems? National Graphics, a €5 million printer, found a way to implement a computer-to-plate (CtP) workflow without going broke. National Graphics, Inc., a €5 million printer based in Stoughton, Massachusetts, was looking for a way to get into CtP as a way to compete with larger, rival printers. Customers were coming in and demanding the quality work they saw being done at the more expensive printing shops that had already invested in CtP equipment. As a small, high-end 4-colour-plus printer, National Graphics has customers that require everything, including brochures, posters, advertising pieces and other marketing collateral. Whether they are dealing with a small company or a large company, customers want the best product for their money. “We needed an advanced, fully automated, integrated CtP solution at an affordable price,” said Fred Moss, National Graphics' vice president and general manager. “Agfa's Palladio lets us get the efficiencies and cost-of-ownership advantages of violet-imaging technology at a price that’s helping us save money,” Moss added. Palladio is based on a flatbed design that enables plates to be stored and imaged horizontally—it’s a simple approach that ensures maximum reliability. The imaging table moves smoothly across the imaging plane, thanks to a precision-engineered transport system, providing accurate imaging every time. “Small- to mid-size printers are being held to higher standards than ever before and are being asked to output more jobs per shift. The Palladio offers them the high performance and reliability they need to keep pace with their customers' demands," said Frances Cicogna, Agfa's U.S. marketing manager, CtP Systems. "Agfa makes transitioning from a manual to an automated CtP system easy and worry-free—ensuring the printer a smooth conversion to the next generation technology," Cicogna added. Palladio has not only been cost effective for National Graphics –the savings in annual film costs and labour savings are just the beginning– it has also proven to be extremely reliable. Moss says he has put the Palladio through its paces since last September, and it hasn’t skipped a beat. “We haven’t made a bad plate, our make ready times have plummeted and plate makeovers have disappeared, so our whole operation has become tremendously more efficient,” Moss said. Now National Graphics only has to look in its rear view mirror to see his competition way behind. “Once we went CtP we acquired a little swagger to our step. Now we’re like the big guys,” Moss said with a grin. “The Palladio is extremely well-built. Others look like they come out of a cereal box,” he added. While Agfa recognises the role larger printers play in the world, we also have to help the smaller players get in on a level playing field. Small- to mid-size printers have their own unique problems about which to worry—how they are going to get their work done shouldn’t be one of them. The Palladio fills their needs for getting into CtP without itself being a burden. ■ | see more | do more |