At the Plate

After nearly nine months of researching CTP products, it only took one day for Santa Rosa, CA-based Chromagraphics to get the digital technology up and running. Eric Janssen, company president, admits that they immediately started benefiting from the improved quality and turnaround time.

"Our research took a lot of time," he explains. "There's nothing we don't like about the system! We run the heck out of it."

The company decided that Fujifilm's CTP products, Pictroproof digital color proofer and Dart Luxel T-6000 thermal platesetter, would work well within the printer's workflow.

"We took the Pictroproof out of the box, hooked it up and started using it. We were able to map the colors using a color management program and when we went to press, we hit! Rather than saying 'a little lighter here' or 'a little darker there,' we were right on the mark," admits Janssen.

When the two machines were installed, he thought the company would spend at least six months doing 50 percent traditional film and 50 percent CTP. But after just a few days, he says, "We stopped doing proofs that require film. We jumped immediately into computer-to-plate and have never gone back."

Recently, Chromagraphics ran 47 plates in a regular shift with CTP. Janssen says that producing that many plates with film used to take two shifts. "Our prepress makeready times have been reduced by about 50 percent," he says. "And our waste has been less. We get a full paginated proof that is highly accurate and are plates are accurately duplicating those proofs. If the proof looks right, the plate will work right. That's the benefit of having the systems integrated."

The two-page digital contone proofer uses thermal development and transfer technology (a laser diode-exposed imaging process) to produce color. Additionally, the devices utilize CMY donor material and receiver paper to stimulate commercial printing ink stock. In total, Janssen wanted a system that could make about 16 plates an hour at 2,400 dpi. The clarity of the system had to ensure accurate images.