COMPUTER-TO-FILM -- Flat Out the Best

BY MARK SMITH

In a surprisingly short span of time, computer-to-plate production has evolved from being the ideal—but still impractical—workflow, to the domain of risk-taking digital pioneers and, finally, to a mainstream process. Since it's human nature to get caught up in all things new, it's understandable that the substantial role film still plays in the industry often gets overshadowed. In fact, by most measures, film is still the dominant workflow.

Momentum alone would be enough to keep film around for years to come, but costs and other issues are limiting computer-to-plate adoption rates in certain segments of the industry. Even in CTP's sweet spot—eight-up, press-ready flats—computer-to-film (CTF) workflows can provide a sound argument for sticking with the imagesetter and conventional platemaking combo.

For example, management at The Inkstone Co. in Brockton, MA, saw computer-to-film production as a more doable interim step on the road to CTP production.

"We went from a two-up imagesetter to an eight-up machine, and the next step will be CTP," explains John Anderson, prepress manager. "From where we were, though, jumping to eight-up CTP was just too big of a leap."

Inkstone is a general commercial printer with two (26˝ and 40˝) six-color presses. It produces everything from letterhead and business cards to six-color brochures and marketing collateral materials.

The printer purchased a Tanto 5120 imagesetter from Screen (USA) in the fall of 2000, and to drive the device it also installed one of the first Screen TrueFlow PDF workflow systems in the country.

Getting Into the Flow
Since the company was developing a new workflow to produce imposed and press-ready eight-up flats, Anderson says he and Bob Donahoe, company president, believed that it would be cheaper to complete the learning process while still outputting film.

To start with, the capital cost for a large-format imagesetter is significantly less than a digital platesetter, Anderson points out. "Since we already had a Matchprint analog system that could be used to proof the imposed film, adding digital proofing for CTP production was another cost issue.

"With film, you also have some leeway to correct mistakes," the prepress manager continues. "You still can strip in a small patch for late changes or corrections, which has to be cheaper and faster than outputting a whole new plate. Also, the imagesetter allows us to change film sizes depending on which press the job is going on, which saves film."

The learning curve for producing imposed, press-ready flats has turned out to be a lot shorter than he thought, Anderson says. He expects that once the company has been using the TrueFlow and Tanto combo for about a year it should be ready to make the jump to CTP.

Image I.T.'s business model more or less dictated that it adopt a computer-to-film workflow, reports Tom Running, owner and manager.

The Appleton, WI-based prepress shop's customer base includes a number of printers. "With our Fujifilm Sumo Luxel F9000 imagesetter and Rampage RIP, we're able to give printers the option of receiving fully imposed, punched film that they can flop down to make conventional plates, or one-up, trapped and RIPed DCS 2 files they can impose and output to their in-house platesetters. They are free to choose a format based on their internal resources and capacity."

Running says he has been approached by some printers about going a step further and producing plates for them. He doesn't think that would be practical, though, because if a printer had a problem with a plate on the third shift there would be no way for the shop to get a replacement.

The company executive estimates that about 60 percent of Image I.T's work still goes out as film, but the percentage of CTP-ready files is growing continually.

At the urging of one of its printer customers, the prepress shop started preparing CTP-ready files almost four years ago, Running notes. "I'm a big proponent of the concept that a printer may not need to have a full-blown prepress department, but if it can do imposition and output CTP plates in-house, it will be more competitive."

Running says he frequently has printers seeking his input when they are considering implementing an all-digital workflow. Whether they use Image I.T's services or not, he still recommends printers to start by outputting imposed film. The cost of the equipment is less and film will give them a more flexible workflow, the company owner asserts.

"I tell them they can get the benefits of the CTP workflow without all the cost," he notes. "You can still go through the same learning curve, but at less cost and with greater process flexibility.

Financing Film Output
"One printer I know found that it was much easier to cost-justify a large-format imagesetter. Part of the issue was because he runs a union shop. Operator responsibilities can be a consideration for union plants looking to get into CTP. I know of two shops that have had a hard time bringing on CTP because of their union agreements."

United Printing wrestled with the CTF vs. CTP decision about a year ago when it was looking to implement a digital workflow. The Warwick, RI-based sheetfed, general commercial printer opted to install a CreoScitex Dolev 800V imagesetter and Brisque digital front end.

"We just had two- and four-up imagesetters at that time," recalls Chris Matthews, systems manager. "The owner of the company and myself looked at going computer-to plate, but we were not satisfied with the maturity of CTP technology at the time. It seemed like things were still changing too much, and the cost of the equipment was quite high. The owner also was more comfortable with investing in proven technology for such a critical step in the workflow.

"Space was an issue for us, as well," Matthews continues. "Floor space is at a premium here, and several CTP install sites we toured had long production lines with pre- and post-bake stations. We don't have space for that here."

Management's goal in adding the imagesetter was to get to doing 90 percent of the plant's work as imposed, eight-up film within a year. "We actually reached that point in about six months," he adds. "CTP is the logical next step, but for us it doesn't fit right now. The majority of our work still has a lot of last-minute corrections, either due to customers making changes or because we haven't gotten the workflow completely ironed out yet.

"It's cheaper to make those changes in film. We are probably still 18 months to two years away from purchasing a CTP system."

Capital Spectrum, in Austin, TX, was faced with meeting the needs of two customer bases when upgrading its output capabilities. The company's prepress operation does work for its own sheetfed, general commercial printing plant—which is located in a separate building—along with serving outside customers from across the country.

Capital Spectrum elected to be a beta site for the Heidelberg Primesetter 102 imagesetter, which Paul Barnes, vice president of production, says he released into full production in April of 2000.

The company was already using a Heidelberg SignaStation to output imposed forms on its older, large-format 3030 film recorders, but Barnes says the new imagesetter is three times as fast and facilitates platemaking by outputting punched film. This has enabled the prepress operation to increase the volume of imposed film it sells.

According to Barnes, the company already has established the same workflow it would use to go direct-to-plate. "It would just be a case of unplugging one box and plugging another one in," he says. "Actually, it wouldn't be that simple, but it would be a lot easier than if we weren't already producing imposed, press-ready film."

For printing companies that have yet to transition to an imposed, digital workflow, Barnes agrees with the other imagesetter users that CTF probably still is a better first step on the learning curve.

Pre-CTP Workflow
The Seybert Nicholas Printing Group in New York City also used a large-format imagesetter—in its case, an Agfa Avantra 44S—to help it make the transition to an all-digital workflow. According to Jim Hennessey, prepress manager, the company spent a couple years outputting imposed film before adding a Galileo platesetter last year. This enabled the group's prepress operation to get its workflow in order, he explains, before making the investment in CTP.

Seybert Nicholas is primarily a 40˝ sheetfed printer, but it also operates a couple of smaller presses. Therefore, Hennessey says the imagesetter's capability to handle different film sizes gave the prepress operation the flexibility to support the plant's range of presses.

He estimates that about 85 percent of the group's work currently is done computer-to-plate. The imagesetter serves as a backup to the platesetter and still outputs the film used to make plates for the smaller presses. The company also continues to use film for reprint work, since changes can just be stripped into the imposed flats.

For some special applications, the state of the technology still limits companies to outputting film. One such example is the Lincoln (NE) Journal Star, which has a printing plant that does commercial work in addition producing the newspaper.

There simply isn't an acceptable CTP solution for making plates for its flexographic web press, claims Ian Doremus, prepress manager. Instead, the plant uses a Purup-Eskofot ImageMaker imagesetter to output the 7mil film that is preferred for flexo platemaking.

For these existing large-format imagesetter users, the buying decision came down to CTF vs. CTP.

In short order, however, the issue may not be so simple for printers looking to implement an all-digital workflow. Advances in on-press imaging are making going direct-to press a more realistic consideration. There may be the potential for some printers to skip over the whole CTP adoption step. However, if completing the digital workflow learning curve is more expensive with CTP, then the costs will be a magnitude greater when doing it on a multi-color sheetfed or web press.

That's just one more reason why film still deserves to be in the limelight alongside CTP, and not overshadowed by it. Or maybe that should be a safelight.