DIGITAL PLATES -- Shortcutting the Process

"The technology is best suited to customers with space constraints because the overall CTP system footprint can be significantly smaller," adds Lastra America's Goodin. These shops are more likely to be two- and four-page platesetter users, which raises another issue, he says.

"Thermal platesetters typically are not made in a two-page model and the four-page machines don't fit in a small printer environment because of cost," the R&D director points out. "It's difficult to achieve an ROI on the kind of volumes those shops would be putting through a machine."