IMAGESETTING VS. PLATESETTING -- Setting the Pace

Losure classifies the company as a small- to medium-sized commercial printer, with 15 employees and annual sales of more than $3 million. It uses half-size sheetfed presses to produce primarily short-run work in two colors or less, including forms, labels and other pieces.

The shop's capabilities and client needs made it "a prime candidate, if not the poster child, for polyester plates on half-size equipment," Losure says. The company installed a Heidelberg Primesetter 74 (four-up) imagesetter just ahead of the new two-unit Speedmaster 74 press with which it was designed to work in concert. The imagesetter also is used to produce film and plates for a Quickmaster 46 press.