PI's 45th ANNIVERSARY -- From Art To Science

PostScript was driving prepress, but DTP gateways were keeping proprietary CEPS (color electronic prepress systems) in the mix. Trapping was the big sticking point with customer-supplied files, along with the issues of fonts, RGB images and resolution that still dog the industry today.

Printing Impressions still tracked the "Top 50 Color Separators" at that time, but by 1998 it was looking toward the next big thing with the "Top 50 On-demand Printers" ranking. People seeking a "killer app" for the technology had already locked onto variable data printing.