The Great (Digital) Plate Debate

"Fuji believes that visible light CTP, or high-speed photopolymer, still has a future in the market," Butera adds, noting that the release of Fuji's new imagesetter, the Luxel, is evidence of that belief and financial investment in visible light plate technology.

Also, second-generation no-bake plates are attracting a lot of interest lately, he remarks, and sales are "really starting to take off." Traditional no-bake plates required post-baking to improve runlength and chemical resistance on-press, he explains, noting that after so many impressions, the plate's image weakened and had to be re-baked. However, with the advent of "true" no-bake plates (which were released earlier this year and have gained sales momentum), at least 300,000 impressions can now be achieved without any baking, whether pre or post.