Seven good habits to improve CTP efficiency

The successful introduction of CTP manufacturers have their own transition steps and successful experiences. As in the first few months, work flow charts and standard operating procedures were listed on paper. The manager trains and tests all prepress personnel and ensures that there are at least 10 highly competent and high-level staff. Then ask the experts to train all those who work in the digitalization process. When the operator can proficiency in the film output, the management team will start to study the CTP system, test five or six models and several plates, and finally select the most appropriate. After completing the above steps, they are not far from their goal.

Today, CTP users can learn from their previous experience and benefit from it. Here are the seven beads of wisdom gathered from printing experts.

First, it is not necessary for everyone to go into the water

If you want to use CTP, it does not mean you have to blindly head it in. You also do not have to purchase the platesetter that operates the most expensive performance on the market. First of all, you have to find out what kind of platesetter is best for you.

John Heinzmann, head of Quantum Color's desktop production department, listed his CTP system a year after installing the CTP system: "We want it to have the ability to make changes at the last minute, simple operations, one-page workflow, In-RIP Trapping, etc. We want the most useful features!"

Quantum Color is a sheet-fed printer with 35 million assets. The business it undertakes is copied from artwork to annual report printing and involves many aspects. One of the workshops had three six-color Heidelberg presses with a coater and one five-color press with a coater, while the other had small-format monochrome and two-color sheet-fed presses. The prepress department has a 300GB server and a 200GB RIP memory.

Quantum used Saturn's workflow, but the only problem was that Saturn had no viable CTP equipment yet, and its workflow was the best for Quantum's needs, so Quantum waited until Saturn's Lotem The platesetter appears.

For other printing companies, the right price and high return on investment are the main factors affecting their purchase of CTP. For example, PEPR Graphics used to be a website and graphic design company. In May last year, company owner Take Rick Rehm purchased printing equipment. They now have an AB Dick with a T-51 dual-color press and some post-finishing equipment. They also use a Pentium III 800MHz computer to drive the Xante PlateMaker 3 polyester platesetter.

Rehm said that he chose the polyester version system instead of the metal plate system because the screen image produced by the PlateMaker system meets the requirements of the PEPR company's job and is more reasonable than the metal plate system.

Eastern Rainbow is a 92-person platemaking company that provides traditional prepress services, design and digital photography. Souhegan merged with Eastern Rainbow in 1999 when it was able to print 175 lines/inch jobs on four 28-inch presses. Bob Stuart, chairman of Eastern Ranbow/Souhegan Color, which was formed by the merger of the two companies, has been considering whether to use the CTP system for many years, but he has not been able to determine whether to choose Agfa's violet laser Galileo system or choose the company Crosby Angels. The thermal system.

Mr. Stuart did a Beta test on Agfa's violet laser Galileo platesetter last year. He knew that his decision would bring a return on investment. He wanted to save on paper expenses by adopting CTP, but he found that the paper cost savings paid for the platesetters did not yield a significant return. Although the violet laser system can provide a cheaper service, if it can't make money from the CTP system, why should it be installed?

Second, do not ignore the printing plate

Have you considered the plates you are using? Jim Crawford, manager of product development for the PS version of the Fujifilm company in the United States, points out that the price of the plate-making machine is generally between more than 200,000 US dollars and more than 700,000 U.S. dollars, and the influence of the printing plate on the evaluation of the CTP system should be carefully considered.

The CTP system is an electronic system and it is impossible for the prepress department to observe the plate. Printing plates are an important part of CTP. The consistency and stability of printing plates are very important to CTP. Printers should keep plates and printers clean and tidy, which is the most expensive place for daily work. You can earn money from CTP and you may lose money.

Grime, a Scoville printer, took into consideration the plate factor when deciding to purchase a CTP. He believes that 90% of the laser plates are suitable for short-lived jobs, while the Scoville plant has an average of 500,000 jobs, so he must emphasize to the plate makers the need for long-lived plates at Scoville.

At present there are ongoing debates about the thermal CTP and violet laser CTP systems. Blooming Color is a prepress company that provides services to purchase point advertisers and packaging manufacturers. It started in 1992 as a film company and has experience in using visible light platesetters. When the company’s manager Valjil Patel and factory manager Viral Trivedi selected the CTP, the company used the company’s thermal platesetter.

Pate pointed out that one of the advantages of the thermal plate is that it can be operated in daylight. Because of this, most plate suppliers are also keen on the thermal CTP market.

This is precisely the deficiency of the violet laser CTP system. Violet laser CTP users have encountered some problems with the use of violet laser printing plates. Stuart said: “We have also encountered the situation where the plates are exposed due to the close proximity of computer monitors and platesetters.” But this is not enough to influence Platemaking and printing plants choose the violet laser system.

Third, the fool-type workflow

Phil Crosby, Barco's production manager for proofing, said: "It is not important from which company to buy the CTP system. As long as you have a suitable machine, you can produce plates every day, and you can print on the machine. The difference is: the workflow is a fool Type."

Johnsbyrne printed high-level commercial jobs for agents and companies ranked in the world's top 500, and in 1997 was equipped with Creo Sage Angel's Trendsetter platemaking equipment. Dean Fairley, vice president and manufacturing general manager of the company, pointed out that after CTP is adopted, 90% of the time will be spent on the workflow, and only 10% of the time will be spent on the platesetter. He believes that CTP is only an imagesetter that can image on a plate, and the most important is the workflow support for the CTP system.

He relied on prepress operators to identify potential bottlenecks before installation, and then chose Postscript workflows, which he believes will give Johnsbyrne the convenience of adopting new technologies.

After researching the workflow, Fairley said that 80% of Johnsbyrne's live CTP was used in the three months before the installation. Now 97% of them are using CTP, and only 3% of the work is still provided by customers for filmmaking.

Other printers also pointed out that being familiar with the layout workflow helps smooth transition to CTP. Installing the platesetter will make the job more efficient.

Fourth, quality management

Adopting the above workflow should also include minimizing the process of remastering, in one word: QC (Quality Management).

Tim Poole, chairman of Dome Printing Company, said: “We are always experiencing challenges in our daily business, so we do not know what kind of challenges we will face in using CTP.”

For example, the Sacramento printing house used film and proofs to check documents, and in the digital workflow, these two visual inspection steps were omitted. Instead, the plate is removed from the developer and printed directly on the machine.

The operator of the desktop production department checks the file on the computer and the next step is to print directly out of the printing plate. We must increase the number of testing steps to determine when it is officially printed on the machine. This is a big challenge, because we set up the detection point is not enough.

Bowne of Howston’s digital prepress manager also agreed with this view, saying: “Once a CTP workflow is selected, prepress testing becomes more important. It takes enough time to prepress prepress. It must be reviewed. Each component of the document ensures that the final image on the plate can be directly printed on the machine, at which point the plate becomes a metal proof."

The Bowne of Houston also performed a beta test on Topsetter, a Heidelberger platemaking machine. Topsetter is supported by multiple Macs, and two Heidelberg Signa Workstations output hard proofs. The printing company has web printing presses and sheetfed printing presses. The pre-press department had only 11 workers and implemented a three-shift system, but in 1999 the output value of the department reached 120 million US dollars.

Dome has established a multi-step quality management program. When a job first enters the company, it is first checked by a supervisor and then sent to the prepress staff for prepress quality testing. After the spelling is completed, the imposition staff is responsible for making proofs, and then making a printing plate, and is responsible for any modification of the proofs from the customer. Another imposition staff makes the final modification before the plate is printed on the machine.

Quantum's production process also includes the final inspection of the plate before imaging. The inspection method is to check the trapping and color of the file on the screen. The past quality control steps are performed on the film. Heinzmann half-jokingly said: "We used the $50 viewing platform for quality management, and now we use the $3,000 RIP to complete this step."

Once the plates have been prepared, the contents of the plates should be carefully examined. Quantum invested in an Acme plate reader to measure technical specifications such as tone reproduction density on plates.

Fifth, continue to learn

The experience of using workflows is important, but training is equally important. According to Fairley, at Johnsbyrne, training for employees began a year ago with the introduction of CTP equipment. The Perfection Press company provided imposition training for all staff. After the installation of the Presstek Pearlsetter CTP system, the operator received a two-hour training on Harlequin RIP operation.

Don't forget the customer when considering the trainee. Blooming Color and Johnsbyrne have trained customers through postal methods and used brochures to explain the differences in CTP workflows and film workflows. Johnsbyrne even held an information seminar.

Sixth, using dot proofing

Is it necessary to invest in a high quality digital halftone proofing system? This depends on the type of printing job shop and the needs of the customer.

Quantum Color's approximately 85%-90% of the same sheet is made by an Iris proofer. Alan Cudahy, president of Quantum, analyzed: “From the management point of view, digital proofing is the weakest link in the CTP process and remains to be improved in many aspects.”

Scoville Press has used digital proofing for more than three years. Since it is not a high-end color printer, it can be proofed with a single Iris proofer and printed on the same sheet with an Epson printer.

Cavanah of Perfection Press stated that when using the Pearlsetter CTP system, proofing is the biggest challenge. Perfection Press has 2 Heidelberg GTO presses, 1 Adast press, 1 Agfa ChromaPress, 1 Xerox DocuTech and 2 Diddle narrow web presses, as well as a variety of post-finishing equipment.

Cavanah explained: "We care about what kind of sample customers expect." The company conducted a test comparison of Epson 9000 digital proofs with printed proofs. Make customers aware of the proximity of Epson digital proofs to analog proofs, and highlight the cost advantages of Epson's digital proofs, which are much cheaper than those of Colorkey or Matchprint. Cavanah tends to do short-lived prints around 5000 prints, and such customers do not like to pay extra for Colorkey or Matchprint proofs.

The Blooming Color Company is targeting the point of purchase advertising market and has high requirements for details. So the company uses Spectr of Croixing Angels