Juggling plates - computer-to-plate printing - includes related article on companies involved in digital platesetting

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Dec 15, 1994 by Steve Wilson

The tests have come back positive. Successful forays by printers and magazines into the Realm of the Digital indicate a new age of printing is upon us. Computer-to-plate printing (CTP), also called direct-to-plate printing, is a process by which a magazine's pages are imaged on a computer and then transferred directly to offset printing plates using a laser-driven platesetter. Industry experts say the new method will eliminate film costs and certain labor expenses, speed up the printing process and improve image quality--plus reduce printers' use of environmentally harmful chemicals.

A few magazines, including Scientific American and Petersen Publishing's Hot Rod, have already gotten their feet wet in these digital waters. World Color Press, R.R. Donnelley and Publishers Press, three printers that have begun trials, report that although the waters are somewhat choppy, all intend to plunge ahead with CTP in the coming year.

Working with R.R. Donnelley, Scientific American printed a 16-page section digitally for all 190,000 copies of its November international edition. Donnelley recently announced the creation of a Memphis-based Digital Division for furthering such endeavors in the coming months. Meanwhile, at rival World Color Press, Los Angeles-based Petersen Publishing went computer-to-plate for the December issue of Hot Rod, digitally printing an eight-page signature in 590,000 copies, or half its pressrun. According to Donna Berwick, World Color's manager of corporate marketing, the New York City-based printer intends to make available in the next two to three years the capability to produce whole issues with CTP.

CTP plates, coated with either silver or a photo polymer, have only recently approached the durability of conventional plates, which can produce more than a million impressions. Donnelley and World Color are using Hoechst/Celanese N90 plates, touted as capable of delivering 750,000 impressions.

The plates are being imaged with Creo's 3244F Platesetter, the faster, more expensive cousin of the 3244. Both printers chose the $445,000 F-version for its ability to image plates at half the speed of the regular 3244, which lists at $325,000. When pages are imaged at higher resolutions, the time savings can outweigh the added cost, they report.

If the N90 lives up to its reputation, and if reports are true that the Polychrome NTX can surpass the million mark, the only remaining barrier for large-circulation consumer magazines is the cost of the plates themselves. As plate manufacturers are eager to see their products used, they are being flexible on pricing. Nonetheless, laser plates cost anywhere from double to 30 cents more per square foot than film plates.

Richard Sasso, vice president of production at Scientific American, is testing the N90 further this month on eight pages of the magazine's 650,000-circulation domestic edition and 64 pages of the international edition. "Not knowing the [N90's] track record, we figured we'd be conservative at first," he says.

Publishers Press has taken anything but a conservative approach. The Shepherdsville, Kentucky-based printer has used CTP technology to output Ross Periodicals' 80,000-run Sports Car International every month since July. The company has also produced entire issues of Advanstar's Spectroscopy, Bobit Publishing's Contemporary Orthopaedics and SCP Publications' Illustrations in Medicine, all with Optronics' $300,000 PlateSetter. According to Scott Capito, Publishers' workstation operator, the printer intends to bring its platesetting services to 20 short-run magazines that are owned by the same undisclosed client, in the first quarter of next year. "It's exciting to be doing this, but frustrating at the same time," he says. "We're on the bleeding edge."

Where the savings are

Still, it's blood spilled for a cause: saving money. Tom Toldrian, publisher of Novato, California-based Sports Car, says he saves about 5 percent in printing costs with the new technique. His production schedule, however, is unaffected. While Publishers Press reduced the time it takes to produce the magazine from five days to three, Toldrian does not want to tinker with Sports Car's carefully planned deadlines. "For a monthly magazine like us," he points out, "the time factor is just not as big a thing as it would be for a weekly publication."

CTP promises to improve image quality, but Toldrian says he doesn't notice any difference. Most readers with untrained eyes would probably have the same reaction. Yet Sasso says the CTP pages of Scientific American are clearer and crisper because the plate is cut with a "first generation" image. "You greatly reduce the dot gain because you're going straight from the source," he says.

Since scanned images go straight from the computer to the plate, the role of the scanner in maintaining quality and consistency is even more critical than usual. Donnelley has installed an Eskofot flatbed scanner--one of the few that meets CTP quality needs with 2400 dpi and relative speed--to be used in the trade magazine division next year. Before committing to a machine for its larger consumer magazine clients, however, Donnelley will check out what scanners emerge in 1995. "We have a wide range of quality needs for our magazines with critical color requirements," says Amy Wittenberg, prepress product manager. "We need something that lends itself to higher quality color work." One higher-end scanner expected to compete is a 7200 dpi drum scanner due out from Creo, reportedly priced at $350,000.