Newspaper & Magazines

PREPRESS
CTP in Newspaper Production:
The Next Generation
Speed has always been critical for newspapers, and new competition
from electronic media has only heightened the urgency. The final minutes
before press are decisive in assuring actual content, and these
demands can only be met with appropriate pre-press technology. This
gives us cause to re-examine make ready with a special focus on plate
production. Computer to plate is already a de facto standard, and next
generation systems are now available. Klaus-Peter Nicolay assesses
the market.
Quick turn around as expected in the
print room must become standard in
pre-press. Due to high automation
and reduced personal needs, digital plate
production via Computer to Plate is a critical
factor in reducing turn around times
as well as achieving cost savings. In comparison
to conventional analog plate production,
CTP systems can achieve a cost
savings on a factor of four to five. In addition,
a CTP system, depending on configuration,
is up to five times more productive
as a workflow using film and plate reproduction.
The plate reproduction bottleneck
is in effect non-existent and exposure and
other quality errors are effectively eradicated.
Only data or operator errors remain
open as potential issues. Even though CTP
systems have long proven their ROI, existing
and well functioning film based analog
workflows hinder complete market penetration
of such systems in Central Europe.
Additionally, concerns regarding the higher
unit costs of digital plates remain even
New investment at Mediaprint in Vienna: for the first time a daily is produced with an Agfa chemical free CTP system
system.
Step by step old systems will be replaced
20 N&M NEWSPAPER&MAGAZINES 1/2008
though total plate consumption is reduced
with CTP.
Among universal, job-based printers, CTP
systems are especially prevalent in midsized
to large facilities working in format 70
x 100. With smaller printers – up to 20 employees
and primarily producing in smaller
formats – 85% have not yet switched to
CTP. The situation is similar in newspaper
production. Mid-sized and large facilities
adopted CTP early and are now making second
generation investments while smaller
newspapers are lagging in development.
This is Stefan Beke-Brankamp’s, sales
manager at Krause, opinion: “There are –
not only from the international perspective
– a number of small newspapers scared
of investing in CTP. This is because most
available systems are either over configured
or are island solutions that do not
allow for a consistent workflow.” Krause’s
solution is a completely new modular CTP
system that is fully automated in the top
configuration. “Smart’n’Easy” is targe-
ted towards small newspapers and offers
parallel to the CTP system a publishing
workflow tailored to the needs of smaller
publishers and offering a high level of automation.
ECRM also showed new CTP components
at the last Ifra in Vienna offering
greater quality and automation.
As manufacturers are now offering smaller
and financeable solutions, the question is
no longer should printers switch to Computer
to Plate, rather - when they should
switch.
Among the competing systems which
technology is best? What were the technological
developments and what technologies
have the greatest potential for
the future? In comparison to the diverse
choices available to general printers from
thermal imaging, to violet diode imaging, to
photopolymer plates, the options for newspaper
producers are considerably easier to
keep in perspective. As a relatively small
number of manufacturers are active in
this segment, the number of technologies
and plate offerings remaining graspable
although CTP offerings in the newspaper
market continue to grow. Of the 150 systems
currently offered in the German market
45 are for newspaper production. Due
to their low resolution newspaper systems
are normally of no use in the general market.
Therefore it makes sense to examine
these systems separately.
Resolutions between 1,060 and 1,260 dpi