Some would have you believe that the CTP market is a niche.
I am ROFLMAO.
gammag.com
Going, Going Digital
<Picture: loading...>Quad/Graphics sets a goal and a
timetable for installing an all-digital workflow, without film or
proofs, in most of its plants.
By Joann Strashun Whitcher, Project Editor
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The advent of computer-to-plate imaging, coupled with
digital proofing and the proliferation of telecommunications
options, has made a complete digital imaging workflow in the
web offset arena a working viability.
Nowhere is this more evident than at Quad/Graphics, which
announced in April that its plant in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
would become the first web facility to offer 100% digital
imaging services, encompassing digital photography, digital
proofing, telecommunications, and digital plate production.
Since that announcement, two more Quad plants, in
Martinsburg, W.Va. and The Rock, Ga., have also replaced
conventional imaging with digital technology. The company's
goal is to replace conventional imaging at all Quad/Imaging
sites with digital imaging by the end of 1998.
In pursuit of that goal, Quad, whose 1997 sales exceeded
$1.2 billion, has invested some $18 million in each of the past
five years in digital imaging technology.
The appeal of added value
"We are looking at ways to improve value to publishers and
agencies and ultimately to their customers," says Tom
Frankowski, vice president of imaging for Quad/Graphics.
"Our success has been substantial in the move from
outputting film to going computer-to-plate. It doesn't make
sense to be in two processes. Why operate two platerooms if
one is substantially beneficial to all parties? It makes sense to
just roll it out."
Adds Frankowski, "The challenge for us as this point, as we
work with publishers, is maintaining conventional capacity
efficiently."
Success in rotogravure
Quad's foray into digital technology hearkens back to the late
1970s, when it sought to become a single-source supplier to
its customers, which include publishers and catalog houses,
by offering prepress functions. Many members of its digitally
literate staff, which now numbers about 1,000, cut their teeth
on color electronic prepress systems.
"Our vision to become completely digital is based on the
success we experienced in our 1992 implementation of direct
digital engraving in our rotogravure operation," says
Frankowski. At Quad's gravure plant in Elmira, N.Y., digital
files are used for direct-to-cylinder engraving.
"We recognized that it worked, and saw clearly the
advantages to the press operation, to the buyer, and to the
quality of product, in terms of overall cleanliness, register,
and color consistency," explains Frankowski. "Once we saw
the results of a digital process and its impact in the gravure
process, it made sense to educate our customers to the
benefits of a 100% digital process."
A similar situation is marrying itself in the web offset market.
Customers' hesitation
In June 1996, Quad placed digital platemakers from Creo
Products in its plants, and the move to becoming completely
digital was begun.
Quad, though, had to face a natural reluctance by its
customers, and its customer's customers (such as ad
agencies) to switch to an all-digital process.
"There's a lack of education within the industry as a whole,"
says Frankowski. "Agencies are dealing with large advertising
budgets, spending a lot of money in print, broadcast, and on
billboards. They just don't want to jeopardize their
relationships with a change to a technology they do not
understand."
Also, points out John Nallen, director of manufacturing for
Newsweek and a Quad customer, ad agencies are used to
working with standards. "There has yet to be a defined
standard for sending digital ad files to printers," says Nallen.
"Right now, for example, files come into a print shop in a
variety of file formats. The industry is working to obtain and
solidify standards."
Plus, there's little consensus about the form of the output.
Some publications still want film while others want TIFF
files, which challenges agencies working on repurposing ads.
Quad ARMs itself
Not long ago, the biggest barrier was how to repurpose ads
into the digital format, which is why Quad created its
Advertising Resource Management (ARM) centers.
The sites -- located in Anaheim, Calif., Saratoga Springs and
New York, N.Y., and Sussex, Wis. -- assume accountability
for ensuring data integrity, providing such services as
film-to-file conversion, resolution proofing, conventional film
services, and film archiving and plotting. Digital ad files are
positioned and proofed for verification against industry
standards.
"Going digital and using Quad's ARM Center has turned out
to be a wonderful venture," says Nallen, whose April 21,
1997 issue of Newsweek magazine was the first newsweekly
in the industry to have all of its ads prepared digitally.
"Everyone involved in the process -- at the ARM Center, the
prepress center, and the printing plant -- has great
knowledge."
Later deadlines
The ARM Centers underscore the benefits of the digital
process, offering publishers and agencies later closing dates
and quicker turnarounds. For example, agencies can make
changes to ads just hours before the ads go to press.
To further help its customers meet deadlines, Quad also has
available an interface that receives satellite signals and
transmits that information into a bitmapped format, sending it
directly to the CTP device. Previously, signals were routed to
a fax machine that generated film.
Additionally, Quad's Remote Imaging sites are connected to
all of the printer's sites via high-speed links, enabling changes
in a client's file to be made at Saratoga Imaging and reflected
in the product coming off the press minutes later in Lomira,
Wis.
Winning confidence
Quad staffers in Saratoga Springs worked closely with
customers to win their confidence. Recalls Bill Mooney,
operations manager of Saratoga Imaging, "Clients had a lot
of initial reluctance to move from a system they knew and
that worked to one that was unknown. Most simply didn't
want their jobs to be the test cases, and they didn't want to be
the guinea pigs."
To convince customers of the system's reliability,
Quad/Imaging Saratoga ran partial forms digitally. In the
beginning, most customers sent in film, which Quad was set
up to scan on Creo Renaissance scanners, rather than
transmitting digital files (today only a few send in film).
Quad accepts digital files in a variety of ways --
point-to-point T1 lines, ISDN, Internet protocols, even
Wam!Net -- based on the customer location, the volume of
data (file sizes), and the time frame needed to move data.
However, says Frankowski, to use telecommunications and
not take time out of the process doesn't make sense.
Once the file arrives, Quad must convert it from a PDF,
TIFF, or PostScript format to the DCS format that the Creo
RIP requires for making a plate.
Proof called redundant
Quad does not make a high-resolution color proof. As
Frankowski explains, since the prepress provider sends a
high-res color proof with the digital file, a second proof
would be redundant. Also, since the plates are being
manufactured on a just-in-time basis prior to print, there's no
time to show a proof to the client.
Once again, Quad had to convince customers that the digital
process would work and that the scanned ad would stand up
as a digital file. Although Quad no longer pulls Matchprints,
it does output digital bluelines, which offers an accurate
representation of the file going to plate. Quad uses the same
RIP for the Creo platesetter and its digital blueline printers,
ensuring accurate impositions.
Once digital bluelines are approved, operators impose the
files into a prep template matching that grid. They then
paginate the files, and forward the pages for RIPping. Quad
can manufacture a printing plate in less than five minutes once
the file has been RIPped.
Customer response
Ziff-Davis, a long-time Quad customer, prints four
publications -- PC Computing, Computer Gaming World,
Internet Computing, and Smart Reseller -- using the digital
workflow. But prior to going computer-to-plate, explains
Lloyd Schultz, prepress director for Ziff-Davis, "We had to
`sell' people internally on the process and needed to get them
comfortable with the new approach."
"For example," adds Schultz, "the art department was
concerned that the new procedures were going to jeopardize
the quality of our products." In fact, the art department was
little affected by the move. Even Quad's DCS file-format
requirement didn't affect the art department.
Says Nallen of Newsweek, "Doing it this way [digitally] is the
wave of the future. Going to computer-to-plate is an
enhancement for throughput and turnaround. It gets us into
the print process faster and offers better accuracy, timing, and
quality." |
