CTP System Passes Test On Live Retail Print Job

When the Square Group in London seriously started looking for a computer-to-plate system, it set A B Dick a big challenge.

When the Square Group in London seriously started looking for a computer-to-plate system, it set A B Dick a big challenge.

A proposed CTP system had to produce the plates for a live job, which was a very high quality catalogue for a household retail chain.

"We are passionate about quality and that was one of the major factors in selecting the equipment.

When word got out that we were in the market for a CTP system we had all the suppliers banging on our door.

We reduced them to a short list of three, including the Presstek Dimension 400, and then we said to A B Dick, if you can meet the quality standard that we require on a live job, then we will give you the order.

It was the acid test but they passed it with flying colours.

Now I know that we have the best system on the market and we can compete with anybody on quality," said Sean Codling, Square Group's managing director.

The Square Group owns one of the biggest Apple Centres in the UK, as well New Perspectives, a postcard and greeting card company.

Square moved in to print in 1997 in a unit in Northfleet, while the repro side of the business started as a conventional artwork and scanning studio at its Apple Centre in London's West End.

Two years agoit brought the studio and the print works under one roof in a new print factory in Rushworth Street, London.

"As well as being more convenient to have repro and printing together, it makes sense to operate from London because it is close to most of our customers.

They are design and advertising agencies, museums, art galleries, broadcast companies, hotels and top London restaurants.

We have tended to specialise in high quality, short run colour, although we are still competitive at the top end of the market with runs of 100,000 and anything in between.

Although most of the short run jobs are about 1,000-off, we can compete with digital printing as low as 250 as long as it is not personalised.

However a lot of the work we do is quite complex with metallic colours, for instance, and that does not lend itself to digital printing," said Codling.

The Square Group had been using an imagesetter and making conventional plates.

"Obviously the future was CTP and we were finding the cost of the conventional chemicals and the maintenance of the imagesetter expensive.

That of course is where the Dimension scores because it uses chemistry free Anthem plates.

With the new EU regulations coming out, it is going to become more and more expensive to buy and dispose of chemicals," he added.

The other advantage of the Dimension was its small footprint.

Codling said that the company is tight for space and the Dimension is smaller than its imagesetter and will replace six pieces of conventional equipment.

That means that the company will be able to re-organise its press room and repro department to make them more efficient and pleasant to work in.

A B Dick also installed a Starproof system, which was essential to meet the customer's quality standards commented Codling.

"It has enabled us to calibrate everything so that we don't have colour matching problems.

We always do a belt and braces job and send our customers a PDF and a hard copy proof," added Codling.

He continued: "I believe we are producing the best quality work that is possible.

Even our trade printer customers have complimented us on the consistency of the plates and the quick make-ready.

One of our press minders was very anti-CTP until he saw how well the plates perform on the Speedmaster 52 and how clean the plates are, which means there is virtually no spotting.

Although we are already using less alcohol and less ink, our plan in the future is to run without alcohol." The Square Group has also upgraded its Scitex Brisque workflow with Compose Express workflow, also supplied by A B Dick.

"It doesn't change the way we work, but it will improve the speed that we can run, as well as giving us a safety net to check and pre-flight all the artwork received from different sources and created using different software packages," Codling emphasised.

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