The Beginning of Computer to Plate (CTP)

CTP technology evolved from computer-to-film (CTF) technology which we call imagesetters. There are two types of imagesetters, drum and capstan. With drum imagesetters the media is vacuumed to the internal surface of the drum and exposed by a laser beam reflected by a mirror (or mirrors) mounted on a high speed spinner motor.

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Inkjet Computer to Metal Plate for Newspapers

Should you consider using an inkjet based computer to plate system to make plates for your newspaper? That depends, if you are a smaller newspaper that can live with 9-10 plates per hour and run lengths of 50,000 impressions on press it may be the perfect solution. If you are a larger paper that needs much more than 10 plates per hour it just wouldn’t be fast enough to keep up with production. But for the smaller newspaper, inkjet CTP is a very affordable, metal computer-to-plate system. [Read more…]