Obviously there are pros and cons with both technologies. Thermal offers the user super high quality output, very long run lengths, and a wide variety of plate choices including processless, all with minimal environmental concerns. The downside of thermal is the higher acquisition cost, higher maintenance cost, and less speed compared to similarly priced violet systems.

So the question becomes, is the lower cost of violet technology worth it, given the quality, environmental, and plate choices you will have to make? Can the higher purchase price and maintenance cost of a thermal platesetter be justified? It is up to each buyer to decide which technology is the right choice for their location.

What about run length: Thermal plates offer longer run lengths, but to achieve this, they must be baked. Unbaked run lengths can be anywhere from 100,000-350,000, but when baked, thermal plates can exceed 1 million impressions. Processless thermal plates can give run lengths of 100,000 impressions. Violet plate run length varies among manufacturers, from 100,000 to 250,000. Violet plates can also be baked to yield even longer run lengths .

What about plate cost. The most expensive plates are processless thermal plates. We are finding that cost per square foot on plates that require chemistry are about the same with both technologies. You will however find that your chemistry cost may be a little more with violet.

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Thermal and Violet are the two primary technologies used in computer-to-plate systems. So which is better.

We will give you the pros and cons of each technology to help you decide which is better.

The first concern we all have is quality, although thermal is capable of producing super high quality unless you need line screens well above 200 lpi the quality that violet is capable of producing will be more than expectable.

In this economy we are all very concerned with cost, in most instances violet systems are less expensive.

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