Plotting Along

"Imagesetter sales to the packaging market are quite higher than last year," relates Sheila Nysko, segment manager, packaging, at Agfa. In the largely flexo realm of flexible packaging, direct-to-film is hot because CTP economics "aren't quite there," she says. Among printers offering both flexo and offset, Nysko credits the continued growth of matte films for flexo with keeping imagesetter buying interest high. In addition, she notes customers' hard-to-shake dependence on analog proofs has kept package printers and trade shops with all-out CTP continuing to invest in direct-to-film.