Creo

Innovative screening technologies are providing package printers with new tools to improve graphic quality. CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING is a beautiful thing. When technical process limitations are overcome resulting in tangible quality and productivity improvements, it truly is rewarding for both the developers of the solutions and the people that use them. In the case of packaging screening technologies, suppliers have been hard at work improving and developing innovative techniques and technologies that provide real improvements for package printers and their customers. These solutions have made positive impacts in both offset and flexographic printing applications. And for the most part, the solutions are applicable

The story of Networked Graphic Production, an industry initiative to improve digital asset management and workflow. As this column has suggested numerous times in the past three years, the packaging industry often models the commercial printing industry in technology adoption—if not in development. We've been predictably just behind the commercial world at employing PostScript, CTP, color management, and PDF. If the trend follows, we could be glimpsing our own future again by looking at the work being done by the Networked Graphic Production™ Partners. This group, just 2 years old, is an industry trade initiative aggressively aimed at the adoption of the JDF file

VALIDATION OF AN idea comes with commitment. Creo (Bedford, Mass.) and Esko-Graphics (Vandalia, Ohio) are only two of the companies that demonstrated their commitment to packaging and flexo digital plating at CMM in April. Both announced enhancements to their flexo CTP devices. With several hundred machines out there now, and the assumption that CTP technology is here to stay, each company has focused on speed, automation, and improved sleeve, or in-the-round, imaging capabilities. I had the opportunity to get a close-up as Creo unveiled its next generation ThermoFlex. The result of more than 18 months of engineering, the machine design seems to consider every

Input J Agfa Packaging Solutions The AgfaScan XY-15 Plus is an oversized A3 format CCD flatbed scanner designed for high-productivity scanning. A hand-selected, premium 8,000-element CCD allows the system to achieve a maximum density of 4.1 and resolution of up to 15,000 pixels per inch. Visit www.agfa.com Artwork Systems ArtPro®, PackFlow™, LabelFlow™, FlexoCal™, and Hybrid Screening. System platforms include Macintosh and Windows NT. Support multiple output devices. Visit www.artwork-systems.com J Creo Creo offers everything you need to deliver high-impact packaging: from creative software tools, superior scanners, and scalable production workflow solutions, to proofing options and proven, reliable output devices. Now you can go

These products and companies were the most sought-after in 2002 by packagePRINTING readers. Top 10: Prepress Equipment 1. Creo—PDF-based packaging workflow Prinergy Powerpack, copydot scanning systems, film imagers, and CtP devices 2. Agfa—Workflow and color management systems including the AgfaScan XY-15 Plus, Sherpa 43 Inkjet system, and Lithostar plates 3. Kodak Polychrome Graphics—Offers Digital and conventional plates, film, and proofing and color technologies including the Kodak Approval XP unit 4. BASF—Offers Nyloflex® and Nyloprint® equipment combinations for processing photopolymer flexo and letterpress plates and sleeves 5. MacDermid—Broad range of sheet, liquid, digital, and water-wash photopolymer plates, platemaking equipment, sleeves,

WITH WINTER WEATHER firmly in place, warmth is something that is on everyone's mind. Here's something that is sure to add some heat to 2004. packagePrinting has put together a collection of the hot products of 2004. In categories including prepress, presses, press accessories, substrates, and inks/adhesives, converters can get a glimpse of the latest package-printing products. Prepress Creo Creo's HyperFlex™ screening is new technology aiding in the formation of smaller dots on a photopolymer flexo plate. It provides a thicker foundation of photopolymer material that allows a smaller minimum dot size to be formed and held throughout the print process. DuPont

A look at two ink systems for HiFi printing. By Terri McConnell, Prepress Editor "IN 1903, THE Wright brothers made their first engine-powered flight. Sixty-six years later, we put men on the moon. If you compare the evolution of flight to the evolution of color in print, we're still in the dark ages. Four printing plates and four cans of ink." So begins Matthew Bernasconi's call for a revolution in ink. Bernasconi, founder of the Australian company Opaltone Graphic Solutions, is a passionate evangelist for what is known as HiFi printing—the use of a six- or seven-color ink system to replace the four-color (cyan,

Flexo plate costs aren't likely to decrease dramatically until platemaking production is made fully digital. by Jessica Millward, Associate Editor PLATE EVOLUTION WILL always set the stage for further development of flexographic printing. But with the invention and advancement of "newer, better" systems and materials, inevitably comes the demand for "cheaper." Unfortunately, as plate manufacturers and prepress providers alike testify, a dramatic decrease in flexo plate prices won't be feasible until processing and production become substantially more simplified. Better conventional plate processing There are various methods for improving efficiency within the flexo platemaking process as it exists today. A primary cost-reduction strategy involves

The highly evolved and standardized process of offset platemaking still leaves some room for improvement. by Jessica Millward, Associate Editor THE SOPHISTICATION OF existing offset platemaking processes has not encouraged complacency among equipment suppliers. On the contrary, rising competition from flexo, as well as increasing adoption of CTP and DI practices, have fostered a more innovative path to better plates and processing. Science bests art In offset platemaking's struggle with art versus science, it seems the latter won several years ago. And that is a good thing, contends Richard Butler, product development manager for Fuji Photo Film U.S.A. (Graphic Systems Division). "Really, what

Can the industry adopt a common language for the approval process? by Terril McConnell, Prepress Editor In his national best seller, "Cultural Literacy, What Every American Needs to Know," author J. D. Hirsch argues our society may be suffering from a serious "failure to communicate." Not that we lack the means. The problem, proposes Hirsch, is that we don't necessarily know what to say to one another when we do connect. Hirsch explains public school systems have de-emphasized rote learning, the 3Rs, and literary classics in favor of more innovative and individualized studies on everything from basket weaving to brake shoes, graduating several generations