Presstek

Digital proofers can produce packaging's custom colors in minutes, but can converters afford the technology they need? By Susan Friedman Digital proofing's transformation of proof production cycle time is bound to help package printers over any separation anxiety for film. To hear Neil Potter, business manager for the packaging market at Imation tell it, digital proofing's productivity benefits can't get much clearer. Printers can trade analog proofing's half-day to two-day cycle times, or on-press proofing's two-day to one-week cycle times, in favor of a digital proof produced in minutes, he says. Presstek Product Manager Sandy Fuhs adds that digital proofing can remove the majority

Offset plate suppliers stretch to manage conventional- and digital-world needs. By Susan Friedman Many offset plate suppliers are stretching to be in two places at once—edging conventional technologies up a notch while running like mad to win the digital marathon. Convention rally On the conventional side, Dwight Collier, national sales manager for pressroom products at Pitman Co., a distributor of printing consumables, equipment and services, sees "a conscious effort to continue to improve plate latitude in a variety of environments." Three areas of emphasis, he notes, are developing coating weights that are more resistant to abrasion, improving grain structures to achieve a more efficient