Printing Industry

Table of Contents  Keys to Using Guide  U.S. Domestic Printing Industry  Emerging Technologies   P2 Practices in Printing  Lithography  Screen Printing  Flexography  Gravure

Emerging Technologies

Computers and other quickly changing technologies are having a huge impact on the printing industry both at the prepress and actual printing stages. The computer-to-plate (CTP) advances currently are being adopted primarily by lithographic printers.

Prepress operations will continue to change with the development of computer-based front-end platforms that allow creation of entire documents as digital data. Before the advent of desktop publishing, customers would provide printers with a "camera-ready" document that consisted of the actual text and line-art pasted to a special kind of paper ("paste-ups"). With the availability of computer desktop publishing programs such as PageMaker and Quark Express, this mechanical layout is now done electronically and all the customer hands a printer is a computer diskette. Photographs, graphic art, and line art can either be scanned into the document by the customer or printer.

With the ability to electronically image plates, some potenially large waste generating steps will be eliminated since photoprocessing will be greatly reduced if not eliminated completely. Press operations continue to change with additional automated features being added to presses. Waterless lithography also continues to be an option for printers adding new press operations. Material substitution for VOC containing fountain solutions, press cleaners, and inks provides the printer with available options to increase the facility environmental "friendliness." Screen printing facilities are adopting and using electrostatic and ink jet technologies. The SGIA is undertaking a study to determine the environmental impacts from the use of these two technologies. It is uncertain, without these studies, to see if these technologies reduce the environmental burden of the process.

Postpress trends include further automation of all finishing operations as well as the addition of in-line finishing in lithographic facilities. Water-based adhesives have been developed to substitute for some of the currently used solvent-based products.

Benefits of CTP
  • improved print quality, as a result of using first-generation digital data to "expose" the plate
  • a reduction in prepress costs, by eliminating film from the production process
  • faster publisher closing schedules, allowing advertisers and the editorial staff more time to prepare reproduction materials
  • environmental concerns, to some extent, because of the elimination of film and chemicals from the process (Sasso, 1994)
  • competitive advantages with opportunities to attract new customers
  • business survival (Cross, 1996a)

Drawbacks of CTP

  • cost of purchasing new and expensive equipment
  • gaining cooperation from the advertising community and vendors to supply materials in digital form to a common set of guidelines and specifications
  • changing the mindset of workers

Annotated Bibliography

Cross, Lisa. 1996a. "Computer-to-Plate: Long Wait, Hot Issue," Graphic Arts Monthly, February 1996, pp 36-42.

A good article describing the current state of CTP technologies and processes. Early adopters of this technology provide their experiences with CTP. A table provides a complete listing of manufacturers of CTP products and descriptions of their systems.

Cross, Lisa. 1996b. "Early Adopters Report Experiences with CTP," Graphic Arts Monthly, May 1996, pp. 65-75.

An informative article with example financial project models used by Dupont Printing and Publishing to calculate return on investment performance for CTP. Also anectodal account by printers currently using CTP.

Cross, Lisa. 1996c. "Dry-Processible Films Recover from Setback," Graphic Arts Monthly, June 1996, pp. 46-48.

This article highlights the current product statistics in the dry-processible film marketplace. It gives first hand accounts of companies who have been using this process and the results they have achieved.

Gibbs, Ron. 1995. "Printing Benefits from New Technologies," Laser Focus World, Nov. 1995, pp 77-82.

A fairly technical article about laser technologies and systems used in the printing industry.

Jendrucko, R.J., Coleman, T.N., and T.M. Thomas. 1994. Waste Reduction Manual for Lithographic and Screen Printers, University of Tennessee.

A good introduction to lithography and screen printing with explanations of the primary methods of pollution prevention for these two types of printing facilities.

Sasso, Richard. 1994. "Computer to Plate: Why Wait?" Publishing and Production Executive, December 1994.

This article chronicles the conversion of the magazine Scientific American to computer-to-plate technology. All the problems/challenges are presented as well as anticipated benefits to using this new technology.

Shuster, Robert. "The Future Meets the Press," Adobe Magazine, January/February 1996, 42-47.

An informative overview article on what digital presses are and how they're changing the way things are printed. Provides examples of three different types of digital presses, how they differ from one another, and how they are currently used in the printing industry.

Toth, Debora. "CTP Vendors Ask: Which Plate Choice?" Graphic Arts Monthly, February 1996, pp. 61-66.

This article describes the current state of CTP plate materials available to printers and providing information on the current trends in this technology.

Wilken, Earl. "Computer-to-Plate: Framing the Issues," Graphic Arts Monthly, February 1994.

A discussion of the issues that commercial printers who are considering exploring or adding computer-to-plate capabilities to their operations must consider.