Now that we are relatively settled in a digital prepress world, more and more products are becoming more cost-effective to use and easier to use. With the streamlining of Digital Prepress operations, it follows that new products will be developed that will make processes more profitable. I have also included some smaller items and software in here - as software has basically become a consumable with new versions available all the time! And there are a myriad of products on the market, and I can't write about all of them, so here are a few from my research I thought were interesting & noteworthy.

Laser Printer & Copier Films & Plates
Policrom, Inc. offers a wide variety of thermally-stabilized laser (polyester) films including transparent, matte, and white opaque. The films are 'pre-shrunk' to withstand the heat generated by laser printers. they won't shrivel, curl or shrink according to Policrom and can be used with dye sublimation printers. Each has a special coating that improves toner adhesion when used with either black or color laser printers or photocopiers. Here are some of the products:

LM04 - An economical thermally-stabilized 4 mil matte polyester film suited for preparation of positive or negative line work and halftones. Suitable for stripping 'positive' artwork, can be mounted with photographic film without affecting exposure time. Applications include positive offset plates, positives for 'burning' screens for screen printing, creation of film negatives as an intermediate step, plus general desktop creation of documentation.

KPLT­ The original Kimoto Tech laser imaged polyester printing plate. Offset printing plates directly from your laser printer (15,000 to 20,000 impressions). Requires Kimoto Etch/Fountain Solution. Benefits include elimination of waste disposal problems, no darkroom necessary, no equipment expense & is up to 60% less expensive than metal plates.

POLICEL­ Their most economical, easy to use, direct from the laser printer plate for short runs. Policel is a polyester-coated laser imageable offset printing plate (1,000 to 1,200 impressions). Requires PSTART etch/fountain solution.

Presstek Anthem Wet Offset Thermal Plates

Based on patented Presstek coating technology, Anthem combines ablative imaging technology , chemical-free cleaning and industry standard on-press performance. These non-photographic Anthem plates are easy to produce and completely process-free. Only a simple water wash-out to prepare for press is required after imaging. The anodized aluminum-based Anthem plate offers exceptional print performance and imaging with high contrast and resolution of 2%-98% @ 200 lpi. It is very robust and versatile, has excellent ink/water latitude, runs with a wide range of fountain chemistry, plus deletion and addition compounds. Run length is up to 100,000 impressions.

Anthem made its technology debut at DRUPA last year and began shipping in the last quarter of 2000. For more information, see www.presstek.com

Enfocus Certify PDF Plug-In
Enfocus Software, has a new Certify PDF plug-in to Adobe Acrobat, based on Enfocus' recently-developed Certified PDF Workflow technology. The Certified PDF Workflow, including the Certify PDF plug-in, addresses common PDF workflow problems with advanced techniques that; streamline the PDF workflow; track responsibility; maintain document consistency between the final production file and the original application file. It allow files to be checked for production compliance early in the process, and all along the way. It maintains a record of changes and responsibilities in a very transparent way. Enfocus will make its code available to third parties for industry-wide use. See www.enfocus.com for more information. Look for more about this in our July Digital Printing section on PDF.

Mitsubishi Silver DigiPlate Polyester & Paper Plates
Silver DigiPlate is available in sizes and sensitivities for any laser imagesetter and most platesetters on the market today and produces first generation printing plates directly from many CTP platesetters or any laser imagesetter. Available in a paper base for run lengths up to 10,000 and in a polyester base for up to 25,000 impressions. Offers excellent water receptivity and response, superior resolution, sharper images, and can be used on all sheetfed and web presses. Maximum 175-line screen with 5-95% dot. Is compatible with PS plates and fountain solutions, including low-alcohol or alcohol-free solutions. Developing agents are incorporated into plate emulsion for more consistent plate processing.

X-Rite Products
341 Portable Spectrodensitometer - Called the world's most accurate portable film densitometer. It takes many of the features of the tabletop 361T Transmission Densitometer and packs them into a portable, rechargeable precision instrument. This portable unit reads density and dot area with an expanded measuring range for use on conventional or high-density linear films.

DTP41 Auto Scan Spectrophotometer - The world's only auto scan spectrophotometer enabling automated measurement of transparent and semitransparent material, as well as prints. Since its debut, the DTP41 has become one of X-Rite's best selling color measurement instruments. The DTP41 provides density values (all known Status responses); colorimetric data and spectral output at 10nm intervals.

Digital Swatchbook - The Digital Swatchbook is accurate, and harnesses the power of Macintosh or Windows computers to utilize measured spectrophotometer readings in conjunction with a collection of useful color software utilities called ColorShop 2.6. Is perhaps the most widely supported color measurement product among X-Rite's calibration software and color management software partners.

Auto Tracking Densitometer News (ATD News) designed specifically for newspaper presses, the ATD News substantially speeds the process of evaluating and adjusting gray balance in newspaper production. The system measures and reports density levels from very small continuous-color bars. The speed, accuracy, and process control advantages to newspaper press operators are substantial and can dramatically improve color consistency throughout the press run.

I can't finish up this article without commenting on the new Adobe® Acrobat® 5. The capabilities of PDF in the prepress world is growing and the importance of PDF files in the future of digital prepress should not be underestimated. As you know and as was mentioned above, new PDF plug-ins are being developed for many prepress programs. And as the PDF format becomes more and more flexible, and the accuracy of color in PDF becomes more reliable, it is inevitable that PDF will play an even more important part in prepress workflow. And it is becoming easier with Acrobat 5. New features include being able to add comments - like stickie notes and text highlights to PDF files within a Web browser. Plus now you can add electronic comments simultaneously to an online PDF file (if you have WebDAV, ODBC/SQL, or network setup), save the document in a Rich text format (RTF) for easy cross platform accessibility and so you can use included text in different documents. You can also create interactive forms that look like their page versions, and link the forms to a Web Server to be digitally filled out and signed. It will be interesting to see what more is to come in the future.

In closing, it is virtually impossible to write on all digital prepress consumables in one article or even to cover all the areas involved. Hopefully this will help you keep more up-to-date. If you have any new products you'd like me to write about, feel free to e-mail or snail mail me information. More next month.

Geri Konstantin has over 31 years experience in Advertising and is head of Stunz | Konstantin, Advertising, Website Development, Search Engines, PO Box 810184, Boca Raton, FL 33481-0184. She can be contacted through StunzKonstantin.com, by e-mail: Geri@StunzKonstantin.com or in Boca Raton, FL at 561-347-8272.