Near closing a deal on CTP Thermal, but still, apart from the machine wise, has anyone try the workflow of each CTP vendor such as DS, AGFA, Heidelberg, or CREO?

Or, which Open system that you prefer to drive CTP

What I want to know is which one is do good or do bad on something or area, or they are similar function? Just depend on how we used to?

Thank you very much.


Regards,

Hero Kao

Hello,

Let's go over your situation first. What type of work, quality level. How larg of a plant, how many plates a day? Wat kind of press equipment, where are you geographically? Then I'll see if I can be of some guidance. I just upgraded my RIP workflow and will be upgrading my CTP next. I have recently tested most of the desired RIP front end systems and know them well from all my consulting and PDF-X-Robot users I support etc. We are replacing our Creo/Scitex/Kodak Brisque 5 with an Esko SCOPE system, our Kodak/Creo Trendsetter with a Fuji Javelin (DS Screen Platerite 8600).
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JoePostscript -- support administrator

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Wind Turbine Buyer's Guide


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We are commercial printers that produce packaging and publishing, and we aimed high quality printing product as our serve to customer.

Our company run on 2 - 4 color machines, 1 - 5 color machine, 3 - 2 color machines and 2 single color machines. We run on all on offset printing machine. We havent had any experiece with workflow, but we near closing on our first CTP.

Machine wise, I choose thermal system to support our pre press, after we have done some testing, our conclusion is nearly has no difference in quality between all the thermal system.

So the reason why I asking this instead of the support, the price and the maybe the maintance or replacement head, in term of the workflow, maybe one of the workflow is easier to use, or more compatible or more user friendly than others.

Thanks,


Hero Kao
www.senibudaya.co.id

OK, yes all the CTP will generally test out against each other comprably. However, of all the options, there's a couple or three designs that are proven far more successful in the field than others. There are some differences in mechanical designs that are going to make a huge difference in how long those units will run well, how much maintenance you will have, etc.

External Drum vs. internal drum, this is a huge difference in CTP manufacturers equipment. External is great and is the proven performer. Yet many manufacturers still cling to the inferior internal drum designs. So, hopefully you are going for a good decision there. The performers are Fuji Javelin or DS Screen PlateRite 8600 (the Fuji is a Screen device OEM by Fuji), Creo/Scitex/Kodak Trendsetter Quantum or Lotem 800 II Quantum , and Heidelberg Topsetter P 102 / PF 102 . Those are in order of preference. But there is no internal drum device that is comprable in performance and reliability. Test for a purchase, yes, but perform over years, no.

What you need to do is look at number of units installed from each. Cost of service maintenance contracts. I have a Trendsetter now, 3 years old, never needs service. But, it's a well designed machine. I am now getting a Fuji javelin which is same as a DS screen 8600, it has better/best automation and is much faster. The Trendsetter is too manual and slow for us now, we added two new presses.

But we were talking about Front End stuff, RIPs and such. I have just upgraded my Creo/Scitex/Kodak Brisque 5 to an Esko Graphics SCOPE system . I have tested thoroughly on several systems before settling on the Esko Graphics SCOPE. SCOPE was by far the most advanced workflow out there. It was also a very easy to use system and in the very hardcore RIP/TRAP testing that I was doing on these systems, SCOPE excelled over all others. Now that I have gone through install and testing, I am really happy with the purchase. Esko has been really good with the training and support and the system represents a real leap forward in capability for my prepress department.

Here's Post About My RIP upgrade

As I state in this post, linked above, the biggest differences are the Trap Engines and Imposition support. I had inteded to break out a couple of new posts about these differences in depth, what I had figured out and tested etc. I just have so much going on with the new preflight application "FreeFlight™" and also my newest PDF-X-Robot™ that integrates FreeFlight™, I haven't had much time to do technical writing. Hopefully I can finish my thoughts on all that soon.

In your first post you mentioned DS Screen, that's top device, no question. However, their RIP has some negative aspects. It forces it's own proprietary imposition method, and it's not very compatible to work with Preps . It's trap engine has problems with sliced PDF, most PDF/X-1a is sliced. They say you need to prepare PDF in certain ways, I say a good RIP should Trap any quality PDF correctly.
So, although I recommend DS Screen for output, for the RIP sytem, go with someone else.
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JoePostscript -- support administrator

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Greetings joeps and herokao,

We have the Xitron Xenith Extreme, and have been very happy with it. We use it in combination with Preps and seems to work well. We are a commercial (sheetfed) printer in the upper Midwest US and we take files from all over the country and occasionally from offshore too. Every so often, someone will send us a PDF that fails in our system, but that doesn't happen much.

The In RIP trapping works well, the sever they supplied is pretty fast and the trainers for the system are Xitron employees who come out to your facility and train you. You get your first year's service agreement with phone support and unlimited lifetime email support. Also as part of the service agreement, they can 'dial-in' to your RIP/workflow and diagnose your machine if there's a problem they can't resolve over the phone.

We've had ours just over two years, and still are liking it.
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George/Spectrum Graphics

FREE PreFlight, 500+ users since 10 days released

Hello, just letting you know that FreeFlight is relesed and you can download it on the FreeFlight Download forum. Must be ( member + 1 post ) to get the download. We are at over 500 users since 10 days released and the software is doing well. I have been using it for a few months before release.
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JoePostscript -- support administrator

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Wind Turbine Buyer's Guide


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