Big Ten Printing and Copyright Conference

"Our pressmen love it," he said. "When you go direct to plate...the registration is dead on."

Plates cost more, he conceded, but film cost is eliminated and proofs are less expensive.

At Michigan State University, the in-plant started with polyester plate CTP in 2000 by purchasing a Heidelberg Quicksetter, and then added a Heidelberg Topsetter 74 for metal plates earlier this year. The secret, said Matt Stehouwer, is to establish a well-defined, standardized process workflow. The in-plant drastically reduced the number of sheet sizes it worked with to streamline production.