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• Desktop paper and polyester platemaking devices are increasing in sophistication.

• RIPing software is also evolving to accommodate the needs of in-plant printers.

With the low cost of the investment, Fenske has already realized labor savings, reducing his staff by one because his setup times have gone down by as much as 75 percent. He estimates that the total time required to image a press-ready plate has decreased from four hours to about 30 minutes, partly due to the elimination of the need to re-image film to add color bars and other marks, since the imagesetter could only handle 13˝ film. In addition, he is also able to increase the line screens he prints from 133 to 150.