'Good, Basic Printing'

"We eventually want to get into more digital output and make more of our work on direct-imaging plates," says production director Jeff Swanson. "We've had success with poly plates, but we want to expand it. We want to accomplish all this within two years."

Digital Prepress Reduces Errors

Some in-plants have already reached that point. The 25-employee in-plant operation at Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Mobile Home magazine has seen a dramatic decrease in production errors thanks to its transition to digital prepress. Owner/manager Elizabeth Tripp claims the error rate has been cut by 90 percent.