Offset's Rough Road To Prominence

Direct Imaging

At the Print '91 trade show, Presstek and Heidelberg jointly unveiled the world's first direct imaging (DI) press, the GTO-DI. Using a spark discharge to burst a hole in the top of a silicone plate inside the press, this new waterless, in-line press represented the future of short-run printing. It could eliminate prepress procedures like film imagesetting, development and stripping and platemaking.