Palm Beach Goes CTP

After years of relying on local service bureaus and printers to provide film, Palm Beach County’s Graphics Division has moved into the computer-to-plate (CTP) arena. The Greenacres, Fla.-based in-plant recently added a Presstek Dimension 425 platesetter with an EFI Fiery RIP and the EFI OneFlow PDF workflow. The thermal platesetter is chemistry free; its processor uses water to rinse the metal plates.

Manager John D.L. Johnson says his shop loves the faster turnaround time that CTP has brought, as well as the control it gives his in-plant over jobs. The shop worked out a 48-month lease on the equipment.

“We were spending about $30,000 per year buying imagesetter film,” says Johnson. “We figured that the ROI will be three to four years for us.”

Employees were able to transition into the CTP system without much difficulty, he says, because of their familiarity with the EFI front end.

“A big part of our decision was to stay with EFI software since we already had three EFI Fierys on our digital color copier/printers,” Johnson says. “The interface is exactly the same for the platesetter. Also the OneFlow integrates with all of the Fierys, as well as the EFI PrintSmith management software we have used for many years.”

EFI OneFlow allows the in-plant to use the same PDF workflow for all jobs, whether they go to the digital printers or the CTP.

“Our IT department has provided excellent support throughout the planning and installation, providing a network server and tape backup unit for job backups,” he says. “They also installed an authentication server for our workgroup so that in case of an emergency situation, like a hurricane, we can operate independently from the rest of the county network should we loose our T1 connection.”