The Direct Approach

But Lieber says Profire is more reliable. "We're designed for high reliability," he says, adding that Presstek has been selling lasers for DI presses for eight years.

Though most DI machines are basically traditional offset presses with laser imaging tacked on, some manufacturers have started from scratch. Karat Digital Press (a Scitex and KBA joint venture) has rethought the whole offset process with its 74 Karat press.