I recently spoke on the subject of computer to plate at the Newspaper Association of America NEXPO SuperConference in Las Vegas. This was an interesting event as it showed some new developments in CtP that will apply not just to newspapers, but for commercial printers.

At NEXPO the key announcements and developments were in all areas of newspaper CtP. The first of these were in the visible light area in violet diode imaging. One of the limitations of violet diode imaging has been the lack of available plates. The majority of plates up to now have been silver plates coming mainly from Agfa, but also from Mitsubishi Paper Mills. Silver plates have been very successful in creating and establishing the market for violet diode visible light systems. Concerns over the environmental aspects of silver have limited the sale of such systems into many areas, one of which has been newspapers.

Six Plates for the Violet Market by the End of 2003?

The key announcement in plates at NEXPO was the new Agfa N91v violet sensitive photopolymer plate, which will be available around October this year. This isn't the first violet photopolymer plate, but it adds credibility to the market. We now have such plates from Fuji and Lastra, although the Lastra plate still is difficult to obtain, as well as Agfa.

Two years ago I stated that KPG would introduce a violet sensitive plate. KPG did their best at the time to say that I was wrong in my comments, but I stuck to my story. Well the plate has not been announced, but I assure you that it will soon become available. This like the three plates mentioned above, will be a violet sensitive photopolymer plate using the same plate technology with a different sensitivity layer to one of KPG's thermal plates. Editor’s Note: KPG says they continue to test all types of technologies and that the right technology now is thermal as it continues to offer the flexibility and performance KPG customers require.

I also believe that one more supplier may announce a violet sensitive photopolymer plate this year. This means in the violet market there will be at least six plates available by the end of 2003.

Why are we seeing this rapid increase in plate availability for a technology that some suppliers of plates and CtP were telling us only two years ago was irrelevant compared with thermal CtP? It is because it works well and in many cases is more competitive than equivalent thermal systems. No plate supplier, even ones that stated they were only in the thermal CtP market, will ignore a growing market.