CHICAGO, IL -- A.B.Dick Company is earning high praise from short-run printers for its innovative Digital PlateMaster 2340, (DPM 2340), Computer-to-Plate system and ScanMaster digital scanning solution. A.B.Dick (booth #623) will highlight these impressive products at this year's Gutenberg Festival, May 17-19 at the Long Beach Convention Center. The DPM 2340 offers small and mid-size printers a step up from a film and metal plate workflow to a fully integrated direct-to-silver platemaker. Capable of producing 45 plates per hour with a maximum size of 13.4" x 20", the DPM2340 moves work through the printing process faster and more accurately while reducing the cost per job. The ScanMaster modular system offers a de-screening process that allows any DPM model, or the A.B.Dick Colour digital press, the ability to input and print pre-printed materials on demand. "We were bringing so much film work into the shop, we were spending over $2,000 a month with an outside service bureau to handle our negatives and plates," explained Jennifer Allen, manager of PIP Printing in Palo Alto, CA. "We are getting jobs out quicker and faster and meeting our deadlines with the DPM2340. The resolution blows me away." Wynn Barton, owner of a Minuteman Press in Duluth, GA, is also benefiting from CTP technology. He removed his silver plate darkroom and installed a direct-to-plate device, which he recently upgraded to a DPM2340. With the majority of his work being in an 8 1/2" x 11" format, he has found that 5 mil MEGAPro polyester plates perform well on his A.B.Dick offset presses, which include the 9810, 9810XCD, and 9985. "The DPM2340 is a real workhorse and has exceeded my expectations," remarked Barton. "I had a DPX Genesis for two years. It was a good machine but the DPM2340 is doing so much better for us. The screens on it are superior and you can image directly on the plate. I like its repeatability and stability." Also impressed with A.B.Dick's technology, the Signal Graphics franchise added the DPM2340 with ScanMaster to their standard equipment package. Stores throughout the franchise have enjoyed great benefits from this decision, especially their flagship store located on Colorado Blvd. in Denver. "The DPM2340 is known for its high quality digital imaging accuracy, so we knew it would help us immensely," said Chuck Moon, manager of the shop. "As a result of installing the DPM2340, we have cut usage of optical and metal plates by over 50 percent and removed our darkroom." Moon runs an all-A.B.Dick shop with 3,400 square feet of space. While his store is the franchise's largest, he thinks the smaller shops will also find great value in the DPM2340 and ScanMaster. "The DPM2340 has a very small footprint and has proven to be economical supply-wise." commented Moon. "I'm also very pleased with ScanMaster's scanner. The quality of it compared with our other two scanners is unbelievable. It virtually eliminated our need for paste-up." At Marc Wolfman's Insty Prints in Madison, WI, the benefits of ScanMaster continue to exceed his expectations. In his shop Wolfman paired the ScanMaster and DPM2340 with an A.B.Dick 9995 true, 2-color offset press, and now print many 4-color jobs. "ScanMaster and the DPM2340 have increased our production and quality levels," said Wolfman, a 20-year printing veteran. "We are still a small printer and we look at our work from a different point of view. A customer might bring us artwork containing screens with poor quality. The ScanMaster enables us to improve their piece, resulting in higher quality output."