Vandalia, OH (USA), January 17, 2006 – Esko, the market leader in packaging pre-production solutions and world leader in digital imaging of flexo plates, announces that All Craft Digital Inc. (All Craft), has purchased and installed, with the help of the Pitman Company, a complete Esko flexo prepress system. The investment by All Craft, a small Long Island based trade shop serving tag, label, and other narrow web printers, includes a Scope workflow and an Esko Cyrel Digital Imager (CDI) Spark 2530, processing digital Cyrel FAST and Solvent plates. All Craft is using their new capabilities to be more competitive, providing digital flexo plate technology – hard to find on Long Island. They also wanted to automate and speed up their process. With their small crew, they needed less manual processes to generate more work. They decided on a user-friendly CDI Spark 2530 because it was faster and repeatability was better. The CDI Spark 2530, delivered with a built-in plate loading/unloading table, images digital photopolymer plates in sizes up to 25” x 30”. With its EasyClamp, users can easily apply and securely hold down plates up to 6.35 mm thickness on the drum. Esko’s fully network and web enabled Scope workflow manages multi-site, distributed design and production workflows. Key Scope components for All Craft’s packaging workflow include DeskPack, which turns Adobe Illustrator CS into a full-fledged design and prepress production tool, and FlexRIP, driving a multitude of Esko and third party proofing and imaging devices. All Craft felt very comfortable with the CDI Spark 2530 after Esko’s three-day training program. Within a day, the company was able to train their analog platemakers to make digital plates. If they have any problems, Esko responds quickly. “Their reaction time is excellent,” notes Jason Buser, president of All Craft. All Craft has also been pleased with its easy to use Scope software. “Our workflow, like many for tags and labels, operates around Adobe Illustrator,” comments Buser. “Esko Scope works well with Illustrator, so it fit easily into our workflow. We use DeskPack plug-ins to trap files right from Illustrator. We don’t have to create a separate, intermediate file.” Using Scope’s FlexRip to drive both the CDI Spark and Chromapro digital printer assures that proofs of every job will look the same on press. “We used to operate six machines for the same process we’re currently accomplishing with one machine, and with no chemistry. Recycling and storing chemicals are gone. Our square footage has been cut in half,” notes Buser. “It has improved our quality, because it’s much more consistent from day to day. With an analog process, variables like exposure time can differ. Now, everything is the same. Four years from now, if we remake a plate, it will be identical to the one I make today.” The digital flexo system produces a plate much faster than it used to take conventionally, reducing a three-hour process to make a plate to 45 minutes from file to finished plate. All Craft doesn’t have film to cut and lay on a plate, nor does it have to worry about dust on the table. They have reduced their platemaking staff from three to two people – one works the digital front-end workflow, while the other operates the CDI Spark 2530. If a customer damages a plate on press, All Craft can dispatch a new plate in an hour. “I have a customer who sends us up to fifteen 5-color jobs per day. It used to take us two days to turn around the work, remarks Buser. “Now, I deliver the entire order the next morning.” “We couldn’t have done this without Pitman. I have little time to investigate equipment. They sent me all the information I needed to evaluate my options. That, and the fact that they actually answer their phones, has been very impressive,” summarizes Buser. “The CDI Spark 2530 has been great and the Esko people have been very helpful. It’s extraordinary that even as a small shop, they went the extra mile for me.”