ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill. - The growing volume of color images that are used to tell news stories and expanding insertions of photo-heavy advertising supplements is driving the demand for ever-higher levels of quality in newspaper production.

As a result, newspaper companies and commercial web operations that specialize in newsprint products are increasingly making the move to thermal CTP.

Throughout the United States and Canada, numerous newspaper printers have chosen to implement Screen CTP. Most of these organizations cite "quality," "speed" and "efficiency" as key reasons for selecting the PlateRite News 2000 thermal platesetter.

Screen added the new high-speed PlateRite News 2000S+ and entry-level PlateRite News 2000LE units to the lineup specifically aimed at newspaper printers looking for greater choice and flexibility. The PlateRite News 2000 series is now available in a total of four models.

The PlateRite News 2000S+ delivers 106 broadsheet plates or 49 double-wide plates per hour, making it Screen's fastest thermal platesetter. The PlateRite News 2000S+ features a 64-channel laser diode exposure head, like its predecessor, the PlateRite News 2000S (84 broadsheet plates or 41 double-wide plates per hour).

Four standard image settings - 1,000 dpi, 1,016 dpi, 1,200 dpi and 1,270 dpi - provide a choice of resolutions. Support for Screen's Spekta hybrid screening enables the production of extraordinary quality with ordinary screen rulings.

The PlateRite News 2000S+ is engineered for single or dual plate loading. Thus, two broadsheet plates can be loaded simultaneously. The PlateRite News 2000S and PlateRite News 2000E (58 broadsheet plates or 26 double-wide plates per hour) enable single or dual plate loading as well. These three models produce plates from 11.5 x 18.1 inches to 38.5 x 26.9 inches.

Smaller newspaper printers find the entry-level PlateRite News 2000LE to be the ideal unit for the size of their operations. The PlateRite News 2000LE produces 26 plates per hour when using 35 x 23.2-inch plates. It has a minimum plate size of 18.2 inches x 18.2 inches and offers 1,200 dpi resolution. It can be upgraded to higher plate-imaging speed right at the user's facility.

Users of the entire PlateRite News 2000 range can choose from four plate-loading options: feed tray, semiautomatic loader (no interleaf removal), single-cassette autoloader (interleaf removal) and multiple-cassette autoloader (maximum of three cassettes and interleaf removal). The platesetters' plate-handling capabilities can grow as production needs increase by upgrading from the feed tray to an optional autoloader.

The PlateRite News 2000 series is supported by the Trueflow Rite News automated workflow system. Trueflow Rite News is designed for newspaper production and provides the necessary functionality for CTP output of plates in a newspaper environment.