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PISCES Auction: Inkjet CTP Solution Goes On the Block, Presstek Among Bidders

PISCES was founded in 1998 by Bruce Harrison,

Monday, November 17, 2003

PISCES was founded in 1998 by Bruce Harrison, formerly president of IRIS Graphics, Polaroid Graphics, and Optronics, along with a team of executives that had previously worked with him. Their goal was to bring affordable, ink jet computer to plate solutions to the small and medium size commercial printers and newspapers. These two market sectors offered large market potential but their requirements – especially price – hadn’t been addressed by traditional technologies.

As it could use much less expensive hardware, inkjet appeared attractive for CTP. Over the years, entrepreneurs, inventors, and others had explored the possibility including Polychrome (now KPG).

What happened

PISCES explored various alternatives, including using blank, uncoated aluminum plates. After a number of technical false starts and dead-ends, their current product uses conventional UV plates, imaged on a modified off-the-shelf Epson printer, (currently the Epson Stylus Color 3000/7600) PISCES software, and a proprietary chemically-based ink technology to image the plates. In theory, the system should be able to image all conventional UV plates (except photopolymer); in practice it only works with a few.


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