HUDSON, N.H., Sept. 19 Presstek, Inc., a leading provider of direct digital imaging technology, today announced that results from last week's Print 01 show met or exceeded the company's pre-show goals. Despite light attendance, excellent pre-show selling and the quality of Presstek's and its imaging partners' offerings were well received. The company also held productive talks with a number of potential strategic partners at the show. Dimension At its booth, Presstek demonstrated a new automation option for its Dimension CTP device, which allows users to run multiple plates in multiple sizes, and to refill while imaging. Marc Johnson, off-press equipment manager explained, "This provides users with an hour's worth of work at high resolution. The operator can just walk away. With multiple plate sizes loaded, SmartQue automatically selects the right size plate for the right job.'' Anthem Presstek's Anthem thermal plates, commercial now for a full year, were imaged and printed live at Presstek's booth. John O'Rourke, Presstek's consumables manager, noted that for the first time Anthem was shown on a non- Presstek imaging device, the Creo Trendsetter. This reflects Presstek's goal to develop open systems, which are expected to greatly expand the company's target customer base. "Not only is the Anthem plate working on platesetters other than Dimension, but the Dimension platesetters can image more than just Anthem plates. At Print 01, IBF's Million plate was demonstrated on the Dimension, and other chemically developed thermal plates are expected to be qualified soon,'' said O'Rourke. Direct Imaging (DI) As publishing industry analyst group CAP Ventures noted at the show, the DI market has reached critical mass. With DI presses on display in the booths of Heidelberg, Sakurai, Adast, KBA (Karat), Xerox and Ryobi, show attendees were able to see Presstek's DI enabling technology all across the show floor. In his presentation on trends to watch, Executive Outlook briefing chairman William C. Lamparter said that show visitors could see the direct- imaging (DI) press becoming a mainstream product. Indicating that the direct- to-press concept has been finding acceptance among commercial printers, he pointed out that pre-show announcements indicated that almost every commercial press manufacturer planned to have a DI press available within a reasonable time. In its show preview, Heidelberg announced its enhanced Quickmaster DI Pro press, utilizing Presstek's DI imaging technology. Heidelberg indicated that the QMDI Pro offers a 43% improvement in productivity over its predecessor. In addition, Heidelberg reported that, to date, over 1600 Quickmaster DI presses have been installed. At the show, a panel of leading industry consultants and trade magazine editors selected the DI press as a "Must See 'em'' production technology. In addition, the panel listed the Xerox DocuColor 233 DI and DocuColor 400 DI presses as "Worth-a-Look'' products. In its Fall issue, distributed at Print 01, DocuWorld magazine featured an interview with Elaine Wilde, Xerox's senior vice president and general manager of the Worldwide Graphic Arts Industry Business. Speaking to Xerox's new business of printing, Ms. Wilde indicated that she has started work on her goal to build a stronger presence with commercial printers through the offering of Xerox's new DocuColor 400DI and 233 DI presses. She sees this segment of the market as an area that will be highly profitable to printers with "longer short runs,'' faster turnaround time, lower costs and superior color. At Print 01 the Ryobi 3404 DI was the featured product on Ryobi's stand, and was well received by attentive crowds. Ryobi reported successful results and strong orders for the press. In fact, Efrem Lieber, Presstek's vice president of sales and marketing reported that all of Presstek's DI press partners indicated that orders at the show exceeded expectations.