TEWKSBURY, MA -- August 12, 2002 - In July, ECRM announced that New York based Internet printing company 4over4.com took delivery of the world's first ECRM TigerCat 2 CTP system in a bid to speed up its pre-press operation to keep pace with demand. The postcard printing company is one of the pioneers of Internet printing. Formed in 1994, it switched its focus in 2000 to taking most of its orders from businesses via its Internet site, www.4over4.com. Like its name suggests, 4over4 specializes in providing four-color printing on both sides of the postcard, a service few other companies provide. It now has such a great demand for its service that it prints about 2 million postcards a week. Most orders are from small businesses wanting promotional postcards, usually in small quantities. Depending on the quantity ordered, 4over4.com provides shipment within 48 hours of the design being approved by the customer. As a result it needed to improve its prepress throughput to keep pace with demand. 4over4.com owners Taso Panagiotopoulos and Raz Cristescu considered all the options before choosing to invest in the TigerCat 2, but in the end the machine won out over the competition because of its ease of use and price. The company originally used an ECRM Mako imagesetter, and was delighted to invest in the ECRM TigerCat 2 computer-to-plate system, using the latest violet laser imaging technology. Mr Cristescu says: "The TigerCat 2 came first on price. In fact, it was a lot lower than everything else - I would say that it was 30% cheaper than most other systems." The second major advantage is the level of automation. The TigerCat 2 has a cassette that can hold 25 plates at a time, offering uninterrupted production for up to six complete print jobs without refilling. For a company that has a relatively small staff, it was vital to have a system that was almost totally hands free. The results of using the TigerCat 2 have been dramatic. It has cut the production time by half an hour per four-color job. Mr Cristescu says: "If we are running a typical production schedule of four to eight jobs per day, then the TigerCat 2 is saving us the equivalent of half a shift per day in terms of manpower. "The quality of the end product is much better too compared to the printed dots produced from film," says Mr Cristescu. The compact, easy-to-use, two-page TigerCat 2 is designed for flexibility, with variable plate formats and a choice of lasers - violet, red, or green. According to John De Vito, ECRM's director of marketing: "These new products provide easy entry into CTP production for smaller commercial printers, maintaining ECRM's tradition of keeping CTP at affordable levels." The TigerCat 2 is capable of resolutions up to 3556 dpi and output up to 26 15.7" x 20.1" (400 x 510mm) plates per hour at 2540 dpi. Plates feed in daylight environments using a standalone 25-plate cassette, with plate sizes ranging from 11" x 11" (279 x 279mm) to 24.0" x 24.0" (610 x 610mm). Once imaged, they are passed automatically to an online processor, providing fully unmanned operation.