HANOVER PARK, Ill. --April 18, 2003-- Colorwise Inc. is celebrating its 10th anniversary by going CTP with the installation of Fujifilm’s Saber Vx-6000 violet laser platesetter and Quattro flatbed scanner.
Founded in 1993 and based in Roswell, Ga., Colorwise Inc. is a family-owned commercial sheetfed printer that specializes in short-to-medium runs, says John Long, the company’s vice president.
“Prior to the CTP device, we output film and transfer punched it,” explains Long. “We would then make the color proofs and make the plates conventionally. With that, we had the industry standard amount of error with all the multiple steps.”
The company became 100 percent CTP with the installation of the violet Saber and Quattro scanner in October 2002. Long says the addition of the new equipment has streamlined the press and reduced the time down to less than half. “We’ve cut our prepress labor costs by 50 percent.”
The previous process produced four plates per hour, while the Saber produces 37 plates per hour, including color proofs, Long asserts. “In the time it takes to output film, we can output plates and have color proofs ready.”
He adds that the quality of work since the installation has increased considerably. “It’s hard to know exactly how much improved quality will help the bottom line. However, we do know that our customer satisfaction has increased dramatically. Our pressmen have decreased setup times by 40 to 50 percent because of the perfect registration and high-quality plates.” Long continues, “We have been a Fuji customer for many years and one of the reasons that we went with the Fuji device is because of the reliability of the Fuji consumables.”
In conclusion, Long exclaims the Colorwise staff’s transition time for the Saber was about six days, with no jobs being processed the traditional way since then. “We’ve sold all of our conventional prepress equipment. We don’t even have a backup! We are that confident with the equipment.”