COTATI, CALIFORNIA -- July 12, 2006 -- The increasing demands on commercial printers has forced many service providers to be more versatile to meet the needs of a wider customer base. For one commercial printer in northern California, this has meant providing both sheetfed and web offset printing services. Since Barlow Printing’s clients include magazine, catalog and newspaper publishers, as well as typical corporate accounts, it’s critical that they be able to offer plate sizes ranging from 1-up to 8-up. “After a first-call survey of their operation, we presented Barlow Printing with a detail analysis of the tools recommended for their workflow,” said Tony Spivack, Digital Imaging Specialist, The Pitman Company. Their work with newspaper and commercial clients presented unique demands for a CTP solution. In September 2005, we installed the ECRM Mako 8 system.” Barlow Printing User Quotes “Making the jump to CTP became more and more necessary, but we were cautious in our selection process,” noted Pat Barlow, President, Barlow Printing. “In researching both violet and thermal platesetters, we came to appreciate what CTP could do for us. In the end, thermal systems were just too expensive to generate the ROI we needed. We ended up choosing the ECRM Mako 8 platesetter for many reasons. We had used their imagesetters since 1998 and had always appreciated their customer-first approach. Another critical factor in choosing the ECRM Mako platesetter was its versatility. Using one platesetter, we can produce plates for our 1-up Didde Apollo press, 4-up plates for our Heidelberg Speedmaster 72, and 8-up plates for our Heidelberg SOR 104 and 36-inch web presses. We get all the savings of violet CTP technology, as well as the versatility of a flat-bed system. That’s value we can count on.” Producing 25-30 plates per day (Agfa Photopolymer Violet N-91 plates) at varying sizes and line screens (up to 200 LPI), demands consistent levels of quality. “The Mako 8 has allowed us to improve the consistency of our work,” noted prepress manager Lee Sapp. “A 50% dot is a 50% dot, every time and registration is right on. We’ve also accelerated overall throughput by eliminating stripping and analog proofing.”