The Verdigris blog by Laurel Brunner
In 1888 Kodak founder George Eastman said “you press the button, we do the rest.” It may or may not be a philosophy Kodak still follows, but over the last thirty years Kodak engineers have been doing their best to make platesetting easier and more convenient. The box Brownie revolutionised photography and thermal platesetting has revolutionised the printing business. Kodak is not alone in either revolution, as history shows. Thirty years ago when Kodak introduced thermal plate imaging at drupa, the show was dubbed the Computer to Plate (CtP) drupa. CtP removes a whole stage in prepress so it has been a major contributor to our industry’s sustainability.
Before CtP, prepress operators made their plates from imaged film which had to be created and developed prior to exposure onto a printing plate. Doing away with a whole production process was key to improving the environmental impact of print. The previous drupa in 1991 had a handful of iffy CtP systems on show, but in 1995 many long forgotten developers including Barco, AM, ECRM, Autologic, Creo and Purup toted their CtP wares. These names are mostly absorbed elsewhere or otherwise collapsed and dead. But Kodak endures and so does its thermal technology.
As to what happened at drupa 1995 I’m a little hazy on the details and too lazy to go up into the attic to read the printed copies of our show reviews. And there is no digital archive option. Endless data migrations, operating system and software upgrades have rendered the digital originals defunct. But I do know that the show marked a revolution in prepress. Finally enough vendors had enough products and technologies, mostly for B2, to make CtP credible for commercial printers.
Printers had a solid array of digital platesetting systems they could compare and consider for investment. That the technologies were complicated and confusing was another matter. Printers needed to understand the difference between thermal imaging technologies and were they really better than visible light imaging. They had to consider awkward matters such as proofing in a direct digital workflow: if thermal platesetters could image proofing material, printers saved the cost of additional equipment. And were there enough plates on the market? Were early adopters likely to pay a premium for thermal plates compared to conventional UV-exposed plates? Of course they were, but that’s another story.
At drupa 1995 Kodak introduced thermal plate imaging and Creo (swallowed by Kodak in 2005) a thermal platesetter. There were some years of visible light versus thermal imaging squabbling, but both have now found a place in the market. The main advantages of thermal imaging are stability, consistency, handling and image quality. The latter is down to the Squarespot imaging head invented by Creo prior to its acquisition by Kodak. Kodak has continued to invest in Squarespot such that it can now image up to 10,000 dpi, so it’s suitable for applications requiring accurate and sharp dots and smooth graduations.
The last thirty years has been an amazing journey for the industry and for Kodak, the ultimate survivor. Without CtP technology the industry’s sustainability journey could in no way have come so far so fast.
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This article was produced by the Verdigris Project, an industry initiative intended to raise awareness of print’s positive environmental impact. This weekly commentary helps printing companies keep up to date with environmental standards, and how environmentally friendly business management can help improve their bottom lines. Verdigris is supported by the following companies: Agfa Graphics, EFI, Fespa, Fujifilm, HP, Kodak, Miraclon, RicohSplash PR, Unity Publishing and Xeikon.
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