The hottest Laser Phototypesetting competition CTP

In recent years, due to the emergence of the emerging computer direct plate making (CTP) technology and digital printing technology, the scope of use of phototypesetters has been greatly impacted. With the development of CTP technology and digital printing machine, will the application scope of laser Imagesetter be greatly reduced or even disappear

although some authorities predicted that film would disappear soon more than a decade ago, at least today, laser imagesetters still occupy a large original market. For this reason, we have conducted extensive investigation and research with relevant people in the industry and manufacturers, and finally believe that the laser Imagesetter still has broad prospects for development and a huge range of market applications

the advantages of laser Phototypesetter are as follows:

1. Machine price: at present, the price of CTP system includes not only the production cost of the equipment itself, but also the cost of new product marketing and promotion, as well as the cost of early-stage technology development, development and operation. Since large-scale mass production has not yet been formed, the overall production cost of CTP system is relatively high. Reflected in the sales price, the price of CTP is still high compared with that of the same grade of phototypesetting steering switch a and B contacts and A1 and B1 contacts that cannot be switched off

2. machine performance: after more than 20 years of development, the imagesetter has been fully mature in technology. However, CTP is still in the stage of development and improvement, its function is not perfect, its speed is not ideal, and its internal structure and principle still have many defects. These factors make the domestic printing industry colleagues unwilling to easily agree with it

3. cost and technology of using different guide materials: the imagesetter with film cost is cheaper than the plate making machine with the same output size and format, and the consumables are also cheaper. Therefore, Phototypesetter still plays an important role in many prepress and printing companies

from a technical point of view, CTP technology skips the film step and directly sends raster data to the plate making equipment to form an image on the plate. The technology goes further

however, consumables must be considered when CTP technology is adopted. Generally speaking, the main cost composition of the output center, in addition to the investment in equipment, a large part comes from the cost of consumable materials. Now, China has made great progress in film production technology, but there is still a long way to go in CTP plate production. The existence of this situation objectively leaves room for the development of the application of Phototypesetter

4. process requirements: in the traditional process, the film can be adjusted in many processes such as film production and printing, which are more conducive to the stable transmission of energy and proofing. Due to the direct printing of CTP, the simplification of process inevitably requires the improvement of technical content, and its operation flexibility is not as flexible as film

5. Determined by the national conditions: China is in the stage of primitive accumulation of capital. When users' overall requirements for the quality of printing and plate making are not very high, each output center always takes the lowest cost as the premise, takes low-cost competition as a means to compete for customer resources, and realizes the purpose of industry integration and optimization by squeezing the generation space of competitors. Under this premise, if the output center introduces the CTP system with high cost and high consumables, it will not produce too good economic benefits

6. Service system: now, all major laser Imagesetter manufacturers have offices in China and are equipped with ★★★ Jinan trial price concessions. Professional and technical personnel have built a perfect after-sales service system, which can provide timely and effective services for domestic users. In addition, the price of accessories of laser Imagesetter is relatively low. In this regard, the manufacturers of CTP system are facing huge market competition pressure, and the resulting uncertainty and possible risks will eventually be transferred to the end users of the equipment

7. personnel quality: Laser Imagesetter has been used in China for many years, and has accumulated rich experience in personnel training. At present, there are many people familiar with the operation of Phototypesetter in China, and the cost of training a novice is also very low. However, the operation of CTP system has raised the requirements for employees, and a perfect training system has not been established in China. This is also something that enterprises have to consider when investing in CTP system. After all, the price difference between a set of four-color version and a set of four-color film is very wide

8.rip interface: due to the particularity of the Chinese use environment, the requirements for Rip are very high. In this regard, the leading domestic product is still the rip of founder of Peking University. At present, the laser Imagesetter introduced in China can basically be connected with Founder rip, but CTP system cannot be guaranteed. How to realize the connection between CTP system and the existing system and ensure the consistency between rip results and typesetting content is the necessary technical premise for the popularization of CTP system in China