Don't expect instant CTP benefits - computer-to-plate printing

A reliable workflow and accurate preflighting will bring results over time.

Any discussion of computer-to-plate (CTP) in variably touts reductions in cycle time and cost, yet the benefits have proven a bit elusive for some publishers. Let's explore the counterbalancing forces that affect how a typical magazine can secure these advantages.

You need experience

Don't expect a major cycle time concession on the day you announce you're using CTP; you and your printer need experience with the particular workflow and file preparation skills to judge the real-time compression that is possible. A CTP workflow can actually contain a nasty extra step: copydotting ads to digitize them. This interlude may well include a proof loop of its own, so time savings for film-based material is out of the question.

Next, we need to follow the digital file closely as it moves through the plant. Publishers may like to imagine that mere seconds after they transmit files, a plate is popping out somewhere to be hustled directly to a waiting press. In fact, the file goes through at least five processing stages before it reaches a platesetter: job ticketing, preflighting, trapping, imposition and proofing. In many workflows, the data arrive in multiple formats, so an additional step is necessary to convert or otherwise homogenize a collection of PostScript, PDF, TIFF/IT or CTLW files.

These steps aren't terrifically time-consuming in themselves, but if they all involve hand-offs for separate operations, the platesetting finale is well off in the future. Printers can automate many of the steps, either through their own programming or with software from platesetter vendors. Still, publishers must recognize that platemaking hasn't exactly gone from baking to microwaving. It's faster, but it's not instant.

From the printer's perspective, platemaking can't quite be a just-in-time operation. If a plate isn't ready, the printer's most costly asset sits idle, so the pressroom must dictate a safety margin. Plants differ about the degree of security necessary to commit a press to a job, but these measures all have in common a need to be confident that a set of plates will be, or already is, ready.

Preflight your files

When pressing for schedule concessions, you'll touch a nerve: Printers don't trust publishers to send clean files. They may not say it out loud, but printers consider your files guilty until proven innocent. Only you can acquit them through conscientious quality checks and thorough preflighting.

There's a tendency to fear that building clean, ready-to-RIP files requires obscure skills or endless checking and tweaking. Let's demystify this. There are only three major causes of imaging problems: missing fonts, RGB instead of CMYK color breaks or images and incorrectly set bleed or page size. Other types of problems emerge from time to time, but if you banish the big three, you are well on your way to time and cost concessions from your printer. Preflight software can find the first two errors, and a properly designed template, coupled with adequate care in positioning bleed subjects, solves the third. Preflighting is, indeed, an extra step, but publishers who resist this chore simply won't gain all they can from CTP. As an important side benefit, the page-production process itself improves if lessons learned from preflight flags are carried back to the people who can modify their techniques to avoid these mistakes.

You should decide upfront whether you're seeking to save time from GTP for editorial, advertising or both. To extend an ad close, you find yourself in the printer's shoes, wondering if you can trust an advertiser's promises. When you have sufficient confidence in an advertiser or an agency, you can take the plunge and allow either to transmit files directly to the printer. It's not for the faint of heart, but it is the ultimate in last-minute ad closing.

Improvements in editorial cycle time, such as eliminating a late proof stage or replacing overnight shipping of film with phone transmission, may be fairly small--and perhaps more meaningful to a weekly than a monthly--but valuable nonetheless.

To realize the greatest editorial-page time savings, publishers need to close pages as press signatures, taking advantage of the sequential nature of platemaking and presswork. That means digital ads must be available for those signatures. For a late-closing section of a magazine, a publisher could require digital material while permitting copydotting of film for other sections. Negotiating for time savings means proving your work-flow's integrity. Review the situation periodically as you become more consistent and experienced and the printer sees the results in files that simply glide through prepress.

Realizing cost savings

Quality and speed are fine, but the meat of the matter for many publishers is cost. A successful negotiation for price reductions begins with an understanding of the printer's economics. Printers are replacing conventional platemaking equipment with CTP systems that cost five to 10 times more. Where are the savings supposed to come from?

Keep in mind that the printer has substantial motivation to convert customers to CTP as quickly as possible, aside from a logical desire to phase out support of dual workflows. CTP allows the printer to gain sharp reductions in plate remakes, faster makeready, a preliminary process subject to automation, and, finally, a chance to insert himself in two potential revenue streams--prepress and archiving--that were often the province of a third party.

To obtain pricing concessions for CTP, the publisher needs to think long term, just as the printer does. The pie to be divided up between printer and publisher may not be that large, and it certainly isn't out of the oven yet. Look for relatively small incentives at the outset, such as discounted copydot scans. Then proceed toward bigger prizes.

Printers don't conceive of the plates themselves as cheaper, but of the entire preliminary process as more efficient. Rather than seeking a cost concession, publishers should concentrate first on eliminating processing steps, which cuts costs just as significantly. For example, handling more prepress work in-house shifts costs and can reduce them. Remote proofing or the elimination of some proof steps also saves money.

To tackle price reductions directly, start by seeking a price structure that separates all components subject to your buying requirements. (See box, below.)

These price components allow you to make choices about what you buy. Preflighting, for example, could be eliminated or reduced once your workflow is proven. Proofing might be decreased with future technology or a reduction in proof use. Since the printer is adding nothing to your pages, the proof serves only as evidence that the file survived its processing journey.

After you gain experience with the workflow, proofing may be safely reduced. This idea presumes that you will obtain proofs at an earlier stage in the process to verify color and design and to serve as press color guidance.

Plating itself should be separate from plate materials, as printers are currently experiencing a higher cost for thermal plates. Pricing cynics see this as a little profit opportunity that the platemakers may never quite get around to surrendering. But both optimists and pessimists should isolate the charge, for there's only an upside here.

Finally, make sure the press makeready prices don't include platemaking, a cost that some estimators designate as intrinsic to preparing the press. If a charge for conventional platemaking lies within the makeready, you'll end up paying for both processes, with CTP added on as a separate charge. After carving out the conventional plating cost, you can try for the championship prize--a reduction in makeready itself--to reflect the increased speed the printer experiences from the CTP process.

It's important to separate the task of building a price structure that assigns costs appropriately from the act of cutting the prices themselves. Bearing in mind that printers need to recoup their GTP investments, a prudent publisher will be patient. The price structure sets the stage for ongoing price review, spurred by your own efficiency in building files and the printer's increasing comfort with the technology. A major source of cost reductions comes from changing what you buy, through process changes. If you seek major concessions from CTP at the outset, not only will you gain little, you may alienate the printer. Accept the publisher's role as second in line for savings, and remain watchful for opportunities to cut costs throughout your contract and at its renegotiation.

For publishers moving to CTP, patience is a virtue that can reap benefits in the long run.

Alex Brown is president of Printmark, a consulting company specializing in magazine manufacturing, located in East Montpelier, Vermont.

A wise investment

Negotiating for time savings means proving the integrity of your workflow--which comes through conscientious quality checks and thorough preflighting Preflight software costs anywhere from approximately $300 to $400, but pays off by helping to build your printer's confidence in you, and by Improving your staff's skills. Invest in the software--and above all, don't ignore the error list because the file already prints so beautifully on your local printer.

Break it down

Many printers will Invoice a total CTP cost per page. However, asking your printer to break out the following elements not only gives you leverage to negotiate pricing concessions, but also helps you gauge future buying decisions.

* Preflighting

* Imposing file (from native application vs. from a RIPped file)

* Digital proofing

* Plating

* Plate materials

* Press makeready

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