The installation includes two Creo TrendsetterNews 200 platesetters, ProImage NewsWay workflow and Kodak Polychrome Graphics (KPG) ThermalNews plates and processors.

Over 400 plates per hour can be produced on the new equipment.

"I have always been aware of the quality benefits afforded by the thermal process but until now speed was always an issue," said Newsquest Oxford printing services manager Geoff Harvey.  "Our printing quality will be improved because thermally imaged plates deliver consistent high quality halftone dots. Production times will be reduced because thermal plates will give us quicker makeready times."

It is only the second newspaper in the UK to install thermal CTP, following on from Archant, which installed a KPG system in February 2001.

Newsquest Oxford prints the Oxford Mail, Oxford Times, Swindon Evening Advertiser and Wiltshire Gazette & Herald.