Presstek is hailing this Drupa as the show where direct imaging has reached critical mass.

It has unveiled further partners and products in direct imaging as well as new CTP products.


The major players have climbed on-board, weve gone from one DI press at Drupa 95 to 13 at this years show, said Presstek president and CEO Bob Hallman. Commenting on the rise in the number of DI enabled digital presses, Hallman said: When you move to ink on paper quality comes for free you pay for productivity.


Pressteks new partners include Didde and Ryobi, who have both announced DI enabled presses. New DI presses are also on show from Akiyama, Adast and Sakurai. Presstek is also in discussion with two or three other manufacturers about future alliances and expects to announce further details at Graph Expo in October.


Developments in CTP include the announcement of an eight-up version of its Dimension platesetter set to ship at the end of the year and the development of a two-up version. For Presstek DI is strategic CTP is tactical, said Hallman. Like the dinosaur CTP will grow large over the next seven-to-ten years, then it will eventually die out.


The Dimension series is being promoted as a system with the Anthem plate, which has now completed its beta test programme at 24 sites worldwide and is entering volume production.


Anthem has also been selected by Flint Ink for use with its Single Fluid Ink (SFI) project, which is a waterless printing system without the need for cooling, that uses conventional plates. Presstek is keen to be involved due to environmental benefits of eliminating fount solutions and the cutting of makeready and start-up sheets, which makes SFI ideal for short-run offset.
Story by Barney Cox