We have a client who had a photographic book printed on the continent and is now asking us to reprint it, but he only has positive film – no digital files and no original photos. Can you suggest a trade platemaker that still makes plates from film? We are totally CTP now. Alternatively, how about someone with a film scanner who can reproduce halftones and colour work satisfactorily? The film is currently imposed in A1 spreads. We have tried scanning printed pages of black-and-white halftones, but the resultant quality when printed is not high enough.
Martin Cornford, L&S Printing Company, Worthing

Wow! It’s the best part of six years since I’ve had a copydot query. The last firm I mentioned in this respect was Design & Media Solutions in Maidstone. And… they’re still there, hoorah! The phone was answered by the still delightfully helpful Kevin Edmonds and they can still dust off their high-end Crosfield drum scanner for de-screening film seps. Slight wrinkle in that the maximum size they can handle is A2, but some work with a scalpel and some subsequent digital stitching means they could still provide a viable solution to your problem. Contact Kevin on 01622 681366. I know there used to be a couple of Creo Renaissance copydot scanners here on the small island, also umpteen Eskofots, so I’ve been putting some feelers out to see if any are still in active use. The answer viz the Renaissances seems to be no, and I hear one ended being sold on eBay for £70! However, thanks to Sean Runchman at Tunicca, who put me in touch with Neil Cross at EskoArtwork, I do have a contact at Radstock, Somerset-based Storm Creative, which is equipped with a couple of Eskofot scanners. It works with publishers needing to digitise film-based back catalogues. Contact Graham Freeman on 01761 413422 or visit www.stormcreative-now.com.

I am trying to find a plate punch that might be lying around looking for a home. If anyone has such a beast, I would be happy to negotiate. The Heidelberg part number is G2.090.9041/03. Or, a Billows Protocol with similar spec would do. Nothing fancy, just a benchtop manually operated jobbie would be fine.
Bill Cheesman, via www.printweek.com
 
Thought I’d give this an additional airing in case anyone had such a thing knocking about.