The service means that York-based Reprotech Studios, which has four employees, will be able to deliver traditional repro house skills, such as colour correction, retouching and image editing, via the internet with complete file integrity.

Reprotech Studios partner John Hall said the speed of file transfer using WebConnect was a factor behind installation, as only the retouched parts of an image are sent back to clients, not the complete image.

"Its a way of enhancing our traditional repro skills, which are still very important," said Hall. "You cant tell the difference between files done and sent this way or sent on a CD. It means that we wont be using as many couriers."

He added that WebConnect would speed up the production process and give the company a foothold in other markets.

"Theres still a place for repro houses. Although CTP has made dots sharper than 10 years ago, in many cases colour rendition is not as good as it was and thats where we come in," added Hall.

Prolatus director of European sales Tony Talbot echoed Halls comments on providing repro houses with a market for their skills against the rise of CTP. "We are discovering that our products are sales tools as well as production products," he said. "They allow repro houses to sell themselves."

Story by John Davies