CTP direct plate making technology is the abbreviation of English Computer to Plate, it originated in the 80s of last century, has been more than 20 years of history, but the real application in the printing field is only 10 years. In 1998, the China Institute of Printing Science and Technology held the first China International Electronic Publishing and Multimedia Exhibition. The first time the CTP equipment was introduced to China. In May 1998, Yangcheng Evening News introduced a direct plate-making system and became the first newspaper in China to use direct plate-making technology.
The application and development of CTP technology is very rapid. There are two main reasons. First, it breaks through the limitations of the traditional process of plate making through the process of laser photofinishing output film and artificial imposition and printing, and avoids printing plates in the printing process. Differences in exposure time caused by flower marks, dot variations, dot inconsistencies, and errors and errors caused by manual spelling and printing. The second is that newspapers continue to expand the version, change the black and white version into a color version, change the single-sided color to two-sided color, need a higher overprint accuracy, and in order to enhance the timeliness of the news, require to shorten the printing time as much as possible to extend the newspaper news deadline. Therefore, a large amount of layout editing must be done in a relatively concentrated period of time until the completion of plate making. This makes it possible to improve the printing quality of newspapers, and the CTP direct plate making technology, which saves labor, time, and consumables, is rapidly popularized in newspapers.
The CTP system is popular among users at such an astonishing speed. In addition to good plate-making performance and the elimination of the merits of the film, its application scope is also one of the main reasons. At present, the direct plate-making machine on the market can be suitable for large-format, small-format printing sizes, single- and dual-color printing, four-color printing, newspaper printing, and commercial printing. Therefore, it is very flexible to use.
For newspaper printing, CTP platemaking technology can also effectively reduce environmental pollution. Due to streamlining and optimizing the process flow, it is easy to build a continuous production line with a higher degree of automation. At present, the domestic newspaper industry is facing fierce competition. The CTP system can save the entire publishing process by 30-50 minutes. With the same printing time, the time for press release can be extended. This has positive significance for increasing the amount of news information on the day and improving the competitiveness of newspapers.
The use of CTP system requires certain conditions, from the perspective of enterprises, first of all, whether the company has a large amount of plate-making workload, the current good CTP plate-making equipment, publishing speed is very fast; Second, the number of films and plates used by enterprises should be More, then the relative saving of film and time is relatively large. If the short version is more, the CTP system will have more advantages. Third, the CTP system needs the support of other hardware, and there should be a certain number of single-sheet multi-color offset printing. Machine or off the offset printing rotary machine and so on.
The production of a new technology often requires the continuation and development of the old process at the beginning. Eventually it will produce mutations and even completely replace the original technology. The CTP plate is no exception. The issue of plate material is a bottleneck problem in the application of CTP technology. Compared with the traditional PS plate, the CTP plate material is more expensive, resulting in increased printing costs. If the plate material cost can be reduced as soon as possible, the number of applications of CTP equipment in the printing of domestic newspapers will also be greatly increased.
Computer-to-plate making is not just about shortening the plate-making process. It can also improve print quality, improve operational efficiency, provide more extensive and popular services, increase job diversity, and make printing more efficient. The good practical application results of many newspapers prove that the CTP direct plate making technology will continue to shine in China's newspaper printing industry.