Creo Sells Six Trendsetters, PDF Workflow Software

By: E&P Staff Creo Inc., based in Vancouver, British Columbia, sold six Trendsetter News thermal computer-to-plate imagers to three North American dailies as well as PDF workflow-management software to a California newspaper printer.

The Herald in Everett, Wash., bought two Trendsetter News 50 devices and the complete Creo newspaper workflow, with the Prinergy Evo PDF processor and Synapse NewsManager software. Besides improved reproduction and less ink usage and waste, Herald Publisher Allen Funk said CTP "will extend our page closing process to allow for breaking news or the last sport scores or to get our paper to the street faster."

In Canada, two more CanWest Global Communications papers will install a total of four Trendsetters. The Star Phoenix in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, bought two model 50 platesetters and Prinergy Evo and Synapse software, and the Edmonton (Alberta) Journal will install two Trendsetter News 200 CTP devices, each capable of imaging more than 200 plates per hour.

Production Vice President Joe Celino said the Journal aims to streamline its digital workflow, achieve better quality, and maintain "top-quality color." The paper also will install a TIFF interface workflow and plans to print with stochastic FM screening in the future.

The latest enhancements to Synapse NewsManager, the PDF-based workflow management tool for edition management, include the importing of JDF impositions into edition plans and integrating with Preps imposition software for sites producing commercial as well as newspaper products. Synapse NewsManager can now use "virtually any pre-existing filename structure," according to Creo. The system also enables planning of multiple spreads in a product, the of handling complex structures such as nested sections, and better management of color and monochrome pages, even when presented in an unexpected color-space.

Southwest Offset Printing Co. of Gardena, Calif., chose Synapse News Manager to produce the national edition of The New York Times. The printer's information technology director, Jon Dang, cited the software's ability to perform automatic page-pairing, file updates, proofing, and output to five Trendsetters. Southwest Offset Printing ordered a second unit of Synapse NewsManager to produce Copley Press' Torrance, Calif., Daily Breeze.