The Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News in June installed workflow software from Presteligence Inc. in conjunction with its conversion to computer-to-plate.

NewsXtreme software now sends pages to the daily’s two Agfa violet platesetters, replacing The News’ former method of sending pages manually to filmsetters.

The newspaper (daily, 34,312; Sunday, 35,541) has trimmed preproduction time since deploying NewsXtreme, said Regional ITS Director Chuck Landry, who also orchestrated the installation of the software at sister New York Times Co. property the Times Daily of Florence, Ala., in July.

“We now have the ability to see our saved pages married to the plate before it prints,” he said. “We didn’t have that option going to [film].”

 

In addition to its daily, the News produces numerous commercial jobs and runs 2-up broadsheet pages, 4-up tabloid pages and 8-up quarterfold pages.

“Setup on the quarterfolds takes a bit of work, but the straight broadsheets work really well,” Landry said.

The process

NewsXtreme manages The News’ workflow from the time pages are released.

Pages are RIPped, impositioned and then married to the plate.

a“It checks color and if a plate is defined as a color plate and you don’t get all four colors, it warns you that you have colors missing - which we didn’t get with film,” Landry said. “Once all pages are available for a plate we have set up in our workflow, it then stops and notifies us that the plate is ready to be approved.”

Once pages are approved they are sent to the appropriate platesetter.

Other NYT units, including The Courier in Houma, La., and The Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, Calif., also use the workflow app.

Presteligence in August rolled out its newest version of NewsXtreme. Version 1.8 includes a “bird’s eye” view of production, Presteligence said, which allows users to see the status of their publications at a glance. It also features new plug-ins for destination devices and color proofing, which the vendor said came at the request of The Press Democrat and the Erie (Pa.) Times-News, and a plug-in for Nela punch bending equipment.

Presteligence said enhancements to its workflow software will continue on a quarterly basis “as the system matures and grows.”