The Telegram in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, in April took the wraps off new computer-to-plate equipment and workflow software, which the Transcontinental Inc. property began installing in March to streamline its operations.

The Telegram tapped Kodak for the project, according to Prepress Supervisor Bruce MacLean, installing two Trendsetter News 70 thermal platesetters, and Kodak’s Newsmanager 1.1 and Prinergy Evo 3.2 apps. MacLean said The Telegram switched all of the Transcon products it prints, including its daily, to the new workflow apps and CTP on June 17.

Photo: The Telegram
The Telegram began running jobs through its Newsmanager and Prinergy Evo software to its new Trendsetter News 70 units in April. The publisher plans to have all jobs, including its daily 100-percent live on June 17.
 

“We’ve already been gradually switching over our weeklies and some of the tabloid publications that we have, but now we’re at the point where we’re ready to start the daily,” he said.

Prior to the new workflow, MacLean said The Telegram imaged film and used Agfa plates, but with the new thermal CTP, the daily will make the switch to Kodak’s ThermalNews Gold plates in the near future.

Workflow software key

The Telegram implemented its workflow in conjunction with CTP in an effort to create more automation with the platesetters themselves, as well as with the daily’s new Burgess Industries Inc. plate conveying and 2-into-1 punch bend system.

“There has to be a software component with CTP.” MacLean said.

Newsmanager is largely based on the use of hot folders, but MacLean said The Telegram can tailor the app’s use depending on the publication.

“Some go in as PDFs and for some we make PostScript files,” he explained. “Some are single-page and some are multi-page so there are a lot of different things going on.”

Both the Newsmanager and Prinergy Evo apps work with naming conventions, a process with which The Telegram’s staff is currently familiarizing itself.

“We’re implementing that and getting everyone familiar with the software,” MacLean said.

Kodak set up the apps and MacLean said his staff was then able to make some necessary modifications for products such as its weekly papers.

“Essentially in different cases, the PDF or PostScript file is put into a Newsmanager hot folder and then sent to Prinergy Evo and it refines the file and breaks a multi-page PostScript file into single pages,” he explained. That’s sent to Newsmanager’s Edition Planner where pages, sections, colors, types of plates and sorting barcodes are defined.”

Working together

Prinergy and Newsmanager work together to streamline the workflow process. Prinergy defines files as either PDF or PostScript and then passes them onto to Newsmanager, where a file goes through four components: a database manager, a process manager and then a monitor where The Telegram can view all of its publications, sorted by date. The fourth component, the Web monitor allows pages to be previewed onscreen via a Web browser.

“You can preview the pages there and see them exactly as what you’re going to get on your plate,” MacLean said. “You see the barcode and the title code — it’s all on there in the exact positioning on the size of the plate you’ve chosen and all the separations are there. You also select from there the plates you want to send to the CTP units.”

The Telegram still has a supply of single plates to use up, which are loaded into one of the Trendsetters. The other unit holds doubletruck plates and MacLean said his paper plans to switch all publications to doubletruck and leverage Kodak’s Staccato screening app by year-end.