Tips for Integrating a Computer-to-Screen System

Computer-to-screen systems save time and eliminate numerous production steps, but integrating one into your shop's workflow requires a bit of a learning curve and a lot of trust.
Aug 1, 2008

Since the addition of a CTS imaging system, there are no films or wait times for the vacuum to draw down and release. Mind's Eye Graphics images screen so fast that the washout booth is the current bottleneck.

By Greg Kitson

Integrating a computer-to-screen (CTS) system into your shop's workflow can be challenging. After all, you're dramatically altering the way you do a significant part of your production process. Though you must still coat a screen with emulsion and expose it, with a CTS system you save time by sending images from the computer to the CTS unit, which uses an inkjet printhead to image directly onto unexposed emulsion.

Prepping Your Art Department for CTS
Your shop's production manager probably sees film as a safety blanket — something he can see, touch, feel and review. Once that safety blanket is eliminated, prepress becomes even more critical. To integrate a CTS system, shops must convert from an analog film-based workflow to a filmless digital workflow. One of the most important steps in the integration of a CTS system is getting your art department to use the system to its full potential. Our shop spent a considerable amount of time learning the best way to place images, preview them and so on. Instead of creating films, artists work on creating art, then simply send their images to the raster image processor (RIP). With CTS software, artists also can view an image at its individual dot (raster) level, allowing them to see more detail and catch problems easily. Several gracious industry peers sent us their software templates for positioning artwork, which we tweaked to meet our own needs. (Editor's Note: This master template can be downloaded free from the author's Web site at mindseyeg.com)

Ultimately, a CTS system is really just a printer. Adopting this mindset helped our shop to integrate the machinery into our workflow. Once we had this perspective — and once the art department was comfortable with it — using the CTS system was a relatively simple affair. We had the machine installed on a Monday; by Tuesday morning, we were doing test imaging. By Tuesday afternoon, we were imaging real production screens in almost perfect register.

Greg Kitson is founder and president of Mind's Eye Graphics in Decatur, Ind. For more information or to comment on this article, e-mail Greg at greg@mindseyeg.com or visit mindseyeg.com.

Benefits of CTS
CTS systems cut down on production time, eliminate numerous steps and increase quality. A CTS machine replaces most of the steps in the traditional screen-making process. Stencil film is eliminated as the CTS machine uses an inkjet head to spray ink or wax (depending upon the system) directly onto an emulsion-coated screen. Exposure time is dramatically reduced, no special vacuum exposure unit is needed and many dozens of screens can be exposed at one time. Pinholes and other emulsion errors are eliminated, and registration is digitally precise for every screen, every time. Also, the labor and space needed for storing exposed screens in case of re-orders goes away. It's cheap and simple to store digital files and, to fulfill a re-order, just call up the design on the computer and output new screens. They will be identical to the originals and, again, in perfect registration. — Terry Murphy, Senior Editor

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