The graphic arts industry in the year 2000 and beyond

Summary form only given. The laser is considered a key enabling technology for print production. Right now it is impossible to discuss the technological side of output for printing without including laser devices. Lasers have been used in output devices for over twenty years in the field of printing. The majority of these were low power gas lasers or laser diodes for exposing silver halide film, but recently there has been an increasing trend toward using high-power lasers for printing. The reasons for this are that the print production work flow has been dramatically shortened, and in addition to that, increased importance is being placed on more environmentally friendly production. To address these changes, the printing industry is now starting to use other technologies, which can be grouped, into two major categories. The first is the use of thermal sensitive film rather than silver halide film. This eliminates the chemical processing required for developing and fixing film. The second is a process that eliminates intermediate materials like film altogether such as or for example directly imaging onto the final aluminum printing plates. With these technologies, imaging is done by using optics to expose a photopolymer coating on the plates or by using heat to expose thermal sensitive plates.