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Cook Island News install Xitron Inkjet CTP

The Cook Islands are located in the south pacific, almost halfway from Brisbane to Hawaii and are well known for its beautiful blue waters, colourful coral reefs and white sandy beaches. So when G2psd received and enquiry about setting up a Xitron inkjet CTP system for the Cook Island News, a fight broke out to see who would do the installation.

Dan Johnston, Print Manager for the Cook Island news, had previously used another CTP system that failed, leaving them with few options for producing the newspaper. With a mix of colour and mono pages to produce, the use of metal plates was essential.

The paper is produced on a 4 colour Heidelberg MO press, which also produces commercial work for the local area. The newspaper is printed Monday to Saturday and an electronic version is also available online.

Cost is always a major factor when looking at a replacement solution, in this case magnified due to the high cost of freight associated with such a remote location
So it was decided the best plan was to purchase the Epson printer from the US and the RIP software from Australia. To keep the costs under control the plan for a remote installation via the internet was discussed. G2psd were confident that it could be achieved with a little time, patience and a helping hand at the press end.

Once the Epson printer was setup, G2pd’s Bernie Hockings logged in remotely and configured the system to the specifications provided by Dan. Once the page geometry was setup and the calibration files loaded, the newspaper was back in business.

The Xitron Navigator software allows the operators to check every job as a soft proof before committing them to the printer for plating. Dan says this has saved a lot time and more importantly, wasted plates.