Newsquest Installs SeeColor's 500th System

Inkjet-based proofers continue to make inroads in all types of print-production environments”?including newspapers. For example, the UK-based Newsquest Media Group recently became the 500th customer for SeeColor's computer-to-proof color-halftone newsprint proofing system. The announcement comes about three years after SeeColor was first adopted for use at the 52 sites at which Gannett Newspaper prints USA Today. Newquest is also owned by Gannett.

SeeColor software is tailored for the unique screening and substrates requirements of newspapers, advertising inserts, and Sunday newspaper magazines. That's because advertisers deserve to have a realistic preview of how their ads will appear in the newspaper. The colors output by newspaper presses onto newsprint typically aren't nearly as vibrant as those they may have seen on the concept proof supplied on glossy paper by the ad-agency designer.

With SeeColor, the same digital files used to produce printing plates at the newspapers' print sites are used to produce the proofs on HP Designjet printers at various locations. The proofs the press operators are asked to match will look identical to the proofs supplied for advertiser approval.

To keep up with the fast turnaround requirements of newspaper production, SeeColor software on a single computer can drive up to eight Hewlett-Packard Designjet wide-format inkjet printers on a LAN or WAN. According to SeeColor CEO Ron LaForce, the average SeeColor computer-to-proof system is driving between three and four printers. This means that with the 500th installation, SeeColor is driving between 1500 and 2000 Designjets.

For SeeColor, their efforts to develop customer loyalty have paid off. Andrew Sempers, the Newsquest manager who placed the 500th order, was also SeeColor's first UK customer while serving as technical operators director at another newspaper publishing company. (SeeColor: www.seecolor.com)