'font-style:italic;' class='uawbyline'>by Chuck R Stewart
In the printing world there is a technology called CTP, which stands for computer to plate. It is part of the prepress process and involves the prepress equipment called an imagesetter. The older technology was known as CTF, or computer to film. In the computer to film process, the print job goes from the file in the computer onto photographic film. The image then goes from the film to the photographic plate so that the results can be printed. The computer to plate process removes the middle step and transfers the image created in the desktop publishing program directly to the printing plate. It is easy to see that, when an entire step is eliminated, efficiency goes up and costs go down.
