Print Quest invest in high quality inkjet proofing.

London (England), 23/08/2010 – Established in 1996, Flexo platemakers Print Quest are no strangers to adopting the latest in technological developments. Just over 18 months ago, Print Quest became the first UK company to purchase the Kodak NX platemaking system.

Whilst the investment has resulted in new business and a higher quality plate being supplied to customers, it also meant that the all-important proofing stage was likely to come under scrutiny

“NX technology allows us to use a higher line screen which results in smoother gradations and the ability to hold a 0.4 % dot on the plate. Our previous digital proofing solution had difficulties in replicating this level of quality and it didn’t actually show the dot pattern, so we began investigating the proofing alternatives in the market.” explains David Jarvis, Managing Director at Print Quest.

The search proved to be a relatively short one. Early 2010, whilst attending a demonstration of Star Proof and the Epson Stylus Pro WT7900 at the Epson UK Headquarters, Jarvis was so convinced as to the solutions ability to reproduce the color, tone and dot quality required, an order was placed there and then.

“For Flexo, dot proofing is so important” claims Jarvis. “Before committing to plate, the customer needs to see how the tonal effect will be as it has a major impact on the finished product. As a consequence, we needed to improve the quality of our proof offering. Matching color on a proof nowadays should be a given, but we wanted to push the boundaries in terms of quality. With the WT device, we have done that. We can produce proofs on paper, film or metallic substrates and we can print a white ink. With Star Proof, we produce the highest quality dot proof available in the market”.

“We work with a variety of printers who print a wide range of products on a wide range of stocks. “ comments Jarvis. “Star Proof’s Flexo calibration tools have proven to be capable of fingerprinting the proof to the most challenging of press conditions. The effect on our business is significant. As the proof is representative of the press condition, we have reduced rejections, raised our service and gained new customers.”