A New York newspaper and magazine publisher is claiming good results from the use of register correction software with their 50-year-old press.

ProImage software is being used at Sun Community News and Printing with a Goss Community press installed in the early 1960s and extended almost two decades later.

The print centre in Elizabethtown, New York, produces seven targeted free distribution newspapers throughout the northeastern state, along with a quarterly lifestyle magazine.

The Community press was bought in the early 1960s as four mono unit with a Community folder. It was extended in 1980 with an SC folder and one unit, and again with the addition of SC units, so that the present configuration is four stacked and nine mono units with SC and SSC folders. Running circumferential register has been added as well as two-high stacks but ceiling height has restricted the use of four-high towers.

The arrival of CTP also precluded manual adjustments when stripping negatives.

As a result, producing good register has been a challenge, however, with spoilage - recently as high as 23 per cent - and lost time a problem. Additionally, some print and advertising customers are reported to have refused to use colour for their print products or ads due to inconsistent colour reproduction.

With the ProImage software, registration errors are measured using a digital microscope, and the digital file is modified before exposing to film or plate. Operations manager Bill Coats says savings have come from reduced waste due to fewer startups and recovery from roll changes: "We also see reduction in time spent on initial rollup."

Not only have imperfections of individual units been reduced, but adjustments have been used to avoid re-pinning of several cylinders. "Our registration is exponentially better than it was previously," Coats says.

Sun uses InDesign for position with custom templates. Files go to a Harlequin RIP, and then either to the Press Register system or to a Screen Flatrunner server for output to a Platerite News 2000S platesetter, with no other press control system in use.