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[miambeachshadow]

Hello Everyone,

I've been using film outputs from imagesetters for my work for many years but the service is getting harder and harder to find and reliability is a whole other problem. I want to remove those problems by bringing the tech in house.

I would greatly appreciate any ideas on the best way to do this.

First I need opinions on how practical it is to use an imagesetter without a processor. I do not have the room for it, or the need. I run very few pages per month and a processor would be more trouble than it would be worth. I am all set up for darkroom processes. Can I develop “linotronic” film in trays?

Next is the size. Very small, I don't need film larger than an 8x10 active area. I usually don't even need that much. Nothing fancy with the rip. No traping, or extra printing touches. Just a simple file from Illustrator or Photoshop that I need printed. I don't even need the rip to do the seps. I work all in B+W.

The only thing I do need is high res. Right now I'm getting things outputted at 265 Lpi. I would like higher if I could find it. My files are vector stuff from Illustrator or 800 Dpi files from Photoshop that I need ripped.

Is there a desktop machine that will do this and can I develop the film in trays under safe lights? What rip is the least expensive that will still output 265 lpi or higher? I need no other high end functions. I only need to print wysiwyg from B+W files.

Is there anything better to use these days for film output?

Thanks for the help.

MiamiBeachShadow