OCT Digital Imaging & Color
  Changing With the Times

You make the transition or you won't survive," notes Eric Ellis, superintendent at OCT Digital Imaging and Color. For OCT, this transition has been an active and ongoing affair. The 45-year old firm got its start as a traditional typesetter back in the days of hot metal. Then came cold type, then PostScript and the Mac. That eventually led to scanning, color separations and film out-put, first pages, then flats.

Through all these transitions, however, OCT was always in the middle, supplying services on the front end, but never delivering the final product to its customers. While that has worked well for many years, the advent of CTP and all-digital work-flows gradually began chipping away at OCT's revenue base, and it became clear to Ellis and OCT's owners, Steve and Don McKee, that they needed new services. "We had a client base; the issue was what other services we could provide to them that they were buying else-where to keep the money at home", Ellis remarks. "All the people we serve need printing."

Their first foray was into large format color output. According to Ellis, the reasons for this were that it was neither capital intensive, nor did it cost a lot to produce or sell. Not only did the new service prove very successful, it opened OCT's managers' eyes to a whole new concept: selling the final product.

To address the need for longer runs, the McKees and Ellis looked at different digital presses, and their search led them to investigate the direct-imaging (DI) presses. They new that ink on paper was what their customers were looking for. Furthermore, Ellis says that the DI had an important influence on print buyer's perceptions of digital color printing.

OCT's research led them to the Ryobi 3404DI. "Ryobi clearly took digital printing to the next level," asserts Ellis. "It's as good as any-thing that's out there. It's digital printing, yes, but only until the press starts running; then it's offset printing."

The press went into their location in January. Rather than go outside and recruit an experienced press operator, OCT opted to promote one of its 20 employees -a man who'd started as a delivery driver and moved up to scanner operator where he'd demonstrated a keen eye for color and attention to detail. After attending an initial training course he began running the 3404DI.

In addition to having a talented employee, Ellis says the Ryobi press is easy to operate. "There are no ink-and-water problems, {and} the density problems have been eliminated," he points out.

While OCT may have been initially concerned about its lack of expertise in the pressroom, Ellis says it has more than made up for it with its prepress prowess. "The whole thing revolves around keeping the jobs flowing {through prepress} and the press busy," he remarks. "It's easier to come into the DI business from the prepress side."

As the authorized Ryobi dealer for the area, Graphco has the infrastructure, know-how and tech-service support to back up the investment in DI Æ technology. Not only can Graphco supply the necessary prepress elements, such as color proofing systems and workflow implementation, but also remote services through your internet connection. You have the need and Graphco has the capability to fill that need. As OCT Digital Imaging & Color has found, the Ryobi DI has certainly lived up to its promise.