WHEN ROB KING AND MARK ROBSON SET up Altaimage in 2003 it was never going to be a conventional prepress house. The pair had many years’ experience in that environment and believed that however skilful at retouching, however great the quality and however slick the workflow, these would not be enough. The future would not just be about the quality of files produced, it would also be about the additional services provided.

Today the company in London’s docklands delivers just that, a heady mix of repro, printing and online tools that are creating new products and profit lines for the business. “Selling repro is increasingly difficult,” says King. “What we are trying to provide is a service that publishers cannot get elsewhere; while at the same time we realise that wherever repro is used, people are buying short run printing.”

Digital print has always been there, first with smaller Xerox printers and then 18 months ago the installation of an iGen3. This replaced a Truepress 544 DI press from Screen as the company’s workhorse. King says: “When we bought the iGen3, I looked at the Truepress 344, the second generation of the Screen DI technology. It was a close decision, but we felt more comfortable with digital and we felt the iGen3 was a more versatile solution.”

But the digital press has its drawbacks. “It’s four-colour only and cannot produce fluorescents or the special Pantone colours that covers need. And runs of only 1,000 are simply not cost-effective. The iGen opened up more doors, but it doesn’t do everything for our customers.”

As of the beginning of this year that is no longer a problem, as alongside the iGen3 in the space-constrained premises is a Truepress 344, offering the speed of a litho press, its effectiveness over longer runs and the extra colours Altaimage has needed. Combined digital and litho offerings should provide what the company and its customers are looking for.

He explains: “Because selling repro is becoming more and more difficult, we are selling a service rather than a single item these days.”

For a magazine launch that might start with producing complete dummy publications (printed and bound with uv covers, all produced on site) for focus group discussions and then to show potential advertisers. “This way is cheaper than a full web offset run and much better than a collection of proofs,” says King.

The digital dummies can be followed by internet virals or, as is the case with a launch now headed for the slipway, animated web versions of the magazine pages which offer far more than standard page turning applications. Then there are the invitations and marketing materials to go with the launch; the rate cards and media packs, the CDs and other paraphernalia. After that comes the steady prepress work, including taking over the chore that is chasing and producing classified advertising.

For a book, Altaimage can produce a complete digitally printed book, a marked improvement over the collection of Epson printed pages that publishers have been used to receiving. “For book publishers this is a much better check of what the finished book will look like before making the commitment to the 50,000 print run,” he says.

If Altaimage started out working with magazine and book publishers, it has been successfully expanding the customer base, a trend that the new press will accelerate. With the arrival of the iGen3 the company picked up the business card needs of estate agent Foxtons, building the web to print service that the network of branches and sales staff use to keep their card quotas topped up. Last year it picked up a website for the National Gallery to allow people to order and personalise calendars and greetings cards from the huge array of masterpieces on the Gallery’s walls.

King says that even though there was not much time to deliver the job, sales were 25-30% higher than the previous attempt at custom publishing via the web. The site allows the user to construct his own calendar and then, if required, to add a logo to suit his business. The job is then printed on the Xerox. Typically Altaimage is offering more than just online ordering.

“We are also using the website to track the popularity of the cards they have chosen to feature. We gather this information and they can use it to adjust which pictures to use in the next campaign.”

The work can either be printed digitally or be printed on the DI press and then over-printed with the personalised elements, a very cost-effective way of operating. The Truepress 344 is also taking Altaimage to a different type of customer. “Because we can now do long runs cost-effectively as well as the covers and specials, we are going to go after the letterhead market, both for existing clients and for businesses in this area which we have never been able to approach before,” says King. “It’s a new area for us and we realise that at the moment there aren’t too many start-ups, but at some point everybody needs letterheads and compliment slips. We can go to local customers and use it as a door opener. And we can start to quote for bigger jobs than we have been able to do.”

The DI press is a more serious proposition than its predecessor. Turnaround time is six minutes, not the 30 minutes that the older 544 used to need. Immediately Altaimage can get more jobs through and costs per job come down.

With its strong basis in quality prepress, it is natural for the company to expand this to cover the print output. The iGen3 is profiled to match the 39L proof quality that the GMG Rips power through the Epson inkjet printers on the prepress side. Now the Truepress has been calibrated to match the same quality of output. “This is just a starting point,” he adds. “We move from there as customers request it, though the DI litho press is more of a moving target than the iGen3.”

This has been the biggest issue to date as, where the digital press needs only a couple of sheets before it is ready to print, the Truepress can need a couple of hundred. As the company gets used to it, though, this number is expected to come down.

There have, however, been no complaints about the quality. One job was printing white ink on white paper to do with England’s friendly in Spain in February. Another has been printing samples for the book accompanying the Gerald Richter exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. Printed on Artic White paper, the artist himself commented favourably on the job, King explains, though he adds, “Not all jobs are this colour critical.”

The company did a similar thing for Jamie Oliver before Christmas. Using the digital press it was able to print and bind complete book, handing copies to the publisher and the author. For this one too it created websites and blogs to drive interest in the book though an online mini book.

It is all a far cry from the straightforward prepress operation that King and Robson left behind, but what Altaimage is becoming would not have been possible without that prepress background. “Print is the fastest-growing part of our business,” King says. “It might yet outgrow the repro side.

“There is a call for more personalisation and custom targeted jobs – this is what customers are looking for. And printing is coming back to the UK from Europe thanks to the changes in the exchange rate. Whether it starts to come back from the Far East is another thing, but the repro is coming back from Asia because in the time it takes to send the files out there, we have produced the digital pages, the proofs and a finished product.”

Before buying the Truepress 344, the directors visited Drupa. The potential for sheetfed inkjet caught their eye, opening up the potential for on-demand production of colour books. “There will be a big market place for that,” King predicts. But he won’t be buying a conventional B2 or B1 litho press. “Inkjet is the consideration for the future, though it’s not ready yet.” Until then, the combination of digital and DI is going to work just fine.