For shops that run non-PostScript jobs, Optronics offers DDES and Scitex interfaces as options. Preflight checks, job queuing, multiple RIPs and storage of prerasterized jobs provide flexibility and alternative workflows so that a particularly troublesome PostScript job cannot bring production to a halt. Saving jobs temporarily in rasterized format can also mean big timesavings if a bad plate needs to be reimaged. The client software for CPS, called CPS Manager, initially runs only on Macintosh machines. Foot in the door to China.
China is a difficult market to crack.
There are thousands of Chinese printing plants that could benefit from Western technology, and many of them could find ways to finance the purchases. But they cannot simply buy the equipment they need. China is still a planned economy, and every major capital outlay has to be approved at the appropriate levels of the bureaucracy before it can occur. Optronics, however, has found a potential path into the Chinese market for its Aurora platesetter system. Fong Brothers will act as the integrator for the systems, which will include Macintosh-based layout software.