Going All Digital: Roller Design Print 
Company
Roller Design Print
Santa Fe, AZ
Profile
With no prior printing experience, owners Steve and Susan Schmidt bought a print shop with the vision of building an all-digital print shop. In less than a year under the Schmidts’ leadership, Roller Design Print has successfully implemented computer-toplate, digital trapping, color proofing, ICC profiles, and other digital workflow solutions today’s printers wrestle with.
Steve Schmidt is President of Roller Design. Susan Schmidt is Vice President of Marketing and Sales. Their daughter, Kristen, also works in the business. The company has grown from 13 employees to 17 and expanded its facility since the Schmidts took over. Without graphic arts backgrounds themselves, the Schmidts feel fortunate to have a talented staff with over 200 years total experience in graphic arts and printing. With modernization and increased emphasis on high-end process color, the Schmidts are positioning Roller as the only true full-service printing company in Santa Fe. The Schmidts carefully planned the modernization process and one of the key steps to success was integrating high quality CTP into their workshop.
Finding the Right CTP
Steve Schmidt evaluated a number of CTP options. The need for 175-line screens, an integrated Bacher punch to match the Shinohara press, and film capability for metal plates eliminated many competitive platesetters. The Printware PlateStream® platesetter was highly recommended by Shinohara, and while Schmidt admits he had not heard of Printware previously, there were other printers successfully using the Printware/Shinohara combination. Commenting on his final selection, Schmidt recalls, “The PlateStream had the features I needed. I was impressed with its ruggedness and surprised at its accuracy.”