According to the two companies, dotmeters are still an essential piece of equipment, despite the increased stability and reliability of CTP hardware and consumables, as problems can still occur in the plate creation process.

Paul Foster, managing director of Ripware, said: "The regular use of a dotmeter to check plate quality not only helps to ensure good production standards throughout the print process, it can also help keep wastage down to a minimum.

"Simple, regular checking procedures carried out with a dotmeter can save hours of time in press downtime and fault finding. That wasted time, of course, can equal many thousands of pounds."

Foster added that the introduction of the ISO 12647-2 colour standard meant that there was a requirement to establish definite information about the image on a plate.

"The specifications being produced for ISO 12647-2 dictate the use of a suitable plate-reading device," he said.

Centurfax, which sold the manufacturing rights to the original CCDot device to X-Rite, has once again been responsible for hardware and software development, with Ripware taking charge of distribution.

EasyDot offers the same one-click operation as its predecessor, without the need to connect to a PC or Mac, and is expected to be priced at £995 or £795 for CCDot users interested in trading in their older units.

According to Centurfax and Ripware, the EasyDot will initially be released to read plates only, although it is intended that paper and film reading will soon be available as an option.