Baltimore Color Plate has been providing outstanding Printing, Mailing, Digital Photography, and PrePress services for over 18 years. Our desire to provide the highest quality products and services translates directly into embracing the latest technologies available. This practice results in precision, speed and knowledge for our customers. An on-going commitment to quality and service is also reflected in the talented people we employ and specially train to service your specific needs.

Even with today’s sophisticated equipment and technology, the importance of having the right people at the controls at every stage of the process is the key to offering the highest quality finished project.

Our Mission And Promise To You

Our mission is to provide you with the highest-quality products and services possible in a timely fashion and at a competitive price. We promise to listen to you and help you achieve your business goals. We will always be there with honest, expert advice and quick, friendly customer service.

Our goal is to meet and exceed your expectations.

Guiding Principles

BCP started life in 1985 as three partners, a scanner and a proofing machine in a garage- sized space. The business model was to sell color separation film to Baltimore printers. This worked: BCP soon grew, and offered new services. First, people joined BCP to do image assembly by hand on light tables, combining color separated film with type using masking materials and tape (to hold things in place) to arrive at the finished project, which was then laboriously proofed one color at a time, until a final Cyan- Magenta- Yellow- Black complete image emerged. This world, whose financial vitality kept babies in Pampers, and paid many a mortgage, no longer exists.

In 1987, BCP bought a Scitex retouching computer. At that time, just before the advent of the McIntosh and desktop publishing, electronic retouching was rare and pricey, with an hour of Scitex time often costing five hundred dollars. BCP’s innovation (obvious today…) was to offer Scitex services at much more reasonable prices. BCP’s aggressive pricing allowed widespread use of computer retouching, and next, computer assembly, even by clients on small budgets. This focus on small projects is an enduring characteristic of BCP.

Meanwhile, Postscript, an especially powerful page description language, became available on the McIntosh platform; the door was opened to high quality printing directly from desktop computers. At first, this was quite tricky; BCP was a pioneer in educating graphic artists, and trying to bridge the gap between Macs and proprietary high end equipment. BCP wanted desktop publishing to work, not just for the few who had enough money to buy special software from Scitex, but for everybody.

Through the 1990’s, BCP worked with many new technologies: large format printing, digital photography, non- linear digital editing of video, digital asset management, Web presence. Ventures in these areas met with differing degrees of success. Computers offered new and exciting opportunities of wildly varying economic viability, but one thing was certain; there was no going back to the craft of scanning to film and hand image assembly- the business that had launched BCP was dying.

BCP saw the narrowing prospects for prepress. While the company was still financially strong, BCP started buying printing and finishing equipment, and hiring the best craftsmen available. Starting small and growing, BCP reinvented itself as a printer. The result is BCP today: our prepress capabilities include digital photography, scanning, and file translation and archiving, as well as print specific expertise such as trapping and color correction, as well as creating locked files for publications. BCP has chosen to use CREO thermal imaging equipment and Fuji plates in our direct to plate workflow. The reason is simple: on our Komori presses, this provides the highest quality image available. Our pressroom is small but state of the art. We have pegged our future on the 28 inch format- this sheet size is remarkably versatile and economical. Judging by the number of jobs coming into our shop that fit this format, 28 inch is the sweet spot of printing. We have finishing capabilities that include folding, stitching, and trimming.

The next step is mailing. In the past, printers have left mailing to other companies, but it has become increasingly clear that printing and mailing are part of a single workflow, that printing, addressing, list verification and mailing can best be performed under one roof. BCP has added mailing and mail list maintenance to its services.

Twenty years ago, BCP started as three partners striving to make a mark in the community of Baltimore printers. That hasn’t changed- remarkably, through turbulent economic times and huge technological changes, we remain partners and friends. We share a vision of what the craft of printing should be, and what service to our customers should be.