ECRM turns 40 and recalls its OCR and Autokon roots

It says something of the transient nature of the prepress industry that ECRM, currently celebrating its 40th anniversary, can claim to be the largest US manufacturer in the sector, and the oldest still retaining its original brand identity. Founded by three MIT professors and a guy from AP, its name came from the acronym for electronic character reading machinery … and that was just a start. The early OCR machines were followed in the mid 1970s by the laser-based Autokon scanner, which became a defacto for newspaper applications ahead of the desktop digital revolution. In 1983, the company was acquired by Richard Black with William Givens, and moved into a range of imagesetter products, including the early PelBox and ScriptSetter, and went on to brnds such as KnockOut, Stingray, and today’s Mako product lines. As imagesetters moved to being a commodity, the company even sold its gear by telesales, and claims today to be the largest supplier in the world. Come DRUPA 1995, there was a move into CTP, with the company’s AIR 75 running live at the show. The following year, acquisition of holographic scanning innovator Holotek gave it 15 US patents covering scanning components and technologies which it has been able to apply to graphic arts imaging and publishing applications. Violet laser CTP followed in 2002, and has led to a broad Mako product portfolio, to which was added Esko-Graphics’ the polyester CTP business. President and chief executive Rick Black credits not just the company and its people, but its dealer partners. And of coursefounding professors Sam Mason, Bill Schreiber and Don Troxel – all PhDs from Massachusetts Institute of Technology – and Melvin Fennell from Associated Press … who started it all. In its four decades, the Massachusetts-based company has sold and supported more than 5000 CTP devices and 27,000 imagesetters in 110 countries.