All-Ink.com, a company of graphic design services and printing online, has decided to improve its online marketing strategy targeting small businesses with a new tool for creating custom Web sites.
"We asked, and survey our customers regularly and we know there is a growing demand for electronic products to help our clients and small business market," said Janet Holian, executive vice president and general manager of marketing for the company.
Also, Holin added: "We believe that a site is as important as a business card and our objective was to perform a design as easy and cost effective design and purchasing a All-Ink business card. For this reason we explore different ways to develop custom web sites best meeting the needs of our customers and based on our experience and knowledge by developing a robust online tool.
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Wednesday, 14 October 2009
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Naturally, there are different ways to categorize all these technologies. One is by formatsize: narrow (or desktop) format is anything under 24 inches in width; wide (or large) for-mat is everything 24 inches wide or more (this is media size, not the size of the printer).Another way is by drum versus “plotter” configuration (based on the original CAD plot-ters used to produce computer-generated charts and graphics). What I’ve chosen to do,instead, is to group them by their logical (in my opinion) imaging characteristics. (Note:products, brands, and models current at the time of this writing.)
Digital Photo PrintUntil recently, and apart from the IRIS printing process, photographers who wanted actualphotographic output (reflective or backlit display) produced from their digital files had tomake an intermediate negative or transparency with a film recorder and then use aconventional enlarger to make the final print. But in 1994, a new type of printer was devel-oped that could print directly from a digital file without the need for the intermediatetransparency step. The photo processing industry has never looked back.
I break this category down into two groups: wide-format digital photo print and digitalphoto process .
Wide-Format Digital Photo PrintThis is top-of-the-line, continuous-tone photo output, and you’ll only find the priceydevices for doing this in photo labs, repro shops, service bureaus, and “imaging centers.”(See Chapter 10 for more about how to work with outside print providers.) I like the term“digital photo print;” others use words like “digital C-print” or “laser photo printing,”although not all devices use lasers.
How Does It Work?Either using three-color lasers (red, green, blue) or light-emitting diodes (LEDs), thesewide-format printers produce extremely high-resolution prints on conventional, light-sen-sitive, color photo paper that’s processed in the normal wet-chemistry photographic man-ner (although other processing “back ends” can be used). There is no screening, halftoning,or dithering of the image.
Italy-based Durst popularized this category of digital printers, and it now has several mod-els of the Lambda digital laser imager plus other variations including the Theta and theZeta printers, each with its own market niche. Using continuous roll feeding, the small-est (Lambda 76) can print a single image up to 31 inches by 164 feet, and the largest(Lambda 130/131, used at National Geographic Magazine’s headquarters) prints up to 50inches by 164 feet in one shot. Even larger sizes can be printed in sections or tiles. Tworesolution options (200 or 400 dpi) yield an apparent resolution of 4000 dpi. (see the“Apparent Resolution” explanation earlier in this chapter.) For color depth, the input is at24-bit, output is interpolated to 36-bit using RGB lasers to expose the photographic paper.There are approximately 800 Lambdas installed around the world.
The Océ LightJet 430 has a maximum output size of 50 × 120 inches, and the newer 500XL
model can go up to 76 inches wide (the older 5000 model prints to a maximum of 49 × 97
inches). The spatial/addressable resolution is either 200 dpi or 300 dpi with an apparent res-
olution of 4000 dpi. As with the Lambda, the input is 24-bit, interpolated to 36-bit output
color space (12-bit per RGB color). The LightJet uses three RGB lasers for exposure, and a
unique 270-degree internal drum platen for media handling (the media is held stationary
within the drum while a spinning mirror directs laser light to the photographic material).
Another high-end, large-format printer is the ZBE Chromira, which uses LED lights instead
of lasers. The print is processed in normal RA-4 chemistry through a separate processor.
There are two models and two sizes, 30 or 50 inches wide, with no limit on length. Yielding
300 ppi resolution (425 ppi “visual resolution” with ZBE’s proprietary Resolution
Enhancement Technology), this is another expensive piece of hardware (but less costly than
a LightJet or Lambda), so you’ll find one only at a photo lab or service bureau.
Digital Photo Process (Digital Minilab)
Digital photo printing isn’t limited to high-end, large-format devices. In fact, you may not
realize it, but most photo labs and photo minilabs today use the same technology to print
everything from Grandma’s snapshots to professional prints. These are the ubiquitous “dig-
ital minilabs” found at many photo retailers, drugstores, and big-box merchandisers like
Wal-Mart and Costco.
How Does It Work?
Digital minilabs made by Agfa, Noritsu, and Fuji are the standard at many photofinishing
labs and the new online processors described in Chapter 10. The Fuji Frontier (see Figure
2.18) was the first digital minilab used for the mass retail market. It’s a complete system that
takes input from conventional film, digital camera, digital media, or prints (with onboard
flatbed scanner) and outputs to digital media or prints via wet-chemistry processing. There
are several different models of the Fuji Frontier, and the largest output is 10 × 15-inch prints.
Digital Photo Print: For What and for Whom?
Photographers like the output from digital photo print/photo process because it looks like
a real photograph. In fact, it is a real photograph! Larry Berman, a photographer who is a
regular on the art show circuit, has most of his prints done on a Noritsu digital printer at
his local Costco. Berman pays only $2.99 for a 12 × 18 print that can also yield two 8 ×
10s. The costs for the wide-format variety (Lambda, LightJet, Chromira) are comparable
to wet-darkroom prints from a custom lab, but the digital versions will soon be replacing
the traditional ones as their materials become extinct.
The primary drawbacks with digital photo print are that paper choices are limited, and you
can’t do this yourself because the devices are much too expensive for self-printers to own.
Dye Sublimation
Dye sublimation (also known as “dye diffusion thermal transfer” and typically called “dye sub”)
is for high-quality photo and digital snapshot printing (and pre-press proofing). Dye-sub print-
ing has a loyal following among some photographers who prefer it to inkjet printing.
How Does It Work?
With dye sub a single-color ribbon containing dye is heated by a special heating head that
runs the width of the paper. This head has thousands of tiny elements that, when they
heat up, vaporize (“sublimate”) the dye at that location. The gaseous dye spot is then
absorbed into the surface of the paper. Since the paper receives separate cyan, magenta,
yellow, and sometimes black passes of the dye ribbons to make up the final image, the
resulting layering of color provides a smooth, seamless image. Photo dye-sub printers only
have 300 or so dpi resolution, but they can deliver continuous tone images because of this
layering and the way the dyes diffuse or “cloud” into the paper. Some dye subs add a pro-
tective layer (a clear UV laminate) as a fourth and final step after the single-color passes.
Fuji Pictrography
Many top photo labs and retouch studios, especially those involved with the fashion and beauty indus-
tries, use the Fuji Pictrography printer (models 3500 and 4500) for high-quality prints and proofs, also
known as Fujix prints. Pictrography uses a unique, single-pass, four-step process (see Figure 2.19). A sheet
of photosensitive “donor” paper is exposed to laser diodes (LD). A small amount of water is applied to
create the dye image on the donor paper with heat. The dye image is then transferred to the “receiving”
paper with a combination of heat and pressure. Finally, the receiving paper, with its transferred dyes, is
peeled off and separated from the used donor paper. This is not photographic paper, although Fuji claims
the equivalent image permanence. Only special Fuji paper can be used. Two resolutions (267 dpi and
400 dpi) are available with a maximum paper size of 12×18 inches (4500 model only).
Figure 2.19 The Fuji Pictrography and its unique four-step printing process.
Courtesy of Fuji Photo Film USA, Inc.
Electrophotography (Color Copy/Color Laser)
Also called “xerography” (“xeros” for dry, “graphos” for picture), electrophotography
involves the use of dry toners and laser printers or printer/copiers. (The liquid-toner
version or “digital offset” was described in the last chapter.)
How Does It Work?
Many color lasers use hair-thin lasers to etch a latent image onto four rotating drums, one
each for the four printing colors (see Figure 2.20). The drums attract electrically charged,
Electrophotography: For What and for Whom?
Traditionally used as proof printers by pre-press departments and production printing
operations, color laser printers are becoming more short-run printing presses in quick-
print shops as well as businesses. They are also used as primary color output devices in
graphic arts departments and design studios, and now, by artists—especially photogra-
phers. Indiana photographer Seth Rossman likes this type of output. “For photographers,
it’s an almost perfect medium. I use it in continuous-tone mode, which gives it more of a
dithered effect, so no dots.”
Electrophotographic printing is fast and reasonable, with 8x10 prints under $1.00 at many
retailers, and images can be printed on a small range of substrates including matte paper
and commercial printing stocks. “If you want top-quality photo prints from a color laser
printer,” says photographer Phillip Buzard, “the paper must be very smooth and very white.”
The main disadvantages of electrophotography are the limited maximum output size (usu-
ally 12x18 inches) and the high initial cost of the machines if you’re self-printing. The
image has a slightly raised surface when viewed at an angle, especially on glossy or cast-
coated stock, but the colors can be very bright and saturated. Depending on the type of
screening and resolution used, prints sometimes have a lined or halftone-dot look (see
Figure 2.17 earlier in this chapter).
Inkjet
For the most flexibility in terms of choices of printer brands and types, inks, papers, sizes,
and third-party hardware and software support, you can’t go wrong with inkjet. There are
photo printers, proof and comp printers, you name it. As far as quality goes, I’ve seen high-
resolution desktop, thermal and piezo inkjet prints on glossy and semi-gloss paper that
rival—even surpass—any traditional photographic print. In addition, certain inkjet print
combinations exceed all other standard, color-photo print processes in terms of projected
print longevity or permanence.
Simply described, inkjets use nozzles to spray millions of tiny droplets of ink onto a sur-
face, typically paper. While earlier devices had an obvious digital signature, the newer print-
ers are so much further along that many inkjet prints can now be considered continuous
tone for all practical purposes.
There are two main types of inkjet technologies: continuous flow and drop-on-demand,
which is further subdivided into thermal, piezoelectric, and solid ink (see Table 2.3). (We’ll
go into more detail about inkjet printing in Part II.)
Continuous Flow
Although this is the original technology that started the high-quality, digital-printing boom,
continuous flow has become much less popular over the years. The most famous example is
the IRIS printer, which is no longer manufactured although there are many of these printers
still in use. The IRIS has been replaced with the ITNH company’s IXIA, pronounced “zia.”
How Does It Work?
A single printhead moves along a rod above the paper that is wrapped around a rotating drum.
The printhead encloses four glass nozzles (one for each of the printing colors: cyan, magenta,yellow, and black) that are each connected to a bottle of translucent dye ink. In each head is
a tiny vibrating piezoelectric crystal that pushes out a million ink droplets per second. As the
ionized ink droplets exit the nozzle, some receive an electrostatic charge; some don’t. The
charged ink droplets are deflected away from the drum and recycled. But the uncharged
ones—our heroes—pass through the deflector and end up hitting the paper to form the image.
Although the IRIS/IXIA has a maximum resolution of only 300 dpi, its apparent resolution
is more like 1800–2000 dpi due to its variable dot size and overlapping dot densities.
Continuous Flow: For What and for Whom?
The main advantage the IRIS/IXIA is the wide range of media accepted plus the high
image quality and the ability to produce deep, rich blacks. When printed on textured fine-
art paper, these prints have a beautiful velvety look, but the slow print speed (30–60 min-
utes per print) plus the time-consuming maintenance and manual paper mounting have
reduced demand for these expensive ($45,000) drum machines.
Drop-on-Demand
This is where most of the inkjet action is. The reason it’s called drop-on-demand is because
only the ink droplets that are needed to form the image are produced, one at a time, in
contrast to continuous-flow where most of the ink that’s sprayed is not used. The three
main categories of drop-on-demand, inkjet printing are: thermal, piezo, and solid ink.
Thermal
How Does It Work? This process, which was invented in 1981 by Canon (“Bubble Jet
Printer”), is based on the heating of a resister inside the printhead chamber (see Figure
2.21). As the resister heats up, a vapor bubble surrounded by ink is formed, and the
increase in pressure pushes an ink droplet out of the nozzle in a printhead. After the bub-
ble collapses, more ink is drawn in from the ink reservoir, and the cycle repeats.
Thermal Inkjet: For What and for Whom? The largest number of inkjet printers sold
in the world today fall into this category. They’re affordable and widely available with up
to excellent image quality that rivals photographic prints.
Piezoelectric
How Does It Work? When certain kinds of crystals are subjected to an electric field, they
undergo mechanical stress, i.e., they expand or contract. This is called the “piezoelectric
effect,” and it’s the key to this popular brand of digital printing, called “piezo” for short
(and not to be confused with “piezography,” which is described in Chapter 11). When the
crystalline material deflects inside the confined chamber of the printhead, the pressure
increases, and a tiny ink droplet shoots out toward the paper (see Figure 2.23). The return-
ing deflection refills the chamber with more ink.
Both the wide-format and desktop models of piezo printers come only in plotter versions
with the printhead assembly going back and forth over the paper to create the image. Piezo
printheads are typically single units with all colors included; they are a permanent part of
the machine and usually need no replacing.
Examples of piezoelectric inkjet printers include— Wide-format: Epson Stylus Pro 4000,
7600 and 9600; Roland Hi-Fi JET Pro-II, Mimaki JV4, and Mutoh Falcon II. Desktop:
Epson Stylus C84, Stylus Photo R800 and 2200.
Piezo Inkjet: For What and for Whom? In the desktop category, there’s only one piezo
player, and that’s Epson. With six- to seven-color inks in dye and pigment versions, these
are the printers that have historically owned a significant share of the photographer-
artist, self-printing inkjet market. Other manufacturers join Epson in the wide-format
category. As with thermal, piezo inkjet printers are widely available and produce up to
excellent image quality.
Solid Ink
How Does It Work? Formerly called “phase change,” solid ink technology is the inkjet
oddball. The Xerox Phaser 8400 (Xerox is the only real player in this category) is a true
piezoelectric inkjet, but there are several surprises. First, the pigmented colors come in the
form of solid blocks of resin-based inks, although the ink still ends up as a liquid after
heating (hence the term “phase change”). These printers also have the affectionate nick-
name “crayon printers,” from the resemblance of the ink sticks to children’s crayons.
And instead of a smaller, reciprocating printhead assembly, there is a single printhead that
extends nearly the width of the paper with 88 nozzles in each of four rows. The same piezo
substance we’ve already learned about shoots the ink droplets out as before, but in another
twist, the ink doesn’t go onto the paper; instead, the ink goes onto a turning offset drum
that is kept warm so the ink doesn’t solidify. The drum then transfers (in a single pass) the
still-molten ink to the paper under pressure to form the image.
Solid Ink: For What and for Whom? With ink that sits on top of the paper creating a
definite relief effect, the colors are brilliant and sharp since the ink drops don’t spread or
bleed. However, even at 2400 dpi, “near-photographic” might better describe the image
quality. Solid ink inkjet is fast, it prints on a variety of media, and it yields highly satu-
rated images that some photographers, designers, and illustrators love. Disadvantages
include limited output size (letter/legal) and relatively poor image permanence (Xerox
claims only “a year or more” with office lighting, “over several years” with dark storage).
With all this new, accumulated information about pixels, hardware, and printing tech-
nology under our belts, let’s move our attention to what it takes to create and process a
digital image.
Printing software allows you to access and interface with your printer. Before you can print from a drawing, painting, image-editing, or page-layout program, the printer software program must be correctly installed onto the computer, usually from the CD that comes with your printer. (Photo-direct printers that take media cards don’t require computers, and the printer software can be accessed directly from the printer itself).
Every print device requires a particular “printer driver” for the specific operating system of the computer. (Note that it’s your computer’s operating system that you match to the printer, not the software application.) You must have the right driver for your printer in order to support all the printer’s features (paper selection, quality level, and so on) and to tell the print engine how to correctly render the image’s digital data. If you change your operating system, you may need to install an updated printer driver, which you can normally download from the printer-manufacturer’s website.
When you select “print” from your application’s File menu, what you get is a series of menu screens and dialog boxes for that particular printer driver. If you have a PostScript printing device, you need to use a PostScript driver and select it.
There are three common ways to produce continuous-tone images such as photographs with any printing method, whether analog or digital: with halftone screening, contone imaging, or alternative screening (dithering). All three have roles in the digital printing process, and each printer manufacturer uses its own method and guards it closely. This is the real Secret Sauce of digital printing.
Halftone Screening
Since the late-19th century, continuous-tone (or “contone”) images have been rendered by the process of “halftoning.” Since smooth transitions of grays or colors are impossible to print with analog or even digital devices (remember, all computers and digital printers use binary information that is either on or off, one or zero), images that use halftoning have to be broken down into tiny little dots or spots (I use the two words interchangeably). The darker portions of the image have larger spots with less space between them; the lighter areas have smaller spots with more space to reveal the paper underneath.At the right viewing distance, our brains then merge all the spots together to give us the impression that what we’re seeing is one smooth image. (Hold the page with the apple farther and farther away from you to see.) It’s just a trick—an optical illusion.
By knowing all this you can affect the coarseness or smoothness of printed images in a number of ways. With digital printing, depending on the capabilities of the device and the software used to drive it, you can vary the number of spots, the size of the spot, the closeness of the spots to each other, and the arrangement of the individual color spots that make up the final image.
While old-school halftoning utilized the process of photographing images through glass or film screens (hence the terming “screening”), most of the halftones these days are made digitally. These amplitude-modulated (AM) screening halftones are created on digital devices that place dots that are either round, elliptical, or rectangular on a grid-like cell made up of little squares. Each halftone dot is actually made up of clusters of printer dots. The more printer dots in a cell, the bigger the halftone dot, and the darker that cell appears. Also, the more cell squares (the bigger the grid), the more shades of gray or color available.
For example, a two-by-two cell can yield five possible tones (the paper is one) as follows
1. no dots, all you see is the paper
2. one dot, 25% tone
3. two dots, 50% tone
4. three dots, 75% tone
5. four dots, 100% tone (solid, no paper showing)
Commercial digital printing systems, imagesetters, and some binary, digital desktop print- ers such as color and B&W lasers use digital halftoning as part or all of their image-ren- dering methods.
Contone Imaging
Digital continuous-tone or contone imaging, most clearly seen in digital photoprinting and dye sublimation devices, works differently. Image pixels are still involved, but instead of using halftoning as a middleman to break the various tones in an image apart, contone devices translate the pixel information directly through the printer to the paper. As the image is being rendered, the printer is, in essence, asking each image pixel, “which color and how much of it?” Therefore, the more pixels or the higher the bit depth, the better the image. Because the printed image is made up of overlapping dyes of each primary color with no spaces between them, the color transitions are very smooth and the resulting images are very photorealistic.
Alternative Screening (Dithering)
Certain branches of digital printing, specifically inkjet and electrophotography, now use a relatively new screening type:frequency modulated (FM) screening or stochastic screening to produce near- or at-continuous-tone images where the dots are smaller and more irregular than halftone dots. Perfectly shaped, regularly spaced halftone dots are replaced with more randomly shaped, irregularly placed ones. If you know what a commercial mezzotint screen looks like, you’re not too far off.
HP, for example, combines halftoning with what it calls PhotoREt Color Layering Technology on many of its desktop inkjets. PhotoREt layers the color dots on top of each other and dithers them with error diffusion, which is a common dithering method (others include ordered-matrix dithering and threshold dithering). Error diffusion means that the error in creating a specific color—say green, which has to be made up of the only colors the printer has available, primarily for green: yellow and cyan—is spread to the adjacent dots. If one is too green, the next one over is made to be less green. And so on. If you stand back and look at the print, it all balances out, and what you see is “green.” (Note that there is no green ink in 99.9 percent of all inkjet printers; Canon’s i9900 is the lone desktop exception at the time of this writing. All the green—or any of the other colors of the rainbow—must come from a visual blending of primary colors that the printers do have.)
Epson employs its own proprietary algorithms (an algorithm is the mathematical set of instructions the printer software uses to control and precisely place the ink droplets) for what it calls AcuPhoto Halftoning, actually a type of error-diffusion-type dithering.
Canon uses what it calls Precision Color Distribution Technology for its dot layering technique to ensure uniform color. Moving away from inkjets, the Xerox Phaser 7750 color laser printer uses a combination of digital halftoning and a special dithering pattern to render the image.
Why is all this talk about dithers and halftones important? Because the type of screen rendering will partially determine the “look” of an image when printed using that particular screening or halftoning technology. This is a big part of what makes up a print’s “digital signature.”
When you get experienced enough, you will be able to spot the differences between the specific types of digital output. And you can make your purchase or service choices accordingly.
The bottom line is that when you’re at the upper end of digital printing quality, including inkjet, you’ve pretty much entered the world of continuous-tone imaging. The dots touch with no space between them, and the four or six (or more) colors are layered next to or on top of each other to blend together and form a smooth image. The dividing line between continuous-tone and screened images, at least with high-quality, 8-bit digital printing, is disappearing.
The ability of the human eye to distinguish fine detail is called visual acuity, and it is directly related to distance. As you move farther away from the visual source, you reach a point where you no longer see the detail, and everything merges together. This can be determined scientifically by using alternating black-and-white lines of a specified width and then measuring the angle made from the eye to these lines at the maximum resolvable distance. It has been shown that the visual acuity of a normal eye with 20/20 vision is somewhere between 30 seconds of arc (when lighting is “ideal”) and one minute of arc (when the lighting is “ordinary”). This is the maximum visual resolution possible for most humans.
From this information, all kinds of interesting formulas [c = 2 × d × tan(RADIAN ANGLE SYMBOL ÷ 2)] and conclusions can be drawn (see Table 2.2). One is that at any given viewing distance, you gain nothing by having higher resolution than the maximum resolving power of the eye because no finer details can be perceived. This is the upper limit, so there’s no point going beyond that.
However, things are not so simple. These resolving power charts are based on high contrasting, black-and-white lines or letters (see illustration above and think of the chart at your eye doctor’s office). The images that most of us print are anything but that. We have complex patterns of dots or device pixels, overlapping dots, and all the rest. So how does Table 2.2’s “details per inch” relate to the dots per inch of inkjet printing? It is generally believed that printer resolution (dpi) must exceed maximum visual resolution (“depi”) by a significant amount, on the order of double, triple, or more.
Plus, as digital imaging writer and publisher Wayne Cosshall explains it, there are other issues like presentation. If you print on fine art or textured paper, you could get away with a lower resolution because the paper’s texture will create its own detail and somewhat fool the eye. Also, if you frame a print behind glass that lowers the contrast of the print a little, so again, you can get away with less print resolution.
The formula numbers give you a place to start, but your own experience and your own style of printing and displaying will determine which printer resolutions will work best for you.
This entire concept of viewing distance and the eye’s maximum resolving power was brought home to me in dramatic fashion when I visited well-known documentary and fine-art photographer Joel Meyerowitz at his studio in New York City. Meyerowitz had just started experimenting with in-house inkjet printing, and he wanted to see how it compared to traditional C-prints, which he was used to getting from the top photo labs in New York.
He and I both analyzed two 11 × 14-inch prints made of the same image he had photographed in Tuscany (see Figure 2.10). Using a loupe (magnifier), I could see the difference between them.
The cloudy smoothness of the C-print and the discrete dots of the HP Designjet 130 print. At first I was discouraged, but then Meyerowitz had me put the loupe away and view both prints from a normal viewing distance. Voilá! The inkjet print was beautiful and actually superior. The colors were better differentiated and richer, and there was an overall sharpness that surpassed the traditional lab print. “The inkjet print is more alive,” Meyerowitz enthused. “It’s just plain better, and I’ve been looking at color prints for more than 30 years.”
The theory worked: When viewed at a normal distance, the inkjet dots had merged into one continuous-tone image.