> On Thu, 19 Sep 1996, Beakman wrote:
> > I have found service bureaus and printing companies who will make
> > negatives for me for $20 - $25.
>
> David, A lay question if I may: What would you call the output from a
> Linotronic Imagesetter? I mean I know it's a negative, but does it have
> another name?
Technically what I recieve is called a halftone film negative. The
"halftone" part signifies that it was made with a "linescreen". A
linescreen takes the image, which starts out life with many distinct
shades of gray, and it converts that image into a very fine pattern of
dots. In lighter areas the dots are smaller, in darker areas they are
larger. This same process is used to print photos in newspapers,
magazines and books.
If you were to use a loupe or magnifying glass to look at the printed
image, you would see that it was really made up of tiny dots. The
difference between newspaper photos and my platinum prints is twofold.
First, I use *much* finer dots -- dots so small, you can't see them with
the naked eye -- 300 per linear inch, in fact. Second, I don't print
with ink (obviously) which has a nasty tendency to spread once it's been
applied to the paper.
The key point about imagesetters is that they cannot output a continous
tone negative -- that is, they can only make black dots on film (this is
one reason their film output is inexpensive). They can't change the
intensity of the laser which exposes the film, so it's black or nothing.
That's why you need to use a linescreen, otherwise you're picture will
come out looking like kodalith. If you make the dots fine enough, it will
appear as continous tone to the unaided eye. After all, regular film is
really "digital" at it's most basic level too -- you either have silver on
the the film or you don't. There is no grey silver. Darker areas just
have more little specks of silver clumping together.
Dan Burkholder uses a slightly different method. He doesn't use a
linescreen. Instead, he uses a "bitmap". The bitmap is prety much the
same as a linescreen, except that rather than using a regular pattern of
dots, the "dots" -- which in this case look like little squiggly worms --
are random. Think about a mezzotint -- sort of like that, but on a much
finer scale.
> Also, when you say cost is $20 to $25, is that
for 8x10? > What would 16 by 20 cost? Or does it do 16x20?
You could probably get a 16x20 for $25 or $30. The cost will vary
greatly from one place to the next -- it's really pretty arbitrary. I
got quotes which ranged from $19 to $100 for the same thing! The people
at Evercolor charge about $140! (though in all fairness, they do provide
some extra calibration service -- but it's still too high for me).
Best regards,
David