DanPhoto@aol.com
Fri, 28 May 1999 15:32:32 -0400 (EDT)
The Symbolic Sciences Lightjet is a terrific printer. In fact, the color
calibration print that comes with the second edition of my book, "Making
Digital Negatives for Contact Printing," was produced on a Lightjet. Take
a loupe to the print and you see a beautiful "photographic" look.
Good operators say that resolutions for lightjet output should be above
200 ppi for best output, but they add that they've seen files as low as
100ppi produce good prints. Yes, indeed the resolution requirements are
lower than for imagesetter negatives, particularly those using a
linescreen which is less efficient (per ppi) in rendering detail than a
stochastic negative.
Keep in mind the issue of cost. Many labs quote prices of $15-$25 for an
8 x 10 print. Considering that they usually charge 20% to 50% more for
output to the Duraclear or Duratrans material (what you'd use for
negatives), and you're starting to talk real money for each neg.
On the other hand, yesterday I got back from my service bureau six
imagesetter negatives that cost a total of $28. That's an attractive
price to a do-it-on-a-shoestring guy like me!
Another issue for UV printers is stability. Remember that the Lightjet
"image" is a dye cloud structure, whereas an imagesetter negative is
silver-based. Some accelerated aging tests might be a good idea on the
Lightjet output before committing lots of time and output to that
material.
It will be interesting to see how this changing technology makes our
traditional printing easier and better! And as Lightjet output prices
fall, it offers a real alternative for contact printers!
Dan
In your email you stated...
>From: beakman@netcom.com (Beakman)
>Reply-to: alt-photo-process-l@skyway.usask.ca
>To: alt-photo-process-l@skyway.usask.ca
>Many people e-mail me asking for a good source for digital negatives. I
>was just in L.A. yesterday visiting with Muse-X (www.epsdigital.com).
>They can make digital negs for platinum printing using their LightJet
>5000. Though I have not seen or tried these negs myself, they should be
>very much like continous tone negs -- i.e. the LightJet does not use a
>linescreen. Also, I think you'd be able to get by with smaller image
>files. You can call them at: 213.874.6141 ask for Dave Luckenbill and
>tell him that David Fokos sent you.
>
>Best of luck,
>David Fokos
>
>p.s. their website says that they will actually make platinum prints, but
>this is a mistake, they don't.
>
>
>
>
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>Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 10:37:28 -0700 (PDT)
>From: Beakman <beakman@netcom.com>
>Subject: here's a source for digital negatives
>To: alt-photo-process-l@skyway.usask.ca
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