From: Kees Brandenburg (ctb@zeelandnet.nl)
Date: 04/18/03-04:44:16 AM Z
Good news for digital negative printers!
Some months ago I ran into a new transparancy material made by Agfa
and designed for printing large format silkscreen films on inkjet
printers. I asked for samples and was very surprised: it looked
exactly like pictorico and behaved almost the same. Excellent density
and halftone though a little fragile with quad black pigment inks (I
am using MIS FS inks in a Epson 1160).
Recently Agfa improved it and it is marketed now as:
Agfa Selectjet Screen Film for the bulkfilm on rolls.
Agfa CopyJet for sheets in boxes.
CopyJet and SelektJet are identical except for the size (my supplier told me).
Rolls all have 30.5 meter length and start at 61 cm wide (much wider
available too).
Labels on the boxes say it is made in Belgium.
These are my initial observations with CopyJet:
- excelent density and tone, same or better than pictorico
- less fragile with pigment inks than the initial CopyJet I tested
and pictorico.
- cheaper than pictorico (I payed 59 euro / 64 dollar for 100 sheets A4)
- available in all sizes and on 30.5 meter rolls
CopyJet comes in exactly the same boxes as our beloved and regretted
AGFA halftone films, each box contains 100 sheets in a black plastic
envelope. Each sheet has a filmlike top notch to determine the
emulsion side.
The Agfa website doesn't contain info on CopyJet, but there is a page
on Selectjet:
http://graphics.agfa.com/product/CatProd_DisplayPublic.html?id=7017
My printing workflow:
I am using an Epson 1160 with Mis FS pigment inks. I am printing with
the PiezoBW plugin but recently discovered the (free) QuadToneRIP by
Roy Harrington.
http://harrington.com/QuadToneRIP.html
This RIP is a quadtone extension for Gimp-Print and only works on Mac
OS-X and Linux. You have to install Gimp-Print (and Ghostscript)
first, which is also excellent for color printing. After that you
have to install Roy's package.
QuadToneRIP printing curves can be edited. When printing you selekt
them in the driver. Curve editing is a bit complicated. Because the
curve controls the ink laydown of each individual ink (at least in
the 4 color printers) it could theoreticaly be possible to design a
curve that inverts the image when printing. Then you only have to
edit your image and selekt the appropriate output curve (like:
negative for gum) in the print dialog.
I find this RIP gives more control and less printing artefacts then
the Cone driver (PiezoBW). Downside is that it prints very slow.
Another new product on the commercial market ($199) is InkJet Control
http://www.bowhaus.com/inkjetcontrol/
This is a (commercial) control application and an open source print
driver that gives individual inkcontrol even on 6 or 7 color printers
and has an intuïtive interface. Printing engine is based on the same
gimp-print driver (currently macos 9 and classic only).
Kees
-- ------------------------------------------------------------- Kees Brandenburg http://polychrome.nl Workshops alt. photo | Middelburg | Netherlands
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : 05/01/03-11:59:54 AM Z CST