I routinely use a Stylewriter ll to make positive prints (on paper) of words
and occasionally drawings (from MacPaint) that I then contact to lithofilm. (My roomate
uses them to shoot silk screen masks) Good paper makes crisp sharp edges,
cheap paper has a ragged edge (which is sometimes more desireable).
If you work very high contrast they can be tiled to make larger images
(the tape is not obvious in high contrast, and it can be touched up)
I like to work with small type within a 2 1/4 square, which I contact, then use in
the enlarger same as a negative for thenext generation. I haven't tried it with a
scanned photo.
Kinko's (or most copy places) will xerox onto acetate. Depending on
the skill of the operator, and the state of the toner you can get marginal
to satisfactory copies for contact printing. If you like to work with
degraded images (that "weathered" look) this works fine.
A quick check to see what happens when I run a sheet of frosted acetate through
my printer shows that the ink does not dry evenly, and it bleeds.
I don't think this would be appropriate for making negatives. (Do
they make quick-dry ink for inkjet printers?)
Pat
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Pat Zura <pat@sophie.logician.com>