Digital Prints

What About Type?
Any type or text that’s part of a bitmapped image is no different than the rest of that image, and it will
print with the same resolution of the image file. (Note: while Photoshop versions 6 and later support clean,
vector type, you can’t print it that way without first going through a PostScript printer or interpreter, or a
file conversion to PDF format and printing from Adobe Acrobat (see more about PostScript and PDFs in
Chapter 11). Although other factors such as paper surface quality and the kind of printing technology used
can definitely have an impact, it’s the printer’s resolution—addressable, not apparent—that mainly determines
the quality of the printed, bitmapped type. A high dpi (dots per inch) will generally yield higherquality
type with smoother edges while a low dpi produces type with ragged edges (see Figure 2.9).
Figure 2.9 Printer resolution affects the type quality. Here, type was scanned in Bitmap mode to show the
differences.
If you’re printing from a drawing or page-layout program, the rules change somewhat. Adobe Illustrator
and InDesign (version 1.5 and later) don’t require a freestanding PostScript interpreter for good-looking
type. Other programs like Quark XPress need PostScript font support from a utility program like Adobe
Type Manager (ATM) if your operating system doesn’t already have PostScript font support built in. In
any of these cases, if you’re printing through an inkjet’s native printer driver, the type quality will still
vary with the resolution of the printer. However, as soon as you bring in a PostScript interpreter, things
improve significantly.
Chapter 2 ■ Understanding Digital Printing 49