Digital Prints

60
Mastering Digital Printing
just a few), but these are either more obscure, more expensive, or too low on the quality
scale, so we won’t be covering them here in any detail.
Naturally, there are different ways to categorize all these technologies. One is by format
size: narrow (or desktop) format is anything under 24 inches in width; wide (or large) format
is everything 24 inches wide or more (this is media size, not the size of the printer).
Another way is by drum versus “plotter” configuration (based on the original CAD plotters
used to produce computer-generated charts and graphics). What I’ve chosen to do,
instead, is to group them by their logical (in my opinion) imaging characteristics. (Note:
products, brands, and models current at the time of this writing.)
Digital Photo Print
Until recently, and apart from the IRIS printing process, photographers who wanted actual
photographic output (reflective or backlit display) produced from their digital files had to
make an intermediate negative or transparency with a film recorder and then use a
conventional enlarger to make the final print. But in 1994, a new type of printer was developed
that could print directly from a digital file without the need for the intermediate
transparency step. The photo processing industry has never looked back.
I break this category down into two groups: wide-format digital photo print and digital
photo process.
Wide-Format Digital Photo Print
This is top-of-the-line, continuous-tone photo output, and you’ll only find the pricey
devices for doing this in photo labs, repro shops, service bureaus, and “imaging centers.”
(See Chapter 10 for more about how to work with outside print providers.) I like the term
“digital photo print;” others use words like “digital C-print” or “laser photo printing,”
although not all devices use lasers.
How Does It Work?
Either using three-color lasers (red, green, blue) or light-emitting diodes (LEDs), these
wide-format printers produce extremely high-resolution prints on conventional, light-sensitive,
color photo paper that’s processed in the normal wet-chemistry photographic manner
(although other processing “back ends” can be used). There is no screening, halftoning,
or dithering of the image.
Italy-based Durst popularized this category of digital printers, and it now has several models
of the Lambda digital laser imager plus other variations including the Theta and the
Zeta printers, each with its own market niche. Using continuous roll feeding, the smallest
(Lambda 76) can print a single image up to 31 inches by 164 feet, and the largest
(Lambda 130/131, used at National Geographic Magazine’s headquarters) prints up to 50
inches by 164 feet in one shot. Even larger sizes can be printed in sections or tiles. Two
resolution options (200 or 400 dpi) yield an apparent resolution of 4000 dpi. (see the
“Apparent Resolution” explanation earlier in this chapter.) For color depth, the input is at
24-bit, output is interpolated to 36-bit using RGB lasers to expose the photographic paper.
There are approximately 800 Lambdas installed around the world.