Digital Prints

8
Making a Great
Inkjet Print
I can’t give you instant, hard-earned experience in the digital trenches, but I can illuminate
the key steps—and pitfalls—of the digital printing process. However, before you can
start printing, you need the right front-end system. If you’re hoping to set up a printmaking
studio—on whatever scale—read on.
System Setups
The tools of a digital artist—besides curiosity, thought, feeling, and imagination—include
the hardware and software that make it possible to create, process, and, ultimately, output
digital prints. In addition to providing a few words about each major equipment category,
I will also show you the actual setups of two artists: photographer Larry Berman’s PC
Digital Darkroom and digital artist Ileana’s Mac Digital Studio.
Healthy Hardware: Basic Equipment Setups
Just like socialites in Palm Beach who can never be too rich or too thin, digital artists can
never have too much digital horsepower or too much disk space. It’s not the printers themselves
(if outputting to a desktop printer) that require it; even the newest inkjet printers
need only a basic setup. But when it comes to the large image files that photographers and
artists process and inevitably end up with, more is definitely better.