Digital Prints

10
Mastering Digital Printing
The Revolution Takes Off
By 1993, a mere handful of digital printmaking studios—including Nash Editions (L.A.),
Harvest Productions (Anaheim, California), Cone Editions (Vermont), Adamson Editions
(Washington, D.C.), Digital Pond (San Francisco), and Thunderbird Editions (Clearwater,
Florida)—were busy on both U.S. coasts. All were using IRIS inkjet technology to make fineart
prints for photographers and artists. Soon, there were a dozen similar shops (many set up
by Jon Cone), then many dozen, then scores. Today, there are anywhere from 2,500 to 5,000
professional or commercial printmakers making digital prints for artists the world over.
However, just as important, and the reason many of you are reading this book, is the fact
that there are now many tens of thousands of individual photographers and artists, from
amateurs to pros, who are able to print high-quality images in their own studios, homes,
and offices. No longer constrained by the high costs of traditional printing methods, the
production of “artistic” prints has been put in the hands of the greatest number of people—the
artists and the imagemakers themselves.
The importance of the pioneers of this movement cannot be overstated. They not only
laid the technological foundation for the entire high-quality, digital printing phenomenon,
but even more importantly, they established its identity and gave it a face. These art
revolutionaries provided the essential “proof of concept” that the new process needed
before it could blossom and evolve. They, and those who immediately followed, deserve
the credit for creating an industry. Together, they opened the door to the promise of digital
printing, and the early adopting photographers and artists walked right in. And that
door is swinging wider all the time.
Computers, Art, and Printmaking: A Brief History
1946
The first large-scale, general-purpose digital
computer, the Eniac, is activated at the
University of Pennsylvania.
1950
Mathematician Ben Laposky makes “oscillograph”
images on screen of cathode-ray
tube.
1959
CalComp launches first digital plotter to
output computer images to print.
1965
Computer images begin to be exhibited as
artworks.
1967
E.A.T. (Experiments in Art and
Technology) formed to promote collaborative
efforts between artists and engineers.
C.A.V.S., (Center for Advanced Visual
Studies), founded by Gyorgy Kepes, opens
at M.I.T.
1968
The Machine, as Seen at the End of the
Mechanical Age exhibition at The Museum
of Modern Art, New York.
Some More Beginnings exhibition at the
Brooklyn Museum, New York.
Cybernetic Serendipity exhibition at the
Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.
1971
Art and Technology exhibition at the Los
Angeles County Museum of Art.
1973
First computer “painting” software created
at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center by
Richard Shoup.
1976
IBM introduces the 6640, the first
continuous-flow inkjet system.
1977
Applicon announces first color
continuous-flow inkjet printer.
Siemens launches first piezoelectric inkjet
printer.
1981
IBM introduces its first personal computer.
Canon introduces its Bubble Jet thermal
print technology.
1984
Apple introduces the Macintosh line of
computers.
HP releases first thermal inkjet printer
(2225 ThinkJet).