About minilabs , Lightjet, and others

[Jytzel]

Hello,

I want to understand more about how Pictrography printers, minilab and
Lightjet printers work. What is the exact mechanism for each? And what
are the differences between minililabs like Fuji Frontier and Lightjet
printers?
How can minilabs scan positives and negatives in such a short time and
still capture all the details on the original? And at what resolution
(ppi) do are they (minilabs) usually set Is it better in this case to
have my originals drum scanned and sent to a minilab for printing?
what is the optimal resolution then?
I know that Lightjet utilises RGB laser beam; would it be a better
choice to have my drum scans in RGB mode instead of CMYK to avoid
unnecessary re-conversion to RGB while printing?

And what
Thanks in advance but I was looking for any educational information
about printing technologies but there doesn't seem to be a single
site!!

Jytzel

 

[Bill Hilton]

From: (e-mail address removed) (Jytzel)

I want to understand more about how Pictrography printers, minilab and
Lightjet printers work. What is the exact mechanism for each?

Here's the product site for the LightJet 5000, poke around on it or contact
Cymbolic Sciences for more info if you need it ...
http://www.cymbolic.com/products/lightjet5000.html ... you should be able to
find similar info on the Frontier with a Google search.

I know that Lightjet utilises RGB laser beam; would it be a better
choice to have my drum scans in RGB mode instead of CMYK to avoid
unnecessary re-conversion to RGB while printing?

It requires an RGB file for input, which is normally how your drum scans are
generated anyway. No need to go into CMYK at all unless you're doing prepress
work.

Thanks in advance but I was looking for any educational information
about printing technologies but there doesn't seem to be a single
site!!

There's a good overview in Harald Johnson's book "Mastering Digital Printing".

Also try these sites ...

http://www.wide-format-printers.org/index.php3
http://www.large-format-printers.org/index.html
http://www.fineartgicleeprinters.org/index.html

Bill

 

[Canongirly]

Hello,

I want to understand more about how Pictrography printers, minilab and
Lightjet printers work. What is the exact mechanism for each? And what
are the differences between minililabs like Fuji Frontier and Lightjet
printers?
How can minilabs scan positives and negatives in such a short time and
still capture all the details on the original? And at what resolution
(ppi) do are they (minilabs) usually set Is it better in this case to
have my originals drum scanned and sent to a minilab for printing?
what is the optimal resolution then?
I know that Lightjet utilises RGB laser beam; would it be a better
choice to have my drum scans in RGB mode instead of CMYK to avoid
unnecessary re-conversion to RGB while printing?

And what
Thanks in advance but I was looking for any educational information
about printing technologies but there doesn't seem to be a single
site!!

Jytzel

Fuji Frontier blurb at http://www.fujifilm.co.uk/minilabs/

Agfa blurb at
http://www.agfa.com/photo/products/labequipment/minilab/dlab/dlab1/

My understanding is that the likes of Agfa, Durst, Fuji, Konica and Kodaks
minilab machines use either L E D arrays or lasers to expose the paper as it
passes through a gate much like film passing the shutter gate in a cine
camera.

Similarly to inkjets these machines expose in strips, very quickly and very
accurately.

 

[Silvio Manuel]

Hello,

I want to understand more about how Pictrography printers, minilab and
Lightjet printers work. What is the exact mechanism for each? And what
are the differences between minililabs like Fuji Frontier and Lightjet
printers?
How can minilabs scan positives and negatives in such a short time and
still capture all the details on the original? And at what resolution
(ppi) do are they (minilabs) usually set Is it better in this case to
have my originals drum scanned and sent to a minilab for printing?
what is the optimal resolution then?
I know that Lightjet utilises RGB laser beam; would it be a better
choice to have my drum scans in RGB mode instead of CMYK to avoid
unnecessary re-conversion to RGB while printing?

And what
Thanks in advance but I was looking for any educational information
about printing technologies but there doesn't seem to be a single
site!!

Jytzel

You can request literature from Durst if you pretend to be a serious lab
buyer, however then you have to endure multiple sales calls regarding your
"future" 250K purpose.

Basically the RGB is the file type you want always with these machines,
CMYK typically is only used in offset.

Lambda & Light jet only require 200 ppi files which is very shallow scanning
most labs will down size high depth scans for output on these machines.
Realistically for output even on offset you only need 600 dpi at intended size. All else is BS.
Keep that in mind. The lambda and light jet use a mathmatical formula that smooths tonality for each given color
which ultimately produces a continous tone print.

 

[Raphael Bustin]

You can request literature from Durst if you pretend to be a serious lab
buyer, however then you have to endure multiple sales calls regarding your
"future" 250K purpose.

Basically the RGB is the file type you want always with these machines,
CMYK typically is only used in offset.

Lambda & Light jet only require 200 ppi files which is very shallow scanning
most labs will down size high depth scans for output on these machines.
Realistically for output even on offset you only need 600 dpi at intended size. All else is BS.
Keep that in mind. The lambda and light jet use a mathmatical formula that smooths tonality for each given color
which ultimately produces a continous tone print.

LightJet has a native contone resolution of 305 dpi.

Durst Epsilon's native resolution is 254 dpi.

Chromira uses LEDs rather than lasers, Lightjet and
Durst use lasers.

All of these machines want RGB files. As stated in one
of the other posts -- there's almost no reason nowadays
for generating a CMYK file in the scanner.


rafe b.
http://www.terrapinphoto.com

 

[Jytzel]

most labs will down size high depth scans for output on these machines.

But to what ppi at the intended size? less than 200ppi?

Realistically for output even on offset you only need 600 dpi at intended size. All else is BS.

Sorry I don't get it, you mean 600 ppi at the intended size??

Keep that in mind. The lambda and light jet use a mathmatical formula that smooths tonality for each given color
which ultimately produces a continous tone print.

Fuji claim that : "The Pictrography 4500 performs density modulation
for each pixel of the line scan. As a result, there is no trade-off
between gradation and resolution"

What is that trade off between gradation and resolution?

Thanks

 

[Silvio Manuel]

But to what ppi at the intended size? less than 200ppi?

No, a lambda can use a 200 ppi or 400 ppi file at intended size.....
in otherwords you want a 16x20 print. That means you scan your original
at 200 or 400 ppi at the intended 16x20 print size. Yielding an 80 mb plus
file.

Sorry I don't get it, you mean 600 ppi at the intended size??

Yes although some printing can use a smaller ppi designation 600 is desired.

What is that trade off between gradation and resolution?

Well things can be very sharply produced, but unless the printer
smooths the tone somewhat it will seem as there are little seperations
at each variance of color value, this is not a current problem even with
most decent inkjet printers.

They are saying a fully resolute image scan will produce a fully resolute
output print and still have desireable continous tonality.