Color technology--opinions?

Subject: Color technology--opinions?
From: "Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2000 09:51:43 -0400

Dick Margulis is <<... seeking opinions from those of you who are in the
color copier/color laser space.>>

I don't have direct experience with most of these devices, but have done a
fair bit of reading on them. Most of what I know is from articles in PC
Magazine (their annual review of color printers should be online at
www.pcmag.com) and Publish (www.publish.com). Have a look at the article
archives to get more detailed information than I can provide here. On that
basis:

<<The HP technology emulates the four-color separation process used in
traditional film-based offset lithography. Being an old stick-in-the-mud, I
find this very appealing.>>

It's an appealing process if you're going to be using the laser as a
proofing device, and converting to offset printing for final production.
It's nice to be able to replace each toner reservoir separately, plus you
get better blacks than with three-color printers, and the toner lasts longer
without fading than most inks. (Though Epson just introduced a
fade-resistant ink that sounds promising.) But lasers and wax-based printers
do a lousy job of simulating dot gain, which is why most four-color proofing
is still done on Iris inkjet printers and competing devices.

<<Xerox uses a stochastic process, which eliminates the regular grid and
rosette pattern of the screen-based method.>>

Stochastic ("frequency modulated") screening appears extremely promising,
and may well entirely replace the traditional line-screen approach within a
few years for high-end color. (The basic notion is that instead of using
dots of different sizes positioned at a regular grid spacing--the
traditional approach--you use dots of a single size, and space them closer
together to produce darker shades.) The printer drivers that produce these
screens are still relatively immature (less than 5 years old or thereabouts,
vs. up to 20 years old for line-screen print drivers), and may still need
some debugging for certain applications. Moreover, many commercial printers
are still unfamiliar with the technology and may not want to work with it. I
suspect that stochastic printing will prove particularly important in years
to come as "direct to plate" printing becomes more common.

<<Ricoh uses something they call contone technology (maybe that should be
capitalized; I'm not sure) that, under a lens, looks like the lines on a tv
screen, like the old analog AP wire photo technology.>>

Haven't seen it, so I can't comment. But if it's line based, you'll have to
make sure you understand the process well enough to guard against moire
patterns.

<<Am I just being a reactionary? Is one of these newer technologies actually
a better way of doing things, only I'm just not getting it?>>

No, you're exercising "due diligence". I suspect you'll find that each of
the technologies has a sufficiently unique combination of advantages and
disadvantages that you'll have to match them individually to the types of
job you're doing.

--Geoff Hart, FERIC, Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca

"Technical writing... requires understanding the audience, understanding
what activities the user wants to accomplish, and translating the often
idiosyncratic and unplanned design into something that appears to make
sense."--Donald Norman, The Invisible Computer

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