Table Of ContentMASTERING
Digital
Printing
Second Edition
Harald Johnson
A DIVISION OF COURSE TECHNOLOGY
Mastering Digital Printing, SVP, Thomson Course
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PART I: Digital Printing Basics
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Dedication
To my wife, Lynn.
Foreword
In early 1989, I was facing two upcoming art shows—one in New York and one in Tokyo— of large format
prints of my photographic images. The task was daunting: 50 images in an edition of 25, each printed 30 ×
40 inches. My humble darkroom was clearly not up to such a task, not to mention the fact that the
negatives for many of the key images had been forever lost during a shipment from San Francisco to Los
Angeles. What to do? Whenever faced with a problem, I have only had to turn around and find that the
answer was staring me right in the face. The same was true on this occasion.
With the help of my longtime friend, R. Mac Holbert, we were able to meet the challenge of finding a way
to output digital images that would: (1) print in B&W as well as in color, (2) print on a wide variety of
papers, (3) print at a resolution that approached that of photography, and (4) be permanent.
By using custom software programs and printing with an IRIS printer on non-traditional substrates, we
finally succeeded, and the resulting shows of my images in New York, Tokyo, and Los Angeles were not only
widely acclaimed, but the worlds of photography and art were introduced to a new printmaking model.
Few innovations are the result of one person's efforts. In our case, this was especially true. Without the help
of John Bilotta, Charles Wehrenberg, Steve Boulter, David Coons, Jack Duganne, Al Luccesse, Mike Pelletier,
Henry Wilhelm, Susan Nash, and Ruthanne Holbert, Nash Editions—which we officially opened in July
1991, as the world's first professional, digital printmaking studio—would never have become a reality.
The digital revolution rolls along. The people, the tools, and the materials continue to evolve. I applaud
Harald Johnson’s efforts to provide a comprehensive guidebook to digital imaging and to chronicle the past,
the present, and the future of this exciting medium.
Graham Nash
Nash Editions
Acknowledgments
Don't believe it if anyone tells you that second editions of books are easier to create; they're not. And the
task would have been impossible without the help of many supporting players.
First, I thank all the energetic people on the publishing side who provided their professional and
enthusiastic support. The publishing team includes Andy Shafran, Kevin Harreld, Sarah O'Donnell, and the
sales and marketing staff. On the production side, my kudos go to Marta Justak, Jenny Davidson, Jill Flores,
and Sharon Hilgenberg who contributed to the making of this book.
Technical editor C. David Tobie again provided his insightful and knowledgeable input.
I also want to thank my expert readers who kept me from looking too foolish: Eric Everett, Ted Ginsburg,
Mark Gottsegen, Dr. Mark Mizen, Mark Rogers, and Dr. Ray Work III.
Further, I called on many other experts and information sources in writing this book, and though they are
too numerous to list individually, I am nonetheless grateful for their help.
More thanks go to all the product and brand managers, PR managers and outside PR reps, and owners of
the companies who supplied me with information, material, and encouragement.
Finally, I want to acknowledge the many and varied online discussion lists that I follow. They have provided
me with ideas, inspiration, and a connection to thousands of creative and thoughtful people around the
world. And, speaking of inspiration, much appreciation goes to the many photographers, artists, and
printmakers who contributed their images and their stories to this book.
About the Author
Harald Johnsonhas been immersed in the world of commercial and fine-art imaging and printing for more
than 25 years. A former professional photographer, designer, and creative director, Johnson is an imaging
consultant, the head of his own marketing communications agency, and the creator of DP&I.com
(www.dpandi.com), the digital printing and imaging resource for photographers and digital/traditional artists.
Contents
PART I : DIGITAL PRINTING BASICS
1 Navigating the Digital Landscape 3
Birth of the Digital Printing Revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Jon Cone’s Computer-Assisted Printmaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Graham Nash and Digital Fine-Art Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
The Revolution Takes Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Defining Digital Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
High Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Digital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Putting Prints in Their Places . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
What’s a Print? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Photographic Prints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Traditional Fine-Art Prints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Digital Prints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Why Go Digital? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Cost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Consistency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Larger Sizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Artistic Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Freedom & Flexibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Who’s Doin’ Digital? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Photographers/Imagemakers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Traditional Artists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Digital Artists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Gaining Ground: A Question of Acceptance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Digital Decisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Doing It Yourself vs. Sending It Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Reproductions or Original Prints? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
State of the Art: The Digital Revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2 Understanding Digital Printing 37
A Digital Primer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Anatomy of a Digital Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Pixels and Bit Depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Halftones, Contones, and Dithers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Printer Drivers and Printing Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Comparing Digital Printing Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Digital Photo Print . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Dye Sublimation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Electrophotography (Color Copy/Color Laser) . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Inkjet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
3 Creating and Processing the Image 75
Image Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Scanning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Photography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Digital Drawing/Painting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Image Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Image-Editing Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Plug-ins and Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Sizing with Image-Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
File Formats, Image Compression, and More... . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
File Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Image Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
File Transport, Storage, and Archives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
4 Understanding and
Managing Color 115
Color Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
What Is Color? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Light Sources and Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Measuring Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Color Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
