Digital Printing

Digital Printing is the reproduction of digital images on surfaces like photographic paper, film, vinyl, cloth or plastic. It involves the transmission of images from the computer to the printing press equipment.

Printing Considerations
There are also different options regarding the type of technology. For instance, wide-format inkjet and thermal-transfer printers are widely used for digital printing purposes.

Wide Inkjet Printers are ideal for printing full-color posters and indoor point-of-purchase signage. However, their use of laminates for outdoor prints and the inability to handle liquid ink makes these printers unsuitable for outdoor applications.

On the other hand, thermal printers are ideal for printing outdoor and vehicle graphics and full-color logos. Their ease of use vis-à-vis dry ink is also commendable. However, the print areas for these printers are limited and they are also not cost-effective.

It is generally believed that a high-resolution printer is not the sole item that goes into making great pictures. In fact, with a higher pixel resolution on the printer, you will need more pixels in your original image file to produce a decent size print. It is because image file size (in pixels), divided by the printer resolution (in dots per inch), decides the final print size.

Computer Systems, Peripherals and Software
The latest and the fastest Pentium processors are ideal for processing large format digital images. Ideally, the memory capacity of the processor should be 16-32 Mb. Besides, there should be free disk space of atleast 200 Mb.

Digital Printing is photo-based. Hence, a good quality scanner is a necessity. Ensure that it is in 24-bit color. For cost-sensitive organizations a 600 x 600-in. optical scanner comes across as economical.

The two softwares generally used for digital printing are:

Raster Image Processing (RIP):
This software uses algorithms to enlarge and print images. Its add-on features include color-calibration software, various pattern selections, tools or a print-instruction screen.

Driver
This software program acts as medium and connects the computer and its peripherals - printers, scanners and the monitor.

Final Output Quality Prints
A 72-dpi file looks good as a preview on the computer. However, it might look grainy when expanded. Thus pixel resolution should be higher to get a good output image. For instance, at 200 dpi, an image will expand properly to a 24-in. width with minimum image degradation.

Printers specializing in digital printing prefer files in the 10-20 Mb size for a standard 3 x 5-in. photo. However, for wider images (36-48 inches), 300-400 dpi is ideal.

It must also be remembered that scanned images appear too dark. To solve this problem, most printers manipulate the brightness/contrast levels. This causes the image to lose details and appear washed out. A white-point control can be used to combat this glitch. These features are commonly available in image-editing packages and in the scanner driver.

It is also very important to match colors seen on the computer with the final output produced by the printer. Reds should appear as red, blues as blue, flesh tones should appear as they are and so forth. Most of the RIPs and Drivers offer color/media combinations that automatically adjust the color.

These tips compiled by the printing experts at Ambient Graphics will ensure that your digital images are just as outstanding as ours.