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From time-to-time we still have a client who brings a hard copy photograph to us for use in their printed piece. We certainly have the ability to do a very nice full color, high-resolution scan of their photo. More often, clients bring their images to us digitally. After all, the images were probably created by a digital camera. Clients will bring digital images on a CD, or even on a USB drive. And, of course, we can read virtually any memory card on the market today. For our digital photography we have two cameras that we like to use. Both have up to 12 megapixel resolution. The Fuji Finepix S2 Pro accepts Nikon auto-focus lenses. It is a professional level camera. For quick photos and candids, where portability is important, we use a Nikon Coolpix P5100. Both cameras do a great job. Images can be enlarged to 20 x 30. It seems weird, but we almost never have photo prints made from images. They are usually headed to some printed piece. |
Here's something you may never have pondered! When we create artwork for a client on our graphic workstation, or use their computer generated artwork, it is artwork in its pure, digital form. When we then send that artwork to one of our digital printers (B&W or Color) and tell it to print 1,000 copies..... every copy is an original! Unlike the "old days" when you took a customer's original, laid it on the copier glass and made copies from it. Copies could never be as good as the original. Today, in most cases, they are the original. Storing and transporting digital artwork is much less difficult than the old physical artwork. You can easily and quickly archive artwork onto CDs and DVDs and store it forever. You can send the digital artwork via an email attachment, or by using an FTP site. You can burn the artwork onto a CD and mail it or hand carry it to someone. We have a tremendous collection of high-resolution stock photos for use by our clients. They were originally stored on CD's with 100 images on a compact disc. Today, the low cost of hard drive storage allows us to put them on a 500 Gigabyte hard drive with lots of room to spare. Of course, we keep the CDs as backup. |
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Since November of 1988 when we first opened, we have watched the technological advances in our industry and have kept up. In 1988, you could barely get 300dpi resolution out of your laser printer. Barely good enough in most cases for type. Certainly not good enough for photographs. You would still have to photographically create a halftone for photos. Creating printing plates required separate black and white artwork for each color you had to print. And, each color had to register with every other color. The black and white artwork was placed in front of a camera and photographed onto either negative film or plate material (to be put directly onto the press). In today's digital world, we create all of the artwork digitally. We use digital photographs. We use the computer to generate shapes and text. We use the computer to composite all of the digital items together as a "piece" of digital artwork. Once it's beautiful, we print it. We print it digitally to a color printer, high-speed black and white printers or, if it is going to be printed on a traditional printing press, to a digital platemaker as shown on the left. It makes printing plates. But, to the computer, it just looks like another printer. For Hot Spot Printing, the world of digital imaging is a wonderful world in which to work. |
| Page Modified 1/17/2008 |
