Tuesday 25 June 2013

Basic Principles On Sustainable Digital Printing

By Lana Bray


Digital printing is a form of image creation that continues to increase in popularity over time. Just like in the conventional methods, image creation can be done on a variety of media using inkjet or laser printers. When dealing with large volumes of work, the cost can be quite tremendous. Sustainable digital printing does not use the plates required in other forms and is therefore a lot cheaper.

The sustainable form allows for image creation on demand. This can be achieved in a short period of time and it is fairly easy to make modifications so as to meet personal needs. Plans are underway to incorporate the advances in technology in image production. Consequently, users will be able to get offset printer services particularly in mass production.

For a long period of time, the industry has comprised 5 major types. These are relief, digital, planographic (offset lithography), stencil, and recess printing. The relief type uses what is known as letterpress and flexography. Offset lithography is the transfer of images from a plate to a paper through an intermediate medium. The photographic type, on the other hand, involves the use of plates made of rubber.

Although the absence of plates may be an advantage in a way, it may also be a disadvantage in some other aspects. For instance, the finesse of the final image is usually lost. In digital technology, the materials commonly used include metal, canvas, marble and photo papers as templates for deposition of pigment or toner. The downside of this toner is that it does not usually penetrate the printer paper like typical ink but forms a thin film on the media.

It is possible to create a direct link between the computer image and the printer. This method is referred to as fine art ink jet printing and has an advantage of allow the artist to modify the final image to be in line with their preference. The other major advantage is the fact that there is a variety of outputs that are either finished or require modification. While this option may be cheaper when one considers the fact that the plates are not needed, the cost may be higher when it comes to mass production.

There is a new form of technology that uses paper media sensitive to laser and light. Images are printed using photographic developer processing. The main advantage here is that there is continuity of image tone and much more detail is visible. Since no lens is used in the production, the edges are not distorted.

Pre-treatment of fabrics is one of methods that characterize many image production techniques. Urea is one of the commonly used chemicals. Urea is frequently added to paste so as to create more vivid colours. Its main undoing is the fact that it results in production of carbon dioxide as the fabrics are taken through steaming. Sustainable methods have replaced urea with a special kind of foam that produces less carbon dioxide hence causes less pollution.

Digital printing is applied in many areas including desktop publishing, advertising, print on demand and fine art. Variable data printing employs the use of print files which are data based to personalize large amounts of printed material. Photographs can be modified in terms of colour and retouch. Based on the pros and cons of various techniques, sustainable digital printing can be obtained.




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