Advantages of Digital Printing

From Online Printing

Digital imaging and printing have changed the rules of visual communication. Making original prints or reproductions (see next page), especially at a large size and in colour, used to be costly, cumbersome, or difficult for the individual photographer or artist. No longer. The advantages of digital printing are clear: Cost Once the initial set-up and proofing stage is complete, digital prints can be made on an as needed basis. This is true print-on-demand. You want one print to test a et or an image? No problem. You want 100? Also no problem. By contrast, conventional non-photographic, print production methods require the entire print run to be produced all at once. The result is a pile of inventory that probably took a pile of cash to make (also known as the Now What Do I Do with that Stack of Prints in My Garage? syndrome). Consistency Because digital source files are stored on computer hard disks or on other digital storage media, they can be reused over time to produce identical results, assuming the media, inks, and hardware/software have not changed. In theory, the first and last prints in an edition of 100 produced over a ten-year period should look identical. Storage Related to the above, digital art takes little physical room when stored on disk. Digital files can be long-lasting if the digital data remains intact and there is a way to read it. Another benefit is for artists working with traditional media who can have their completed originals scanned and stored for future use in print editions. Not only does this safeguard the image, but it allows artists to sell their originals without having to worry about reclaiming them later for reproductions. Larger Sizes Size is not much of an issue with digital, especially with wide-format ink jet printers, which come in four-, five-, and even six-feet-wide models; and that’s not even considering the grand-format printers, more often used for commercial work. Printing on roll paper, the length of an ink jet image is only limited by the printer’s software. For even larger prints, images can be tiled and assembled in pieces. And, of course, the same digital source file can be cropped, blown up or shrunk, and printed in many sizes. Artistic Control If you print your own images, you have complete control of the process. You decide on the best machine to use, you select the best paper-and-ink combination, you decide if you want to run the colours a little heavier on the next print. You have no one else to blame or to praise. You also get the immediate feedback of seeing what’s working in print and what’s not. Freedom & Flexibility Before the digital printing revolution, average photographers could not make their own colour prints without a large investment in equipment and the space to house it. Or, they had to go to a photo lab, where their printing choices were limited. Now, with desktop printing equipment, almost anyone has the freedom to print what they want, when they want. Using the same image file, a photographer-artist can experiment with different sizes, cropping, or unconventional media. New images, variations, or new editions can be sampled and tested at minimal cost and with little risk, one at a time.

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