• Bubble Jet
  • Low cost, any paper, cmy/k in 2 cartridges. Quiet and small, low quality.
  • Sprays the ink onto the paper in bursts on demand.
  • Apple, Cannon, Epson, Hewlett Packard, Lexmark
    
    
• Thermal Wax
  • Uses opaque waxes, implemented with a colored ribbon (CMY or CMYK) divided into pixels against a metal drum. 300 ppi that melts onto the paper. Good for overhead transparencies.
  • Low and 8 bit/256 colors using error diffusion dithering algorithms
  • Calcomp ColorMaster
    
    
• Dye Sublimation
  • Heat transferred ribbon permeated with a special wax that melts onto the paper.
  • More precise than thermal wax.
  • Great for continuous tone.
  • Some are and some are not postscript.
  • 16.7 million colors-256 states of cyan, 256 states of magenta, 256 states of yellow.
  • Light sensitive, so not totally stable.
  • Kodac, Shinko ColorStream/DS (letter size/300dpi).
    
    
• Color Laser
  • Color xerography-four toner dithered devices
  • Alternating the values of adjacent pixels or dots to create the effect of intermediate values of colors.
  • Limited array of paper choices.
  • Fairly color accurate, except oranges and pinks. Fairly stable.
  • Xerox DocuTech 40, Majestic, Canon using a Fiery RIP (raster image processor).
    
    
• Ink Jet (High End)
  • Blasts a continuous stream of ink toward the page. Deflectors steer some of the ink to reservoirs which return unused ink into the ink container.
  • Tiny droplets per color in each pixel makes an apparent resoultion of 1500-1800 dpi. (High)
  • Can print on large format (up to 34-37 inches) and a large variety of paper surfaces and thicknesses.
  • More color accurate and good for fine art pieces.
  • Water soluable, so not totally stable.
  • Iris, Rainbow, Stork.
    
    
• Electrostatic Plotters
  • Large format
  • Valueable for posters, banners, signs and impostions for printed signatures up to 16 pages.
  • Xerox, Calcomp
    
    
• Electrographic
  • Contact proofs with a dot structure closely approximating the printed sheet.
  • Can use the same paper stock that will be used on the printed piece, thereby ensuring a closer color match.
  • Kodac Approval and 3M Digital Matchprint
    
• Digital Color Presses
  • Super fast for a digital device (up to 6 colors at 4,000 single-color impressions per hour (67 per minute).
  • Eliminates film to plate technology.
  • Greater edge defination of halftone dots with little to do dot gain.
  • 133-150 lpi.
  • Printed sequentially w/booklet maker built-in (automatically gather, fold, staple and stack up to 100 pg documents)
  • Indigo
    

Pitfalls of using a digital printer for a final proof for offset printing.

Until the arrival of desktop color printers, proofs were made from the same film that will be used to create the plates for offset printing. Today, however, some desktop publishers consider a print from one of the lower end alternate printers described above a substantial representation for the printer. Although these printers can provide a close visual representation to the final piece, they should be used only for pre-printer client approval proofing.

Pitfalls are tied to the fact that the final film is created seperately from the digital proof, which means the film can contain defects not visible on the proof. If the plate is made from the film, these defects won't be detected until on press. Examples include surface scratches, pox and heat damage. Also, the RIP used to create the film is usually different than that used to create the proof, the screen angles, screen frequencies, and dot shape can vary between film and proof, if the proof contains a dot at all. This may result in color shifts and moiré patterns. If the film cassette runs out of supplies before all four pieces have been run-out, the new canister film can stretch slightly, which will cause it to be out of register fom the first pieces of film or if the developer is replaced, the new film will have a slightly different color density than the first pieces.