{"id":4156,"date":"2025-08-05T15:11:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T22:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/?p=4156"},"modified":"2026-02-28T10:29:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T18:29:01","slug":"printing-high-resolution-line-art-on-the-s10p","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/?p=4156","title":{"rendered":"Printing high-resolution line art on the S10P"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Update:<\/strong> I have been reading about financial troubles at Landa. The company has asked for protection from its creditors in an event similar to Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. With over $500 million in debt, the company hopes to get court approval to reorganize their debt, or find other relief from their financial troubles. I will investigate and write about this in greater detail when I can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile\u2026 back to my analyses of the printing produced by this extraordinary machine:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reproducing high-resolution line art<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the RGB sheet I had run on the Landa press I put a row of scans from copper engravings made in the late 19th century. These illustrations can be very challenging to reproduce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is uncommon in the world of graphic arts that we concern ourselves with the reproduction of scanned line art<\/em> at very high resolutions. Line art illustrations were more common in the awkward era<\/em> before the digital revolution of PostScript and high-resolution imaging (pre-1984). With analog graphic arts photography, the process was easier because the only limiting factor for resolution was the grain of litho film, which was effectively infinite<\/em> compared to the rigid limitations that digital technologies place upon the same processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defining line art<\/strong>
Before the invention of the photographic halftone process (credited to Frederic Ives in 1882), non-typographic illustrations \u2013 drawings mostly \u2013 were limited to inked<\/em> and non-inked<\/em> areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To reproduce \u201ctonal\u201d photos on printing presses, the most common type of illustration was the line engraving. These were typically made by artisans who engraved drawings into copper or steel plates (in earlier eras, they used hardwood). Using techniques including the control of line thickness, cross-hatching, and line shapes to create the illusion of tonality in an image, these craftspeople made extraordinarily nice illustrations in metal using hand engraving tools. To see a perfect example of this technique, examine any printed currency, which is still created by the hand engraving process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
This is a photomicrograph of the face of Abraham Lincoln from the U.S. $5 paper note. Enlarged like this you can see that the \u201ctonality\u201d of the image is imparted by lines whose thickness changes, whose contours follow his facial features, and crosshatching that adds additional detail. The original of this illustration was engraved by a craftsperson on a copper plate at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington, D.C.
The primary printing process for currency is sheet-fed intaglio, which is how this image was made. U.S. currency also has elements printed by offset lithography and letterpress.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If you look at a photomicrograph of the U.S. $5 note, you\u2019ll see all of these techniques at play. Notice the circular lines around the corneas, the sculpted lines that run over Lincoln\u2019s nose, and back down, and the crosshatching of the lines across his forehead. These are the techniques of a master engraver. There is only one color of ink used to print this illustration: black. It is the interaction of these clever engraving techniques with the paper that creates the illusion of tonality<\/em> where there is none.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it is those same lines and crosshatches that are so difficult to reproduce on many printing machines \u2013 including the Landa press. Electrophotographic machines (toner) also suffer with images of this type. Offset and non-roto intaglio certainly can reproduce images in this class. But, rotogravure is fatal to line images like this because the process converts everything<\/em> into halftone-like patterns. A common example of this is text printed in the Sunday New York Times Magazine, <\/em>which is printed by rotogravure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Notice that all type (in fact, everything) printed by rotogravure has serration along its edges. It is visible in this example of 10 point type from the New York Times Magazine.<\/em> Click on the image to enlarge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It is ultimately the resolution of the machine itself that prevents this kind of illustration from being reproduced in a way that rivals offset lithography. The Landa presses use Fuji Dimatix ink-jet heads to make their marks on the paper (and other non-paper substrates). The resolution (addressability) of those ink-jet heads is 600 machine spots per linear inch. Fortunately for the Landa press, the machine spots created by the ink-jet heads are stunningly sharp, and their sharpness is not degraded as the ink is transferred to the substrate from the imaging belt (a continuous ribbon of plastic material that catches the ink from the nozzles, then, after being dried, transfers that ink with pressure to the substrate). See the press diagram below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
This is a diagram of the mechanism of the Landa s10P press. Click on the image to enlarge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now let\u2019s compare that resolution to that of an aluminum printing plate on a sheet-fed offset press. The image of Mr. Luse, above, was printed on a Heidelberg CD74 offset press using Kodak plates. The imaging of the plate was done on a Kodak Trendsetter<\/em> laser platesetter with its resolution set to 2,400 machine spots per linear inch \u2013 four times greater than the Landa press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
This is a macro photo of a portrait of a man named Henry Luse, made in the 19th century on a copper plate. This image was scanned at 2,400 pixels-per-linear inch (ppi) on an Epson scanner, then printed with an aluminum plate on a Heidelberg CD74 offset press with black ink only. Click on the image to enlarge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For printing photos and other tonal graphics, the Landa presses produce images that are comparable to \u2013 and often better than \u2013 offset printing. But high-resolution line work seems to be the Achilles heel of the machine\u2019s capabilities. Fortunately this does not hamper the press in the more typical processes, as scanned line art is seldom part of the modern graphic designer\u2019s tools. These line art images are the only part of my test sheets that I would put in the fail category. The press just doesn\u2019t have enough resolution to be effective at this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
This macro photo of Mr. Luse was scanned at 300 ppi, and saved as a monochrome .bmp file. The Landa press reproduced it fairly well, but it also introduced additional colors to make the image. Compared to the much higher-resolution image above, this is not as good, but the overall impression is nice. I am putting this image in the success category, despite its lower resolution, and the resolution limitations of the Landa press.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Yet it still works!<\/strong>
Microscopic analysis of the reproduction of line art on the Landa press shows some curious results. Two of the images I created are surprisingly good; the rest are not acceptable. And, I suspect that only the most discerning eye would see the difference between the reproduction of scanned line art as a \u201chalftone\u201d or as a bitmap in the two cases where I have had success. Since the Landa press does not draw actual halftone dots, the stochastic patterns created by the Fiery front end render the two successful images acceptably.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, the fault is not so much in the ability of the press to print such extraordinary detail, but the file type <\/em>I selected to reproduce the scanned images. Where I had success with images scanned at 2,400 ppi for an offset press and reproduced as bitmap images, the same files don\u2019t print successfully on the Landa when saved as .bmp <\/em>(bitmap) files. Saving the very-high resolution scan as a grayscale<\/em> .psd<\/em> file results in a perfectly acceptable reproduction on the Landa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, interestingly, the Landa uses multiple colors to render these images \u2013 not just black \u2013 which enhances their appearance somewhat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will score this as a success on the Landa S10P press (when files are saved in the correct file format). Advice: <\/strong>don\u2019t use the .bmp<\/em> file format for images to print on the Landa press. Instead, save such files as grayscale and save in Photoshop .psd<\/em> format.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My next tests will be published here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Update: I have been reading about financial troubles at Landa. The company has asked for protection from its creditors in an event similar to Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. With over $500 million in debt, the company hopes to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,15,13,9,10,27,24,162,30],"tags":[63,64,1078,1077,1076,108],"class_list":["post-4156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-color-management","category-history","category-new-technology","category-photography","category-photoshop-techniques","category-printing-and-printing-processes","category-scanning-2","category-technology","tag-blognosticator","tag-brian-lawler","tag-landa-ink-jet-press","tag-landa-nanoprnting","tag-landa-s10p","tag-the-blognosticator"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4156"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4353,"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4156\/revisions\/4353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}