It comes as a surprise to many professionals in the graphic arts that quality very often depends on optical illusions. One optical illusion in particular, "Mach bands", is critical in the graphic arts and fundamental to quality image reproduction.

Mach bands are named in honor of Ernst Mach the Austrian physicist and philosopher who is also the namesake for the "Mach number" (also known as Mach speed). The Mach band optical illusion is the basis for how most image sharpening, such as the "UnSharp Mask" filter in Adobe Photoshop, is done in photo editing software.

Mach bands reveal a bit about how our eye/brain compensates for a lack of actual detail resolving ability. Look closely at the below image which has six patches of gray set between a black patch and a white.

Do the gray patches looked scalloped? Lighter on the left than on the right? In fact, the gray patches are of a uniform tone as can be seen by simply moving one patch out of its context.

To make up for our eye/brain's detail resolving deficiency, it processes incoming light in such a way as to exaggerate the contrast wherever two different tones meet. Increasing the contrast at those edges gives us the perception of more detail.

Here's how the sharpening filter in Adobe Photoshop leverages this optical illusion to make images look more detailed. First I'll apply it to the original gray patches. The top half is the original and the bottom half with the sharpening filter applied:

Now we'll see the same sharpening applied to a real image.

On the left is the original globe image straight out of the camera with middle top image is a section of the original enlarged. On the right is the globe after sharpening is applied with the bottom center enlargement showing the effect of sharpening.
 

Technically, the sharpened image actually has less real detail because image pixels had to be converted to black and white lines bordering the actual image detail. However, despite having less detail our eye/brain perceives a sharper, more detailed, image all thanks to software leveraging the power of an optical illusion.

Have you heard about hybrid printing? Do you know what it is? If you're a commercial printer, it probably means that you combine two different printing processes to create documents, brochures and direct mail pieces. Why would a printer do this? Usually, to merge static high quality offset printing with variable data for personalization or versioning. Printers use two separate steps to accomplish this, such as printing a "shell" on an offset web press then adding variable data offline via a laser printer, but many printers are making the switch to inline inkjet hybrid printing. Why? Here are three smart reasons:

• Streamlined Production : Hybrid printing eliminates an entire printing process by combining offset printing and digital printing all on one pass. This inline process reduces make-ready, inventory, and production hours by combining two steps into one.
• Flexibility : Continuous inkjet printheads ranging from 1" to 9" and printing up to 1,000 fpm can be mounted directly onto a press or printhead tower and imprint variable data as the web passes under the printhead.
• Bridge to Digital : Hybrid printing offers an alternative to a conventional printer that wants to offer digital printing, but isn't quite ready to invest in a new digital press. Because printheads can mount directly onto to an existing offset press, the investment to add digital print capabilities is minimal.

Let's take a look at one hybrid printing example used to create a personalized direct mail solicitation letter for a gardening center. Offset printing is used first to print high quality process color images onto the paper web. This image then passes under a 9" printhead to apply black variable printing. Although black ink is used in this example, spot color inks can be used as well.



In this example, a personalized letter calls the recipient to action by offering a free pair of garden gloves with any bulb purchase. The letter also includes a personalized map to the store based on the recipient's address and a phone number to set up an appointment for landscape design. Also, located on the back of the letter, money saving coupons can be versioned depending on past spending habits and store location.

Other options are available for hybrid printing. In addition to mounting printheads directly onto an offset press, Kodak offers the Kodak Versamark DS3700 Printing System . This printing system offers a print width of up to 40" and can accommodate up to 16 printheads, including our DH6240, DH9050, and DH9100 printheads

Today, many printers are already enjoying the flexibility of Hybrid Variable Offset Printing and are able to offer more valuable services to their customers who want the competitive edge of customizing their customer communications.

We are getting settled into the daily production here in the MPC. The six of us have split into two teams and are covering about 18 hrs of production a day. The first few days we spent time educating the customers on how to design their publications for digital print and worked out production time slots. The majority our customers are now delivering print ready files to us via Kodak InSite PrePress Portal which gives us a fast and reliable way to get the files to the shop, preflight the files, and get final approval. We are also using InSite to distribute the Kodak Picture of the Day files out world wide for production in the Kodak demo centers and for use in other Kodak publications.

Kodak Picture of the Day

For our workflow we are using Prinergy v5, a pre-release version with great new digital print features. This allows us to easily submit orders directly to the press with ticketing included and manage the progress of the print run from our prepress workstations. The unified workflow in action is really helping streamline the operation, and get more work through the machine (and a few more hours of sleep).

The pictures coming in from Getty Images have been a huge hit with Getty staff, photographers, and Kodak VIPs. We are printing a daily run of posters, postcards, and a quantity of  200 24 page books each day for Getty that really capture the drama of the sporting events happening all around us.

The main volume of print production on our S2500 is taking place at night, after the final stories of the day are written and the best photo selections have been made. One of these publications is the USOC Daily. The USOC provides us with a file via InSite around 7:00 pm and we push out 1000 12 page saddle stitch booklets by 9:00 pm for distribution in the Athletes Village, the USA House, and for the US Olympic team.

Image of USA DAILY

We do get out of the MPC on occasion, I was fortunate to get a ticket to the opening ceremonies at the National Stadium; this was a spectacular event that I won't soon forget. Some of the team has gone to the beach volleyball games and others to tennis matches.  That's all for now - we will keep posting during the games.

At sales training last week in Philly, our channel partners shared their excitement about Capture Pro Software's barcode and zonal OCR data entry features. They also really liked the User Interface customization and ease of setup compared to other capture software products on the market.

One medical software integrator told me that they are going to investigate the API (application program interface) that allows KODAK Capture Pro Software to run 'beneath the covers' to basically image enable their application without having to write the program interface to the scanners. They were very impressed and excited.

Integrators spend a lot of time pulling together functionality to add value to their programs. A key value add is image enabling their application. With Capture Pro Software and the Private API, the application can support scanning and capture of documents and information right from the application. This frees the integrator from having to wrestle the complex work of running the scanners (relatively complicated technical components). It's a win for the integrator, for the end user, and for Kodak

After lots of anticipation and planning the Graphics Communications Group's multinational digital print team has landed and assembled in Beijing. Our goal is to provide on demand digital print services for Kodak, Olympic Corporate Sponsors, and Olympic team organizations during the Beijing games. For most of us there are many familiar faces from past games in and around the Kodak Imaging Center, located in the MPC;home for the next three and a half weeks. The local GCG service team did an excellent job coordinating and installing the Kodak NexPress 2500 digital production color press and NexPress glossing unit that will need to be a workhorse over the next few weeks.

Ten minutes after our arrival at the Imaging Center, with our bags not even unpacked, there was a line up of customers that had been waiting for our arrival. The first production run of the new NexPress happened a few minutes later, 2000 flyers for the Australian swim team for a press conference.

I feel very lucky to be headed into the games with a very talented group of colleagues that have left their normal duties for a bit to tackle this challenging task. The team is Brenda Power (ES Vancouver), Michael Lensch (EPS Kiel), Helmut Lemburg (EPS Kiel), Jamie Weller (EPS Australia), Dirk Harrsen (EPS Kiel) and I (ES Rochester).

The flow of information and images are constant here in the MPC; over the next couple of weeks we will bring stories from behind the scenes of our digital print center; sharing our perspective on the print jobs and the games.