The (optically) illusive graphic arts
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.
150K pages delivered and counting
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.
In my last post, I asked what you think the next big change in the printing industry will be and if you are ready for it. One way to stay ahead of the curve is to attend association meetings that research and discuss industry trends with printing industry executives.
In Cincinnati, June 18-20, I had the opportunity to attend my first PRIMIR meeting. PRIMIR stands for Print Industries Market Information and Research Organization and the group was formed in 2005 when GAMIS and the NPES Market Research Committee combined. I attended at the invitation of the current Chairperson, Chris Echevarria, who is a close colleague of mine at Kodak. Chris is also a contributing blogger to growyourbiz.com, so be sure to look for her postings in the near future. PRIMIR meets quarterly and in addition to hosting industry speakers they also conduct open committee meetings to discuss multiple ongoing research topics. In the past year, PRIMIR has recently published studies including Trends in Sheetfed Lithography (2008), Trends in Inkjet Technologies 2006 - 2011(2007) and more. Another colleague at Kodak, Chandni Dighe, is currently involved in a book publishing study to be published in 2008. Reports can be found on the PRIMIR website and are free to members.
I enjoyed listening to guest speaker Jim Chisholm of iMedia as he shared his view of the future of newspaper publishing. Another hot topic included sustainability which is the focus of another current PRIMIR research project. During the meeting there was plenty of time for networking during breaks, lunch and at evening events, which included a Cincinnati Reds game and a river boat dinner cruise.
One of the highlights of the meeting was a tour of Kodak's Inkjet Printing Solutions facility in Dayton, Ohio. Members had a chance to see our printing systems in action, including our full color 750 fpm Kodak Versamark VX5000 Plus Printing System, Kodak Versamark VL2000 Printing System, Kodak Versamark VT3000 Printing System, NexPress S3000 and the Digimaster EX150.
Kodak Versamark VL2000 Printing System
To stay ahead of the curve, it is important to stay tuned into the latest trends and one of the most efficient ways to do so is to become involved with an industry association. I hope you'll consider attending an association meeting of your choice in the near future.
Left to Right: Paul Jaynes, Eastman Kodak Company, Task Force Leadership - Trends and Future of Financial & Transactional Printing; Kip Smythe, PRIMIR President & NPES Vice President; Diana Cotton, xpedx, Task Force Leadership - Mega Printers' Impact on North American Print Market; Christina Echevarria, Eastman Kodak Company, Task Force Leadership - Mega Printers' Impact on North American Print Market.
