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Author Topic: printing speed history (question) Dan Lyons Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 698 From: Seal Beach, CA Registered: Sep 2002 posted 10-03-2005 03:36 PM                     Just wondering if anyone can provide info on the history of printer speed for release prints. When did the current super hi-speed printing that often leads to very unsteady release prints begin to take place? "Showprints" and dye-transfter titles seem to be the steadiest, what speeds were those printed at?  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-03-2005 06:39 PM                     Hi speed printing in itself is not always the problem and I have seen many cases where a match print done on the smitzer and the highspeed have the same amount of jitter Each of the large labs designs and builds their own proprietary printers most designed around the classic B&H design  |  IP: Logged John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 10-04-2005 03:39 PM                        I agree with Gordon that high speed printing in and of itself is usually NOT the reason for unsteadiness. In the early 1900s, Bell and Howell developed continous contact printers with the concept that when a print original and raw stock were wrapped around a 12-inch circumference printer sprocket, optimum steadiness (least slippage) was achieved when the original film had a perforation pitch (distance between perfs) about 0.3% shorter than the raw stock. This optimum condition is usually met by the printers used for release printing, but may not always be followed in the making of master positives and duplicate negatives, where a pin-registered step printer should be used to maintain the proper pitch relationship. Step printers are MUCH slower than continuous contact printers, and labs often cannot meet worldwide production schedules if they had to use a pin-registered step printer to turn out the required multiple duplicate negatives.  |  IP: Logged

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