miambeachshadow
New member
Hello Everyone,
I've been using film outputs from imagesetters for my work for many years but the service is getting harder and harder to find and reliability is a whole other problem. I want to remove those problems by bringing the tech in house.
I would greatly appreciate any ideas on the best way to do this.
First I need opinions on how practical it is to use an imagesetter without a processor. I do not have the room for it, or the need. I run very few pages per month and a processor would be more trouble than it would be worth. I am all set up for darkroom processes. Can I develop “linotronic” film in trays?
Next is the size. Very small, I don't need film larger than an 8x10 active area. I usually don't even need that much. Nothing fancy with the rip. No traping, or extra printing touches. Just a simple file from Illustrator or Photoshop that I need printed. I don't even need the rip to do the seps. I work all in B+W.
The only thing I do need is high res. Right now I'm getting things outputted at 265 Lpi. I would like higher if I could find it. My files are vector stuff from Illustrator or 800 Dpi files from Photoshop that I need ripped.
Is there a desktop machine that will do this and can I develop the film in trays under safe lights? What rip is the least expensive that will still output 265 lpi or higher? I need no other high end functions. I only need to print wysiwyg from B+W files.
Is there anything better to use these days for film output?
Thanks for the help.
MiamiBeachShadow
I've been using film outputs from imagesetters for my work for many years but the service is getting harder and harder to find and reliability is a whole other problem. I want to remove those problems by bringing the tech in house.
I would greatly appreciate any ideas on the best way to do this.
First I need opinions on how practical it is to use an imagesetter without a processor. I do not have the room for it, or the need. I run very few pages per month and a processor would be more trouble than it would be worth. I am all set up for darkroom processes. Can I develop “linotronic” film in trays?
Next is the size. Very small, I don't need film larger than an 8x10 active area. I usually don't even need that much. Nothing fancy with the rip. No traping, or extra printing touches. Just a simple file from Illustrator or Photoshop that I need printed. I don't even need the rip to do the seps. I work all in B+W.
The only thing I do need is high res. Right now I'm getting things outputted at 265 Lpi. I would like higher if I could find it. My files are vector stuff from Illustrator or 800 Dpi files from Photoshop that I need ripped.
Is there a desktop machine that will do this and can I develop the film in trays under safe lights? What rip is the least expensive that will still output 265 lpi or higher? I need no other high end functions. I only need to print wysiwyg from B+W files.
Is there anything better to use these days for film output?
Thanks for the help.
MiamiBeachShadow
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