Printing B&W from Digital Scan

greenspun.com : LUSENET : B&W Photo - Printing & Finishing : One Thread

Can someone suggest the best procedure? My goal is to preserve the end product, therefore the archival properties of the process must be very good...i.e. the inks, papers or process must withstand at least 50 years. I plan to scan old B&W 8X10s which will be reduced to 1/3 size for printing. I need advise on the final printing. Should I use inks, dyes, offset or photographic processes. There will be over 200 individual pictures involved so I am considering using large format paper to print up to 100 on a large sheet if this is possible.

Thanks for an

-- Bob Henry (smp307@mindspring.com), February 01, 2001

Answers

1/3 size would come out to be able 5x7 (assuming 4x6 is 1/4), right? For printing, you would want your scans to be at least 300ppi. That means that a 5x7 print would look great printed when scanned at 2100x1500. (When displayed on your screen, it would look to be about 29x20.)

Archival quality is another can of worms. Most comsumer grade printers can't cut it for archival. Epson offers a new printer that will do 20 year archivals but the printer is ~$900. (USD) I'm sure the inks and paper that you must use with it to be "archival" aren't cheap either. Most home ink printers (as far as I know) use halftoning, not continuous toning. For that, you would need a dye- sub printer, which aren't cheap either. :-( I believe Olympus came out with a dye-sub printer that will do 8x10's but I don't know the cost. As for them lasting 50 years or so, I don't know but I don't think the home printers have gotten that good yet. Give it some more time and I'm sure they will.

There are several online places that offer photographic processes. Shutterfly.com, ofoto.com and others will print them for you. dotphoto.com claims to be archival because they use photographic processes. You get the same archival quality as regular prints. Prices can be a little more costly per print (than film). If you limit yourself to the phtotos that you want printed, you will do better. All of these photo places offer 'drag and drop' uploads of your scans.

If you are looking for permanance, how about scanning your prints and then burning a CD of them? Even if the times change and jpg's and tiff's go out of style, you could have them converted to a 'new and improved' format before they go the way of the dodo.

-- Johnny Motown (johnny.motown@att.net), February 04, 2001.


The Epson 2000P claims images will last 100-200 years, per independent testing. The 1270, used with their paper is said to last 25 years. If you get a model that does NOT take the ink cartridges that have a built in computer chip, such as the 700 or 1200 and a few others, and get the Cone Piezography CD with their proprietary drivers and use their ink, the prints look stunning, basically 2200 ppi resolution and very clean. Their ink is for B&W, not color and looks great.

If you get one of these to dedicate just to your B&W you should get results that are excellent. By getting the 'older' non computer ship cartridge machines you can also get the tube feed ink system where you have a half pint of the inks that are refillable. A LOT less than constantly buying new cartridges.

Check out Royce Bairs Stock Solution inkjet page as well. He is up on the latest stuff & sells supplies also. Knowledgeable & easy to deal with, he and his staff can help you with more detailed information.

-- Dan Smith (shooter@brigham.net), February 07, 2001.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ