Introduction

The traditional world of offset printing was a relatively simple and stable universe until the advent of digital. Advances in digital technology gave rise to the development of various different print technologies. The imaging process in turn changed from the wellknown offset process with a universally accepted set of device parameters and quality criteria to a broad spectrum of processes, each with their own characteristics (i.e. specifications) and techniques to optimize print quality. None of these processes and techniques, however, can escape the basic rules of how to generate a (high-quality) image.

If the proliferation of digital technology has not launched an outright specifications war, it has at least contributed to the plethora of dots, spots, pixels and other loosely applied terms, causing a lot of confusion about specifications. These can easily be misinterpreted, and also the relationship between the various specifications is not always clear. The aim of this paper is to clarify those parameters and specifications that play a role in determining digital print quality and to briefly explain how they interrelate.

For the sake of brevity and clarity, without wanting to underestimate the complexity of the matter of image quality, this paper assumes an ideal world and deals only with aspects related to the intrinsic characteristics of an imaging or printing device. This paper also focuses on electrophotographic digital printing; where relevant the offset process is used as a reference or a base of comparison.

Use the link on the right to download the full document.