SPOTLIGHT: Technology

Technology Watch Launches Tool
to Monitor Digital Print Resolution

The Resometer™ software analyzes digital printing output within a number of defined parameters.

Technology Watch™ is a firm dedicated to monitoring and reporting on digital print technology, largely through its insightful newsletter. They saw the need to find a standardized way to measure the performance of digital printing systems, plate setters, image setters, and inkjet devices on the actual printed substrate.

Technology Watch's answer to this growing problem was to develop the Resometer™, an EPS computer file that, when dropped and played on an electronic printing device, evaluates the resolution of both the RIP and the image output device. The Resometer was invented by Henry Freedman, a third-generation printer, print scientist, and publisher of the Technology Watch newsletter. Freedman's partner in development was Franz Sigg, a Swiss imaging target expert.

Meeting digital needs

The radical shift in the graphic arts industry from analog systems to digital systems has created a void in manufacturing measuring tools. The Resometer (the name combines "resolution" and "meter") is a powerful tool for printing operations because until now there has not been a standardized, practical reference tool to measure recorded image quality and resolution of electronically printed images.

The Resometer measures image quality across the entire imaging chain—RIP, printing device, and paper—to determine resolution. After the software evaluates the device, a test form made up of nine targets is printed. The form measures contrast-resolution, addressability, quality of small type and fine lines, smoothness of gradients, directional tone value changes and differences in RIPping of vector and bitmap images, to name a few.

"If you can't measure it, you can't control it," says Freedman. He developed Resometer after a series of published experiments matching digital to offset printing. Freedman says that manufacturers of RIPs and digital presses have found it a very valuable and very affordable tool. Other regular users include Xerox, EFI, Fuji, Punch Graphix, North American Color, and Stephenson Printing.

Micropage Inc., a New York City-based digital printer, values the software's ability to set their presses to the highest performance possible in a fast-paced printing environment. The Resometer software allowed us to refine our relationship between our technical support department and our digital press vendors by providing a visual guideline that shows any deficiencies," says Wahid Bastoros, Micropage's general manager. "It allows us to compare different RIPs on the same press with different variations of paper stock."

Benefits of Resometer

Using the Resometer regularly assures the quality of a printing device by providing a standard target showing detail of the output device, measured on the actual substrate being printed on. It also assesses the quality of the RIP in combination with the output device, and allows easy comparison of outputs from different substrates. Other uses and benefits include:

• Interrogating the RIP to determine its profile-providing a snapshot of the RIP information.
• Revealing service issues with the RIP and digital output manufacturers.
• Evaluating various settings for digital output—density, screening, and resolution. It offers an instant gauge to evaluate different settings.
• Allowing device performance monitoring over time.
• Standardizing measurement across different platforms, such as EPS and PDF formats.
• Troubleshooting resolution issues because the actual output resolution is measured.

The Resometer (www.myresometer.com) is currently available from Technology Watch and is priced at $374 in the U.S.