Based on recent developments, it’s been reasonable to assume that when it comes to printing photographs, the future lies with inkjet. Now, right out of left field comes a new printing development from offset printing equipment goliath, Heidelberg.

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July 16, 2009: Based on recent developments, it’s been reasonable to assume that when it comes to printing photographs, the future lies with inkjet. Now, right out of left field comes a new printing development from offset printing equipment goliath, Heidelberg.

‘High Definition Skia Photography’ (HDSP) is the name of the new printing process which Heidelberger says ‘delivers photo prints of unprecedented quality on conventional offset paper and reproduces even the finest textures and details.’

This new technology produces photographs without the need for a darkroom. In High Definition Skia Photography, negatives and slides (remember them?) or digital raw image files are recorded in two different digital data sets. An electronic darkroom program uses this data to calculate all gamma curves that are of relevance to the developing process for printing purposes. The photographer adjusts the paper gradation to suit the specific image as he or she previously did in the darkroom with a medium like Ilford Multigrade paper.

Prints are produced using special inks adapted to the developer substances. This also turns the press into a darkroom, the key difference being that the printing process is reproducible, so multiple near-identical prints can be made.
Since conventional silver-based photo paper only has a limited image gamut, around a third of the optical image gamut is cut off. HDSP, on the other hand, exhibits ‘an image gamut that lies at the limit of visual perception’, according to Heidelberg. An enhanced perception of three-dimensionality is an accompanying virtue claimed for the new process.

– Well, wacko! A $1000 A3+ photo printer also trumps photographic paper in terms of colour gamut, and the Heidelberg announcement studiously avoids any mention of inkjet technology (in which it has no particular strengths). Curiously, Heidelberg only acknowledges digital camera technology in passing, instead focusing on negs and slides.

Of course, this is not pitched as an alternative technology for the home digital darkroom enthusiast – Heidelberg doesn’t sell anything much shorter than 20 metres long, with price tags starting at around $1 million.

It could, however, provide some competition to the commercial ‘digital offset’ and electrophotographic systems from Kodak (NexPress) HP (Indigo) and Fujio Xerox (iGen) which are being used to produce photo books and the like, or the commercial wide-format inkjet printers used for large poster and canvas prints.
To mark the breakthrough, Heidelberger is organising an exhibition of around 50 photographs at the Print Media Academy in Heidelberg (of course!) from July 20-24. These will include contributions from notable photographers such as Dieter Appelt, Manfred Hamm, Ulrich Mack, and Jim Rakete produced using HDSP.

(The picture top right features photographer Jim Rakete and HDSP inventor Dieter Kirchner autographing an HDSP exhibition print.)