Our Printing Equipment

Polielettronica Laserlab Digital Printing

48bit Laser Precision Printing
The Polielettronica is a world-class laser-based photographic printer which exposes professional photographic papers with a RGB Laser direct from a digital file. 16 bit resolution for each colour gives an amazing 48 bit gamma control, meaning that processing can be made without any loss of information in dark or light shadow areas.

281 Trillion Colours
48bit is an almost inconceivable 281 trillion colours. With the human eye being able to discriminate a mere 10 million colours, this may seem a bit over-kill. However, this high colour depth is used during internal processing to protect against the rounding errors that the human eye can detect with conventional 24-bit manipulation.

(Adobe Photoshop and Corel Paint offer 16-bits per channel, 48-bit colour depth editing)

Continuous Tone For Smaller File Size
Being as each pixel printed is render in continuous tone, digital files need only be supplied to us at 254 dpi (100 dots per centimetre). This gives an equivalent of 3000 dpi acheived by other dithered systems like an ink-jet printer. This lower dpi means any editing required before sending us the file can be carried out with much greater ease and speed.

Archival Professional Quality Papers
We use Kodak Professional Endura Paper in the Polielettronica printer which has a fade resisitance and stability rating of 100+ years in typical home display conditions. 200 years in dark storage. With many photographic papers, trade-offs between the major quality giving properties are made to produce cheaper products. For example, excellent image quality with accurate colour and pleasing flesh reproduction depends on the image dyes formed by the paper. Therefore, colour and flesh reproduction could be compromised to achieve good dye stability. Similarly, dyes optimized for image stability can be more process-sensitive, which can cause difficulties for the finishing lab. Kodak Professional Endura Papers involve no such trade-offs. Both the dye set used and the emulsions and curve shape drive short-term and long-term image quality, as well as ease of handling and processing.

Read more about our photographic papers here wwwuk.kodak.com/global/en/professional/products/papers/enduraMain.jhtml

Epson Wide Format (44x90inch) Pro9600 Archival Inkjet Printer

With this machine we use Ultrachrome Inks with a wide range of archival art papers. Ultrachrome inks are good for 100-150 years combined with the archival art papers we use.

Read more about the inks we use in our inkjet printers here www.epson.co.uk/supplies/supplies/ink/types/ultrachrome.htm

Refreema E6 Transparency Film Processing

This 'Dip & Dunk' film processor is considered to be the Rolls Royce of processing machines. Carefully transporting the film through the chemical tanks on stainless steel hangers this machine has a two speed lift ensuring a gentle transition from tank to tank. Film speed adjustment can be altered to the second ensuring optimum push/pull processing techniques. Twenty four years of experience coupled with our in house process & chemical control we offer the best in film processing.